Re: Why one narrow guage versus another?

Michael,

Queensland State in Australia had a very large network of Colonial Gauge 3ft 6in with the SG being the connecting lines to New South Wales, the sugar cane railways didn't need the load capacity of 42" and by the way, only is it referred to Cape gauge when discussing S.A. lines. Only those who initially had or predominately have interests in S.A.Rly's call it Cape Gauge.

We had started with both one BG line and SG line converting those to 3ft 6in for standardisation, the NG option being considered more favourable to the hard country that makes up most of New Zealand. Some 2ft was used, mainly in Coal Tramways, and a 3ft gauge line that I knew of, the rest of the Bush and Mining lines used 3ft 6in so as to source readily available equipment and interchangeability. In Mining 18" and 2ft was predominate but the later 30in proved to haul more and still fit in the haulageways.