Rail gauge - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rail gauge is the distance from the inside of one rail on a railroad track to the inside of the other. Most tracks use a standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft, 8 1/2 in). Wider gauges are called broad gauge (1676mm), smaller gauges are called narrow gauge(762mm or 610mm). Broad gauge may be used where the track needs to have big things moving on it. Narrow gauge, such as metre gauge (1000mm), is used to build railroads for less money, because the smaller track costs less. Places where different gauges meet are called break of gauge.

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v t e Rail gauge
General	Break-of-gauge • Dual gauge • Gauge conversion • List of rail gauges • Rail gauge by country
Broad gauge	Indian 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) • Iberian 1,668 mm (5 ft 5 ²¹⁄₃₂ in) • Irish 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) • Russian • 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in)
Standard gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in)
Narrow gauge	Cape 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) • Metre 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) • Scotch 1,372 mm (4 ft 6 in)