Hi Mike!

20 Oct 04, Mike Luther wrote to Vladimir Donskoy:

 ML> If what you suggest about creating a new zone for Russia and then making
 ML> the language of that FidoNet only Russian and not the required English,
 ML> haven't you just gone off and done the same thing that happened with the
 ML> railroads?

No! We are not wanting to change official language of all Fidonet, only our zone!

 ML> Or am I in error that to this day when the trains cross from Russia into
 ML> China down there near Kyzil they have to jack the trains up and chainge
 ML> all the trucks from Russian to world standard ones since the RR rail gauge
 ML> in Russia is a little bit different in width?   That so the train can go
 ML> on into China?

Yes, you are right.
But not only Russia have another standard of railroads: only 75% world
railroads have 1435 mm, 11% have more (include Russia 1520-1524 mm) and 14%
less.

 ML> I'll be glad to be corrected if my perspective about this is wrong,
 ML> chuckle. But wasn't the real reason for this is that when the Czar sent
 ML> the team to study all this early railroad stuff, there was a slight error
 ML> in translation about width between the rails?  Wasn't the whole upshot of
 ML> all this that within the select team members that did the engineering
 ML> research, nobody wanted to own up to the error and risk the wrath of the
 ML> Czar for this?  Alice in Wonderland and the familiar queenly remark of,
 ML> "Off with his head!  Off with his head!", comes to mind, grin.

No, this selection is historical: England built first railroad by
Stephenson in 1825, but standard about his side make only 1846 (12 august).
In Russia first railroad built in 1837 with 1829 mm, and second railroad -
in 1843 with 5 foots (1524 mm). Standatd on RR size make in 1842 (29
september).

Stephenson make his locomotives for many Europe countries, exclude Russia,
so his size was standard for Europe (and late - in other countries).

 ML> Now one may argue, based on worldly wars and subsequent past history from
 ML> the rail width choice or whatever set that width, that Russia has been a
 ML> bit safer for all this at times, smile.

Yes, this difference have some war sense.

 ML> But per what I think I understand about the lifespan of the crewmembers
 ML> who have to change all those railroad car trucks back and forth between
 ML> the two rail widths on the passenger train life gets dangerous from the
 ML> evidence. While the passengers all are nice and safe as they get off the
 ML> trains and wait for this interesting gambit, the number of badly injured
 ML> folks who are changing all this hardware and even killed in the process --
 ML> being ever pressed for doing the job as fast as possible, is still an
 ML> interesting postive and meaningful number, wince.

No, I self had a voyage at last summer from Russia to Germany (over Poland)
and return. All passengers was stay in their vans on Brest, and workers
change van wheels. They work near 1 hour (for all train).

 ML> And with all due respect to the serious telecommunications ability that
 ML> Russia does have and contributes to things worldly, just as in that the
 ML> passengers of the trains come from many different cultures and places in
 ML> the world, are used to riding across country boundaries in trains without
 ML> stopping much .. more or less ..; don't you think that solving the
 ML> language issues between FidoNet in Russia and FidoNet elsewhere, might be
 ML> smoother if you just kept the standard language of FidoNet as was
 ML> thoughtfully intended as English?

If all our people knew English it would be wonderful! But as it not so, it
is necessary to make the translations and other official documents.

 ML> And yes, I do think I understand how the word Caeser morphed to Czar and
 ML> Kaiser and whatever ...

:-)

For example some URLs from Internet:
Sizes of gauges in world (in English): http://parovoz.com/spravka/gauges-e.html

The Evolution of Railroad Standard Gauge (in English):
http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/magazine/34.html

History of Railroad in Russia (in Russian): http://rrh.agava.ru/history.htm

Regards, Vladimir

--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-040321