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This list presents an overview of railway track gauges by size. A gauge is measured between the inner faces of the rails.
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This list presents an overview of railway track gauges by size. A gauge is measured between the inner faces of the rails.
For ridable miniature railways and minimum gauge railways, the gauges are overlapping. There are also some extreme narrow gauge railways listed. See: Distinction between a ridable miniature railway and a minimum gauge railway for clarification.
Model railway gauges are covered in rail transport modelling scales.
Railways with a track gauge between 500 mm (19+3⁄4 in) and 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.
| Gauge | Country or Region | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | Imperial | ||
| 1,432 mm | 4 ft 8+3⁄8 in | Hong Kong | Disneyland Resort line, Island line (excluding West Island line), Kwun Tong line (excluding Kwun Tong line extension), Tseung Kwan O line, Tsuen Wan line, Tung Chung line [34] |
| Bucharest | Bucharest Metro | ||
| 1,435 mm | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in | See Category:Standard gauge railways | Standard gauge is defined both in metric and in imperial units. It is also the best-known gauge worldwide; 55% of the world uses this track. In 2020, China’s rail network is standard gauge, with around 79,685 km (49,514 mi) of line. [35] |
| 1,440 mm | 4 ft 8+11⁄16 in | Switzerland | St. Moritz–Corviglia funicular (upper section of 1,616 metres or 5,302 feet route-length only - lower section is 1,200 mm (3 ft 11+1⁄4 in) gauge) |
| Gauge | Country or Region | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metric | Imperial | ||
| 1,445 mm | 4 ft 8+7⁄8 in | Italy | Tramway networks in Milan, Turin and Rome; Orvieto Funicular; railway network until 1930. |
| Spain | Madrid Metro | ||
| 1,448 mm | 4 ft 9 in | England | Manchester and Leeds Railway |
| United States | Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad, Strasburg Rail Road (converted to standard gauge).[ citation needed ] | ||
| 1,450 mm | 4 ft 9+3⁄32 in | Germany | Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG, Trams in Dresden |
| 1,458 mm | 4 ft 9+13⁄32 in | Germany | Trams in Leipzig |
| 1,473 mm | 4 ft 10 in | United States | The Midwest, until after the Civil War (Ohio gauge) |
| 1,492 mm | 4 ft 10+3⁄4 in | Canada | Toronto Suburban Railway [36] from 1891–1917. 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) until the end at 1931 |
| 1,495 mm | 4 ft 10+7⁄8 in | Canada | Toronto gauge: Halton County Radial Railway, Toronto streetcar system, and Toronto subway (Lines 1, 2, and 4) [36] |
| 1,520 mm | 4 ft 11+27⁄32 in | Former USSR | Also named Russian gauge. See 5 ft and 1520 mm gauge railways & Confederate railroads in the American Civil War |
| 1,522 mm | 4 ft 11+29⁄32 in | Finland | Helsinki Metro [37] |
| 1,524 mm | 5 ft | Finland | In 1862 the first railway connection in Grand Duchy of Finland were built with five foot railway gauge, [38] however that gauge was first introduced in United Kingdom. [39] |
| 1,537 mm | 5 ft 1⁄2 in | England | London and Blackwall Railway 1840–1849, converted to standard gauge |
| 1,575 mm | 5 ft 2 in | Spain | Ferrocarril de Langreo |
| United States | Columbus Ohio streetcar [40] | ||
| 1,581 mm | 5 ft 2+1⁄4 in | United States | Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), [41] Philadelphia |
| 1,588 mm | 5 ft 2+1⁄2 in | United States | Pennsylvania trolley gauge [41] |
| 1,600 mm | 5 ft 3 in | Germany | Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway 1840-1854, converted to standard gauge |
| Ireland | See 5 ft 3 in gauge railways | ||
| Australia | States of Victoria and South Australia | ||
| 1,613 mm | 5 ft 3+1⁄2 in | United States | Sacramento Valley Railroad (1852–77) |
| 1,620 mm | 5 ft 4 in | South Korea | U Line |
| 1,638 mm | 5 ft 4+1⁄2 in | United States | Baltimore, Baltimore Streetcar System (defunct) [42] and Baltimore Streetcar Museum (operating) |
| 1,664 mm | 5 ft 5+1⁄2 in | Portugal | 5 Portuguese feet Converted to 1,668 mm from 1955 [43] |
| 1,668 mm | 5 ft 5+21⁄32 in | See Iberian gauge | |
| 1,672 mm | 5 ft 5+13⁄16 in | Spain | 6 Castilian feet Spanish national rail network Converted to 1,668 mm (5 ft 5+21⁄32 in) Iberian gauge from 1955; [43] The current Barcelona metro line 1 and Cercanías Málaga. |
| 1,676 mm | 5 ft 6 in | India | See 5 ft 6 in gauge railway |
| United States | Bay Area Rapid Transit (excluding eBART and OAK Airport line); Some lines in New England were built to this gauge including Androscoggin (until 1861), Maine Central (until 1871), Vermont Central (until 1870s), Grand Trunk (until 1877), Buckfield Branch / Portland & Oxford Central (until 1878), European & North American (until 1877), and Bangor & Piscataquis (until 1877). | ||
