Ben Carlson: One Of The Biggest Sources Of Market Inefficiency

Ted

FYI: In the U.S., the standard distance between railroad train tracks is four feet, eight-and-a-half inches wide.

The reason for this distance is because that was the measurement used in England and the U.S. railroads were built by British expats.
Regards,
Ted
http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2017/11/one-of-the-biggest-sources-of-market-inefficiency/

LewisBraham

The reason for this distance is because that was the measurement used in England and the U.S. railroads were built by British expats.

No the U.S. railroads were built by mostly non-British immigrants, many of them Chinese:ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html

Chinese laborers were brought in by the Central Pacific Railroad in large numbers. Indeed, by the height of the construction effort in 1868, over 12,000 Chinese immigrants were employed, comprising about 80 percent of the Central Pacific's workforce.

Carlson is confusing design with building, and even there he's wrong. Theodore Judah--born in Connecticut not Britain--designed the Transcontinental Railroad:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Judah

Moreover, the three prominent early designers of U.S. railroads were American born:
Stephen Harriman Long, George Washington Whistler, and Herman Haupt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transportation_in_the_United_States
While they were influenced by British trends, they were not British.

bee

Myth or realty?

I read somewhere the the "track distance" relates back to the Roman Chariots and the "rut distance" between the chariot wheels as they Romanized Europe and beyond, eventual became "track distance" between railroad tracks.

My advice:
Fogettabout it...Ride a steam train before you or they are all gone.

was-standard-railroad-gauge-48-determined-by-roman-chariot-ruts

davidrmoran

https://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp

Ted

@MFO Members: Interesting how an article on market inefficiency gets lost in the introductory paragraph on railroads !
Regards,
Ted