Rail gauge is the space between two rails of a railroad. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a 4 feet 8½ in (1435 mm) gauge, which is known as normal gauge or international gauge. The place where two different gauges meet is called a break of gauge.
Standard gauge was developed by British engineer George Stephenson, fashionable of the Stockton and Darlington railway, who convinced manufacturers to build equipment using the 4 feet 8½ in standard. In 1845 a royal commission suggested adoption of the 4 feet 8½ in standard, and the following year Parliament passed the Gauge Act, which required that new railways use standard gauge. Except for the Great Western Railway's Broad gauge, few main-line British railways used a dissimilar gauge, and the Great Western was converted to standard gauge in 1892.
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