Bryan Blundell wrote:

     "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."

     Does anyone know why some railroads, like the B & O drive on the
     right, so to speak, and others, like the Northwestern drive on the
     left?  My father, a notoriously unreliable source, always said that
     the Northwestern was the way it was because it was funded with British
     capital.  Any truth to that?

     Marilyn Harper