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Line Regauged The Most Times

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PeterC

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I was at Parkend in the Forest of Dean today and realised that the Severn and Wye Railway had been reguaged twice. Starting out as a 3ft 6 tramway it converted to broad guage in 1868 and to standard in 1872 (dates from Wikipedia)

I believe that this was equalled by the 4ft guage Bullo Pill Tramway (later Forest of Dean Railway) but did any other lines match this?
 
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Shrewbly

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Fairbourne Railway? 2ft regauged to 15in regauged to the existing 12 1/4in, but I think that there was also a short period of dual gauge (15in and 18 in).
 

341o2

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Fairbourne Railway? 2ft regauged to 15in regauged to the existing 12 1/4in, but I think that there was also a short period of dual gauge (15in and 18 in).
The Fairbourne railway aquired a 18" model of a Stirling Single, and the line was partially dual gauge as far as Golf Links. So with 2', 18", 15" and 12 1/4" must be a contender

Ravenglass & Eskdale. Originally 3', converted to 15", and for one period had standard gauge laid outside the 15" track as far as the quarries
 

Calthrop

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Possibly some in the Baltics that were alternately occupied by Germany and Russia?

Likely, one would reckon -- particularly Lithuania and adjoining parts of southern Latvia. It might be suggested, though, that a situation of two large semi-neighbouring nations, mutual enemies, using respective different rail gauges and fighting successive wars with each other, including across intervening territories; makes for something of a special case?


I'm wondering, a propos the Indian sub-continent, with its long having had much 5 ft. 6 in.; metre; and narrow (2 ft. 6in. / 2 ft.) gauge. Since a long time back, conversion has happened there at various times, of some narrow-gauge lines, to metre or 5 ft. 6 in. In recent decades, the present-day nation of India has had an ongoing programme of converting most of its metre-gauge trackage, to 5 ft. 6 in. I don't know any specific instances; but it would seem not unlikely that a line or two in that part of the world might have been during its history: first narrow, then metre, and finally 5 ft. 6 in. gauge.
 

randyrippley

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From memory I think some lines in Australia have been regauged several times as different standardisation policies have been in effect
 

Calthrop

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From memory I think some lines in Australia have been regauged several times as different standardisation policies have been in effect

With respect: maybe to some extent as from the very first days of railways in Australia, when that continent's notorious "gauge mess" began: with initially, New South Wales / Victoria / South Australia all going to be standard four-eight-and-a-half gauge. NSW then decided with at the time, great strength and certainty -- to go for 5 ft. 3 in. gauge instead. Victoria anyway, accordingly changed its very first, already built, lines, from standard to 5 ft. 3 in. NSW then did a U-turn and proceeded to build its system on standard gauge after all. Victoria and contiguous South Aus. said "to hell with this", and went fully ahead on 5 ft. 3 in.

My impression though, is that Australia's notorious gauge chaos thenceforth (with 3 ft. 6 in. also brought in for more remote areas), was basically "stable chaos", with gauge being determined by which Australian state the line was in. Over the past century, and especially the second half of same, gauge standardisation has gone on aplenty, with things shifting to standard gauge; but in my perception, this almost always happening either with new construction; or conversion of 5 ft. 3 in. or 3 ft. 6 in. gauge lines to standard -- thus, a converted line will usually have undergone just that one conversion.
 

Calthrop

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I'm wondering, a propos the Indian sub-continent, with its long having had much 5 ft. 6 in.; metre; and narrow (2 ft. 6in. / 2 ft.) gauge. Since a long time back, conversion has happened there at various times, of some narrow-gauge lines, to metre or 5 ft. 6 in. In recent decades, the present-day nation of India has had an ongoing programme of converting most of its metre-gauge trackage, to 5 ft. 6 in. I don't know any specific instances; but it would seem not unlikely that a line or two in that part of the world might have been during its history: first narrow, then metre, and finally 5 ft. 6 in. gauge.

I seem lately to have discovered an authentic instance of the above. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was, at its zenith (basically, in the last decades of the British Raj) a several-lines 2 ft. gauge system -- only one of those lines, the famous and surviving one New Jalpaiguri -- Siliguri -- Darjeeling. Another -- slightly longer than the Darjeeling route -- was called the "plains section": ran south-west from Siliguri, across easy low-lying terrain, to terminate at Kishanganj (no other railways connected with there). After independence and partition and the consequent drawing of new borders; the new nation of India lacked a rail link on its own territory, with its extreme north-eastern parts: connected with the rest of the country only by a narrow "corridor" in which was situated Siliguri -- all existing through rail links as at 1947, ran through the territory of hostile East Pakistan (later to become Bangladesh). To remedy this, a link line in Indian territory was rapidly created: from Barsoi on a large metre-gauge network, new construction a little way north to Kishanganj; the Kishanganj -- Siliguri line was acquired and converted from 2 ft. to metre gauge, to join up at Siliguri with the all-metre-gauge system of India's far north-east.

