They never figured out how to build gauges properly.

他们也从来认真不测量轨距

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

There were some twelve to fifteen different widths of railroads in the Northern states alone by the 1850s, and you could go into one town on a gauge, i don't know, three feet wide but on the other side of town it would come out four feet wide.

在五十年代,单就北方州的铁道,就有十二到十五种不同的轨距,你可能在一条三英尺宽的铁道上进镇,但在另一边出镇时,它变成四英尺宽了

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选