Broadly true

Although on the narrow specifics of romans and ruts there is an element of embellishment

But the standard gauge does indeed owe itself to horse drawn wagons, as used on the mines that stephenson first worked on, and his success led to him using it more widely, and that did influence some US railroads who used British locomotives.

Commerce and standardisation does the rest.

Interestingly Stephenson always wished he had chosen a wider gauge.

Posted By: CWC, Mar 14, 10:08:29