>>1679963Would it work?
Yes it's been done a couple of times at least.
Is it useful?
Well, you can even go wider: I think if you have 20' between 4'8.5" track centers, you can balance another 20' on the outsides, like how American Gauge allows 10' wide passenger cars on 4'8.5" rails. Now you're approaching 40' and could start loading up shipping containers the wrong direction.
For a sci-fi setting, it's fun and has *conceivable* practicality, especially since you're presumably starting from scratch. If you're suggesting actually building this on our earth... well...
Most things fit in a shipping container and a single rail track can deliver roughly 1 shipping container a second at max through-put. What needs more than that?
