When the lateral forces such as wind pressures, centrifugal forces &c act on a railway vehicle, the pressure of wheels on rails will increase on the one side and diminish on the other. When a wheel of a vehicle passes over a weak spot on the rail along the oneside, the pressure of that along the other side will either increase or decrease. Such increments of wheel pressure are worth while careful consideration and the increments are greater in the case of narrow gauge railways than in the case of broad ones. Therefore it follows that the admissible axle loads of vehicles of a narrow gauge railways must be lower than that of broad ones, on condition that the permanent ways are of the same strength and that the vehicles are of the same size. It may also be stated that the use of sharp curves must be restricted more in narrow gauge railways than in broad ones, if the vehicles are of the same size. The argument is sometimes raised against broad gauges that the curve resistance will be greater as compared with that in narrow gauges. But this is of less importance, as the curve resistance is affected more by the lengths of wheel base of vehicles rather than the gauge and is also a small fraction of the train resistance in general.
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