| 1,700 mm | 5 ft 7 in [ citation needed ] | South Korea | Busan Metro Line 4, Sillim Line |
| 1,727 mm | 5 ft 8 in | England | Babbacombe Cliff Railway and Fisherman's Walk Cliff Railway |
| 1,750 mm [44] | 5 ft 8+7⁄8 in | France | Ligne de Sceaux Paris to Limours via Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, until 1891 |
| 1,800 mm | 5 ft 10+7⁄8 in | Germany | Oberweißbacher Bergbahn (funicular section only) [45] [46] |
| United States | Hogwarts Express (located in Universal Orlando Resort) | ||
| 1,829 mm | 6 ft | India | In the 19th century, engineers considered this gauge but finally settled on 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) |
| Russia | Saint Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo Railways, 1837–1897. | ||
| United States | Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, Erie Railroad until June 22, 1880, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad March–May 1876, Predominant gauge used by railroads along southern tier of New York State that connected to the pioneering Erie Railroad. Most lines converted to standard gauge 1876-1880, along with the Erie. | ||
| 1,850 mm | 6 ft 27⁄32 in | Canada | Falls Incline Railway [47] in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario |
| 1,880 mm | 6 ft 2 in | Ireland | Ulster Railway, 1839–1846, re-gauged to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) |
| Taiwan | Taipei Metro medium-capacity rubber-tired trains (with 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) rails) | ||
| Japan | SCMaglev train depots for Chuo Shinkansen. | ||
| 1,945 mm | 6 ft 4+9⁄16 in | Netherlands | Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij, 1839–1866 [42] |
| 1,980 mm / 1,981 mm | 6 ft 6 in | Israel | Haifa, Carmelit subway railway line - Funicular |
| England | North Cliff Lift, Scarborough | ||
| 2,000 mm | 6 ft 6+3⁄4 in | Scotland | Cairngorm Mountain Railway - Funicular |
| 2,134 mm | 7 ft | England | Original definition of Brunel's broad gauge. This rail gauge was soon changed to 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) [48] to ease running in curves. |
| 2,140 mm | 7 ft 1⁄4 in | South Africa | East London and Table Bay harbour railways |
| England | Brunel's Great Western Railway until converted to standard gauge by May 1892, see Great Western Railway The "gauge war". Also, harbour railways at the Isle of Portland and Brixham | ||
| Isle of Man | Port Erin Breakwater Railway | ||
| Portugal (Azores) | Ponta Delgada and Horta harbour (using rolling stock from Holyhead harbour) | ||
| Wales | Holyhead harbour railway | ||
| 2,286 mm | 7 ft 6 in | England | St Nicholas Cliff Lift, Scarborough |
| 2,440 mm | 8 ft | United States | Johnstown Inclined Plane, Johnstown, Pennsylvania |
| 2,642 mm | 8 ft 8 in | China | Guangzhou Metro APM Line (uses the Bombardier Innovia APM 100) |
| 2,743 mm | 9 ft | Japan | Lake Biwa Canal, an inclined plane near Kyoto |
| United States | Knoxville Incline, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | ||
| 3,000 mm | 9 ft 10+1⁄8 in | Nazi Germany | See Breitspurbahn |
| 3,048 mm | 10 ft | United States | Fort Pitt Incline, Penn Incline, Monongahela Freight Incline and Castle Shannon Incline, Pittsburgh [49] |
| 3,327 mm | 10 ft 11 in | Scotland | Dalzell Iron and Steel Works, Motherwell, Lanarkshire. [50] |
| 5,486 mm | 18 ft | England | Magnus Volk's Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway [51] |
| 8,200 mm | 26 ft 10+27⁄32 in | Austria | Lärchwandschrägaufzug [52] |
| 9,000 mm | 29 ft 6+5⁄16 in | Russia | Krasnoyarsk ship lift [53] |
A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than 1,435 mmstandard gauge. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.
The War Department Light Railways were a system of narrow gauge trench railways run by the British War Department in World War I. Light railways made an important contribution to the Allied war effort in the First World War, and were used for the supply of ammunition and stores, the transport of troops and the evacuation of the wounded.
The Glyn Valley Tramway was a narrow-gauge railway that ran through the Ceiriog Valley in north-east Wales, connecting Chirk with Glyn Ceiriog in Denbighshire. The gauge of the line was 2 feet 4+1⁄4 inches (718 mm) while it was horse-drawn, which was unofficially increased to 2 ft 4+1⁄2 in when steam locomotives were introduced. The total length of the line was 8+1⁄4 miles (13.3 km), 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) of which were worked by passenger trains, the remainder serving a large granite quarry and several minor slate quarries.
