>>1445608Thing is, they did make a standard. Then New South Wales came along and fucked it all up. You also have to consider the fact that at that point the different colonies were basically wholly independent of each other (federation as a unified nation would never even be considered until the 1890s) and they were notoriously uncooperative, particularly Victoria and NSW. The different gauges never met until 1883 but by then it was way too uneconomic to change them to the same one.
>1848: London advises NSW that all colonies should choose a single gauge, mindful of the problems caused by break of gauge in the UK.>1850: Irish-born Chief Engineer of the Sydney Railway Company (NSW) decides on Irish gauge, 5ft 3in. This decision is endorsed by the colonial administration back in London.>1853: Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Company (VIC) places order for 5ft 3in rolling stock.>1856: South Australian Railways uses 5ft 3in.And here's where it gets fucky:
>1855: New, Scottish-born engineer of the Sydney Railway Company convinces NSW to change back to standard 4ft 8½in gauge and the first standard gauge line is built.>1857: Government chief railway engineer in NSW recommends switching to 5ft 3in gauge and is ignored.>1865: Queensland Railways opens its first line using narrow 3ft 6in gauge.>1871: Tasmania adopts narrow gauge.>1879: Western Australia adopts narrow gauge.You might also be interested in the world's first Garratt locomotive, the Tasmanian K Class, ordered for the even narrower 2ft gauge North East Dundas Tramway. This traversed some particularly hostile and steep terrain, with grades of up to 1 in 25 and the tightest curves being only 66 ft in radius. Elsewhere in Tasmania the Abt rack system was used on the 3ft 6in Mount Lyell Railway (now the West Coast Wilderness Railway, a tourist line), with the steepest gradients being 1 in 15.
