Sorry, I've got to call B.S. on this. I read this story and thought "wait a minute, they redesigned the Space Shuttle because the boosters wouldn't fit through a train tunnel?"
There are lot's of ways to transport oversized item like that, so I did some research and found this:
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm
By the way Snopes.com is the best place to go whenever you get something like this in your e-mail.