Buslist
In North American Railway Engineering practice it's GAGE, which my former boss would frequently remind everyone. Check the AREMA Manual for example.
Much as it galls me to say this -- when referring to AREMA standards (which means when discussing the technical details of track 'width') it's "gage". No need to invent a reason why four letters gets the job done as well as five.
Here is CSX official language (from their "Standard Specifications for the Design and Construction of Private Sidetracks"):
"The gage of track is the distance between the heads of rails, measured at right angles thereto, at a point
five-eighths (5/8”) inch below the top of rail. Standard gage is 4’-8 1/2”. No change in gage on account
of curvature will be permitted without the express permission of CSXT. Gaging must be done at the
time the rail is laid."
To drive home the point, here is language from the BNSF counterpart ("Design Guidelines for Industrial Track Projects") which not only establishes the difference, but makes it in the 'opposite' direction from the semantics I learned:
"A track gauge manufactured for the purpose of measuring gage should be used rather
than a tape measure. Gage is to be checked at every third tie. Do not strike rail directly with a maul,
either on top when driving spikes, or on side to obtain track gage."
Note that these are both references provided for non-railroad personnel, for whom the word 'gauge' would almost surely be the 'accepted' normal and correct spelling... and many of whom might be inclined to complain about the spelling that has been used...
I think now that this is stronger than some other nomenclatural controversies, like "SE Mallet" for "simple articulated", or my own "ancillaries" for "auxiliaries". Perhaps one of the professionals like MC can weigh in on the correct use of 'gage' in technical contexts.
[Note: the wack formatting of the quoted sections is due to more stellar design by the Kalmbach IT people. May they get around to restoring the 'compose' feature -- preferably with the ability to edit in formatted view, about the only way to fix this kind of problem with rendering line breaks -- soon!]
