British Gauge War

The Great Western Railway adopted the broad gauge of at the outset, while competing railway companies adopted the gauge of , which later became standard gauge. As the railway companies sought to expand commercially and geographically, they wished to dominate areas of the country, hoping to exclude their competitors. The networks polarised into groups of broad gauge companies and of narrow gauge companies. The term narrow gauge at the time referred to as well as any smaller size, all narrow relative to the broad gauge (whereas today it refers only to gauges strictly smaller than). Proposed railway lines required authorisation by act of Parliament, and an act generally stipulated the track gauge for that line. When an independent line was promoted, the gauge used aligned the company to either the broad or narrow gauge companies. The success by one network and the failure by the other often implied the capture and loss respectively of territory far beyond the line under immediate examination. == Resolution ==

for political effect|thumb|right A rail system with two gauges suffered from inefficiency where a break of gauge occurred. Various alternatives to costly transloading were proposed in the early era of railways, including rollbocks, transporter wagons, dual gauge, and even containerization or variable gauge axles. However, these were not actually implemented during the Gauge War in the 1840s, which resulted in the use of wasteful transloading. A royal commission was set up to study the issue and report its recommendations. The report informed the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846, which mandated standard gauge for all new railway construction except in the southwest of England and certain lines in Wales. However, building new broad gauge lines was still legal if an act of Parliament permitted an exception for a new line. The broad gauge thus continued in common use in the West of England for several more decades. == See also ==