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42-533: Ontario Southern Railroad may refer to: Ontario Southern Railroad (New York) , predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad Ontario Southern Railway (Ontario) , a defunct monorail Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Ontario Southern Railroad . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

84-626: A connection at Gorham would not soon be forthcoming, and the line between Gorham and the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua RR connection at Stanley was abandoned on February 16, 1873. The Sodus Point & Southern RR was sold at foreclosure on September 21, 1875, and reorganized on November 30, 1875, as the Ontario Southern Railroad Company. The Geneva and Southwestern Railway Company was incorporated in New York on May 29, 1871, to build

126-628: A country (for example, 1,440 mm or 4 ft  8 + 11 ⁄ 16  in to 1,445 mm or 4 ft  8 + 7 ⁄ 8  in in France). The first tracks in Austria and in the Netherlands had other gauges ( 1,000 mm or 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in in Austria for the Donau Moldau line and 1,945 mm or 6 ft  4 + 9 ⁄ 16  in in

168-588: A line from Geneva (at the head of Seneca Lake and on the New York Central) to Wayland . The Rochester, Hornellsville, and Pine Creek Railroad Company was incorporated in New York on March 30, 1872, to build from Olean east to Hornellsville; then south to the Pennsylvania state line to connect with the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and State Line Railroad . The Geneva Southwestern and Hornellsville Railway Company

210-505: A standard gauge of 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ), and those in Ireland to a new standard gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ). In Great Britain, Stephenson's gauge was chosen on the grounds that existing lines of this gauge were eight times longer than those of the rival 7 ft or 2,134 mm (later 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in or 2,140 mm ) gauge adopted principally by

252-507: A subsidiary of the Northern Central, which built a coal trestle at the terminus at Sodus Bay. The Chemung RR, Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua RR, and Sodus Bay & Southern Ry. were consolidated on December 31, 1886, to form the Elmira and Lake Ontario Railroad Company, a continuous line from the Erie interchange at Horseheads to Sodus Point, with a branch from Stanley to Canandaigua. It

294-423: A time-consuming and expensive process. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a "standard gauge" of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ), allowing interconnectivity and interoperability. A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937 traces the origin of the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge even further back than

336-745: Is currently operated by the Ghana Railway Company Limited . Kojokrom-Sekondi Railway Line (The Kojokrom-Sekondi line is a branch line that joins the Western Railway Line at Kojokrom ) Indian nationwide rail system ( Indian Railways ) uses 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) broad gauge. 96% of the broad gauge network is electrified. The railway tracks of Java and Sumatra use 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ). Planned and under construction high-speed railways to use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in ) to maintain interoperability with

378-480: Is defined in U.S. customary / Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1   mm. As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between the inner sides of the rails) to be used. Different railways used different gauges, and where rails of different gauge met – a " gauge break " – loads had to be unloaded from one set of rail cars and reloaded onto another,

420-556: Is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia , Finland , Uzbekistan , and some line sections in Spain . The distance between the inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it

462-448: The Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad ; the line to be given a third ( standard gauge ) rail by May 1, when the lease was to take effect. The Sodus Point and Southern Rail Road Company was incorporated on March 19, 1852, under the general law of New York State . The railroad was not finished until January 16, 1873, when it opened between Sodus Point and Gorham . It became apparent that

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504-598: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway , authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The extra half inch was not regarded at first as very significant, and some early trains ran on both gauges daily without compromising safety. The success of this project led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Thus the 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) gauge became widespread and dominant in Britain. Robert

546-574: The New York and Pennsylvania Railroad . However, the Panic of 1873 brought work on these railroads to a halt, never to resume. The Gaines and State Line Rail Road Company was incorporated on November 4, 1875, in Pennsylvania. It was intended as another outlet for the RH&;PC, to run from a connection at the state line through Potter and Tioga Counties to West Branch Township, Pennsylvania . On November 12, 1875,

588-558: The Canandaigua & Corning to change its name to the Canandaigua & Elmira and connect with the Chemung RR . It opened a line between the Chemung RR at Jefferson and Canandaigua on September 15, 1851, and was also operated by the Erie. On September 14, 1852, it was renamed the Canandaigua and Elmira Railroad Company. On January 1, 1853, the Erie ceased to operate the two railroads, and

630-576: The Chemung RR reverting to Erie operation. The bankrupt railroad was sold at foreclosure on July 23, 1858, to Charles Congdon and Robert B. Potter. On August 25, 1858, the foreclosed Canandaigua and Niagara Falls RR was reorganized as the Niagara Bridge and Canandaigua Railroad , which was leased to the New York Central on September 1, 1858. It was regauged to 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge , depriving

