Railways for the most part belong to the order of contrivances. The first man who, noticing the facility with which the bole of a tree rolled down a slope, converted it into a roller for the movement of heavy bodies, would very soon discover that, to gain the greatest facility of movement, it is essential to have a path free from all inequalities and prominences; and he would discover also that it was essential for his roller to be a true cylinder if he wanted it to move straight and easily. The difficulty of maintaining a soft surface as a straight surface would soon present itself, and he would lay down the boles of straight trees in the line of his path. Here, then, we have the earliest railway, still used by timber-cutters in wild countries. Light sticks of round timber are laid down for the rails. Other sticks are formed into rollers as a crude kind of wheels to run on them, and on the rollers are placed the trunks of massive trees which are required to be moved from the forest. A modern contriver has gravely proposed a modification of this as a means of transport for army stores and guns on an expedition.

But the boles of trees have soft and hard sides, arising from atmospheric influence while growing. Therefore they cannot long maintain their cylindrical form. Moreover, it would soon be discovered that a cylinder can only move forward in a straight line, and that the taper bole of a tree can only move forward in a circular line. Neither condition would fulfil the requirements of a crooked road with constant change of direction; and the next contrivance would be to divide the roller into two separate cylinders, capable of rolling independently of each other. This would be the germ of modern wheels. Another contriver would discover the advantage of connecting them together by a central bar around which they could revolve; but the load would still be borne on the peripheries of the rollers, on account of the difficulty of making an axle sufficiently strong and sufficiently free from friction to bear a heavy load. For this latter reason, in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and other rude districts, cars are still found in which two wheels are made fast on one shaft, which revolves with the wheels, without any power of independent movement on the wheels, and with a consequent enormous increase of resistance arising from differing diameters, eccentricity, polygonality, and other circumstances. Upon hard stony roads the resistance is almost destructive of utility, and it may be doubted whether a sledge would not be more useful. In Madeira a sledge kept moist by water is found to be actually preferable. Our modern railways have not yet attained to the condition of using perfect wheels. Rollers, in fact, not wheels in the correct sense of the word, are used thereon, similar in principle to the rude carts of rude countries: the wheels are keyed solidly on the axles, making one piece; and they are practically sledges wherever the path is uneven.

In the mineral districts of England, when coal and iron were dug, and had to be transported seaward, rollers, of necessity, soon gave place to wheels, after the cost of pack-horses had rendered this mode of conveyance impracticable. Wheels formed of wood could not last long, by reason of the wear of their peripheries, and, as a matter of necessity, gave rise to another contrivance in the form of strips of iron, or tyres, fastened to them. The meaning of the word "tyre" is something fastened round,—as attire round the body, tiara round the head, a tier of guns round a ship or fort.

A pair of wheels to a two-wheeled cart running on a bad road require to be of considerable diameter, and consequently weight. The difficulty of keeping a road in repair when in constant use from coal or iron mines would lead to many devices, and amongst others, doubtless, to laying planks or timbers at the bottom of the ruts, as a better contrivance than filling in stones. The inconvenience of the ruts, again, led to placing planks or timbers on the level surface; thus making a way or moveable road between the mine and the seaport, by leave or permission of the intermediate proprietors; and hence they are called "way-leaves." On these way-leaves, carts with two wheels were not convenient, and the way'n, wain, wagon, or waggon, with four wheels, was substituted. The planks forming the path for the wheels were, as a matter of course, connected by cross timbers, and thus a space was inclosed, from which apparently comes the term rail,—a cognate probably of apparel, which applies to dress and also to the tackle of a ship; also raiment and night-rail, expressing clothing which incloses the person. Probably the semblance of the timbers in form to the rails of a post-and-rail inclosure may have supplied the nomenclature.

The coarse make of the wheels would soon begin to abrade the timber, and we learn that it became a common practice to nail down strips of iron on the surface of the ascents, where the draught was increased by the use of the timber. Then a practice obtained of fixing down double rails,—a supporting rail below and a wearing rail above it,—to be taken up and replaced when too much worn. (See fig. 1.)

The rapid wear of timber led to the structure of cast-iron rails to replace the wooden ones, and being limited in width, they were formed with a continuous flange or ledge on their inner edge, to keep the wheels on the track. (See fig. 2.) The roads were then called tram-roads, having been first laid down, it was said, by Outram, from whose Mechanical name, omitting the first syllable, the word is said to have been derived. The derivation would apply equally well to the word trammele—the rail-flanges being in reality trammels to guage the road and confine the wheels.

The leading objection to this system, the once famous tram-road, was, that the rail was liable to be covered with dust or gravel. Jessop, in 1789, to obviate these disadvantages, laid down at Loughborough cast-iron "edge-rails," from which the grinding ledges were removed, and applied round the edges of the wheels, forming flanges, the rails being elevated sufficiently to allow the descending flange to clear the ground. (See fig. 3.) This appears to have been the first system of rails laid on cast-iron chairs and on sleepers. The rails were pinned or bolted into the chairs.

The substitution of rolled wrought-iron rails for cast rails was patented by Birkenshaw in 1820, as the "fish-belly" rail, similar in form and mode of support to Jessop's rail, but rolled in continuous lengths, embracing a number of spans, with stiffening ledges or flanges on the under side. This form of rails grew into favour, and was adopted in the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was opened in 1829. The rail weighed 33 lb. per yard, and was laid in cast-iron chairs, spiked down to square stone blocks at three-feet bearings. (See fig. 4.) It was fortunate for the country that this, the first important line of railway, had been entrusted to the consummate practical skill and experience of George Stephenson. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which descends to succeeding ages as a monument to his memory, happily served as a model railway for those which more immediately succeeded it. His son Robert Stephenson, and his pupils, were entrusted with the execution of several of the most important lines; and the same successful results which had attended the first railway were secured for those which came into operation afterwards.

The edge-rail and the flanged wheel are happily matched; they constitute essentially the mechanical idea of a railway,—the basis of the whole system.

PERMANENT WAY.

Guage.—The guage or measure of a railway is taken at the distance apart of the upper surfaces or treads of the two rails forming a line of rails, or a way. In England there are two guages, known as the "narrow guage," 4 feet 8½ inches, and the "broad guage," 7 feet between the rails. The narrow is the national guage of Great Britain, having been employed by the elder Stephenson for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and thereupon adopted for other lines, with a few exceptions, the most important of which is the broad guage, 7 feet, introduced by the younger Brunel on the Great Western Railway. The other exceptional guages have been reduced to a uniformity with the narrow guage. The Irish guage is uniformly 5 feet 3 inches, 6½ inches wider than the English guage, giving extra room for the construction of rolling stock. The European guage is for the most part the same as the English; but the Spanish is wider, 5 feet 6 inches, constituting a break of guage with France; commercially inconvenient, but supposed to be politically expedient. The Indian guage also is 5 feet 6 inches. The American guage is various, from 4 feet 8½ inches to 6 feet; some of the guages differ about an inch, and they interchange rolling stock, which of course runs tight and loose, but they blunder through it. The English national, or Stephenson guage, is practically of sufficient width.

As in all roads, the first consideration is the use to which a railway is to be applied, and the weight and damaging power of the wheels that are to run over it. A very common mistake is to make the road too weak for its work—to save materials and labour at the cost of destruction. This has been largely the case with American roads; their earliest system on the Baltimore and Ohio was a series of transverse timbers, on which were laid longitudinal timbers, trenailed down to them, to which was spiked a flat bar half-an-inch thick by 2½ inches wide, with counter-sunk spike heads. In the process of running the trains the iron was The question being determined as to what is to be the weight of engines and trains, and their distinctive forms, the whole structure must be calculated on that as a datum-line. The most damaging part of the train being the driving wheels of the engine, that is the chief point to look to. It is desirable, if possible, not to exceed five tons on each driving wheel; if, therefore, heavy loads are required, four wheels must be coupled together; but in that case, though the load is distributed so as to avoid so much deflection of the road, the grind of the tyre and rail surfaces is increased, and speed is impeded by friction. An engine with two drivers will find less impediment than one with four. With a single driver the impediment would be at the minimum, supposing one of the wheels on the driving axle were loose. When two wheels are coupled, and *a fortiori* four, the diameters should be exact, and the rails also; if not, they will grind, and act as breaks. The workers of steam-conches on common roads never used more than one fast wheel; if they did they broke their axles. The boys' toys called velocipedes, which work by cranked axles, have likewise only one fast wheel. The reason why the axles do not break more frequently is, that the rails afford facility for slipping.

The next consideration is, that the whole road be thoroughly well drained, that all rain-water falling on the line may have facility to run off the surface without soaking in, and that all running water crossing the line may be provided with culverts to pass below it. The sleepers or substructure should be bedded on at least 12 inches in depth of porous stone or gravel, constituting the ballast, without any clay or other material in it that may make a non-conducting bed. In many places natural ballast is not to be had, and where clay exists the process of burning it is resorted to. In districts where neither ballast nor clay occurs, as in the prairies of the United States, it is advisable to make such a bearing surface of timber, and such a strength of rail, so to distribute the load, that no sinking or pumping up and down could take place.

The level and the ballast being provided, the next consideration is that of the permanent way, the rails and their supports. Whether made in one form or another, the permanent way should, in the first place, have such an amount of bearing area on the ballast or ground as to prevent all sinking. Secondly, There should be such an amount of bearing area of the rail on the sleepers as to prevent all crushing. Thirdly, The rail should be so vertically stiff as to distribute the load over a great length without deflecting. Fourthly, The lateral stiffness should be ample to prevent all lateral deflection. Fifthly, The joints of the rails should be such as to produce a practically continuous bar through the whole length of the line without impeding the expansion or contraction incidental to variations of temperature. Sixthly, The material of the rails should be so homogeneous as not to laminate, so hard as not to crush, and so tough as not to crumble beneath the driving or the train wheels. Seventhly, The rails should be so adjusted on curves as not to form polygonal lines. Eighthly, All fitting parts should be so adjusted together as to permit of no loose movement. Ninthly, The width or tread of the rail should be in proportion to the weight of the engines running over it. Tenthly, The rail-top should have a minimum height above the bearing surface in the ballast.

Rails.—Rails may be divided into two classes:—First, Those which are single-headed and flat-footed, forming their own support on the sleepers or ballast; secondly, Rails which are double-headed, and need chairs or other means of support on the sleepers. They may again be subdivided into:—Rails on cross sleepers of timber; rails on longitudinal sleepers of timber; rails on cast-iron sleepers without timber; rails on wrought-iron sleepers without timber.

The Flat-bottomed Rail.—This rail, with holes through the lower web to hold the spikes, was used to some extent both on cross and longitudinal timbers. The disadvantage was want of vertical stiffness in its ordinary form, and if made deeper it was apt to rock on the sleeper by reason of its small base, and also to work loose on the spikes. The holes through the rails were found disadvantageous, and subsequently the practice obtained of fixing the spikes outside the rail. (See fig. 6.) The simplicity, the fewness of parts, and the advantage of lateral stiffness, have caused this rail to be used largely on the Continent with cross sleepers, and in America for cross and longitudinal sleepers. Of late, attempts have been made to revive it in England.

