PC: Linked/Standardized Rail as Part of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?

In doing some research for my Red Germany TL I came across of information regarding the differences between German rail and Russian rail during the pre-war, WW1, and interwar period.

In a general sense the Russians used a broader gauge compared to the narrower gauge of German rail, which of course prohibited the use of each other's domestic built locomotives from traveling seamlessly onto each others' system.

So with that being said, considering that the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of '39 had various joint economic trade provisions attached to the agreement, how technically plausible could it have been that that some sort of standardized rail gauge system between the two countries could be created to better facilitate their economic cooperation?

If 39' was too late, could something be like that be created earlier? (post October revolution, specifically)
 
39 is too late. Maybe if the communists take power in Germany in 1919? Then there's less of a feeling that even any deals to work together are just alliances of scoundrels (and so steps that would make an invasion easier aren't as off the table). In fact the ability to travel easily between the two would be arguably a necessity. Both sides need to act quickly in case either gets into a foreign war. In which rail standardization is a necessity. It would also speed up the process of Germany and Russia having a border since in any scenario with a communist Germany basically means the Baltic nations and Poland are absolutely fucked.
 
The main problem that I can see with this idea is that as I've been led to believe Russia deliberately chose, and following governments continued to use, a different track gauge to the standard gauge so as to make it harder for invaders to take advantage of the infrastructure. For all that they were buddy-buddy when carving up third party countries and trading with each other both sides were completely mercenary, I can't see Stalin's paranoia going along with the idea of changing the track gauge. That's not even getting into the hassle and costs that it would cause the Soviets with regards to their engines and rolling stock.
 
Major project...

Germany needs to stay on standard gauge--too much trade with all ofEurope...so Germany's NOT converting. Converting Russia is all but impossible. It's almost always very difficult to impossible to reduce the gauge of a modern steam locomotive--the space between the wheels is all being used.

What would be possible (and if trade's heavy enough, perhaps even economically practical) is to have either some broad gauge running into Germany, or some standard gauge running into the USSR, and interchange between railroads happening at major yards.

Alternatively, railroad cars that swap trucks at interchange points are also possible, although locomotives can't run through.

A third possibility is having a few dual gauge lines, although switches are more complex and usually speed limited. Dual gauge would almost definitely be present in some yards in this situation.

There's a few thoughts from a train nut...
 
Germany needs to stay on standard gauge--too much trade with all ofEurope...so Germany's NOT converting. Converting Russia is all but impossible. It's almost always very difficult to impossible to reduce the gauge of a modern steam locomotive--the space between the wheels is all being used.

USA changed over nearly all track, Rolling Stock and Locomotives in 1886 over Memorial Day Weekend. Much of the South was a 5ft Broad Gauge, and a few Northern lines as well, having up to 6ft Gauge lines.

http://southern.railfan.net/ties/1966/66-8/gauge.html

There's not that much difference between an 1880s and 1930 Steam Locomotive, layout wise.
 
And Poland is still Standard Gauge til 1939, no matter what the Germans and Russians decide

That's interesting. Do does that mean that the railways of Russian Poland were built to the Russian gauge and then converted to the Standard Gauge by 1939? Does the same apply to the Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania?

Stalin might allow a mixed gauge to allow German trains to run over Russian rails. However, I don't know if the Russian Gauge is wide enough to allow a third rail to be laid for Standard Gauge trains. And if it was I think the chances of Stalin allowing it are as good as a successful Operation Sea Lion. Even if he did I'm sure he would also have given orders for the third rails to be removed and destroyed in June 1941.
 
A third possibility is having a few dual gauge lines, although switches are more complex and usually speed limited. Dual gauge would almost definitely be present in some yards in this situation.

There's a few thoughts from a train nut...

Sorry, I didn't see that. Do you think the Russian Gauge was wide enough to allow a third rail for Standard Gauge trains?
 
That's interesting. Do does that mean that the railways of Russian Poland were built to the Russian gauge and then converted to the Standard Gauge by 1939? Does the same apply to the Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania?

I can't say for Poland, but for the Baltics and Finland there was little incentive to start changing the gauge in the interwar period - there was enough things to do with limited resources anyway without such a project. Especially this applies to Finland, as the Finnish rail network only connects with the Russian and Swedish networks.

I'll borrow my own post to a previous thread:

The Baltic rail network included lines of both standard and Russian gauge - in general in the interwar, it seems the Lithuanian main lines were predominately standard gauge, the Latvian network was both standard and Russian gauge and the Estonian network was Russian gauge. (And there were also various narrow gauge lines).

09941.jpg
 
Sorry, I didn't see that. Do you think the Russian Gauge was wide enough to allow a third rail for Standard Gauge trains?

In the 1870s, some US lines were dual gauged that way, and some of those Southern lines were narrower than the Russian, and some Norther Lines as wide.
Is expensive, but doable
 
Dual Gauge

Perhaps Poland would allow a single (double track) line to be dual gauged for international trade--for a price...
 
I just checked on it; standard gauge is not narrow enough to dual gauge with Russian gauge.
 
I just checked on it; standard gauge is not narrow enough to dual gauge with Russian gauge.

You can technically run standard gauge stock on 5ft gauge, it requires slow speeds but it's doable, 5ft on standard is impossible.
 
Brest-Litovsk could include clauses mandating that Russia convert to standard gauge, and after the war, the Bolshevik government could decide to continue the policy because it's practical (If the battle of Tannenberg isn't reason enough to have a single gauge, I don't know what is). Most countries newly independent from Russia would also switch gauges to increase trade with Western countries. If this occurs, the railways would be standardized by 1941. A clause in the Molotov-Ribbentropp act would simply be too late to affect much.

I just checked on it; standard gauge is not narrow enough to dual gauge with Russian gauge.

It's still possible to use dual-gauge with Standard and Russian gauge; it just has to be 4-rail instead of the usually assumed 3-rail type (it complicates platform design, but not by much).
A section of dual-gauge (Standard and Russian gauge) railway on the Rail Baltica project:
Rail_Baltica_Lietuva.jpg
 
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