Five feet was chosen for the Eastern Counties Railway; seven feet
for the Great Western and five feet six was used in Scotland. The Ulster
Company in Ireland made twenty-five miles of the line from Belfast to
Dublin on a gauge of six feet two, while the Drogheda Company, which set
out from Dublin to meet the Ulster line, adopted five feet two. When the
Ulster Company complained of this, the Irish Board of Works, it is said,
admitted that it was a little awkward, but added that, as it was not
likely the intervening part would ever be made, it did not much matter.
The subject was, I believe, in Ireland referred to a General Pasley, who
consulted the authorities (who were many) throughout the kingdom. He
ultimately solved the question by adding up the various gauges the
authorities favoured, and recommended the mean, which was five feet three
inches; and so, for Ireland, five feet three became the standard gauge.
"The battle of the gauges," as it was styled at the time, was lively and
spirited. Eventually it was decided by Parliament, which in the year
1846 passed the _Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act_.
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