British Gauge War

The contest for which track gauge should become the standard carried with it the greater struggle for which companies and stakeholders would win or lose in commerce, controlling or commercially dominating rights of way.

As the railway companies sought to expand commercially and geographically, they wished to dominate areas of the country, hoping to exclude their competitors.

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.

[1]: 202–203  An early form of containerisation had been considered by Brunel; his sketchbook of 10 July 1845 has a drawing of a hoist to tranship loose bodies from broad to narrow gauge frames.

[1]: 153  Three months later, this method was referred to in Brunel's evidence to the Gauge Commission on 25 October 1845.