The Bridge Rail.—This rail was first used on the Great Western Railway, of a shallow section, but wide, and possessed of lateral stiffness. (See fig. 7.) The first line was a series of beech piles, 12 inches square, driven into the ground, to which were bolted at the surface level cross balks of timber, one on each side the pile-head on which they were shouldered. Longitudinal balks, 15 feet long, were laid on the cross balks. The longitudinals were covered with oak or elm planking screwed down to the surface. When the ballast was packed under the longitudinal balks, the surface of the oak planks was planed level, and the bridge rails screwed down on them, with felt between. It was supposed that there would be no yield whatever; but a very short time demonstrated that the piles formed a series of solid resistances, while the balks sprung between, and it was found necessary to cut away the piles. Transoms were then framed into the longitudinals, and secured by strap-bolts; and the whole resembled a long ladder laid on the ground. Eight different sections of rails were tried in succession; one section measured 13 inch in height by 7 inches in width, weighing 44 lb. per yard; and the last section 23 inches high by 6 inches wide, and weighing 62 lb. per yard. The screws which held down the rails were counter-sunk be-

Permanent way under the wheel flanges, and nut-headed on the other side. (See fig. 8.)

In consequence of the want of depth in the rails, they bent under the wheels, and crushed the timber in detail, though the total area of bearing was 5 inches in width, or 180 superficial inches per yard run. Had the rails been vertically stiff enough, the crushing would not have taken place. In fact the rails bent longitudinally, and the horizontal flanges curled up at the sides, and the holes through them bent into angles. One remedy tried was to cross-board the longitudinal timbers on the surface, and thus the fibre was less yielding.

Another example of the bridge rail was applied by Sir John McNeill on the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland, weighing 92 lb. per yard. It is laid on cross sleepers, into which it is notched by machine, the whole breadth of its bearing; and thus the gauge is accurate. The cross sleepers are about 2 feet 6 inches apart, and the total bearing does not exceed 60 square inches per yard run, or one-third that of the Great Western system. Yet the rail does not crush the timber, partly because it does not deflect, and partly because it crosses the fibres of the timber. (See fig. 9.)

On the Great Western the joints of the rails are supported by a piece of boiler-plate about 9 inches square, which was at first let flush into the timber; but being found to yield, it was subsequently laid on the surface, and pressed in by the running of the trains. It was secured by four bolts, two to each rail-end, the heads in the timber and the nuts on the rail flanges; they were quickly found to pull in and get loose. The bolts were then reversed, and long triangular fang-nuts were placed under the timbers; these also pulled in, and cast-iron nuts, measuring 4 inches by 2½ inches, were applied; the threads of these stripped, and they were replaced by wrought-iron of the same size. Thus the timber was as a packing between the upper joint-plate and the four nuts, comprising the same area. The rail-ends, however, still work loose, and the timber suffers.

The joint first applied by Sir John McNeill was a dovetail fitting the hollow of the rail rivetted to a plate through which passed four bolts holding down the rail-ends. This worked loose, and the cross joint sleeper was continually splitting. This was, in fact, the defective part of the line. (See fig. 9.) An effective joint was subsequently applied, consisting of three castings, the centre one supporting the rail in the hollow, and two side clips holding the rail down by the angle of the flanges; the whole being connected by one or two side bolts fixing the three parts together in a wedge form, which makes a perfectly safe joint. (See fig. 10.) The bolted joint has also been adopted from the Great Southern on the Belfast and Ballymena Railway.

Its horizontal area being considerable, it is sufficient to pack up the joint on the ballast, without using a cross sleeper under it.

The total height of this rail above the ballast is only 9 inches; it is very stiff vertically and laterally, and has little tendency to rock; but it is heavy, weighing 92 lb. per yard.

The Double-headed Rail.—We now come to the national rail of England, the double-headed rail, originated by Mr Joseph Locke, and first applied on the Grand Junction Railway, weighing 62 lb. per yard. (See fig. 11.) The top and bottom heads or tables of this rail are equal; it is more easy to roll than any other; and, if properly used, it is capable of being reversed, being in fact two rails in one. Formerly no means of fastening the rail to sleepers were employed except by Permanent the agency of cast-iron chairs, and this has considerably damaged it, in fact and in repute; so that many engineers have been in the habit of late of making the lower table of smaller size, merely as a support, and not as a reversible surface for the wheel. (See fig. 12.) The rail, as now made, is usually 5 inches in depth, and 2½ inches across the table, the central web being about three-quarters of an inch in thickness, weighing 75 lb. per yard. This rail, like the bridge and the flat-bottomed rail, is used as a prop supported on its base; it rests in the cast-iron chair, into which it is deposited from above, and a wooden key, driven between the chair and the side channel of the rail, holds it in its place; and it is supported so firmly when newly inserted that it cannot get loose. (See Permanent Way, fig. 13.) Now, if it does not get loose, the chair and the rail will be as one piece, and no damage will occur. But practically the blows of the wheel-flanges laterally crush the key, which is outside, and then the rails begin to jump up and down, and the noise, so unpleasant to passengers, is an indication that destruction of both tables, one by the wheel below, and the other by blows on the chair, is going on, while crystallization of the iron takes place. This goes on to a greater extent in the joint-chairs than in the intermediates. Many of the accidents which have happened on the narrow-gauge lines by engines getting off the rails have no doubt been mainly attributable to this cause. The chairs and compressed oak wedges and trenails, on Ransomes and May's patterns, with the method of guaging and boring the trenail-holes in the sleepers, are shown in figs. 13 to 19 inclusive.

**Ordinary Fastenings of the Double-headed Rail.**

This rail has double the vertical strength of the Great Western rail, but laterally it is much weaker, and the mode of using it, supported at intervals of 3 feet, is not favourable. It yields plastically to the running of the trains, and is capable of being altered in form laterally by the packing of the ballast. It has also a disadvantage in its elevation above the bearing surface on the ballast. The rail is 5 inches, the chair 2 inches, and the sleeper 3 inches, —total, 12 inches elevation; and as the sleeper is only 9 to 10 inches in width, this induces a considerable rocking tendency in a forward direction. There is yet another consideration.

Sleepers have taken their name from the builders, who put timbers under walls, where they are supposed to sleep, being never disturbed. But in railway practice the timbers under the rails do anything but sleep; they are in a state of constant movement; they spring up and down across the road, disturb the ballast, set dust flying, and let in water. When the train passes by, they spring down with a blow, and spring up again when the train has passed. If the ballast be not porous and the weather be wet, a pond is formed beneath the sleeper which goes on increasing with every train; whilst the road cannot be meddled Permanent way, as to open up the surface-ballast under such conditions is to make a quagmire for the reception of rain. To prevent the springing of the sleepers, it is required that they should be of greater size and strength, say 10 inches by 10 inches in width and depth; but this involves another difficulty. At present, 12 inches depth of ballast must be dug out to get access to pack the sleepers below; and a really strong sleeper would make the depth nearly 18 inches, or the depth of the old stone-block. But according to former experience, the stone-block failed partly by rigidity, and partly because the height of the rail was so great compared with the base of the block. It was impossible to keep water from percolating below, and causing the block to subside unequally.

Joint Chairs.—It is obviously a great defect for a rail to lie loosely in an iron chair, but this defect is aggravated where the two rail ends meet in a chair, especially under the increased weight of modern engines. The most important consideration therefore is, so to secure the rail-ends together so as to convert them as nearly as possible into a continuous beam. One method was to widen the joint-chair to a double width, but as the rails were only fastened by a wooden wedge, this did not last long; and, when loose, the tilting action became worse with a wide chair than with a narrow one, and the joint-sleepers, though made wider, would not remedy the evil, and the rail-ends were in process of destruction under the heavy engines.

In the year 1847 Mr W. Bridges Adams applied a remedy, by moving the joint-chair away from the joint 3 inches on one side, and placing a second chair at an equal distance on the other side. The joint was thus suspended between the two chairs, and keys of iron called fishes, fitting the side channels of the rails, being driven in on each side between the chairs and rails, it was designed to convert the rails into a continuous beam, without any loose movement at the joints. (See fig. 20.) In subsequent modifications, the fishes were, and continue to be, bolted to and through the rails, the sleepers being placed considerably apart, and the joint suspended between them, constituting the famous "fish-joint." (See figs. 21, 22, and 23.) There is a difficulty in keeping the bolts tight on this plan.

A more perfect joint has recently been introduced, called the bracket-joint. The rails are supported direct on the wooden sleeper, and a pair of brackets of angle iron are bolted to and through the rails, and also bolted or spiked down to the sleeper. In this mode there is no loose movement, and an economical as well as efficient arrangement is effected, the lower table of the rail being saved from all damage; the base is widened, and the rail is lowered. The same plan is applicable to intermediate chairs. (See fig. 24.)

Sleepers.—About the year 1848 general attention was called to the destruction and rotting of wooden sleepers. The contract system and improper inspection had resulted in many lines being laid with woody fibre, scarcely deserving the name of timber. Many such sleepers were like a mere pith before they were laid down, and they rapidly rotted. But there are abundant instances where good timber has been on the ground as sleepers from twelve to fifteen years without rotting. The creosoting system has also the effect of making inferior wood chemically durable.

But the destruction of the sleeper is chiefly mechanical—it is crushed and split by the detail bending of rails laid on longitudinals, and on the chair system by the driving of the chairs below the surface of the wood by blows. For this reason, chairs have grown in weight from 15 lb. to 42 lb. apiece, in order to increase the surface bearing on the timber.

On considering the question commercially, the materials of a railway should be governed by the locality. Where timber and labour can be had very cheap, it might be worth while to replace the sleepers every year. Where timber and labour are dear, iron is preferable. Cast-iron has been frequently used for sleepers, but the process has been in result little more than applying the usual cast chairs with extended bases of various kinds, and removing the wooden sleepers. Mr Greaves employs a bowl of cast-iron, with the chair cast upon it. (Fig. 23.) The South-Eastern went largely into it, on the plan of Mr P. W. Barlow, holding the rails between separate chair-heads like a vice. But, to keep down price, the rails were lightened, and the sleepers were cast Permanent thin and brittle like biscuit: they did not answer expectations, as the rails broke for want of continuous bearing.

On lines of small traffic and light loads the plan does answer, as on the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway. (See fig. 26.)

Every form of cast-iron sleeper involving the chair construction is defective on account of irregular shape. The chair itself is much of a block shape, and not liable to warp; but when extended into a broad sleeper, it is very awkward to deal with.

In hot climates the question has yet to be decided between iron and timber on another account than mechanical durability. Insects of various kinds eat wood, but do not eat iron; they will not, it appears, eat creosoted wood. But wood is never creosoted all through; in fact, creosote is chiefly useful for soft pine and inferior woods containing no resin. Resinous pine is as durable as creosoted pine. But leaving out the insects, there are heat and moisture to deal with. A monsoon rain soaks the timber; a hot sun follows; and it splits like green timber similarly exposed.

Barlow's Rail.—At the time of the advent of cast-iron for sleepers, an attempt was made to use wrought iron, both in the form of sleepers, as a substitute for wood, and also in a form of rail bearing direct on the ballast without any sleepers, known as the saddle-back or Barlow rail. A bridge rail (fig. 8) consists of two vertical sides connected at the top, and the bottom spread into horizontal flanges. In the saddle-back these vertical and horizontal lines are connected into curved diagonal sweeps. (See fig. 27.) When a load is placed on this rail, the tendency is to spread out the base, and make it vertically weaker; it consequently crushes out the ballast in detail, as the bridge rail crushes into the timber. The mode of connecting the rail-ends together is by a saddle inserted in the hollow, through the lower edges of which rivets are passed. The strength of the joint, therefore, is little else than that of a piece of boiler-plate, and there is no provision for expansion and contraction under change of temperature. This rail fails in the essential conditions of a permanent way, and has not answered unless on lines of slow speed, and infrequent and light traffic. Curiously enough, as is not uncommon in inventions, it is largely applied for a very different purpose, to the walls of iron colliers as a feeder against wharves.

