Aristogeronte - Gauge width in Spanish railways
Originally published in Carrollia Issue 77
In March 2002, an amusing article appeared at issue 72 of the magazine Carrollia. It shows the close correlation between the gauge of American railroads -4 feet, 8.5 inches- and the width of equids' rumps or, to put it in colloquial words, the width of a horse's ass. Commenting this article, Carrollia editor Josep Maria Albaigès says that "when railways were introduced in Spain a gauge of six Castilian feet -1,672 mm- was adopted, not to prevent a foreign invasion by railway, as some have picturesquely said, but to improve the stability of trains".
The belief that our gauge was chosen by strategic reasons is really very widespread. Let us see what the Larousse Encyclopedia says in its article about Railways: "A Royal Order dated December 31, 1844 sanctioned that the gauge in Spain was to be six Castilian feet (1,672 mm). This measure, greater than the usual at Europe, was chosen by military considerations (hinder a possible invasion by railway)."
So, opinions are divided between technique and strategy. Who is right?
I have tried to elucidate this issue and here are my conclusions.
The first railway was opened in England in 1830 for freight, and also took passengers from 1836 onwards. In Spain, the first line, linking Barcelona and Mataro, started service in 1848. From1848 to 1855 barely 500 kilometers of railways were built in our country. In 1865 there were already 4,826 kilometers, spurred by new laws enacted during the Liberal biennium (1854-1856) that granted privileges to concessionary companies. In the 40's of the nineteenth century, the applications for railway construction licenses accumulated in the Ministry. Each applicant specified the characteristics of "his" line, so the governing bodies decided to set order in the matter, issuing the first legal provision in this regard, the above mentioned Royal Order of December 31, 1844.
I have before my eyes the "Gaceta de Madrid" of January 19, 1845 where this Royal Order was published at. Its Article 6 specifies simply and laconically: "Width of the road, id est, distance between the inner sides of the bars, 6 feet." This does not solve our doubts. A curious note: in the same Gazette, along with the Royal Order quoted above, we find a Royal Decree to "pardon the Field Marshal D. Juan Prim, Count of Reus, the penalty to which he was sentenced by the Court-martial of General Officers."
Clearly, the Royal Order was not up the sleeve of the Government. The Ministry previously asked the advice of the General Directorate of Roads, which appointed a committee of experts. It was composed of different members of the School of Engineering and chaired by the director of the School, Juan Subercase Krets. In late 1844, the committee issued a document best known as the Subercase Report. Therefore, the solution to our enigma lies in the Subercase Report.
At issue 190 of the "Bibliographical Journal of Geography and Social Sciences," published by the University of Barcelona, I find the following: "It is possible that, in determining the Spanish gauge, there was an implicit strategy to hinder a hypothetical military invasion because of the recent and unsavoury memory of the War of Independence. However, it seems that the committee drafting the report did not adopt this measure for reasons of strategy, since no mention of military issues appears in it and the impression left by the report is that steep gradients in our country create a need for more powerful engines. To this effect the width of the tracks should be increased." Immediately afterwards, the report provides many examples of gauges in different countries, concluding with the recoomendation of the six feet "because without substantially increasing the cost of establishing the road, this will allow locomotives large enough to produce in a given time the sufficient steam to obtain with the same load a higher speed than could be achieved on the 4,25 feet (1,184 mm) tracks proposed by one of the companies that has made proposals to the Government, and also higher than could be obtained with the 5,17 feet (1,440 mm) tracks most frequently used so far; and moreover, without loss of stability the diameter of the wheels can be made larger, which also leads to increase the speed."
The speed of the trains from Barcelona to Mataró was in the year of 1848 about 30 Km/h. Thus, the core of the Subercase Report is that they recommended the six Castilian feet (1,672 meters) gauge for technical reasons. By coincidence, that was also the gauge proposed in the specifications for the projected Madrid-Cádiz railway, as submitted by its concessionary, the French Galbrun Jucqueau.
I think that, from the aforesaid reasons, we may conclude that the choice of a six Castilian feet rail gauge, equivalent to two "varas", was grounded on purely technical reasons.
Aristogeronte
Madrid. April 2002.
The Internet version has been slightly amended in 2011.
Translated by Juan Manuel Grijalvo.
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