Before proceeding to discover the meaning of the term railway, let's know its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it comes from Latin, exactly from the word “ferreus”, which is the result of the sum of two lexical components of said language:
-The noun “ferrum”, which means “iron”.
-The suffix “-ea”, which indicates “relationship”.
The first meaning of the term mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) refers to that which is made of iron or that has the characteristics of this material.
In this sense, the road built from iron rails that are arranged in parallel, on which trains circulate, is known as a railway line or railway line . The railway, therefore, constitutes a key infrastructure for rail transport.
The development of a railway requires various works . On the one hand, the ground must be prepared for the correct installation of the rails. On the other hand, drainage, bridges and other necessary elements must be manufactured so that the trains can advance safely.
Rails are generally separated by how far apart the wheels of the trains are. That distance, which constitutes the width of the railway track, is known as the gauge .
It is interesting to know that not all over the world have the same gauges of railway tracks. Thus, for example, while in the United States it is 1,676 millimeters, in Spain and Portugal it is 1,668 millimeters and in Japan it is only 1,000 millimeters.
This measure has a long history behind it, which begins in the 19th century when the mine cars operated and had a track width of between 1.40 and 1.50 meters. And that was the one used when the railway steam engines were launched. However, shortly after it was decided to change that width so that curves could be taken much better.
In addition to everything indicated, we cannot ignore that other reasons for modifying this measure are the orography of the place where the train in question circulates and what are economic reasons. But that's not all, since it is also considered that there are military criteria, specifically defense. Yes, because it is believed that since there are different gauges of railway track, it is more difficult for a country to attack another that has a different gauge than its own through trains that transport weapons, for example.
By analogy with the properties of iron, the idea of iron is used to describe something that stands out for its tenacity , its rigidity or its hardness . For example: “Despite their efforts, the local team was unable to overcome the fierce defense of the visiting team and the match ended evenly,” “Each project presented by the government encounters fierce opposition from the rest of the political parties,” “ The actor's controversial statements provoked a strong reaction from associations that defend animal rights .