150 Years from WT to MD: Broad Gauge Days
Broad Gauge Days
The broad gauge was unique to Brunel and the railways he designed. With the rails seven feet apart, trains were more stable and could run faster, though speeds on the West Somerset line were always slow. Brunel dismissed the standard gauge that others used as the “coal cart gauge”.
The picture (right) is one of the Bristol and Exeter Railway’s broad gauge tank engines on a siding at Watchet. You can see Brunel’s particular design of track, called the “baulk road”. This type of track was formed using rails carried on continuous timber bearings, as opposed to the more familiar cross-sleeper track that uses the closely-spaced sleepers in use today. The timber bearings were held in place with cross baulks at 15 ft intervals. With this design, the rails could be smaller, lighter and easier to manufacture.
Also in this picture is Brunel’s design of signal, called “disc and crossbar”. This is showing a horizontal bar that meant: Stop! This could be rotated through 90 degrees to show a disc allowing a train to proceed.
Whilst the broad gauge was a great innovation, it meant that the trains were incompatible with other railways and all goods and passengers had to transfer from one train to another. In 1882 the entire Minehead branch was converted from broad to standard gauge over just one weekend. The whole GWR mainline was converted in 1892.
