Nomenclature
Cape gauge is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, which adopted this gauge in 1873. The Molteno Government of the Cape selected this gauge, after several studies in southern Europe, as being most suited for traversing the steep mountain ranges of southern Africa. Starting in 1873, the Cape Government Railways oversaw a rapid expansion of its railway network and the Cape gauge went on to become the standard for the southern African region with Natal changing its 10 km network from standard gauge to the Cape gauge as part of laying a rail network across the entire colony in 1876.
It is sometimes alternatively known as CAP gauge, after C.A.Pihl. It is also sometimes referred to as "Colonial Gauge," since it was used in many British colonies and Dominions.
The usage of the term Cape Gauge is not universal, and only used in some countries.
Australia uses several narrow gauge spacings, including 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in). To differentiate between the types of narrow gauge a lot of writers refer to the imperial (pre-metric) terms of 3 foot 6 inch or 2 foot gauge to distinguish between the gauges.
The San Francisco, California, cable-car system also uses the 1.067 mm (3½ ft). gauge.
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