- Location
- Over the rainbow
I'm working on a new scenario where an alternate railway is going to appear, and I figured that some of the rail enthusiasts on SLP might have some thoughts on the questions.
The basic question is, which of the fundamental technical features of historical railways are likely to re-appear in a railway which develops on an independent technological path to that followed in Europe?
This scenario involves a case where a region where the development of railways is not linked to coal and mining, but happens for other reasons. Europe is still following broadly the same technological path and around the same speed as happened historically (maybe a couple of decades slower), so underground rail-type structures will develop in coal mining, leading to above-ground wagonways etc. However, this region has only very limited contact with Europeans, and so does not have any inspiration from British or other European examples about the early development of railways.
This region develops the practice that in quarries, horse- or ox-drawn wheeled vehicles are run on grooves for greater efficiency. In time, someone has the inspiration to run wooden rails from the edge of the quarries down to nearby waterways for greater efficiency in transporting quarried material, with the same vehicles able to move on both. These structures are the first "railways" of the region.
Things develop further when someone imports this idea of wooden rails to a nearby region which has an extremely high volume of trade. In that area, for geographical reasons, there's a short stretch of mostly flat land (20-30km) between the main seaport and a river port that links to an extensive inland riverine trading network, but it's not possible to sail between the two. There is a road network with extensive trade in both directions between the two areas, mostly in high-value goods but expanding to bulkier but still valuable goods over time. This means that there is an extremely strong incentive to develop more effective land transport between the two regions, as it will lower transport costs and permit greater volumes of cargo.
So someone has the bright idea to copy these horse-drawn wagonways for quarries, and set up a system of wooden rails (initially) where horses draw wagons between the two ports, with substantial savings in costs and time which more than justify the capital investment required. Because there's ports at both ends, it's very easy to bring in replacement timber, fodder, water etc as needed to support an increasing volume of trade, manage repair and replacement of the wooden rails, and so forth.
This region has iron-working at a similar level to mid-eighteenth century Europe, but fueled by charcoal rather than coal. Charcoal production is more efficient than in Europe because of the available tree species (very fast-growing and regenerate), and so they still can produce iron at a reasonable cost. These charcoal-producing regions are linked to the sea by relatively short travel, so there may be incentives to build similar railways between the charcoal furnaces and the nearest port, for charcoal which can be exported to the ironworks by a short sea trip.
This means that iron is available to first form a cap on the wooden rails (to reduce wear and tear), and in time to make both rails and vehicle wheels fully out of iron. Steam technology will appear eventually, although there will be a long period when the "railways" are still really wagonways since they use horse-drawn vehicles. Once the initial concept of wagonways is proven and the basic bugs worked out between the two ports, there will be an expansion of similar wagonways elsewhere in the region: linking agricultural regions to the riverine transport network, joining a few regions which are close by land but longer by river journey, and so forth. This considerably expands the volume of trade, and in turn encourages further development of the rail technology.
In this scenario, I was originally looking at whether the rails would settle on the system of flanged rails (the L-shape of plateways), or flanged wheels as happened in OTL. In that particular case, I decided that the technical advantages of flanged wheels were enough that it would eventually settle on that method regardless of which one was chosen first.
But what about other features of railways. Is there a likely rail gauge which users will converge on for technical reasons, or is the gauge simply contingent on starting circumstances and generally speaking, any gauge will do? What actual types of rails would things be likely to settle on, and are there any promising types which didn't emerge in OTL for any reason but which might appear here? Are there alternative forms of sleepers which might be better, worse or just different?
The basic question is, which of the fundamental technical features of historical railways are likely to re-appear in a railway which develops on an independent technological path to that followed in Europe?
This scenario involves a case where a region where the development of railways is not linked to coal and mining, but happens for other reasons. Europe is still following broadly the same technological path and around the same speed as happened historically (maybe a couple of decades slower), so underground rail-type structures will develop in coal mining, leading to above-ground wagonways etc. However, this region has only very limited contact with Europeans, and so does not have any inspiration from British or other European examples about the early development of railways.
This region develops the practice that in quarries, horse- or ox-drawn wheeled vehicles are run on grooves for greater efficiency. In time, someone has the inspiration to run wooden rails from the edge of the quarries down to nearby waterways for greater efficiency in transporting quarried material, with the same vehicles able to move on both. These structures are the first "railways" of the region.
Things develop further when someone imports this idea of wooden rails to a nearby region which has an extremely high volume of trade. In that area, for geographical reasons, there's a short stretch of mostly flat land (20-30km) between the main seaport and a river port that links to an extensive inland riverine trading network, but it's not possible to sail between the two. There is a road network with extensive trade in both directions between the two areas, mostly in high-value goods but expanding to bulkier but still valuable goods over time. This means that there is an extremely strong incentive to develop more effective land transport between the two regions, as it will lower transport costs and permit greater volumes of cargo.
So someone has the bright idea to copy these horse-drawn wagonways for quarries, and set up a system of wooden rails (initially) where horses draw wagons between the two ports, with substantial savings in costs and time which more than justify the capital investment required. Because there's ports at both ends, it's very easy to bring in replacement timber, fodder, water etc as needed to support an increasing volume of trade, manage repair and replacement of the wooden rails, and so forth.
This region has iron-working at a similar level to mid-eighteenth century Europe, but fueled by charcoal rather than coal. Charcoal production is more efficient than in Europe because of the available tree species (very fast-growing and regenerate), and so they still can produce iron at a reasonable cost. These charcoal-producing regions are linked to the sea by relatively short travel, so there may be incentives to build similar railways between the charcoal furnaces and the nearest port, for charcoal which can be exported to the ironworks by a short sea trip.
This means that iron is available to first form a cap on the wooden rails (to reduce wear and tear), and in time to make both rails and vehicle wheels fully out of iron. Steam technology will appear eventually, although there will be a long period when the "railways" are still really wagonways since they use horse-drawn vehicles. Once the initial concept of wagonways is proven and the basic bugs worked out between the two ports, there will be an expansion of similar wagonways elsewhere in the region: linking agricultural regions to the riverine transport network, joining a few regions which are close by land but longer by river journey, and so forth. This considerably expands the volume of trade, and in turn encourages further development of the rail technology.
In this scenario, I was originally looking at whether the rails would settle on the system of flanged rails (the L-shape of plateways), or flanged wheels as happened in OTL. In that particular case, I decided that the technical advantages of flanged wheels were enough that it would eventually settle on that method regardless of which one was chosen first.
But what about other features of railways. Is there a likely rail gauge which users will converge on for technical reasons, or is the gauge simply contingent on starting circumstances and generally speaking, any gauge will do? What actual types of rails would things be likely to settle on, and are there any promising types which didn't emerge in OTL for any reason but which might appear here? Are there alternative forms of sleepers which might be better, worse or just different?