W. B. Adams' Suspended Girder Rail.—In all the systems of permanent way hitherto described, the rails have been insistent, or supported on their base. They have consequently been limited in depth to insure stability against the lateral action of passing loads; and their capacity for resisting deflection has been correspondingly limited. The proper course to obtain a non-deflecting surface is to increase the depth of the rail, making it also a practically continuous beam, as strong at the joints as at the intermediate portions. Thoroughly to combine the conditions of stability and stiffness, hitherto but imperfectly accomplished, Mr Adams increases the rail to the necessary depth, and suspends it by the upper table, instead of supporting it on the base. The weight of the rail does not increase in the same proportion as the depth, if properly applied; whereas the stiffness increases in a high ratio. If, for example, with the same weight of material, having the same form and area of section, the depth be doubled, the stiffness would be increased four times; and if also the weight be doubled, the stiffness would be increased eight times. In the ordinary mode of supporting a rail on its base, the vertical web is from three-fourths to seven-eighths of an inch in thickness, to prevent it from bending under the weight of trains; and the deeper the rail, the thicker should be the web. But if suspended by the head, little more thickness is required than to prevent the top and bottom from separating. Thus an ordinary 75 lb. rail, 3 inches in depth, may be increased to 7 inches deep, and the vertical stiffness to resist deflection doubled, without an increase of metal. (See fig. 28.)

By the suspension of the rail by the head, the bearing surface on the ballast is approximated to the bearing surface on the rail, and stability is insured independently of the depth of the rail; indeed the general stability is increased by extra depth of rail, as the rail descends into the ballast as a keel, and fixes itself there. The rail is 7 inches deep, and it is suspended by two continuous angle-brackets bolted in the side channels, affording a bearing surface within 2½ inches of the tread of the wheels. The bolts are applied at intervals of from 2 to 3 feet; all the joints intersect each other; so that wherever a joint occurs, either in the rail or the angle-bracket, two solids are in connection with it. Thus there is great stiffness laterally, as well as vertically, in the system. The total width may vary from 9 inches to 14, representing the largest amounts of bearing surface of the Great Western, and the smallest on the cross-sleeper system. The perfect distribution of the load over a large space by the vertical stiffness of the rail, will, of course, with the continuous bearing, render a given surface more available than the same amount of surface on the discontinuous system. The gauge of way is adjusted by tie-bars. The system is simple, consisting of only four types or parts,—the rail, the angle-iron, the tie- Permanent bar, and the bolt; and the lower table of the rail is not exposed to the injury incurred by bearing on metal chairs, which wear into the lower sides of rails supported by them, and unfit them for reversal when the upper table is worn.

This system, in wrought-iron, has been satisfactorily tested on two metropolitan railways; and is being used for railways in India, being portable, easily put together, and durable in a timber-destroying climate.

The principle of suspension by the upper table is applicable also with timber bearers, bolted in the side channels of the rail, the joints being made with angle-brackets 18 inches long, bolted to a cross sleeper at each joint. The timber may be 5 inches by 4 inches in scantling, keyed to the rails with flat bar-iron at intervals of 3 feet, making up a total width of 10½ inches. (See fig. 29.) When the upper table is worn, reversal is simply performed, the joint-bolt being taken out, and the rail and timbers together turned end for end, or upside down, to present a new surface for wear, without disuniting the timbers from the rail.

The entire horizontal area is available for bearing surface on the ballast; in the cross-sleeper system only three-fourths is available. The horizontal bearing of the rail on the timbers is equivalent to 2 inches continuous width, or 504 square inches for a 21-feet rail. The timber suspension has been applied to the ordinary rails on the hardest-worked metropolitan railway with but an inch of bearing of the rail on the side timbers (see fig. 30); and after fifteen months' work, it was found that there had been absolutely no movement nor abrasion between the rails and the timbers; they had become, in fact, cemented together, contrasting forcibly with the bearing of a rail in an ordinary chair, illustrating the essential difference between firm contact and loose contact of parts subjected to blows. It appears by this that the suspended system is upwards of 25 per cent. per single mile cheaper than the ordinary system.

In applying cast-iron for the bearing surface of the suspended rail, the disadvantage is, that on account of its inherent brittleness, it cannot, without great surplus weight, be used in long and continuous lengths; but with a stiff rail, using the iron in short lengths, so applied that it cannot get loose, but merely serving as a bearing, a good line may be made. (See fig. 31.) The cast brackets are bolted to the rail by flat iron key-bolts passing through from side to side. The brackets are each 2 feet in length, and when bolted to the rail make up a width of 12 inches. If pitched at 3 feet apart, leaving spaces of 1 foot between them, they would give a bearing equivalent to 9 inches continuous width through the whole length on the ballast. The rail is shown 6 inches deep, and 65 lb. per yard. Should the bolts slacken at all, the pressure would still be exerted against the head of the rail, and would prevent loose movements. If the brackets be laid continuously, they give a 12-inch continuous bearing.

The following are the relative costs of the ordinary cross-sleeper system, with 70 lb. rails, in 21-feet lengths, fished at the joints, and sleepers at 3 feet intervals, compared with the three varieties of the suspended system, with 65 lb. rails, and with continuous bearing:

| System | Cost per mile run | |---------------------------------|-------------------| | Ordinary cross-sleeper system | L1618 | | Suspended system, with wrought-iron bearers | 1758 | | Do. do. on timber bearers | 1200 | | Do. do. on cast-iron bearers | 1431 |

It is assumed in this comparison that a 65 lb. rail on the suspended system is as efficient as a 70 lb. rail on cross sleepers.

There is an additional element of saving in the reduced depth of ballast required for carrying the suspended rail, compared with other systems, which is not reckoned in the comparison.

Ashcroft's Chair.—This chair may be accepted as the most recent exhibition of the combined use of timber and cast-iron for the immediate support of the rail. Chairs are cast in the form shown (see fig. 32), the jaws inclining outward and upward. Wood packings are pressed into the chair, of which the jaws are serrated to seize the wood; the wood cushions and suspends the rail in the chair. The chairs are of course heavier than ordinary chairs; and with a piece of oak on each side, they give a total bearing area to the rail of 18 inches in each chair. This on a 21-feet length rail will be equivalent to 126 inches, which might serve with a non-deflecting rail. But inasmuch as a chair of 48 inches area is found to drive into the sleeper, it seems scarcely possible that 18 inches inside the chair should resist the weight. If the rail springs, the whole must work loose in the same mode as the ordinary wood keys.

The chief defect in our permanent way, indicated by the noise familiar to travellers, is the number of blows or knocks arising from want of fit in the parts. With our present experience there is neither difficulty nor excessive cost in making a fit with either; and where wood can be applied as sleepers, it is commonly the cheapest. The principle of suspension in its application supplies a complete and general solution of the problem of a really "permanent" way; and though it is of comparatively recent origin, the method of laying rails by suspension must, in one form or another, supersede all the ordinary modes of supporting them by props. Stable equilibrium is undeniably preferable to unstable equilibrium.

EARTHWORKS—CUTTINGS AND EMBANKMENTS.

Engineers endeavour so to plan the works of a railway that the earth to be excavated shall be equal to the embankment, effecting a re-distribution of material rather than its removal, and arriving at the desired result by the simplest means and in the most economical manner. A straight and horizontal line is the standard of perfection; and the proper business of the engineer in laying out a railway is to harmonize the engineering and the financial conditions of the problem so as to yield the greatest return for the money expended; and that whilst the railway may be neither quite straight nor quite level, it should not be excessively costly in construction, in order to be free from severe curves and gradients, nor excessively cheap, making a heavy line, and incurring heavy working expenses. The earthwork is the foundation and support of the whole superstructure, and, as such, must be uniformly firm, and carefully considered with respect to material, preparation, form, and drainage—of liberal width, easy slopes, ample ballast, thorough drainage. (See fig. 33.) The figure shows in section the ordinary formation of a cutting in earth; the formation-level \(aa\), 33 feet wide, is bounded by the side-drains \(bb\), beyond which the slopes ascend to the natural surface at the rate of 1 foot rise to 2 feet level, or shortly 2 to 1. Upon the formation-level the ballast, \(cc\), is deposited, 2 feet in depth, and about 23 feet wide at the top, being so wide, in fact, as to extend 4 feet on each side beyond the outer rails. The sleepers and chairs are buried in the ballast, and the rails partially also; the latter standing 2 to 3 inches above the ballast. The total width of cutting at the base \(dd\) is 42 feet; at the top it varies of course with the depth of the cutting. Embankments are usually the same in their ruling dimensions as cuttings (see fig. 34); the formation-level being, as in the other, 33 feet wide, sloping down to the natural surface. These dimensions are for narrow-gauge lines. For the broad gauge the cuttings are 38 feet wide, and the embankments are 43 feet wide at the level of forming. In both gauges a clear space, 6 feet wide, is allowed between two lines of rails; and the total width over the up and down lines is over 16 feet on the narrow gauge, and about 21 feet on the broad.

The slopes of cuttings vary according to stratification, soil, direction of the vein, moisture. In gravel, sand, or common earth, the slopes rise 1 foot for 1 to 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) or 2 feet of base; in solid rock the slopes are nearly vertical. Cuttings are as deep as from 50 to 100 feet below the surface, and embankments similarly as high above. The London and Birmingham Railway had upwards of 12 millions cubic yards of excavation, and 10\(\frac{1}{2}\) millions of excavation in the original estimates, or above 200,000 cubic yards of earthwork per mile. The heaviest cutting on the line is at Tring, 2\(\frac{1}{2}\) miles long, averaging 40 feet deep, the greatest depth being 60 feet. The New Cross cutting of the South-Eastern Railway is 2 miles long, and is for some distance 75 to 80 feet deep. The Winchburgh cutting on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, is 4 miles long, and from 25 to 60 feet deep, through solid rock; it is succeeded by an embankment 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) miles long and 60 feet high, followed in immediate succession by a stone viaduct half a mile long and 80 feet high. The Olive Mount cutting of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway is 2 miles long, and, at some places, 100 feet deep. In the formation of the famous roadway over Chat Moss, on the same line, 670,000 yards of peat were consumed in forming 277,000 yards of embankment. Large quantities of embankment sunk in the moss; and when the engineer, after a month's vigorous operations, had made up his estimates, the apparent work done was often less than at the beginning of the month. Chat Moss was 4\(\frac{1}{2}\) miles across. Cattle could not stand on it, and a piece of iron would sink in it. The railway was made to float on the bog; and it must be allowed that this situation, unprecedented at the time, afforded an unequivocal proof of that admirable self-reliance which never contemplated failure.

**TUNNELS**

In passing through the consecutive cuttings of a railway, travellers usually consider that those through rock must have been desperate undertakings, very much more expensive than cuttings through clay. Their relative costs do not, however, greatly differ; for, not only does the vertical rock-cutting require less excavation than the wide yawning earth-cutting of the same depth, with extended slopes, but when it is executed, the rock cutting is not liable to the expensive slip which sometimes overtake the other.

In determining whether the line should proceed by cutting or by tunnelling, it is usual to prefer the former for any depth less than 60 feet; for greater depths it is usually cheaper to tunnel. The tunnel (see fig. 35) under Callander ridge, near Falkirk station, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, is a fair average representation of tunnels as usually constructed. It is lined with brick, 18 inches thick, founded on stone footings of greater breadth, in order to throw the load securely upon the subsoil, as shown in the transverse section. The sides and roof of the tunnel are carved from footing to footing, so as effectually to resist the inevitable external pressure of the earth, to a span of 26 feet in width, and a height of 22 feet. The sectional view shows also the centering or timber framing employed in the building of the tunnel, which was so braced diagonally and transversely as to resist the unavoidable inequalities of pressure without alteration of form whilst the arch was in course of construction. Externally, the entrances are built of stone, and the flank walls are three feet in thickness, with counterforts at intervals. This tunnel is not straight, but is formed on a curve of one mile radius; and it is 830 yards, or nearly half a mile in length.

