William Milnor Roberts who began his carrer engineering canals pioneered in developing the use of a standard gauge track of four feet eight and a half inches width to replace the uneven gauges common, even down to the Civil War.
The first irong T-rails were rolled at the Danville Montour Iron Company Works by Welsh Workers bought for that purpose and the same mills produced the first thirty foot long rails made in this country.
Scrants Lackvanna Iron Compnay made the Erie railroads first rails. Virginia born Moncure Robinson was a youthful engineer who in his 20's studied early railroads and canals in Eurpoe. He started his carrer in this country on the Pennsylvania Canal and turned to the railroads after having surveryed the Portage Railroad before he was thirty. He directed the building and of the Philadelphia and Reading, and developed the idea of the use of stone ballast and correct engineering to railroad grades and curves. He contributed to railroad building in both Russia and Germany and was without a doubt the greatest genius of his time in field of engineering and managing railroads. Pennsylvania pioneered also in the use of coal to fire steam locomotives. Many pennsylvania railroads helped lead the engineering and monagment of post-Civil War railroads in the west.
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