TRACKING THE GAUGES, GAUGING THE TRACKS: Part 7 – The Americas: The Story of the World’s Railway Gauges, Yesterday and Today (TRACKING THE GAUGES, GAUGING ... Railway Gauges, Yesterday and Today)

At last, the seventh and final Part of this series is here! Covering the whole of the Americas, we see how the British had huge influence on the railways in the whole of the American continent in their early days, whether it is the almost complete ownership of railways in Argentina until well into the 20th century, to how the early US railroads started out by using Standard gauge equipment from the 'old country'.

Our story includes the American Civil War, especially some surmising on whether its outcome might have been different if all the railways in both the north and south had been built to the same gauge, as well as local gauge wars in places like Erie, PA. Our journey ends in Canada, and how its early railways were far from Standard gauge - rectified only when the Canadian Pacific Trans-Continental Railway was built as a key element in creating a sense of national unity in a fledgling Canada. Join me on the final leg of this amazing round-the-world Odyssey.