A commonly cited reason for the adoption of this gauge, broader than that which became the [[Standard gauge|international standard]], is that it was intended to hinder any use of the railroad in any of the [[Peninsular War|French invasion]] attempts. This is possible, but the 19 January 1845 governmental decree does not state any reason, simply the gauge itself. It is known that the government entrusted such decisions to a committee, whose main work was done by civil engineers Juan Subercase and Calixto de Santa Cruz: both good civil engineers but with little experience in railroads. Their judgement, made because of their profession and lack of experience in railroads, was that since the Spanish landscape was more mountainous than that of England and France, a wider gauge would make more powerful locomotives possible, with larger boilers and, more importantly, larger [[Firebox (steam engine)|fireboxes]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://ciencia15.blogalia.com/historias/2765| title=El ancho de vía del tren español| access-date=26 April 2011| language=es| publisher=flexarorion }}</ref> This was obviously a miscalculation; in other areas of Spain, narrower gauges were used in the most mountainous areas, since Iberian gauge civil engineering works would have been more expensive. One example of this is the {{RailGauge|1000mm}} gauge [[FEVE]]. In the earliest days of railway construction, a variety of gauges was in use, in particular in Ireland [[5 ft 3 in gauge railways|Ireland]] and notably the [[Great Western Railway]], which used a gauge of 7ft 0 1/4 inches. Locomotive engineers found wider gauges advantageous as they allowed more space between the locomotive frames for cylinders, connecting rods, valve gear, and bearings, and made it easier to service these components.