672-530: The Chemung RR was run as part of the Canandaigua & Elmira, now an independent operation. On July 1, 1853, the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Railroad opened between Canandaigua and North Tonawanda . It was also 6 ft ( 1,829 mm ) broad gauge, and was leased by the Canandaigua & Elmira RR, giving it access to the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge . The Canandaigua & Elmira RR

714-668: The Elmira & Lake Ontario a year later. On January 31, 1956, the Elmira & Lake Ontario was merged into the Northern Central Railway . Standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ). The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson ), international gauge , UIC gauge , uniform gauge , normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It

756-457: The Erie of a broad gauge connection to Niagara Falls. The foreclosed Elmira, Canandaigua and Niagara Falls RR was reorganized on February 18, 1859, as the Elmira, Jefferson and Canandaigua Railroad Company. The Erie continued to operate the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua RR, which in turn operated the Chemung RR, until January 19, 1866. The two lines were then leased to the Northern Central Railway to replace an unsatisfactory joint routing over

798-465: The Geneva & Southwestern Ry. was consolidated with the Geneva, Southwestern & Hornellsville Ry. to form The Geneva and Hornellsville Railway. The Geneva & Hornellsville Ry., Gaines & State Line RR and Rochester, Hornellsville & Pine Creek RR were consolidated on January 13, 1876, to form The Geneva, Hornellsville and Pine Creek Railway Company. The Geneva, Hornellsville & Pine Creek Ry.

840-889: The Great Western Railway. It allowed the broad-gauge companies in Great Britain to continue with their tracks and expand their networks within the "Limits of Deviation" and the exceptions defined in the Act. After an intervening period of mixed-gauge operation (tracks were laid with three rails), the Great Western Railway finally completed the conversion of its network to standard gauge in 1892. In North East England, some early lines in colliery ( coal mining ) areas were 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ), while in Scotland some early lines were 4 ft 6 in ( 1,372 mm ). The British gauges converged starting from 1846 as

882-631: The Netherlands for the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij ), but for interoperability reasons (the first rail service between Paris and Berlin began in 1849, first Chaix timetable) Germany adopted standard gauges, as did most other European countries. The modern method of measuring rail gauge was agreed in the first Berne rail convention of 1886. Several lines were initially built as standard gauge but were later converted to another gauge for cost or for compatibility reasons. 2,295 km (1,426 mi) Victoria built

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924-629: The advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. By the 1890s, the entire network was converted to standard gauge. The Royal Commission made no comment about small lines narrower than standard gauge (to be called "narrow gauge"), such as the Ffestiniog Railway . Thus it permitted a future multiplicity of narrow gauges in the UK. It also made no comments about future gauges in British colonies, which allowed various gauges to be adopted across

966-476: The coal mines of County Durham . He favoured 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham , and used it on his Killingworth line. The Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington railway (S&DR) was built primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees . Opening in 1825,

1008-487: The coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire . Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons. ' " The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) apart probably derives from

1050-525: The colonies. Parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. The American gauges converged, as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. Notably, all the 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) broad gauge track in the South was converted to "almost standard" gauge 4 ft 9 in ( 1,448 mm ) over

1092-459: The course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States . In continental Europe, France and Belgium adopted a 1,500 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 1 ⁄ 16  in ) gauge (measured between the midpoints of each rail's profile ) for their early railways. The gauge between the interior edges of the rails (the measurement adopted from 1844) differed slightly between countries, and even between networks within

1134-735: The first railways to the 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) Irish broad gauge. New South Wales then built to the standard gauge, so trains had to stop on the border and passengers transferred, which was only rectified in the 1960s. Queensland still runs on a narrow gauge but there is a standard gauge line from NSW to Brisbane. NMBS/SNCB 3,619 km (2,249 mi) Brussels Metro 40 km (25 mi) Trams in Brussels 140 km (87 mi) 1,032 km (641 mi) The Toronto Transit Commission uses 4 ft  10 + 7 ⁄ 8  in ( 1,495 mm ) gauge on its streetcar and subway lines. Takoradi to Sekondi Route,

1176-429: The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made, debuting around 1850, to the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge. The historic Mount Washington Cog Railway ,

1218-447: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ontario_Southern_Railroad&oldid=933029015 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ontario Southern Railroad (New York) The Canandaigua and Corning Railroad Company

