Vikkly t1_iyioi28 wrote
Reply to comment by kokopilau in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
There are strategic purposes to having a different rail gauge from your neighboring country, but yeah, within the same country should be a no-brainer.
Fishyinu t1_iyjaw55 wrote
How many times has that come up since WW2?
project_apex t1_iyjmrrd wrote
February 2022 would've been nice.
Maswimelleu t1_iyk9a5v wrote
If Ukraine had switched to standard gauge after they gained their independence, they would have made Russian invasion quite a bit harder. Might have slowed down their advance and saved lives. Russians are totally dependent on railways for supply logistics and can barely function when they're forced to rely on roads only.
Pjpjpjpjpj t1_iyky94k wrote
Russia use of railroads to bring troops and supplies into Georgia, Chechnya, Ukraine.
Soviet operations to maintain control of its soviet republics during independence movements (eg Hungary in the 50s).
Challenges with supplying Ukraine currently due to rail standards. Also challenges with exporting grain by land from Ukraine. All giving Russia an advantage.
Lack of a rail connection between Iran and Iraq during their war.
India and Pakistan rail connections during the split and their conflicts.
Lack of interconnecting rail slowing resupply of Vietnam and Cambodia. Differing rail gauges slowing train movement between some Northern Vietnam systems and the south and to certain cities (meter gauge, standard gauge, mixed gauge). Vietnam’s biggest lines used a different gauge than lines running to China.
Hell, even within China affected their various revolutions after WWII.
MightyArd t1_iyj7hhe wrote
Not if you're a unionised dock worker.
George_H_W_Kush t1_iyktzl7 wrote
Containers are already more or less standard outside of length
Nijajjuiy88 t1_iylfyqb wrote
Austria Hungary during ww1.
Vikkly t1_iymj6tb wrote
That really showed me how backward that empire was- their whole military strategy was that Germany would fight on their side and yet they didn’t think to use the same gauge? Logistics much?
Nijajjuiy88 t1_iymm7yv wrote
Not just that, part of their country ran on different gauge, there were like 3 gauges iirc. Also the speed was limited to 10 km/h (lol a cycle is better) in order to avoid bottlenecks.
When they took their troops from Serbia and tried to move them to Galicia or something they nearly went around the country at this speed. Icing on the cake was that Austria declared to Germany that these troops were already present.
Vikkly t1_iymmjlv wrote
Jeez, much worse that I imagined.
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