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Stratford & Moreton Tramway

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DerekC

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On the Railway General Knowledge quiz thread a question came up as to what track gauge the Stratford and Moreton Tramway was laid to. I have done some digging and still haven't come up with a definite answer. Most online sources say that it "adopted the standard gauge" although Wikipedia sits on the fence a bit by saying that this was when it was converted to steam. The books I have which mention it are:

Thomas Middlemass - Encyclopaedia of Narrow Gauge Railways (1991) - this says that the original gauge was 4ft 0in. No source is quoted, but presumably the authors must have been pretty sure of their facts, otherwise it would not have been included at all.

John Norris - The Stratford & Moreton Tramway (1987) - this says:
The original gauge of the line has not been established precisely, but it seems likely to have been 4ft 8in ..
. The book also quotes Brunel in a report in 1851 that
The gauge is now about 4ft 9in …..
.

The latter sounds pretty definitive, since the part-conversion to steam operation didn't happen until much later, in the 1880s. However - does anybody have any better information?
 
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Dr Hoo

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Wishaw’s “Railways of Great Britain & Ireland” from 1842 would have been a good source but didn’t include the line as it was a horse-drawn tramway.

Donald J Grant’s “Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain” is from 2017 and presumably includes recently available evidence. It gives the gauge as 4-foot but quotes no source.

E T MacDermot’s “History of the Great Western Railway” (revised by C R Clinker, a noted but not 100%-reliable ‘detail’ man) vaguely notes that the gauge “was probably 4 feet 8.5 inches”. On the other hand the promotor, William James of Henley in Arden, had disputed with George Stephenson the title of ‘The Father of the Railways’ and would have had no reason to be influenced by the gauge of Northumbrian pit tramways.
 

DerekC

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Interesting that Donald J Grant uses the 4ft 0in figure. What we need is to find whether there is a contemporary reference which he and Thomas Middlemass are basing their information on.
 
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