“Is there any reason why the present Gauge of our Iron Roads should be adopted on our future works?”

A scarce pamphlet on the origins and future of American railroad gauges

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Osborne, a civil engineer in Baltimore, Maryland authors this pithy and well-constructed argument to systematically lay out his position on railroad gauges in America. Osborne’s position is that narrow gauge was an ideal standard long overlooked in America. He explains the economic benefits as well as the technological benefits and “...where thinking minds are to be found…” Osborne is sure his position will be validated.

Of Osborne the following is written:

The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad had some of the most remarkable engineering works of nineteenth-century America. Many of these were the work of Richard Boyse Osborne (1815-1899), a brilliant young English civil engineer of Irish ancestry. Richard Boyse Osborne was born in London on 3 November 1815, and died in Glendale, Pennsylvania on 28 November 1899. He came from a family of minor nobility and might have expected to inherit a large fortune except for what he described as “the weakness and delusion” of his father. He accordingly moved to North America to seek his fortune in 1834 and after a time in Canada and then in Chicago and St. Louis, he joined the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as a draftsman in 1838 and, learning engineering largely “on the job,” soon rose to be the company’s Chief Engineer. There he distinguished himself by designing the first iron bridge in North America, constructed using Howe’s Patent Truss. His Skew Bridge in Reading was also a masterpiece of its day. It was locally nicknamed the “Soap & Whiskey Bridge” owing to the fact that Osborne began by making a model of it in soap, and it was built by Irish “Navvies” who were wont to partake of a drop or two of the hard stuff from time to time.

In 1846 Osborne moved to Ireland to be the engineer responsible for the construction of the Waterford & Limerick Railway (though nominally under the supervision of Charles Vignoles), where he built several more iron-truss bridges including a remarkable skew bridge at Ballysimon. He was also responsible for introducing the first double-bogie eight-wheel coaches in the British Isles.

In 1852 Osborne returned to Pennsylvania where he continued designing structures for the Reading Railroad, but also did quite a bit of work for other railroads. At this time he began work on the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, of which he was both the civil engineer and a major promoter, and he was thus largely responsible for the creation of Atlantic City. His brother, John H. Osborne, was the Camden & Atlantic’s General Manager. As well as laying out the city and building its railroad, Richard B. Osborne was responsible for naming the town Atlantic City.

R. B. Osborne was also responsible for engineering Broad Street Station in Philadelphia, built for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (later part of the Pennsylvania Railroad) in 1851-52. The station had a 50 ft. Howe-truss span which spanned eight tracks.

Osborne seems to have been something of a narrow gauge enthusiast, and at the time he was chief engineer of the Western Maryland Railroad recommended replacing the company’s single 4’ 8½” gauge single line with a double-track 3’ 0” gauge railway. Fortunately this advice was not followed.¹

A rare pamphlet of this well-regarded railroad engineer stating his case for narrow gauge. Annotations, likely by John J. Black whose name appears on the front wrap.

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