Railway Gauges did NOT Evolve from a Roman Chariot.

Welcome to two questions. 1. Why did Broad Gauge Fail? 2. Why do we have the rather specific 4ft 8.5 inches here in the UK and maybe over 50% of the rest of the world.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
  / paulandrebeccawhitewick   or
   / @pwhitewick  

Usual notices:
1. We are not historians. We enjoy researching and learning stuff, and with that we enjoy sharing our journeys with you. That said, sources for information often listed below with credits.
2. Errors. Whilst we make every attempt to not include any errors, research, and piecing stories together from dozens of sources sometimes leads to one or two. I will note this here if any are found:

Errors and Omissions:
1. Yup, I didn't go into any detail on the Loading gauges! Maybe another video one day.
2. £ 108 Million... approx figure is correct, as opposed to what i suggested in word.
3. Additionally (From "Dizwell"), De re metallica was written in 1556 ish by a German chap named Georg Bauer, though his baptismal name was actually "Pawer". Both German forms translate as 'farmer', so when he did the Renaissance elite thing of Latinising his name, he became Georgius Agricola (because 'agricola' is Latin for farmer).

In any event, the guy describing the early carriage/rail way is not Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the ancient Roman governor of Britain in the first century AD, whose 19th century statue at the restored Roman Baths in, er, Bath you display at the 3:31 mark.

In short: there are two entirely different Agricolas, however you pronounce them, separated by around a millenium and a half ...and the use of the statue of the one when citing the writings of the other, as if they were in any way related, is a bit of a blunder.

Sources:

https://garethdennis.co.uk/ - @GarethDennisTV
  / the-not-so-glamourous-origins-of-standard-...  
Various owned books
https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standar...

Credits:

Actor: Matthew Evan Jones.
Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
Stock Footage: Storyblocks
Music: Storyblocks

Pictures credit: (Wiki creative commons unless specified).
Thumbnail Track: Walter Siegmund
Didcot mixed gauges: AfterBrunel via wiki
Track Picture as part of quick flick through: Matt Buck
Track Picture as part of quick flick through: Walter Siegmund
Track Picture as part of quick flick through: Geoff Sheppard
Track Picture as part of quick flick through: G-13114
Track Picture as part of quick flick through: KG lavin
Plateway Cart and track image: Tina Cordon
Cart Rut: dan diffendale
Early European Mining Cart: Lokilech
Plateway - Richard Trevithick railway: Brian voon yee yap
Broad Gauge at Didcot: chowells
NE England Waggonways colour by: North East Heritage Library
Transfer Shed at Didcot: Andrew Bone
Sir John Fowler: Lock and Whitfield

Chapters:

Intro: 00:00
What is a gauge: 01:17
How it started: 02:09
George Stephenson: 04:48
Binding: 06:27
Other Gauges: 08:16
The Fix: 10:59