1260-591: The old 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ) plateway was relaid to 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) so that Blenkinsop's engine could be used. Others were 4 ft 4 in ( 1,321 mm ) (in Beamish ) or 4 ft  7 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,410 mm ) (in Bigges Main (in Wallsend ), Kenton , and Coxlodge ). English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for

1302-436: The rails is better, thus the minimum distance between the wheels (and, by extension, the inside faces of the rail heads ) was the important one. A standard gauge for horse railways never existed, but rough groupings were used; in the north of England none was less than 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ). Wylam colliery's system, built before 1763, was 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ), as was John Blenkinsop 's Middleton Railway ;

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1344-411: The rest of the network. All other railways use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in ) ( broad gauge ) and/or 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) metre gauge . BLS , Rigi Railways (rack railway) 449 km Several states in the United States had laws requiring road vehicles to have a consistent gauge to allow them to follow ruts in

1386-485: The term "narrow gauge" for gauges less than standard did not arise for many years, until the first such locomotive-hauled passenger railway, the Ffestiniog Railway , was built. In 1845, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , a Royal Commission on Railway Gauges reported in favour of a standard gauge. The subsequent Gauge Act ruled that new passenger-carrying railways in Great Britain should be built to

1428-479: The width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages". In addition, while road-travelling vehicles are typically measured from the outermost portions of the wheel rims, it became apparent that for vehicles travelling on rails, having main wheel flanges that fit inside

1470-426: The world's first mountain -climbing rack railway , is still in operation in the 21st century, and has used the earlier 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge since its inauguration in 1868. George Stephenson introduced the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge (including a belated extra 1 ⁄ 2  in (13 mm) of free movement to reduce binding on curves ) for

1512-627: Was incorporated by a special act of the New York Legislature on May 14, 1845, to build between the two points named, and the Chemung Railroad was incorporated on the same date. The Chemung RR was the first to finish its line, from Horseheads , on the New York and Erie Railroad , to Watkins Glen (then known as Jefferson), on Seneca Lake , in 1850. It was operated as a branch of the Erie, and accordingly used 6 ft ( 1,829 mm ) broad gauge . On March 8, 1850, another act authorized

1554-529: Was incorporated in New York on November 29, 1872, to extend the Geneva & Southwestern Ry. to Hornellsville and connect it with the Rochester, Hornellsville & Pine Creek Ry. Some grading was done by the Geneva & Southwestern Ry. between Geneva and Naples , which was later used by the Lehigh Valley Naples Branch, and by the RH&PC between Canisteo and Rexville , which was later used by

1596-607: Was leased and operated by the Northern Central, which reached it via the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad , another subsidiary, and trackage rights over the Erie from Elmira to Horseheads. The lease was transferred to the PRR, which controlled the Northern Central, on January 1, 1911. A short line from Canandaigua to a pier on Canandaigua Lake was built by the Canandaigua Lake Railroad Company, incorporated July 21, 1887, which

1638-455: Was merged into the Elmira & Lake Ontario on December 27, 1888. The principal purpose of the railroad was to serve as an outlet for coal shipments from the mines tapped by the Northern Central, using the coal pier at Sodus Bay to ship to markets on the Great Lakes . Parent Pennsylvania Railroad acquired control of the connecting Newark and Marion Railway on May 4, 1930, and merged it into

1680-568: Was merged with the Ontario Southern RR on December 17, 1879, to form The Lake Ontario Southern Railway Company. One of the backers of the Sodus Point & Southern RR was E. H. Harriman , who hoped to sell it to the Erie or the Northern Central. It was sold at foreclosure on September 4, 1882, and reorganized as the Sodus Bay and Southern Railway Company on November 5, 1882. In 1884, it became

1722-589: Was reported to have said that if he had had a second chance to choose a gauge, he would have chosen one wider than 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ). "I would take a few inches more, but a very few". During the " gauge war " with the Great Western Railway , standard gauge was called " narrow gauge ", in contrast to the Great Western's 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge . The modern use of

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1764-403: Was sold at foreclosure on April 23, 1857, to George B. Holmes and was reorganized on May 2, 1857, as the Elmira, Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Rail Road Company, continuing to operate the Chemung RR. On November 6, 1857, the Canandaigua & Niagara Falls RR was also sold under foreclosure. The Elmira, Canandaigua & Niagara Falls RR went bankrupt, and a receiver was appointed on July 1, 1858;

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