I had heard the story Katie relayed before, though not with the SRB twist. Good thing the tunnel doesn't turn too much.

While I don't doubt that that story is true, as I understand it there was a time when American rail companies tried to lay different size track, much like the GWR. Their idea was, if you want to use our track, you will have to rent our special spacers to put onto your cars.

In other words, if you wanted to go from A to B and use someone elses track, you had to pay a tax. America began an early version of the Common Carrier Law. All track widths had to be the same, and no one could deny anyone else use of any track, though they could charge a very small tax.

The long distance phone companies have a common carrier law. For some reason I don't think the cable companies do, and this bothers me, a lot.