Two or three decades later, Indian 5 ft. 6 in. gauge routes were instituted, linking the rest of the country with its north-east, on the broad gauge, via the Siliguri "corridor". This involved conversion of Barsoi -- Kishanganj -- Siliguri (actually, the brand-new rail hub of New Jalpaiguri, 6 km. south of Siliguri) to 5 ft. 6 in. gauge. So, the 90-odd km. from Kishanganj to the Siliguri / N.J. area started life on the 2 ft. gauge; were converted to metre gauge; and subsequently, to 5 ft. 6 in.

This is perhaps comparable, a little, to the Baltic States situation featured upthread -- regardable likewise, as unusual circumstances: here in the Indian sub-continent, "serial regauging" happening as it did, because of uneasy international matters; even if in the form of geo-political tension and messing-around, rather than (most of the time) full-dress war -- but if the partitioning of India had never happened, probably neither would this particular saga !
 

bramling

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I was at Parkend in the Forest of Dean today and realised that the Severn and Wye Railway had been reguaged twice. Starting out as a 3ft 6 tramway it converted to broad guage in 1868 and to standard in 1872 (dates from Wikipedia)

I believe that this was equalled by the 4ft guage Bullo Pill Tramway (later Forest of Dean Railway) but did any other lines match this?

Caernarfon to Dinas has been through three incarnations, albeit including a period with no railway at all. Started as a tramroad, then main line railway, then narrow gauge heritage railway.
 

Calthrop

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Another "two regaugings during line's life" instance has occurred to me. Something of a special and unusual situation, though; with part of these events happening only as a result of the odd chances involved in a global war. On the island of Jersey, the six kilometres from St. Helier to St. Aubin were opened in 1870, on four-eight-and-a-half standard gauge. This section was converted to 3 ft. 6 in. gauge in 1884, bringing it into line with an already-instituted 3 ft. 6 in. gauge prolongation of the route west from St. Aubin. The whole subsequently ran, under the title of the Jersey Railways [& Tramways], over the 12 km. St. Helier -- St. Aubin -- Corbiere, from 1885 until abandonment in 1936, and subsequent track-lifting.

Only a few years later came World War II, and German occupation of the Channel Islands from 1940. The occupiers reinstated -- for use for their military purposes only -- the rail line St. Helier -- St. Aubin -- Corbiere, on the original formation (plus other totally new lines as offshoots of this), but on metre gauge. German military traffic ran thereon from 1942, to a late stage of the war. The section St. Helier -- St. Aubin could thus be said to have operated on three different gauges; with (as bramling says above re Caernarfon -- Dinas) an intervening spell with no railway at all.
 

theageofthetra

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What would be the biggest change in gauge? Has there been a broad gauge trackbed that has say a miniature railway or monorail run on it?
 

vlad

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What would be the biggest change in gauge? Has there been a broad gauge trackbed that has say a miniature railway or monorail run on it?

The best I can come up with are the Wells & Walsingham and Leek & Rudyard which were reduced to 10.25" from standard gauge.
 

Calthrop

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I seem lately to have discovered an authentic instance of the above. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was, at its zenith (basically, in the last decades of the British Raj) a several-lines 2 ft. gauge system -- only one of those lines, the famous and surviving one New Jalpaiguri -- Siliguri -- Darjeeling. Another -- slightly longer than the Darjeeling route -- was called the "plains section": ran south-west from Siliguri, across easy low-lying terrain, to terminate at Kishanganj (no other railways connected with there). After independence and partition and the consequent drawing of new borders; the new nation of India lacked a rail link on its own territory, with its extreme north-eastern parts: connected with the rest of the country only by a narrow "corridor" in which was situated Siliguri -- all existing through rail links as at 1947, ran through the territory of hostile East Pakistan (later to become Bangladesh). To remedy this, a link line in Indian territory was rapidly created: from Barsoi on a large metre-gauge network, new construction a little way north to Kishanganj; the Kishanganj -- Siliguri line was acquired and converted from 2 ft. to metre gauge, to join up at Siliguri with the all-metre-gauge system of India's far north-east.

"Bumping" this thread from two years ago -- recent correspondence with an associate, about the business of "post-partition rail access to Darjeeling-Himalayan-Land", has revealed that the parts in my post above, which I've bolded: are in fact rubbish. I find that the metre-gauge line from Barsoi to Kishanganj, was opened in 1889 -- don't know where I got the idea that it never existed until after independence and partition ! 2ft. gauge Kishanganj -- Siliguri came a good deal later: opened 1913 (indeed converted to metre-gauge 1949, so that there could be metre-gauge trackage right through to the extreme north-east). Apologies for, as above, setting out inaccurate information.
 
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