Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Somewhere I saw photos of a 3' 6" gauge train which appeared to have standard gauge-sized locomotives and railcars.
On a meter gauge train, the passenger cars seemed as though they could be tipped over if everyone moved to one side of the cars.

Is there a ratio of gauge to allowable car width?

My great uncle, a steam locomotivengineer, wished that standard gauge was 5 or 6 feet because his 4-8-4 steam locomotives were as big as they could get, restricted by 4' 8-1/2" gauge.

When I was in Panama, the track gauge seemed larger - like 5 feet. (I did not have a way to measure it.)

Generally yes, they are smaller. The whole idea of narrow gauge is to lower expenses of construction and operation into areas where the full size is not feasable. Building a narrow gauge and then having to build clearances for full sized equipment would largely defeat this purpose. The drawback is that people and cargo can only get so "narrow gauged" - seats can only get so small, freight tonnage is much lower, etc.

It's a trade off. A lot of the surviving narrow gauge railroads are operating bigger equipment than originally intended because they cannot afford to re-gauge their entire physical plant, but have to haul higher quantities to make it pay.

That would be an interesting purchase request: "I want an SD70MAC with dynamic brakes, 30 degree curvature ability, and gauged at 36 inches". The sales rep would likely faint.