Gauge War

The Gauge War (or Gauge Wars) is a term referring to the intense competition to control new territory, between expanding railway companies in Great Britain in the nineteenth century.

The Great Western Railway adopted the broad gauge of 7 ft (2,134 mm) at the outset, while competing railway companies neighbouring it adopted the gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) which became standard gauge. As the respective companies sought to expand commercially and geographically, they wished to dominate areas of the country, hoping to exclude their competitors. The networks polarised into groups of broad gauge companies and of narrow gauge companies: the term narrow gauge was customarily used to emphasise the distinction.

Proposed railway lines required authorisation by Act of Parliament and the Act generally stipulated the track gauge to be adopted. When an independent line was promoted, therefore, the gauge specified implied allegiance to, and co-operation with, either the broad or narrow gauge companies respectively. Similarly if a broad gauge company and another network were each promoting a new railway to serve a particular area, it was usual for Parliament to authorise one and reject the other. The success by one network and the failure by the other often implied the capture and loss respectively of territory far beyond the line under immediate examination.

The topic is more fully examined in the articles describing specific railways:

Further reading

E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, vol I, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1927

R A Williams, The London & South Western Railway, volume 1, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968

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