How wide is the rail on a train track?

Answer

4 feet 8 and a half inches - this in most of the world. It was the gauge of a track for horse-drawn waggons on which one of the early locomotives was tested, and railways in Britain (with the notable exception of the Great Western) adopted it for want of any better idea. As British engineers built most of the railways in the rest of the world, and British manufactureres supplied most of the rolling stock, the gauge became universal. Even Brunel was unable to fight it, though his Great Western gauge of 7 feet was infinitely more sensible and made for greater comfort. The narrower gauge tracks cost only half as much to build, after all.

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