-somewhat delayed relative to OTL in British Isles due to Popular Revolution (Heads of British Isles > ^ff21d6) and ensuing chaos diminishes state investments in vital time

-as do concerns of "revolutionary" nature of pulling eminent domain and diminishment of taxes, and collapse

-but under Heads of British Isles > 1846-1857 Wilfrid Lawson (Radical), government pushes massive investment in railroads, and United Bank of the British Isles comfortable enough to make loans

-gauge is wide 5 ft 6 in

-result of no George Stephenson, instead Puffing Billy more successful and others modelled on it

-and wide gauge gets more success

-takes longer for gauge standardization, compromise b/w wide and shorter gauge in 1850s

-results in Railway Mania, with businesses making redundant railroads adjacent to one another and rise of railroads in places with little demand

-collapses following 1855

-but all this railroad investment is still ultimately beneficial

-even areas with little demand benefit from them

-and a lot of railroad lain down

-French Republic a lot more happy about laying down railways than OTL

-with it having a lot more coal fields with Belgium, Sarre, and part of Ruhr

-and needing to maintain national security in much more hostile Europe

-Pierre Michel Moisson-Desroches presents proposal in 1814 to make seven major railway tracks to centralize nation

-Paris to Genoa by Lyon and and Marseilles

-Paris to Bordeaux

-Paris to Nantes

-Paris to Le Havre, by Rouen

-Paris to Calais, by Boulogne

-Paris to Gand, by Lille

-Paris to Mayence

-proposal gets accepted, French government immediately gets to work, focusing on Paris to Lille first

-opens railway from Paris to [insert suburb here]in 1817 with steam locomotive passing to and from it

-gauge of one and a half metres, based on cart size

-extended to Saint-Denis in 1823, construction up to Roissy-en-France planned

-that, too, constructed in 1832 (delayed by war)

-by 1834, railway has reached Creil, and construction backwards has begun on railway from Lille to Arras

-along with subcontractors developing railway to and from Mayence, additionally from Aix-la-Chappelle to Cologne

-by 1837, railway from Paris to Lille constructed

-by 1844, all these proposed railroads constructed incl. one from Lille to Cologne, and railway built to Milan too (with others built in Italy)

-in addition, work begun in 1833 on Turin-Modane railway, with big obstacle being Mont Cenis

-relatively new innovation of percussion drill used in US (American Infrastructure > Pennsylvania Mainline Canal) crucial to this

-railway opened in 1849, thanks to new tech

-and during French Wars > Third French War (1847-1854), railroads constructed to Sarrebruck, others along German border

-postwar a lot of private companies get in on the business, but they do a lot more localized ones but with state pushing through powerful control

-and railroads built across the Rhine as well

-rising density of railroads, particularly in the eastern part, although with state control of most important railroads and very much regulation of the rest, no Railway Mania equivalent

-Germany

-has a mess of railroad gauges as a legacy of its disunity

-railways compatible with France's in western part with 1.5 m gauge

-a lot of French companies responsible for them

-Hanover, being run by Guelphs and despite revolution having many links to British industry, imports lots of rail from the British Isles and so adopts its 5 ft 6 in gauge

-Austria pushes for its own gauge, 1.25 m, based on narrow existing horse rail

-spreads it to other Habsburg states, Bavaria, and special line made to Frankfurt

-Saxony has its own gauge of 0.75 m for smaller rail due to hills, spreads to Thuringia to an extent

-builds a pretty early rail network too

-this is only really harmonized in 20th century but sluggishly because of automobile rise

-only fully harmonized in 1950s and 60s to 1.5 m gauge

-Paris to Saint Germain railroad gets constructed in 1830s (high incline noticed earlier with France testing rail earlier) to a similar degree of success

-makes a great deal of money, inspires copycats in 1840s and the like in British Isles

-unlike OTL, they use metal protectors on leather flaps, which means rats issue not as bad

-and eventually replacement of leather with India rubber

-with France facing issues of extreme population in Paris, it begins construction on a railroad more local in nature in 1842, completed in 1845, called the Chemin de fer Urbaine de Paris

-nicknamed Le Tunnel

-accounts for possibility of rail missing track by marking secondary posts, secondary pneumatic tubes

-and due to rapidly growing city, very successful

-booms even more following French Wars > Third French War (1847-1854), expands yet more

-greatly expands Paris, allowing for rise of working-class suburbs and later super-tall buildings nearby (as Paris proper can't support them)

-especially in and around Nanterre

-part of it being that very medieval city of Paris is super-cramped

-expanding rail means many leave tenements over 19th century for new less cramped areas, but new immigrants occupy now abandoned tenements

-eventually electrified entirely by 1906

-leads to trend of urbans popping up in other cities over 1850s-70s

-London gets an ambitious Metropolitan Railroad of its own in early 1850s, allowing for expansion of its rail

-as does one in Vienna

-Dresden

-Milan

-New York

-During US's Wars > American Civil War (1869-76), Manhattan declaring for the Richmondites results in pro-Richmondite mob storming train to Brooklyn, causing chaos

-Berlin

-Rome

-Petrograd

-essentially, this results in these cities expanding earlier

-lots of competition with the Velocipede as both technologies occupy same space as mid-level transportation

-and eventually, dies out in very early 20th century with electrification

-following French Wars > Fifth French War (1890-5), Germany with its mess of differing rail gauges is trying to prove itself as a nation and looks to modernize its rail network

-rail from Frankfurt to Dresden planned out

-use of electrical railways and with wind tunnel experiments, to be named Kugel (bullet) after fast speed

-reaches maximum speed of 151.1 km/h

-opened in 1901 to much pomp from the emperor, constituent states

-inspires competition from France, British Isles

-France opens a bullet line of its own, albeit featuring steam engine, from Paris to Aix-la-Chappelle, in 1905

-likewise British Isles opens one in 1908

-they keep getting faster over time, crossing 200 km/h barrier in 1920s (but mostly steam and [insert name for diesel here]

-but increasingly endangered by spread of [insert name for car here]over 1920s and 30s

-following French Wars > Sixth French War (1937-41), [car]production increased for military use

-40s and 50s see general decline of trains in general

-however, oil crisis inspired by independentist wars in Near East cause massive decline in [car]market, and manufacturers pushed out of business

-inspires renaissance of trains, [streetcars]to maintain connections

-results in tolls established on [highways]and state investment in new, electrified bullet lines