LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
Not forgetting that a significant number of early railways on the continent were built by British engineers and contractors (eg Thomas Brassey, who built Le Havre-Rouen, Orléans-Bordeaux and the Victor Emmanuel railway through Savoy among many others, including as far as present day Ukraine).I'm sure you know this, but it wasn't really a "decision" as such. More a combination of (a) what we were capable of building in the 1830s, coupled with (b) never having to rebuild following conflict, which deprived us of the opportunity to re-assess what was required.
The first batch of steam engines for many lines came from the UK, notably the Robert Stephenson works at Newcastle.
Left hand running on much of the continent is also a legacy of those original lines.