The Fairbourne Railway is a 12+1⁄4 in gauge miniature railway running for 2 miles (3.2 km) from the village of Fairbourne on the Mid-Wales coast, alongside the beach to the end of a peninsula at Barmouth Ferry railway station, where there is a connection with the Barmouth Ferry across the Mawddach estuary to the seaside resort of Barmouth.
The Penrhyn Quarry Railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Caernarfonshire, Wales. It served the Penrhyn quarry near Bethesda, taking their slate produce to Port Penrhyn, near Bangor. The railway was around six miles (9.7 km) long and used a gauge of 1 ft 10+3⁄4 in.
There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway.
British industrial narrow-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man that were primarily built to serve one or more industries. Some offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run public passenger trains. They are categorized by the primary industry they served.
Tramways are lightly laid industrial railways, often not intended to be permanent. Originally, rolling stock could be pushed by humans, pulled by animals, cable-hauled by a stationary engine, or pulled by small, light locomotives. Tramways can exist in many forms; sometimes simply tracks temporarily placed on the ground to transport materials around a factory, mine or quarry. Many use narrow-gauge railway technology, but because tramway infrastructure is not intended to support the weight of vehicles used on railways of wider track gauge, the infrastructure can be built using less substantial materials, enabling considerable cost savings.
A Feldbahn, or Lorenbahn, is the German term for a narrow-gauge field railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth and sand. Such goods are often transported in tipper wagons, known in German as Loren, hence such a railway is also referred to as a Lorenbahn.
The Cadeby Light Railway was a 2 ft narrow-gauge railway in the garden of the rectory in Cadeby, Leicestershire.
The Chattenden and Upnor Railway was a narrow gauge railway serving the military barracks and depot at Upnor, Kent and associated munitions and training depots. It started life in the early 1870s as a standard-gauge railway. The 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge working began in 1885, initially in a mixed gauge formation with the standard gauge, and post circa 1903 2 ft. 6 in. gauge exclusively. In the latter form the line continued in use until the end of 1961.
The Kettering Ironstone Railway was an industrial 3 ft narrow gauge railway that served the ironstone quarries around Kettering.
The 4 ft 6 in track gauge, also called the Scotch gauge, was adopted by early 19th century railways mainly in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. It differed from the gauge of 4 ft 8 in that was used on some early lines in England. Early railways chose their own gauge, but later in the century interchange of equipment was facilitated by establishing a uniform rail gauge across railways: the 'standard gauge' of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in. In the early 1840s standard gauge lines began to be constructed in Scotland, and all the Scotch gauge lines were eventually converted to standard gauge. The building of new Scotch gauge railways was outlawed in Great Britain in 1846 by the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846. From 1903, tram lines of Tokyo adopted this gauge.
These are narrow-gauge railways at military establishments and former UK Government-owned explosives sites. These locations were often subject to the Official Secrets Act and other government restrictions, so many of them are less well documented.
Some industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man were primarily built to serve quarrying, mining, and similar industries. Some of these narrow-gauge railways offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run public passenger trains. They are listed by the primary industry they served.
Two foot and 600 mm gauge railways are narrow gauge railways with track gauges of 2 ft and 600 mm, respectively. Railways with similar, less common track gauges, such as 1 ft 11+3⁄4 in and 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in, are grouped with 2 ft and 600 mm gauge railways.
The Geriatriezentrum Am Wienerwald Feldbahn was a 500 mm minimum gauge railway constructed in 1904 at the premises of the former nursing home Lainz in the 13th District of Vienna, Hietzing. Until its closure in 2011 it was the oldest feldbahn in use in Austria.
The Oberweißbacher Bergbahn is a German railway in the Thuringian Highland, Thuringia. Since 1922 it connects Obstfelderschmiede (Mellenbach-Glasbach) with the village Lichtenhain, Oberweißbach and Cursdorf. The train consists of 1.351 km broad gauge cable railway and connects to a 2.635 km standard gauge electrified adhesion railway.
H0f gauge, occasional as H0i gauge designated, is a rail transport modelling scale representing Feldbahn-style 2 ft and 600 mm gauge railways using 1:87 HO scale running on Z gauge 6.5-millimetre (0.26 in) track. The Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen NEM 010 specification defines H0f for modelling gauges 400–650 millimetres (16–26 in), as part of the 1:87-scale family that includes narrow-gauge railway models using H0e gauge and metre-gauge railway models using H0m gauge.
The work on laying tracks, which were 1,534 metres in length and had a track gauge of 620 mm, started in March 1872
{{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)In laying the rails an extra quarter of an inch was allowed on the straight, making the gauge 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm), strictly speaking, but it was always referred to as 7 feet.
