125 years ago this month, as detailed here. “One of the most remarkable achievements in technology history.” The entire rail network in the the southern US was converted to what is now called the “standard gauge” of the North over only two days.
I recall Buster Keaton’s silent classic “The General.” It was based on a real-life incident that was written about in a book written by Keaton’s character. It involved a train chase between Union soldiers and the Rebels, General being the train’s name, but I’m wondering now how that could have occurred if the gauges were different.
The Buster Keaton movie was based on the Great Locomotive Chase. In that event, the Union’s raiders were only trying to commandeer a train from Atlanta to Chattanooga–even in the pre-war South, you could run a train from Atlanta to Chattanooga. (Though the antebellum South in general did have a pretty terrible rail network as far as incompatible gauges and various regional rail lines that just flat out didn’t interconnect with each other.)