When you ride on an Amtrak train, listening to those wheels running over those rails did you ever think about how wide those rails are apart?  And why?  Those rails are exactly 4′ 81/2″ wide.  Everywhere you go in America the railroad tracks are 4′ 81/2″ wide.  Why?

That’s the way they were built in England.  When ex-patriots came to America they brought with them that standard measurement!  Why did tracks in England measure 4′ 81/2″ wide? Well that’s how wide the tracks were for the tramways and street-cars that preceeded the railways.  Why?

Well, we are told that that was the measurements of the axles of the covered wagons built in England.  The wagon wheels were built with axles that measured 4′ 81/2″ wide.  Why?  Well it appears that they were so built to travel the roads of the day, some of them that dated back thousands of years to Rome.  It seems that as wagons traveled those roads, they cut ruts in those primitive roads that necessitated that your wheels measure 4′ 81/2″ wide, otherwise you could not fit those ruts, and your wheel would not last long on those roads traveling outside the ruts!  So we have a classic example of doing the same old thing, the same old way, for years, running in a rut, and refusing to change, never questioning why they are done that way!

Here’s something to think about.  The next time you are told to carry out a project exactly this way, without an explanation, and you wonder “what horses’ behind thought of this?”  You might not be too far off the mark.  Actually you are hitting the nail on the head!  The reason the ruts and rails in England were 4’81/2″ wide was because they were designed to fit the average horses rear-end which was 4′ 81/2″ wide!!!

Now here is where this story really takes an unbelievable turn.  When you watch the Space Shuttle take off do you notice those pencil sized boosters on each side of the main rocket?  Those boosters are so skinny!  Ever wonder why?  They are built in Utah.  They have to be transported to Florida via railroad.  Designers wanted to make them wider, and not so long, to hold more fuel, but…They have to travel over tracks and go through train tunnels that are designed for 4′ 81/2″.  Think about it!  The most sophisticated travel i.e. space travel is designed by the width of a horses rear end, a practice done for thousands of years!  Can you believe it?  Progress prevented by an unwillingness to change.  That is always the case isn’t it!  We keep on doing the same thing the same old way, and are upset we are getting the same old results.  Someone has said, “to keep on doing the same thing, the same way, and expecting different results, is the definition of insanity!  Perhaps so.