Wanderlodge Gurus - The Member Funded Wanderlodge Forum

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formatting makes it look REALLY ugly!

On 1/12/2008 at 1:54 PM Michael Bulriss wrote:

>If I did this correctly, this post is for example of what is possible
>with the new features. It is not meant to encourage jokes or trivia to be
>posted to the forum.
>Reminder: You will only see the gifs and jpgs if you receive individual
>emails. If you are on digest format, you should see plain text.
>
>Mike Bulriss
>1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan"
>San Antonio, TX

That's a cute story -- and correct as far as the standard gauge rail spacing. However, the size of the rockets, if they moved by rail (as is likely) are limited by a specification called "Plate C" that sets the standard for the maximum size for all rail cars and shipments throughout the U.S. for _unrestricted_ movements. There are also (smaller) "Plate B" requirements that apply to certain northeastern railroad lines. 

Mike:

Were those "iron horses?"

Joe (Pappy) Hagan
St. George, UT
(Wannabe)




--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, Michael Bulriss <mbulriss@...> wrote:
>
> If I did this correctly, this post is for example of what is possible with the new features. It is not meant to encourage jokes or trivia to be posted to the forum.
> Reminder: You will only see the gifs and jpgs if you receive individual emails. If you are on digest format, you should see plain text.
>
> Mike Bulriss
> 1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan"
> San Antonio, TX
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> A bit of trivia!
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> Railroads
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> Does the statement, "We've always done it like that"
> Ring any bells?
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> The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.
> That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
>
> Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates built
> The US Railroads.
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> Why did the English build them like that?
>
> Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the
> Pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
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> Why did "they" use that gauge then?
>
> Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools
> That they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
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> Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
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> Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would
> Break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because
> that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
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> So who built those old rutted roads?
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> Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England )
> For their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
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> And the ruts in the roads?
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> Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of
> Destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they
> Were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing
> The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the
> Original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.
>
> So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's rear-end came up with it, you may
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> Be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army
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> Chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.
> !
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> Now, the twist to the story
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> When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs
> The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.
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> The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains.
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> The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.
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> The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track,
> As you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
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> So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's rump.
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> - And -
> You thought being a HORSE'S REAR-END wasn't important!
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