In misty dark Corner Brook in 1988 we are looking at some maintenance of way equipment stored in the railway yard.

The rare orange cars are snowplows, needed to deal with the large amounts of heavy wet snow dumped on Newfoundland during many winters - particularly at the higher elevations.

More rare ... than snowplows on Canadian railways in the 1980s is the wooden boxcar with plain bearings instead of "permanently lubricated" sealed roller bearings. With a plain bearing, carmen at each terminal must manually maintain a reservoir of oil at each axle bearing (8 per car) which is continuously spread on the turning bearing surface by a "lubricator" (like a fuzzy folded-up towel, wicking up the oil from the reservoir).

• If the oil leaks away or if the lubrication is imperfect :
• The axle bearing overheats.
• The oil smokes and smells.
• The oil and lubricator pad may catch fire.
• And if the train is not soon stopped, the overheated metal axle end may break off causing a derailment.

Before radios, a crewman inspecting a passing train would hold his nose to signal that he had spotted a "hotbox". He might then touch his own head or tail end to show where in the train the defect was spotted - or he might draw his hand across his waist if it was in the middle of the train.

The crew in the passing caboose - if they had not already smelled or spotted the hotbox smoke from the cupola - would stop the train immediately and determine if the bearing could be fixed by adding oil or fiddling with the lubricator. Otherwise, the car would be closely observed as it was pulled gingerly to a siding or backtrack for heavier repairs by carmen.

Even on the interesting Newfoundland Railway it has been some time since this wooden boxcar was used for carrying revenue loads. Instead of scrapping old equipment, railways often use obsolete equipment to support track maintenance work.


Have you looked at the really rare track yet? Does it look normal?

Even in my too-dark photo you can see that the rails look "too close together".

Beginning with Britain, and continuing in the United States and Canada, the distance between the inside surfaces of the railheads is "always" 4 feet 8 1/2 inches (1.435 metres). This is referred to as "standard gauge".

There were some exceptions in North America and there are many exceptions around the world - both narrower and broader gauges.

Inspired by the War of 1812, Canadian railways were required to use a 5 1/2 foot standard after 1851 because it was too wide to be used by American railway equipment - to foil a military conquest. At the border, massing US troops, guns and supplies would have to be transferred to Canadian equipment of the correct gauge - assuming any would be left behind at the border for their convenience.

Once American invasion seemed less likely in the 1870s, the economic advantage of being able to ship a boxcar of apples or machinery directly from a Canadian railway to an American railroad, or vice versa, caused the Canadian railways to convert to standard gauge.


So why didn't Newfoundland start out with standard gauge in the late 1800s ?

Newfoundland railways used a British "narrow gauge standard" of 3 1/2 feet. This makes the gauge about 75% of standard gauge. American narrow gauge lines often used a 3 foot gauge. When the rails are closer together, the equipment is physically smaller. Narrow gauge was used because :

• Newfoundland was a seafarin' society and proud of it, so even a cheap trans-Newfoundland railway was a waste of money as many Newfoundlanders saw it.
• The railway was used to:  
• Open up the interior.
• Pull out natural resources for export.
• Replace travel by sea between Newfoundland settlements when sea travel was not possible, convenient, or safe. 
• ... so the need to interchange cars with other railways was not a priority in the late 1800s when the first lines were laid. Exports and imports would still travel as ship's cargo.
• The key "selling point" with narrow gauge is that it is cheaper to build :
• The wooden ties don't have to be as long - and this adds up on a 547 mile long mainline.
• Rock cuts, embankments and tunnels don't have to be as wide or as tall.
• The rail can be lighter because the cars are smaller and each car carries less.
• Bridges don't have to be built as heavily because locomotives are smaller and lighter.
• Generally, the railway is more tolerant of being laid on the contours of the land.

Below is a shining example of track laid on the contours of the land :