The history of the Kilsby tunnel, on the London and Birmingham (now the London and North-Western) Railway, is interesting. It is known that the engineer's deliberate opinion was, that the line ought to pass through the town of Northampton,—an arrangement which would of course have vastly enhanced the commercial importance of the town. The inhabitants, however, urged and excited by men of influence and education, opposed the project, and succeeded in distorting the line, via the Kilsby tunnel,—which, if the projected plan had been adopted, would not have been required,—to a point five miles off. It was not then considered that railways could supersede mail and stage coaches; they were looked upon as, and declared to be, "but smoky substitutes for canals." The tunnel is driven 160 feet below the surface; it is 2398 yards in length, or about 1 mile and 3 furlongs, and is 80 feet in width, and 30 feet high, constructed with two wide air-shafts 60 feet in diameter, not only to give air and ventilation, but to admit light enough to enable the engine-driver, in passing through it with a train, to see the rails from end to end. The construction of the tunnel was let for the sum of L99,000, or upwards of L40 per yard run; but owing chiefly to the existence of unseen quicksands, undetected until they were broken into in the progress of the works, and which incurred a vast increase of expenditure, the tunnel is stated to have actually cost nearly L300,000, or L125 per yard lineal.

The famous Box tunnel, on the Great Western Railway, between Bath and Chippenham, was another difficult and expensive work. The tunnel is about 70 feet below the surface; it is 3123 yards in length, or rather more than 1½ miles; the width is 30 feet, and the height is 25 feet. Where bricked, the sides are constructed of seven rings, and the arch of six rings of brick, and there is an invert of four rings. There are eleven air-shafts to this tunnel, generally 25 feet in diameter.

The tunnel under the Mound at Edinburgh (see fig. 36), on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, supplies an excellent illustration of tunnels formed with inverts,—that is to say, inverted arches built under the rails. The first figure represents the elevation of the eastern entrance to the tunnel, which is architecturally good; the second figure is a transverse section, showing the truly circular arch of the tunnel, 28 feet in diameter, and 20 feet high above the rails, built of brick 3 feet thick, stiffened with counterforts externally, and with ribs of masonry internally, founded on a solid bed of mason-work, with an inverted arch to distribute the weight. The third figure is a longitudinal section of the tunnel, showing the stiffening-ribs, with a transverse section of the Mound standing 42 feet above the crown of the arch. The Mound,—or "Earthen Mound," as it is properly called,—is an accumulation of loose earth and rubbish excavated for the foundation of the houses in the New Town of Edinburgh, deposited in the valley which separates the Old Town from the New, on a boggy soil. The soil and the deposit were thus both of them unstable; and hence the necessity for the invert arch, on which the tunnel may be conceived to float.

The Shakspeare tunnel, or, more correctly, double tunnel, driven through the Shakspeare Cliff, near Dover, on the South-Eastern Railway, was peculiarly constructed, and under peculiar circumstances. It is, in fact, two narrow tunnels, carrying each one line of rails (see fig. 37), 12 feet wide, and 30 feet in extreme height, through the chalk, separated by a solid pier or wall of chalk 10 feet thick. The chalk is of variable quality, and the greater part of the tunnel is lined with brick, strengthened by counterforts at 12 feet intervals, which carry the weight of doubtful beds of chalk. The tunnel is 1430 yards, or upwards of three-quarters of a mile in length, rising westward, with an inclination of 1 in 264. The tunnel being within a short distance from the face of the cliff, the material excavated was discharged through galleries about 400 feet long, driven in from the face of the cliff, into the sea; the first operation being to run a bench or roadway along the face of the cliff. There are seven vertical shafts from the surface, averaging 180 feet deep.

There are about 70 miles of railway tunnelling in Great Britain, or 1 mile of tunnel for 130 miles of railway. The cost of tunnelling has averaged L102 per mile. The longest tunnel is the Woodhead, at the summit of the BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS.

There are very few level crossings on English railways,—that is, the crossing of one railway with another, or with a common road, at the same level. The chances of accidents are so great as to have demanded, in general, the construction of bridges over or under the railway. The general appearance of an ordinary stone or brick bridge is represented by fig. 38, showing in elevation a bridge over or under the railway. The minimum height of a bridge over the railway is ruled by the elevation necessary to clear the top of the chimney of the locomotive. An excellent method of carrying roads over railways, where the height is limited and the span is moderate, consists in erecting flat-arched cast-iron beams over the railway (see fig. 39), and throwing brick arches of small span between the beams upon their lower flanges, to carry the roadway. Thus the vertical depth from the soffit or crown of the main arch to the roadway above, may but very little exceed the depth of the beam, which is apparent in the sectional views. This method of construction is, moreover, well adapted for skew-bridges, or such as cross the road at an oblique angle, as exemplified in the illustrations. Cast-iron has, however, as a material for railway structures, been very generally superseded by wrought-iron, forming plate, girder bridges. Timber is now almost unheard of for railway bridges, on account of its want of durability and stiffness, and such bridges as have formerly been built of timber in this country are being rebuilt of stone, brick, or plate-iron. Nevertheless it may be proper to place on record the best and most successful form of timber-bridge structure for carrying a railway, introduced by Mr John Miller, C.E., in the works of the North British Railway. The Linton bridge on that line (see fig. 40) is a masterpiece of construction, the timber being so disposed as to combine a perfectly stiff, unyielding platform with lightness and economy of material and workmanship.

A bridge or viaduct, of a diversified character, was erected by Mr Miller across the Union Canal, near Falkirk, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. (See fig. 41.) The flat arch, crossing the canal to the left, has a span of 130 feet, and a rise of only 24 feet 6 inches. The lateral thrust of this arch is immense; and the precautions of the engineer to provide the necessary resistance have been commensurate, having constructed very formidable and weighty counterforts on the extreme left of the arch, with inverted arches above to distribute the thrust, as shown in the sections. The peculiar form of centering, or timber frame on which the arch was built, is also to be remarked. It receives no intermediate support from the ground, but rests exclusively upon the piers, contrasting strongly with the centering of the neighbouring arch, which, though the arch is nearly semicircular, and has only 63 feet of span (less than half that of the flat arch), is supported at two intermediate points directly from the ground. The difficulties here encountered arose not from physical causes, but from the ill-natured jealousy of the Union Canal Company, whose vested rights of traffic between the two terminal cities were... Bridges supposed to be infringed by the railway company. They would not allow the use of their ground for supporting the centering of the arch over their canal, and drove the railway company to carry it entirely from the piers. The intermediate piers were built, as shown, on timber piles, as the ground was soft. The Union Canal now pays better than it did before the railway was opened. The viaduct is 440 feet in length.

There are several extensive viaducts on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, the principal of which is over the Almond water. It is built of stone, and consists of thirty-six segmental arches, each of 75 feet span, and with piers 7 feet in thickness, at an average height of 50 feet; the whole length being 720 yards, not much less than half a mile. The Redburn viaduct (see fig. 42), consists of eight segmental arches, 60 feet span, and 16 feet 8 inches rise, on piers 7 feet thick at the upper part; the arches are 2 feet thick, and have a total width of 28 feet. The bed of the river is 90 feet below the level of the rails.

One of the most imposing structures of this class, forming part of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, is the Ballochmyle viaduct over the River Ayr, built of stone, which spans the river by a semicircular arch of 180 feet, founded on rock,—the largest span of railway masonry in this country, or probably elsewhere, with six smaller arches of 50 feet span. (See fig. 43.) The arch-stones of the central arch are 4 feet 6 inches broad. The centering of timber erected for the construction of this arch

(see fig. 44) was a masterpiece of carpentry, and is well worthy of careful study. Its principal members were composed of 14-inch square balks, well braced by diagonals, more especially transversely, as the height is very great in proportion to the width; and at the upper part of the framing, lines of rails are placed, as shown, to carry the traversing cranes employed in the construction of the arch. The highest point of the centering stood 157 feet 4 inches above the bed of the river, and the level of the rails of the viaduct stands about 167 feet high.

The Congleton viaduct, on the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, is perhaps the longest in England; it is of The great theatres of the operations incidental to the transfer from place to place of persons and goods, preliminary and subsequent to the transport, as well as at certain epochs in its progress, are the stations. Stations are either "terminal" or "intermediate." The vast buildings and their dependencies which constitute a chief terminal station of a great line of railway, consist primarily of three distinct departments:—1. The passenger station, appropriated to the embarkment and disembarkment of the passengers, and other objects of traffic, as small parcels and mails, which are carried by the same trains. 2. The goods station which is appropriated to the reception and embarkment, and the disembarkment and discharge, of goods and live stock transmitted by railway. 3. The locomotive, carriage, and wagon depots, where the engines and the carrying stock repose, are cleaned, examined, and repaired. At many intermediate stations the same arrangements, on a smaller scale, are made; in all of them there is at least accommodation for the passenger and the goods traffic.

The stations for passengers and goods are generally in different and sometimes in distant positions; the place selected for each being that which is most convenient for the approach and arrangement of the traffic to which they are respectively appropriated. The passenger station abuts on the main line, or, at termini, forms the natural terminus, at a place as near as can conveniently be obtained to the centre of the population which constitutes the passenger traffic. The goods station is approached by a siding or fork set off from the main line, at a point short of the passenger station. Thus, at Liverpool terminal station, the branch leading to the passenger depot enters the town by a tunnel beneath the streets, and terminates near the centre of the town. The branch leading to the goods station, likewise conducted by a tunnel under the town, is carried to the docks and quays, where the goods are received directly from the shipping upon the rails, and reciprocally from the rails to the shipping.

To avoid the necessity of taking locomotives into the town under such circumstances, and sometimes because the lines are conducted to the terminus by inclined planes, these terminal branches of the railways are sometimes worked by stationary engines and ropes to the point where the locomotive joins the train.

The locomotive station is placed wherever the ground may most conveniently be obtained, at or near to the terminus; in some cases it is found at a distance of 3 or 4 miles.

The selection of intermediate stations, their number, situation, and arrangement, is influenced mainly by the nature, extent, and occupation of the local population; and the first step should be to get a good map of all the places within the scope of the railway, and to mark upon it the population of each place from the last parliamentary census. There is no doubt that the greater the number of stations, the more the travelling increases; for it is found that quick and cheap transit by railway not only increases the existing traffic, but actually creates traffic where none was to be found before. In an engineering point of view, every effort should be made to secure for a terminus or other important station, and for stations generally, a position on the surface, rather than on an embankment, or a viaduct, or in a cutting. Facilities of access in all directions from the surrounding districts, with good roads in the case of passenger traffic, and good water and railway communication for goods depots, are obviously indispensable. For safety and regularity, there should be an uninterrupted view along the line of railway, by avoiding sharp curves and a complication of over-bridges, in the vicinity of a large station. For a terminus, a slightly-ascending incline on the approaches are convenient, to aid in controlling the ingress and assisting the egress of trains; but the inclination should not exceed 1 in 300, on account of the extra labour of handling vehicles on inclines. Intermediate and junction stations should be situated on dead levels, and when a good length of level can be had, with gradients falling from it both ways, there is the greatest possible facility for working the traffic. Falling gradients towards a station of any kind are obviously objectionable; but unfortunately they cannot in all cases be avoided.

