Yes, there was quite a debate raging In the early days of the narrow gauge movement, I gather in the USA as well as Canada, as to what would be the most appropriate gauge. And the article notes that the mostly widely used gauge in Canada at that time was a whopping 5’6”, making even standard gauge seem relatively small.
I have been out metal detecting in these last glorious days of autumn, along abandoned grades on a couple farms where the Toronto, Grey & Bruce at one time ran. These specific fields haven’t been previously explored, and the landowners have been quite keen to find out more about the railway that ran through their land. It’s amazing what both Railway and agricultural junk the fields contain, and I’ll post some of the “treasures” found here in due course.
Cheers,
Ralph