Narrow Gauge Railroad?

[Bolo42]

Any chance of adding russian 750mm narrow gauge trains for industrial development?

[dopravopat]

The solution is cargo trams... You get both trams as well as some other rail form, less powerful than trains, but more than trucks. I would limit the length of a tram, also cargo tram, to 60 meters.

[MrigKash]

Yes, Narrow Gauge with TU-2 locomotives would be great for navigating up the mountains.

[MrigKash]

Originally posted by Karalis Arturs:

What it could bring ti the game:
+ cheaper track building
- separate construction office and construction trains
+ cheaper rolling stock
- less powerful (slower and can’t handle steep track when loaded)
+ less fuel consumption
- smaller cargo capacity

A perfect transport form between trucks and standard gauge trains.

Narrow Gauge is typically used in mountain railways, and it should be able to handle steeper gradient than Broad Gauge.

[MichDem]

In general this is how it is:
1435 mm - is so called standard gauge - It is a standard popularized by Stephenson and since he was better at making trains it's become standard
1520 mm - or so called 5 (feet) - is a gauge used in Russia/USSR/CIS. Many people think the gauge is different as to make invasions harder, for which there is no evidence. The most probable theory why they're using that gauge is when they started getting into railways they imported some locomotives that were in gauge 5 and just stuck with it.
750 mm - was the preferred gauge used by Russian Army during the Great War.
600 mm - this was the preferred gauge used by Prussian Army during the Great War.

There are also 1000 mm used by RhB, 1067 mm used in Japan, but in the context of former eastern block countries those 4 are the most important (note: 600 mm could be omitted in game - it's too similar to 750 and usually rolling stock was build to fit all gauges between 600 mm to 950 mm)

The general rule is the wider the gauge the:
higher maintenance and building costs
higher turning radius and more space required
higher haulage and max speed

Similarly the narrower the gauge the:
smaller maintenance and building costs
smaller turning radius (sharper turns) and space required
smaller haulage and lower max speed

Also narrow gauge trains often just run inside a factory (which could become a game feature to upgrade a factory by adding a narrow gauge siding inside it) and could climb steeper hills - especially with rack tracks.

BTW: In my opinion - since steam trains are already announced to be a feature - refueling trains could also happen at stations or by adding a refulgence stop. All steam trains have been getting water (less often coal) on stations, so I don't see any reason why some stations should not have a tank with fuel. It prevent diesel trains from doing those weird turn-around when looking for fuel

[MrigKash]

Nice write-up MichiDem.

If I may add, the Standard Gauge is an English Gauge, and it is derived directly from the Roman Chariots, that were the approximate width of a horse’s posterior. Pretty much the same reason why the boosters of the Space Shuttle are the size of a horse’s posterior, because they had to be transported through a tunnel coming out of Utah.

There is also a Scottish Gauge, popularly known as the Indian Gauge, which is used in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and in California, in the USA.

The Russians started with a 6 foot-wide Gauge from St. Peterburg, via Tsarskoye Selo, to Pavlovsk, and back. I say started with a caveat. Other railways existed in Russia whose gauges had a wide variation.

[rkelly17]

Originally posted by protik_maitra:

Nice write-up MichiDem.
If I may add, the Standard Gauge is an English Gauge, and it is derived directly from the Roman Chariots, that were the approximate width of a horse’s posterior. Pretty much the same reason why the boosters of the Space Shuttle are the size of a horse’s posterior, because they had to be transported through a tunnel coming out of Utah.

Was it the Great Western that was broad gauge I think? The Erie in the US also used a wider gauge. The problem comes with interchange. Having different gauges makes interchange problematic. I think that is why it was given up in both UK and US. By the way, I'm not aware of any mainline rail tunnels in North America that are the size of a horse's posterior. With modern doublestack container trains such a narrow tunnel would be unusable--a real pain in the horse's posterior, one might say. Do you have a location?

