Narrow-Gauge Rail

Basics

• A Railway using a Track Gauge of less than 381 mm (15 in) (For Reference a Standard-Gauge Railway is 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) ) )
• Used mainly as a replacement for Wheelbarrows and/or Trucks

Existing Designs

Way Out West with Sandra and Tim 's Design

Background

• As show in This Video their area in Ireland gets VERY muddy, so Wheelbarrows/Tractors/Trucks (at least on an unprepared surface) would tear it up
• Also as shown in This Video they seem to mainly use it for hauling bulk supplies such as wood in their Logging / Forestry Debris -> Poly Drying Tunnel -> Firewood / Charcoal workflow
  • Each wagon seemed to hold ~20 Baker's Trays worth of chopped up sticks (akin to pruning debris)
• They didn't do all that much on the Grading / Earthworks / Geotechnical Engineering side of things, so it will be interesting to see how it fairs long term
• Also corrosion control, given it is all non-galvanized iron/steel, with no Cathodic Protection etc

Sleeper Based

• A Video Showcasing the Basic Rail
• 15 Inch Gauge Track
• Utilizes 50mmx8mm Bar Stock (2 inch x 3/8 inch)
• Galvanized Steel Pile with a 6mm hole near the top
• Two holes in each Rail Sleeper (each with one of the aforementioned pipes going into it)
• 6mm Gutter Bolt + nut used to hold rails onto pipe
• Wheels utilizing 8 Inch Steel Pipe and CNC Plasma Torch Table cut wheel inserts and flanges
  • Flanges are hand formed from a cut arc into a ring, then welded in place

Sleeper-less / Slab Railway

• "Angle Iron Set in Concrete" (A Timecode from A Video by the YouTube Channel "Way Out West with Sandra and Tim" Titled "Making a Turn-Table For a 15” Narrow-Gauge Railway" )
• They did this underneath the barn/workshop area (could allow for interesting "assembly line" style work, although there are many other ways of doing so)

Internal Links

• Light Monorail

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Narrow-Gauge Railways
• The Wikipedia Page on Minimum-Gauge Railways (A Related Concept)
• The Wikipedia Page on Feldbahn (A German Name / Concept / Use Case for Narrow-Gauge Rail)
• A 2018 Paper Titled "Evaluation of an Innovative Composite Railway Sleeper for a Narrow-Gauge Track under Static Load"
• A "Progressive Railroading" Article Titled "Concrete, composite and steel tie update 2019"