An abundant supply of good water, and ample means of drainage, are important at stations; and it is notorious that in some cases it has been found necessary to abandon stations after completion, from neglect in these particulars. There should be ample area of land to admit of the greatest possible extension of accommodation; and the erection of buildings on land adjacent to the station-grounds should be discouraged. Companies have been compelled to re-purchase, at greatly advanced cost, land originally disposed of by them as "surplus," and generally with a view to building operations. When this course is adopted, prudent managers will take care to secure, in the conveyance, power to re-purchase the freehold at original prices, with allowance for outlay in building or otherwise, by valuation. The expediency of providing new railways with the station appliances necessary for working them in a complete form, before they are opened for traffic, is a question of moment. Some have preferred opening with temporary arrangements; others have constructed permanent works adapted for the greatest extension of traffic. Of late years the latter course appears to have been the most in favour; but whether the result of good general policy, or of a desire to facilitate the closing of the capital account, does not readily appear—probably the former. It may also be due in some measure to the recently-adopted system of guaranteed contracts for the construction of works requiring their completion, with all their adjuncts. The main objections to this system appear to lie in the impossibility of deciding in all cases beforehand upon the proper sites, and the future requirements of the traffic. Errors on these points cause inconvenience in working, and lead to a waste of money, in subsequent abandonment, or in extensive alterations or amendments. Let a comprehensive plan be devised and adhered to, and only such portions be executed from time to time as are necessary for current requirements. In this way, unnecessary pressure upon the funds, when they are generally at a low ebb, may be avoided, and credit... Stations. is obtained for attention to public wants by appearing gradually to yield to the public demand for accommodation. Engineers are occasionally blamed for alleged errors and oversights, which are due entirely to their inability to make others understand the whole bearing of a scheme when presented on paper. Railway officers generally should possess so much engineering and architectural knowledge as to enable them to judge of the merits of plans whilst yet only on paper; and for the same reason that the engineer should be a machinist, the manager should be an engineer. Difficulties, again, arise from the employment of architects to design and execute station-works for want of special knowledge. In railway works, the function of the architect should be limited to architectural decoration. Buildings with sundry wings, recesses, and returns, though it may be architecturally very effective, induce a marvellous amount of confusion and delay.

In laying out the approaches and station-yard of passenger stations, ample width and space should be provided, with well-defined means of ingress and egress, to facilitate the circulation of vehicles; and the setting-down pavement should be as long as possible, to admit of several carriages discharging passengers and luggage at the same time. The pavement should be wide, and sheltered from the weather by a roof, overhung beyond the kerb, or spanning the roadway; but in all cases free from columns. The position of the main buildings relative to the direction of the lines of rails is the distinguishing feature in terminal stations. When space permits, the usual course is to place them on the departure side, parallel to the platform (see fig. 45); but they are frequently placed at the end of the station, at right angles to the rails and platforms (see fig. 46). Or these two systems are combined in a third arrangement, in which the offices are placed in a fork, between two or more series of lines and platforms (see fig. 47). Of the metropolitan termini, the Great Northern (Plate I.), the Great Western, and the South-Western stations, are examples of the first class; the London Bridge stations, comprising the South-Eastern and the Brighton lines, and the Fenchurch Street station, comprising the North London, Blackwall, North Woolwich, and Tilbury lines, are examples of the second class; and the Eastern Counties, and the London Stations, and North-Western stations, are examples of the third class.

The first and usual class of stations commands the greatest length of setting-down pavement, ample space for booking and other offices, waiting-rooms, &c., and the shortest average distance for passengers and luggage from the offices to the outgoing trains. Nevertheless, where the traffic is various, involving the despatch of numerous trains to different points in quick succession, and necessarily with perfect regularity, the second system is the best. It admits of increase to any extent in the number of platforms for arrival and departure, with ready access to all; the rapid assortment of trains, with ready access to spare carriage-lines; and with the greatest economy of labour, the greatest facilities for the despatch and reception of trains, and the best general control over the business of the station. But where the frontage is limited, and for long traffic, there is inconvenience in the movement of luggage over a crowded platform. The third plan is probably the least commodious of the three; but it has the advantage of affording two arrival platforms, with carriage-roads alongside, the others having but one so situated. In all the classes, it may be observed, transverse lines are inserted with turn-tables, to place all the lines in compact communication, for turning on or off spare carriages, loaded horse-boxes, or carriage-trucks. Independently of the turn-tables, the lines of rail are connected by switches or points converging towards the two main lines of rail, outgoing and incoming; and thus the assortment and marshalling of trains may be effected by horse or engine power, independently of the turn-tables. Each plan of station comprises one or more large turn-tables for reversing the engine with its tender together.

The most convenient arrangement of the several offices and waiting-rooms, with all their accessories, is very important. A large exterior vestibule or hall, for those waiting for tickets, with ready communication from thence, for luggage, to the platform, clear of the stream of passengers, and a spacious well-lighted booking-office, with the greatest available length of ticket-counter, will give the greatest amount of comfort and convenience to the travelling public. The ticket-counter should be so constructed as to concentrate the business, and to reduce the number of clerks as much as possible; it should be provided with an inner glazed office, raised above the floor-level, to enable the head clerk to keep his eye upon his subordinates. The counter must be provided with numerous drawers for cash, spare tickets and books; and with a large number of ticket-tubes, arranged in series, according to the traffic requirements, each series having the means of being closed when not in use. These tubes should occupy the depth between the clerks' counter and the cash-shelf to which alone the public have access, the cash-shelf being placed breast-high, or about 4 feet from the ground. The ticket-windows ought not to be too numerous or too large, and should be legibly marked with their several distinctions. High barriers have usually been placed before each window to avoid crowding and to secure the pocket; but the recent substitution of wide tables is a decided improvement, as they permit the retention of parcels in the hand, and more effectually expose the pickpocket to detection. The separation of classes, before reaching the ticket-counter, is desirable under some circumstances; but offers many difficulties in arrangement, and increases the labour within the counter. Where the proportion of second and third class traffic is large, there can be no doubt as to the propriety of keeping it distinct, even at the risk of some additional outlay in duplicate conveniences of all kinds. After booking, it is the custom in this country to allow the passengers and their friends to wander almost indiscriminately over the company's premises,—much to the detriment of the convenient working of the traffic. It is a question whether it might not be desirable to adopt the continental system, and to provide large halls or saloons for each class, communicating with the booking-office and platforms, with a view to confine the passengers until a few minutes before the time of starting each train. Restricted space in building-area seems to be the obstacle to the adoption of so great an improvement; added to which, the inherent restlessness of the English traveller in the matter of luggage and its safety might present some difficulty. This, however, could be easily met, and with advantage in many respects, by altering the luggage system, and compelling the public to book and pay for the whole of it at an office distinct from the ticket-counter, and attached to the other vestibule. All railway managers know too well how much the irregularity of trains is due to the want of punctuality on the part of the public, and in no small degree to their requirements in the way of luggage. Much of this might be avoided, if railway companies had the power of converting a portion of the fare into a toll upon luggage, combined with facilities for disposing of it upon the trains before the platforms are crowded with the passengers.

In connection with the luggage question, reference must be made to the necessity for providing a spacious cloak or left-property room, which should be accessible from the outside of the station, be conveniently situated with respect to the arrival platforms, and be furnished with every requisite for ready stowage and sorting. If built fireproof, with an upper floor to serve as a lost-property store, additional safety and economy of space would be obtained.

The system of dividing the parcels office into two, distinguishing them as "in" and "out," or "up" and "down," does not seem desirable, as requiring more clerks and attendants than is otherwise necessary. One large, lofty, and well-lighted office, to combine the whole business, is preferable, if it can be placed centrally, so as to be readily approached from both platforms; but it is essential that there should be equally good access from the outside, with complete space for the vans and town-carts to stand under cover without impeding other traffic.

The same remarks apply to a certain extent to the position and arrangement of the telegraph offices; the main object being to give every facility to the public, without actually admitting them within the station premises, securing at the same time free communication with the platforms and offices for traffic purposes. Next in importance to the arrangement and construction of the offices are those of the platforms. The practice with regard to the height above the rails has varied considerably, the recent tendency being to raise them much higher than was usual at first. Three feet may be stated as the limit in this respect, but that height has probably been adopted as a necessary consequence of the increased width of the carriages, which prevents the use of a second step. Where there is no impediment, a mean of about 2 feet has seemed advantageous, as being sufficiently convenient for entering or leaving the carriages, and being safer for the station people, who frequently have to cross from one platform to another. Too much attention cannot be given to the necessity for obtaining the greatest possible width of platform. Where the platform is used on one side only, the width ought never to be less than 20 feet; and when both sides are required, 30 feet, or even 40 feet, should be allowed. The best mode of constructing the platform is undoubtedly with stone slabs laid hollow upon longitudinal walls, so as to admit of carrying beneath it the water and gas pipes, telegraph or signal wires, and the general drainage, with free access to each. Slabs of sawn slate have been used largely, and are found to be clean and quiet; but they are not to be depended upon for safety, as it is nearly impossible to obtain them thoroughly sound. There is also always a risk of lamina- Stations.

covery until the slab gives way suddenly under a weight of luggage or passengers. Hard Yorkshire landings are preferable, but they require rubbing on the upper surface, to avoid the accumulation of dust and dirt. Cutting out for turn-tables and openings for cross-lines of rails are frequently inevitable difficulties, which have given rise to various ingenious contrivances, as shifting-stages, draw-bridges, &c. The substitution of "traversers" for turn-tables goes far to remove one class of impediments, and the other is best met by the use of easy inclines, with crossings on the rail-level. Where the platforms do not exceed 2 feet in height, and the surface is smooth, gradients of 1 in 10 are not too steep for luggage barrows, nor are they dangerous in a crowd. The sorting of the different classes of passengers preparatory to entering the carriages is sometimes practised by means of barrier enclosures on the platform, as on the Greenwich Railway; but this is practicable only in cases where the trains are always uniform in length and arrangement. When the nature of the traffic renders it necessary, and time can be spared, the examination of the tickets before admission to the carriages, or before the starting of the train, is a more effective and simple precaution. Many serious accidents having arisen from carelessness in getting in and out of the trains while in motion at the platforms, attempts have been made by the companies, urged by the Board of Trade, to reduce the chance of casualty by some kind of barricade along the edge of the platforms. The danger of placing fixtures so near the sides of the carriages as would be necessary to obtain the desired result, seems to have hitherto prevented the adoption of any plan calculated to meet the case; but it may be worth consideration whether a system of rising barriers, counterpoised and guided from below, might not be contrived so as to secure safety, and to some extent to answer the same purpose as would be gained by separate waiting-saloons on the continental plan.