[MrigKash]

Originally posted by rkelly17:

Originally posted by protik_maitra:

Nice write-up MichiDem.
If I may add, the Standard Gauge is an English Gauge, and it is derived directly from the Roman Chariots, that were the approximate width of a horse’s posterior. Pretty much the same reason why the boosters of the Space Shuttle are the size of a horse’s posterior, because they had to be transported through a tunnel coming out of Utah.

Was it the Great Western that was broad gauge I think? The Erie in the US also used a wider gauge. The problem comes with interchange. Having different gauges makes interchange problematic. I think that is why it was given up in both UK and US. By the way, I'm not aware of any mainline rail tunnels in North America that are the size of a horse's posterior. With modern doublestack container trains such a narrow tunnel would be unusable--a real pain in the horse's posterior, one might say. Do you have a location?

Bay Area Rapid Transit uses 5' 6" Broad Gauge.

Coming to the boosters, I just double checked. I must say, mea culpa. The size was indeed influenced by the loading gauge and the track gauge, but it is not as wide as a horse's posterior. It is wider as a two horse chariot, which is more than twice the width of Standard Gauge.

[MichDem]

Originally posted by protik_maitra:

Nice write-up MichiDem.

If I may add, the Standard Gauge is an English Gauge, and it is derived directly from the Roman Chariots, that were the approximate width of a horse’s posterior.

Well - that's just a theory, but just like with the "let's have wider gauge to prevent invasions" is just a myth
We could only ask Stephenson why he choose 1435mm

[Karalis Arturs]

Originally posted by protik_maitra:

Originally posted by Karalis Arturs:

What it could bring ti the game:
+ cheaper track building
- separate construction office and construction trains
+ cheaper rolling stock
- less powerful (slower and can’t handle steep track when loaded)
+ less fuel consumption
- smaller cargo capacity

A perfect transport form between trucks and standard gauge trains.

Narrow Gauge is typically used in mountain railways, and it should be able to handle steeper gradient than Broad Gauge.

That would be an additional option of narrow gauge railway - mountain rack railway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railway).
This would be a bit more expensive to build than normal narrow gauge, but cheaper than standart. Also would require engines equiped for this. But would offer steeper tracks.

[dopravopat]

What a discussion. Mr. Adamcik must be really thinking of all of us as crazy people. :-) No offense intended.

One idea popped into my mind. Factory connections should be also possible by narrwo gauge rail, and be longer than the current "forklift" limit. But they would need rolling stock and be at an extra cost. Maybe in some distant future. I completely understand that the game is still EA and needs other things.

One thing I would really like to have is water facilities, but they are not even on the roadmap....

We all can have ideas, but none of us willing to do the work to implement them. I certainly am not. So I am happy for what I currently have and play and enjoy the game AS-IS. Many bugs were fixed and I see a constant improvement.

All our wishes are just nice add-ons. :-) I hope we all will see them fullfilled one day, to some extent.

Btw. rail gauge. You all forgot to mention 760 mm. :-) Just mentioning that... :-)

[MichDem]

There is also 381 mm, 800 mm, 900 mm and many many others, but why consider gauges that are so close to each other?

(Also in Transport Fever narrow gauge mod 750 and 760 mm are lumped togeather)

[Oilman25]

mines,quarrys,and factorys with narrow gauge lines

[cdog]

Hah so I got it backwards with the guage; intriguing, the idea of smaller, more powerful engines running on a different gauge, but how does ine integrate the systems? In real life or the game?

It seems the same problems apply - if i bring coal and iron to my steel mill via "wide guage" I'll still want to export via wide gauge. I suppose there is no reason the building rail connections couldnt be universal.

[MichDem]

IRL there are 3 ways:

1) Unload cargo from one gauge wagons into another gauge wagons

2) Lift the wagons and put them on another wheels (usually on a new boggie)

3) Rollbock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollbock - putting wagon on another wagon
https://s2.flog.pl/media/foto/4466634_nietypowy-sposob-przewozu-wagonow-na-wagonach.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Rollbock_buchau.jpg/1200px-Rollbock_buchau.jpg

[MichDem]

Here is a video of a standard gauge wagon loaded onto 750 mm gauge wagon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4WB5t9awQ