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Lance Geiger, The History Guy

The Day the Gauge Changed

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 was not the only amazing feat of American railroad engineering in history.

In 1886, railways in the south managed to convert the gauge on an estimated 11,500 miles of track in a period of just 36 hours. The History Guy remembers the 1886 Southern Railroad Gauge Change, an important moment in railroad history.

Lance Geiger, The History Guy

Lance Geiger (thehistoryguy.net | Facebook) is The History Guy on YouTube (YouTube) and creator of the History Guy podcast (Google Podcasts). The History Guy channels presents pieces of forgotten history. Geiger believes that “At its heart, history is story telling, and it should be told with passion and genuine love for the material. History might be tragic, it might be comic, but it is the story of who we are, and we should not be afraid to enjoy that story, and be moved by it.”