The greatest advance in station-works during the last few years has been the roofing over, in one span, of the lines and platforms, the main object being to do away with intermediate supports of every kind. That columns or pillars in a station are objectionable, seems to be agreed upon all hands; but where two or more spans can be so arranged as to bring the columns in the centre of wide platforms, the great extra expense of large spans may be saved, and with some attendant advantages. Whatever may be the spans adopted, every effort should be made to obtain height, light, and ventilation. Too large a proportion of glass in skylights is to be avoided, as it is apt to render the heat in summer so great as to endanger the health of the men employed, and to injure the rolling stock beneath, to say nothing of the expense of continual repairs, and the difficulty of preventing leakage and condensation. Durability is of course the great desideratum; hence iron and slate will naturally form the chief materials of the structure. It is impossible, however, to avoid the use of timber to a large extent, particularly for the sash-bars for the skylights and the boarding for the slates. Iron sash-bars, though largely used, are not satisfactory in practice, as the effect upon them of changes in temperature is so great as to render it impossible to keep the glass water-tight. The slating is sometimes attempted on iron battens, without the intervention of boarding; but the unfinished effect below is so bad, and the deterioration of the battens so rapid, that there is nothing to recommend such a mode of construction. When boards are used to carry the slates, they should be laid horizontally, and not diagonally or vertically, with a view to discover readily through the droppings from the joints the position of any leaks in the slating. Louvre ventilators, from their exposed position on the summit of the roofs, should be made moveable, with the means of closing them at pleasure, as has been done with those at the Crystal Palace. Without such a precaution, there will either be defective ventilation or continual annoyance from the driving in of rain or snow. The use of galvanized sheet-iron, whether corrugated or flat, is not to be recommended as a covering material in or near a large town, as it will be found to perish rapidly, either through the galvanic action of the metallic compound, or from the chemical effect of the sulphurous fumes of coke and coal, when largely consumed in the immediate vicinity. That material may, however, be advantageously used in the country.

The best position for the horse and carriage docks is a question not easily decided. Experience would lead to the conclusion that two sets, one for arrival and one for departure, are not absolutely essential; but if concentrated at one point it is doubtful at which end of the platforms they will work the most satisfactorily. Looking to the greater importance of time in the despatch of trains, as compared with a certain amount of delay attendant upon unloading on arrival, the balance of advantage points in favour of placing the docks at the extremity of the station-lines, where they may be so arranged as to communicate equally with both series of rails, securing at the same time ample length of siding space for spare stock. This system has been in use at the London terminus of the Brighton Railway for some years, and answers the purpose even in times of the greatest pressure; whilst at Brighton, where the plan is unavoidably reversed, outgoing trains are necessarily stopped after starting from the platform, to allow of carriage and horse boxes being attached—an arrangement obviously defective. Despatch and regularity will be found to depend not so much on the number of each kind of dock as in the perfection of the means provided for securing a constant succession of trucks, by passing off the loaded ones, and bringing in those that are empty, without allowing them to impede each other. The details of construction require attention, particularly as to the surface, which should be wood pavement for the sake of cleanliness, and to prepare horses for the floors of their boxes; also as to the means of admitting the buffers and draw-hooks without injury either to them or to the structure, the difficulty being to provide for variation in the heights of vehicles when loaded or empty, or when not uniform in build.

The correct arrangement and appropriation of the several lines of railway in a terminal station materially affect the economical and efficient working of the traffic. Circumstances will necessarily indicate a particular principle to be followed in each case, but there are a few general rules which cannot be overlooked. It is essential that every traffic-line, both in and out, should be provided with one or more spare sidings, in addition to those set apart for the break-vans, horse-boxes, and carriage-trucks, and for the locomotive department. All these lines should communicate with each other by means of points and crossings, to allow of shunting with engine-power, and to reduce to the lowest limits the number of turn-tables or their substitutes. Sharp curves are of course objectionable, and they ought never to have a radius of less than 800 feet. The use of self-acting points or switches may be assumed to be now universal, though it is believed that some managers still prefer the old eccentric or level switch, because they involve more constant attention on the part of the pointsman, and fix responsibility with greater certainty in case of casualty. The extensive use of three-throw and four-way points is sometimes objected to, as being more complicated and costly, but if they are well made and properly fixed, there is no real difficulty in working them, and siding space can frequently be so gained with much advantage. Turn-tables in a passenger-station, and especially when placed on the traffic-lines, can only be viewed as necessary evils. The wear and tear both to the rolling and to the fixed stock, the intolerable noise when passing over them and inter- ference with the line of platform, and the waste of space between the lines of rails, are objections sufficiently obvious to condemn turn-tables where they can be dispensed with. The late Mr C. H. Wild secured some economy in width by the introduction of his three-way tables, fixed diagonally; but his plan of using inclines at the intersection of the cross-rails, to save the hammering of the passing wheels, is not approved, as it has been found injurious to the flanges of heavily-leaden vehicles, locomotives, and tenders. By far the best substitute for the turn-table yet introduced is the traverser. If well made and carefully worked, and attended to, the shifting of carriages from line to line can be performed without extra manual labour or interference either with the rails or the platforms. In cases where the edge of the platform is unavoidably indented by the position of a turn-table in the line adjoining, there is a choice of contrivances for preserving the line when the table is not in use; such as leaves folding back on hinges, circular trolleys on low wheels, stages to slide or roll back above or below the platform, and sundry other plans, all of which are but so many additional sources of obstruction and expense; hence if the turn-tables can be so placed as to fall at the ends of waiting trains, the least evil seems to be to leave the platform open with barriers to prevent accidents.

The whole area of every large station ought to be paved with stones, or with Staffordshire blue bricks laid in mortar, great attention being paid to the surface drainage. Having regard to conveniences for washing carriages and general cleansing purposes, it will be found best to form the rise in the intermediate space, and the channels and gratings within or between the rails. A longitudinal timber road, with bridge-rails, will be found to give the greatest facilities for effective paving or pitching.

It is assumed that every terminus will be provided with one or more engine turn-tables according to the nature of the traffic; but it does not appear to be the general practice to construct engine-sheds as a part of the station, probably because most lines have suburban depots, which offer greater facilities for the purposes. If, however, space can be afforded, economy and convenience are obtained by placing a shed in communication with the turn-table and coke-lines large enough to contain as many engines as usually stand about during the day, or come out for working the morning trains. The lines leading to such a shed should connect directly with those of arrival and departure, and be distinct from those appropriated to the turn-table and the coke waggons; but the best arrangement of all is, to place the shed on a loop-siding connected at both ends with the main lines, so as to obtain the easiest means of access at all times. Good light and ventilation are essential points in a well-constructed engine-shed, with ample height to the roof, and width between and outside the rails. The gas-fittings should be such as to admit of examining any portion of the machinery with accuracy; and the water should be laid on with sufficient pressure to thoroughly wash out the boilers from time to time. It is not unusual to make the large water-tank for station use, do duty as a roof to the engine-shed. To this there can be no objection, provided the tank is fixed at a sufficient height to secure perfect ventilation; and this will also improve the pressure at the points of delivery. Such tanks cannot be too large, and should never hold less than one week's average consumption, to meet the chance of failure in the means of supply. Each line of rails within the shed should have engine-pits, properly drained, and contrived to admit of examining and repairing all parts of machinery from below; similar pits should be constructed on each line outside the shed, to admit of raising out the fires or removing the clinkers,—operations which are best done in the open air. The arrangements for coking and watering are naturally connected with the turn-table and engine-shed. Large coke-sheds or stores are now generally considered unnecessary, it being found more economical to bring up the supply from the ovens or depots as wanted, delivering direct from the waggon into the tender. For this purpose, coke sidings should be laid alongside those leading from the turn-table, with a platform intervening, on which the coke can be weighed or measured in transit. Much time is lost in watering if the cranes are not fixed in proper numbers or position; nor is sufficient attention generally paid to having them, and the service mains leading to them, of large diameter. The gain of a few minutes in filling a tender is frequently of vital importance in working the traffic to advantage.

The collection of tickets is a branch of railway business which generally involves special provision in the arrangement of a terminus. The practice of stopping the trains for this purpose at the entrance of the station is objected to by the public, but it cannot be avoided unless there is some station immediately preceding the terminus of sufficient importance to combine traffic purposes with collecting the tickets. When such is not the case, the next best course will be to utilize the time spent in collection by running the engine round from the head to the end of the train, instead of drawing it up to the platform. Every ticket platform is usually furnished with convenient offices and mess-rooms for the head collector and his men, fitted up for sorting and arranging the tickets, keeping the books, and taking their meals; attention of this kind to the comforts of the men is always highly appreciated by them.

The road for carriages-in-waiting, which adjoins the arrival-platform, should be wide enough to permit at least two ranks to stand, with passing room clear of them; and it is essential that the means of access should be distinct from that of exit, to secure a continuous stream of vehicles, and to avoid delay in turning or meeting others in an opposite direction. Protection from the weather and from cold draughts, by means of roofing and side walls, is important, where there is a good first-class traffic, because attention in a particular so apparently trivial will not unfrequently bias the owner of valuable horses in favour of one line as compared with another. The pavement should be of wood, creosoted, if the ventilation is good, and constant attention should be paid to sweeping and cleansing, without which the ammonical exhalations will prove injurious to the health of the men employed at the station. At the entrance to the cab road there should be a large area, sufficient to hold at least 100 cabs, as a reserve to meet the requirements of the heaviest trains, with proper conveniences of every kind, both for the men and the horses; and at the exit should be placed the cab-inspector's office for registering the departures.

Attention to the material comforts of the men employed, and particularly of those much exposed to the weather in the execution of their duties, being an important element of success in securing good and cheerful service, it is obviously politic to furnish every large station with distinct mess or waiting rooms for the engine-drivers, guards, porters, switch-men, &c. These should be spacious, well ventilated, lighted, and warmed, and be fitted with good cooking apparatus, cupboards, lockers, and tables, and be so placed as to be near the work of each class of men. Connected with the mess-rooms may be combined with advantage offices and store-rooms for the superintendents of the different departments, such as the permanent way, locomotive, and carriage superintendents, police, &c., thus giving each an opportunity of keeping an eye upon his men, and of readily communicating with one another.

Experience will dictate the necessity for constructing sundry other buildings as accessories to the effective working of a busy terminus. The lamp-room should, if possible, be detached and be fire-proof, with warm store-rooms for oil, tallow, and waste. The dressers for cleaning and trimming should be covered with polished zinc in preference to slate. The shelves or brackets for the lamps should be sufficiently extensive to hold the largest number in use, and there should be ready means for disposing of the waste and rubbish as they accumulate, to avoid all risk of fire. It is frequently found good economy to have a few small shops for the different classes of mechanics required for repairs and for odd jobs, such as smiths, gas-fitters, joiners, plumbers, &c., much time being wasted in sending men and materials to and from the general workshops of the line. Unless a large hotel is attached to the station, it will be found necessary to construct stabling for post-horses, and coach-houses for private carriages on arrival, or when waiting to go by the train. The construction and arrangement of the closets and urinals are too important to be dismissed without brief notice. Comfort and decency will best be consulted by distributing the conveniences amongst separate buildings in various parts of the station area, and appropriating some of them to different classes of employés, distinct from those for public use. Urinals should be freely ventilated, and be paved with slate or some other non-absorbent material; the walls should be lined with glazed tiles for 7 feet or 8 feet in height, and the divisions and backs be of enamelled slates. Risers are objectionable, and quite unnecessary if the floor have a sharp incline towards the channel. Closets, whether for the passengers or for the company's men, cannot be too simple in their construction. All brass work should be avoided, or it will be stolen. The walls should be lined with glazed tiles, or be grained and varnished, to prevent the surface being defaced; a shelf should be provided in each closet for depositing parcels, and water should be turned on by the action of the door in opening and closing.

In fact, a constant and abundant supply of water both to closets and urinals offers the only chance of confining within tolerable limits the annoyances necessarily connected with such structures. The importance of keeping a large station constantly swept and cleansed is too often overlooked, in consequence of the difficulty of disposing of the dirt and rubbish which so rapidly accumulate. To meet this, proper receptacles should be distributed at various points, with shoots or traps to receive from above, and means of access below for the scavengers' carts.

The details given thus far are obviously intended to apply in the main to metropolitan termini, or to those of equal importance and extent. The leading principles, however, will be found available, more or less, according to circumstances, for the arrangement and construction of terminal stations of every description. For the purposes of illustration, attention will now be drawn to the general features of small terminal stations on branch lines of railways, with the peculiarities of each, and the advantages and defects which have been met with in working them.

