Narrow Gauge rules the world! No, really, it does!

For those of us who love narrow gauge railways, we are often cognizant of its antiquated technology. As the prevailing wisdom goes, narrow gauge as a concept came fast and furious, promising lower construction and operating costs, but very soon proved to not deliver on its promises.  Thus, with a few exceptions, narrow gauge railroads all but disappeared by the 1950s or earlier.

Well, such was my surprise then when the December 2017 edition of Trains Magazine threw prevalent wisdom a monkey wrench.  In Trains’ “Map of the Month” it looked at “Track Gauges of the World: From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, here’s the predominant gauge in each nation, and the miles of track.”  The list included 104 countries and the amount of mileage in each of broad gauge, standard gauge, and narrow gauge.

I added up how many countries had more narrow gauge miles than other gauges, I discovered that 59 out of the 104 countries were either exclusively narrow gauge or had more narrow than broad or standard gauge miles, most notably Brazil, Japan, and South Africa, each with over 12,000 miles.  That means that 56.7% of all the countries of the world are dominated by narrow gauge railroads.  In other words, narrow gauge is much more “standard” than standard gauge on the world stage.

Now, admittedly, just doing the above was enough math in one day for this English teacher, so I didn’t add up all the mileage and compare.  I suspect that standard gauge railroads total more in total distance, so in that sense they earn the right to be “standard.”  Still, it is fun to consider that more than half the world’s nations in 2017 are still actively operating narrow gauge railroads.