The several parts of the stations are distinguished in the illustrations by their initials, thus:—B.O., Offices, &c.; P., Platforms; C.P., Coke Platform; W., Warehouse; C.S., Carriage-Shed; E.S., Engine-Shed; C.W., Cattle-Wharf; C.D., Carriage-Dock; G.Y., Goods-Yard; T.H., Tank-House; G.W., Goods Warehouse; L., Lodge; W.R., Waiting-Rooms; M.R., Mess-Rooms; S.B., Signal-Box.

The first (fig. 48) is at the extremity of a double line of railway in an important town on the coast, and accommodates the traffic and trains of two separate companies. The peculiar shape of the land originally purchased, its position with relation to that part of the town from which the bulk of the traffic is derived, the necessity for providing means of extension, and the existence of a public street crossing on the level at the very entrance to the station, were the chief controlling elements in the original design. It will be observed that, by placing the offices and both platforms on one side, with the spare carriage lines adjoining, the frontage to the main street is economized, and left free for carrying one or more of the lines forward, as has since been done. The arrival and departure platforms are both accessible from the main lines at the same time, and are made long enough to allow one train belonging to each company to arrive and depart, or to stand one after the other; whilst an extra line, with its platform, is provided for special occasions. The great length of the station offers every facility for abundance of spare lines, which can be roofed over to any extent that may be desired at a moderate cost. The horse and carriage loading arrangements are combined with the goods and cattle lines and docks, and with the spare carriage sidings, and the whole of this department of the business is worked with great success. The approach, and the yard in front of the offices, are convenient as regards length for setting down and taking up, but are too much confined and narrow. The road should have been 50 feet wide at the least, including the footway, and the yard not less than 80 feet in width with roofing over some part of it. The position of the goods department is satisfactory, being sufficiently near to the town without any objectionable interference with the passenger station. The arrangements were not, however, so good as could be wished, having been devised under the impression that the goods traffic of two companies could be worked under joint management as easily as that of passengers. Experience has proved that separate warehouses, yards, and sidings ought to have been constructed, and that the whole accommodation should have been on a more extensive scale. The engine-sheds in duplicate, turn-table, offices, mess-rooms, shops, tanks, &c., are as well placed as the shape of the land would permit; but the table is too far from the platforms, and involves some loss of time, and the employment of extra police, to secure safety with so much crossing of the main lines. A second engine-table will be seen adjoining the goods-yard, which was found convenient, both to save time in turning, and to bring into use, with additional sidings, sundry corners of land which would otherwise have been wasted. The great defect in this station is the existence of a level crossing and a foot bridge close to the entrance, the thoroughfare being now a street, though originally but a narrow lane. Attempts have been made both by the public and by the Board of Trade to compel the companies to build a bridge, but neither being able to confer permissive or compulsory powers of purchase, nothing has been done in the matter.

Fig. 49 shows the outline of a station forming the terminus of a small single branch, the nature of the traffic on which necessarily admits of much simplification in all its arrangements. The trains being light, and only moving in one direction, a single platform suffices for passengers; but as goods are frequently attached to such trains, it becomes necessary to combine the goods-yard as intimately as possible with the passenger lines, so as to avoid loss of time on the arrival of the trains, and to clear the trucks, and leave the carriages ready for going out again, when the engine has been turned and brought round. On short branches, to which alone the single-line system ought to be confined, it is generally an object to despatch the incoming train back again as soon after its arrival as the engine can be connected for the purpose. It is therefore convenient to place the engine-table at the end of the station, beyond the platform, instead of connecting it with the engine-shed, as heretofore recommended, so that the engine may be turned round, run round the train by means of the middle spare line, and be hooked on, ready for starting, with the least possible delay, the coke and water being taken out after these operations, and while the outgoing train is being loaded. A station of this character should always be so arranged that a second line of way, as well as spare lines, may be added without involving the removal of any permanent works or buildings; in fact, it should combine in one the character both of a terminal and of an intermediate station. This rule will determine the position of the warehouses, goods and coal-yards, engine-shed, &c., and regulate the number of sidings. Reference to fig. 49 will show that such a course can be adopted by the simple removal of the carriage and cattle docks to the goods-yard, and of the engine-table entirely, the latter being no longer requisite. The position of the engine-table is convenient for working the goods traffic, and obviates the necessity for using any smaller ones. Attention may also be drawn to placing the warehouse directly opposite the offices, as affording facility for throwing a light roof from one to the other, to serve as shelter to the platform, and as cover for the spare carriages. Every such station should be provided with gas-works, large enough not only to supply its own lights, but the town also; as in most cases it will be found that the inhabitants are desirous of such a convenience. The proceeds from the sale of the gas and the carriage of coals will secure a handsome profit to the company, and the introduction of gas-lighting will encourage improvements in the town tending to increase traffic. The same course may be recommended with regard to water-works, when the station stands high, and good water can be obtained on the spot; added to which, there is economy in combining the gas-retorts with the boiler furnace. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of providing at first abundant space for goods traffic, with large yards for coal, lime, timber, &c., and plenty of siding space. Such traffic is generally by far the most remunerative for some time after the opening of a line of the nature indicated, and can only be secured by offering greater facilities. It should also be noted, that it is desirable, for reasons previously urged, to combine with the station comfortable residences for the station-master, porters, engine-drivers, and guards.

Before leaving the subject of terminal stations, attention may be directed to one of a class indicated in fig. 50, the arrangements of which are peculiarly adapted for the working of unusually heavy passenger traffic on particular occasions, such as races or fairs. These consist mainly in placing a large number and considerable length of spare sidings at each end of the platforms, to admit of trains arriving, discharging, and drawing out of the way in rapid succession, and vice versâ on the return journeys. This system has worked very satisfactorily, and enables an almost unlimited amount of traffic to be conducted with perfect ease and safety. It may be objected, that with two platforms there will be some danger in crossing to the one opposite the offices; but in practice it is found that one platform only is necessary, as the traffic will always be in one direction at the same time. The second platform is convenient for special or foreign trains; and all danger can be avoided by connecting the two by a bridge over or under, though such an expedient is objectionable for this class of traffic. The small extent of carriage and horse docks may also be thought a defect when race traffic is in question. As, however, horses and carriages cannot be carried with the passenger-trains, or during the height of the passenger-traffic, their transit ought to be limited to previous days and early hours, by which plan they can be unloaded or loaded with sufficient despatch, provided the siding room is convenient and ample for working off the empty trucks without confusion. The large extent of spare sidings at the end of the station not being required during the greater part of the year, may be utilized for the time, to much advantage, by roofing them over, and devoting them to the purpose of stowing spare carriages.

Intermediate Stations.—Intermediate stations vary to a greater degree than terminals. The area to be occupied will naturally depend on the importance of the town, village, or district to be served; the character of the works on that of the railway where the station is to be placed; and the position of the offices, warehouses, and other buildings, on the special requirements of the traffic in each case. As respects extent of space and accommodation in the way of works, it has already been suggested that it is best to err, if at all, on the side of extravagance; but the situation of the offices, waiting-rooms, &c., relative to the platforms and lines of rails, when there are more than one, is a point of considerable importance. When the station is situated midway between towns of such extent as to cause an equal flow of traffic in each direction, offices may be requisite on both sides of the line; but where the bulk of the traffic tends one way only, it will be desirable to concentrate them on that side which involves the larger number of passengers and the greater extent of waiting space. This rule, again, will be modified by the position of the town or the district from whence the traffic is to be derived, especially if the railway lies on the natural surface, and adjoins a public road, whether crossing on the level or otherwise. This last condition is the most frequent one; and as some portion at least of the traffic must be expected to depart from the platform opposite to the offices, provision must be made for crossing with the least amount of danger to the public. When the passengers are numerous in both directions, overbridges, as before stated, are objectionable; and in a surface-station an archway under the line is frequently impracticable. Some good authorities have adopted the plan of making the trains cross to the passengers with one platform only, when the platform may be made rather more than double the length of a single train, having crossings in the centre to communicate with both lines of rails, thus placing the trains when standing on the platform upon a loop-siding distinct from those lines. This system is only admissible when the traffic is of such importance as to warrant the increased risk of so much crossing, and the extra cost of maintaining the additional staff of men necessary to insure safety; in fact, it should never be adopted unless where all the trains are likely to stop, as the number of facing-points increases the elements of danger and of delay to the thorough traffic. Much will also depend upon the probable uniformity in the length of all the trains, as it is obvious that special provision must be made for the longest possible train to approach and to leave each station without interfering with the other; so that if there is much variation in the general length, unnecessary expense may be incurred without commensurate advantage. At the same time, it must be admitted that this system offers great convenience to the public when there is much first-class traffic and a large quantity of baggage; and it is especially applicable when the station partakes of the character of a terminal one, or is used as a receiver from branch or neighbouring lines, offering, as it does, great facilities for making up and receiving trains which may run over a portion only of the main lines, as well as for attaching and detaching the carriages intended or used for branch traffic.

An example is given (see fig. 51) of a large station where from the position of a level crossing, combined with other circumstances, the system last explained could not be adopted, owing to the want of sufficient length for a double platform on one side. The traffic is large in both directions, and therefore, although the offices and main buildings are placed on that side from which the greater proportion departs, the opposite platform is provided with waiting-rooms and other conveniences for general accommodation. In this case passengers cross the rails on the level, without casualty, owing probably to the proximity of the public road crossing where policemen are always in attendance. The placing of the platform wall opposite to the main buildings affords facilities for throwing a roof over in one span, which shelters both platforms most effectually at the least cost; and hence a satisfactory result is obtained, as there is a considerable amount of luggage to be conveyed across from one platform to the other. The extremities of both are furnished with easy inclines paved with smooth stones, and a paved crossing is formed from one to the other between the rails, so as to allow hand-barrows to traverse with ease. Important intermediate stations, such as the two last described, will be found to require most, if not all, of the conveniences and adjuncts previously recommended for the adoption in the case of second or third rate termini. This particularly applies to the houses for clerks and porters, gas and water works, complete booking and other offices, with comfortable waiting-rooms, well arranged and spacious warehouses for goods and coal and timber yards, with as much length of siding as can be obtained. Relative to the construction of houses for the company's servants, in connection with the general business premises, it may not be out of place to observe that there should be no door to communicate between the residence and any of the offices, both because such facilities frequently lead either to robberies or to neglect of duty, and especially because the whole block of buildings will be rendered liable to rates and taxes as an inhabited house.

The leading defect in the arrangement of the platforms (fig. 51), where no foot-bridge over or under is provided, lies in the difficulty of crossing where two trains arrive at the same time. This is sometimes met by arranging the platforms as shown in fig. 52, where the end of one is placed nearly opposite to that of the other, with a paved crossing between them, so that a clear space can always be maintained between the ends of the two trains when standing at the platforms. Such a plan offers many facilities for connecting sidings with the main lines and with one another, but is open to the objection of increased cost in consequence of the extra length, and is not popular with the public, on account of the greater distance to be traversed both by passengers and luggage.

It has already been urged, that when a station is necessarily situated on an embankment or in a cutting, it is true economy, in the first instance, to raise or to excavate a sufficient area to allow of conducting the whole of the business at the platform level, with easy inclined approaches to and from the public road. This applies particularly to cases where there is much "long" passenger traffic with heavy luggage, besides the ordinary horses, carriage, cattle, and goods business. Steps up or down ought, as a general rule, to be avoided at any cost; but when the station is situated near any large town, so that the traffic is chiefly confined to passengers, they may be adopted with some advantage, particularly if the line is in a cutting, and the offices can be placed over it and adjoining the public road-bridge, as at New Cross Station, near London. Peculiar facilities are offered by this plan when communication is desired with a middle platform, as must be the case when three or four lines of rails are used. It will then, however, be found necessary to build waiting-rooms on each platform, as the public will not be content to remain on the upper level until the trains arrive. There may also be some objection to the separation of the station-master from his platform duties, if he is confined to the booking-office; but this is partially met by the facilities given for general supervision over the subordinates below, as well as for an economical and simple concentration of the entire business of the station. A somewhat similar system is available when the station is on an embankment, and the offices can be constructed in connection with a bridge over the public road. But the advantages are by no means the same, as there is no power of supervision from the office; whilst the public will always object to the inevitable darkness, damp, and noise. Nor are there the same reasons for adopting the plan, as it is easy upon an embankment to place the offices on one side, and to connect them with the opposite or intermediate platforms by means of archways under the rails, which are not objectionable if well lighted and ventilated.

The junction station is a special variety of the intermediate or local class, which presents questions of too much importance and interest to be dismissed without distinct notice, however brief. Where two double lines of railway converge, it is frequently open to the engineer either to place the buildings and yards in the fork between the two, or beyond the point of junction. When the means of access for the public and of communication between the platforms are equally convenient, in either case he will be guided in his decision by the peculiarities of the traffic. If the branch or secondary line is simply a feeder to the main trunk, and the trains on both are worked in connection with each other, whether by attaching or detaching special carriages, or by transferring the passengers, the balance of convenience will lie with the second system, provided the sidings are so arranged as to enable the branch or subsidiary trains to clear the main lines before the others are due. If, on the other hand, the two lines joining belong to distinct companies, or are worked independently of each other, it will be far more convenient to adopt the first system, because two trains in both directions can draw up at the same time, without interference with each other, and special conveniences for accommodating subsidiary traffic or varying the size of the several trains can be arranged with the greatest facility. Judging from the general practice throughout the country, the latter seems to have become the more popular course.

Junction-stations for single-line branches may be arranged with greater simplicity, as the traffic upon them is generally of less magnitude, so that passengers and luggage can be transferred over a platform without the necessity of attaching or detaching carriages to or from the main line train. Fig. 53 supplies instances to meet either case, being the plan of a junction with two single-line branches, one of which connects directly with the main line, and the other only through the medium of an intervening platform, facing-points in both cases being avoided. On such a system, the offices will be placed on the side opposite to the through-line, the several platforms being connected by means of an archway under them and the rails wherever it is practicable. Waiting-rooms and their adjuncts must necessarily be placed on the further platform, and a roof in one or more spans should cover the platforms and sidings, such roofs being inclosed on both sides, and, as far as practicable, at the ends, to protect the passengers from the weather, to which their exposed position will render them peculiarly liable. Engine and tank houses, gas-works, engine-tables, and rooms for the men employed, will also prove as essential a portion of the general arrangements as in the case of terminal stations.

King's Cross station (Plate V.) is the most recently constructed, and the most extensive metropolitan station. It Extent of was built originally for the use of the Great Northern Rail- way only; but has recently been modified and extended in the goods department to accommodate the traffic of the Locomotive Midland Railway, which, by an extension across the coun-

try from Leicester station to Hitchin station, on the Great Northern line, has found an entry into London by King's Cross, independently of the London and North-Western route. The whole station, for passenger and goods traffic, and for the purposes of the locomotive department, covers 26 acres of ground, and contains 18½ miles of lines of rail. The ground from King's Cross to Holloway, 1½ mile long, comprising the ground covered by the passenger and the goods stations at King's Cross, cost about £470,000.

Huntingdon station, on the Great Northern Railway (see Plate V.), is one of the principal intermediate stations on the line. The station-yards are bounded by a road at one end and a river at the other, and the platforms are necessarily opposed. The main line is kept entirely free of turn- tables, which are placed only on sidings. The station is 760 yards in length, or nearly half a mile, between extreme points, and there are 3430 yards of siding, single line, or about 2 miles of siding in all, besides the up and down through lines.

The ordinary stations on this line are, with a wise eco- nomy, constructed to accommodate a great expansion of traffic. They are 700 to 800 yards in length, between ex- treme points, or nearly half a mile, and they contain about 2000 yards of sidings, single line, or more than a mile total length.

EXTENT OF SIDINGS.

The increasing traffic of the older railways has led neces- sarily to a greater use of the side lines, an increase of siding room, and an extension of stations. The distribution of siding accommodation on the London and North-Western Railway, as it existed in 1853, is instructive. On the main line of the southern division, from London to Birmingham, 113 miles, there were in all 53 miles of siding, single line; and on the total length of line, 315 miles, there were 85 miles of siding, single line:—in the proportion of about half the whole length for the trunk, and above a fourth for the whole division, or one mile of sidings, single line, to 3½ miles of railway. For the total length of railway, 635 miles, there is one mile of siding, single line, to 5½ miles of railway,—the stations averaging about four miles apart. The great preparation for the accommodation of the traffic, thus forcibly indicated by the proportion of siding room, sug- gests the great magnitude of the business done.

The stations of the Great Northern Railway are placed at average distances of 4 miles apart; so that the sidings of ordinary stations, each containing 2000 yards of single line, average of themselves more than one-fourth of the whole length of the railway. At King's Cross station there are 18½ miles of siding; and it may be assumed that there are many more miles of extra sidings at the principal stations down the line. The total length of siding accom- modation on the whole line would then amount to one- third of the length of the railway, or one mile of siding for every three miles of railway. It would thus appear that the Great Northern Railway company have forestalled the demand for siding-room, which, in the experience of the older lines, has been found necessary, to meet the demands of growing traffic.

In estimating the total length of sidings on the whole railway system, it should be known that there were in 1858 upwards of 2950 railway stations in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for 9082 miles open for passenger traffic in that year; being at about the average rate of one station for every three miles of railway.

From what has been said, one mile of siding, single line, may be taken as the average allowance per station, includ- ing, of course, terminal accommodation of every description, which would show that the total extent of single line laid for sidings averaged one-third of the total mileage of rail- ways. In addition, therefore, to the 9116 miles of line open for passenger and goods traffic, or for goods only, in 1857, of which 30 per cent. were only single line, there were 3000 miles of siding; which would make a total of up- wards of 18,000 miles of single line in Great Britain and Ireland.

LOCOMOTIVE-STATIONS.

Locomotive-stations should be situated at or near the principal terminus of the railway, sufficiently near to a large town to insure the facility for obtaining materials and workmen; and sufficiently far off to be clear of the heavy local taxes with which such large establishments in all large towns are burdened.

The locomotive-station of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway is selected for illustration. It is situated at Gorton, about two miles from Manchester, the Locomotive first position where the railway and the land take the same level. The total quantity of land purchased is nearly twenty acres, about nine of which are occupied by the workshops and store-yard; the remainder is used for the construction of reservoirs for supplying the works with water, locomotive and for erecting cottages upon it for the work-people in the company's service.

The block-plan (fig. 54), shows the general arrangement and relative positions of the shops, cottages, reservoirs, &c. The reservoirs \(a\) are calculated to hold a month's consumption of water, and are supplied from the adjoining canal, the water passing through filter-beds in its course from the canal to the reservoirs. These reservoirs, from their elevated position, supply the water directly into the tenders upon the railway, and throughout the workshops, the canal being at a sufficiently high level to supply them. The cottages \(b\) are 140 in number, arranged in four blocks. The plan of the works is nearly square, the entrances being placed towards the cottages on the east side of the works; and adjoining are the offices and general stores \(h\).

The engine-house, or shed for engines on duty, \(e\), is a rotunda of 150 feet in diameter inside, and is capable of holding seventeen engines with their tenders, leaving the entrance and exit lines clear. The advantage of this arrangement, shown more in detail (fig. 55), over the ordinary polygonal engine-house, is in the absence of pillars for supporting the roof, of which there are twelve for a twelve-sided polygon; in this building there is but one column at the centre. To the left of the entrance is a furnace for holding live fuel, from which the engines are lighted; and there are two lines of rail across the central turn-table, on one of which the engines enter, and on the other depart. Between the rails of each radiating line a pit is constructed to afford access below the engines for inspection. The roof is of wrought iron, surmounted by a louvre for ventilation, which is glazed to admit light freely.

To the left of the rotunda are the workshops, with stationary engine-house and boiler. The fitting and tool shop contained in the block \(d\), is 120 feet by 60 feet, and contains nearly the whole of the tools. The smiths' shop is contiguous to the fitting-shop, in the same block, and of equal dimensions; it contains sixteen smiths' fires, eight on each side. Next to this is the boiler-shop, of the same size, with eight smiths' fires and four fires for heating boiler-plates, and a finishing and shearing machine. Next to these is the erecting-shop, 150 feet long by 60 feet wide, containing nine transverse lines of rails, each to hold two engines; so that eighteen engines may be housed here at once. There are travelling cranes in the shop which traverse it for its full length, and capable of lifting any engine and moving it to any part of the shop.

To the left are the carriage and waggon shops \(e\), the waggons being on the ground floor and the carriages above, to which elevation they are raised by a self-acting worm- hoist worked by the stationary engine. These shops are 320 feet by 70 feet, and can receive fifty waggons and thirty-eight carriages; and attached to them are the lifting-room and the trimming and saddlery room. The lines of rail in the engine and waggon shops are served by a traverser, for means of communication with the external rails. Besides these buildings there are in the block f a paint-shop and a shed for locomotives in reserve, 160 feet by 40; also, a coke-shed g, 100 feet by 40, so constructed that the coke-waggons stand on one side, whilst the locomotives approach and receive their charge of fuel on the other side, the coke being measured into baskets on the intervening platform.

There are four lines of rails into the works, which, with the turn-tables and the arrangement of sidings externally, are shown in the plan.

But, in the use of circular or polygonal engine-sheds there is necessarily a circumscribed space inside, limiting the spare room; and there is also an expensive converging roof to construct. In the arrangement of engine-sheds, capacity and economy of construction, combined with facility of access and departure to and from all parts of the sheds, are the first considerations. To supply the demand for such accommodation at the locomotive station of the North-Eastern Railway at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where four separate buildings of the ordinary polygonal arrangement would have been required, it was resolved to depart from this plan of building, and, retaining the circular system of radiating lines with central turn-tables, to inclose five such systems in an extended oblong building, roofed over its entire area in five parallel bays, supported on the side walls and on four rows of columns. (See fig. 56.) The circular systems, as arranged in two rows, and alternating with each other, afford numerous direct lines of communication from one system to the others. The total length of the building is 450 feet, and the width 280 feet, with a total covered area of 126,000 square feet; which is 43 per cent. more than would have been covered by five circular or polygonal buildings of the ordinary kind. The additional space so gained is of great convenience in facilitating the minor repairs done in an engine-shed. Strong lifting frames are fixed over the spare lines not occupied by running engines, such as are engaged on regular daily duty. Benches for fitters executing repairs on the engines are erected at convenient places; and fire-places are built at intervals into the walls for warming the shed, and supplying live fuel to kindle the fires in the engines and get up the steam. There are berths for ninety locomotive engines in this shed.

STATION FITTINGS.

Switches and Crossings.—The use of switches and crossings is to form a link of communication between one line of rails and another, of which many are required at and about railway stations and at junctions, as exemplified in foregoing illustrations. They are usually constructed with ordinary rails, and are carried in cast-iron chairs spiked down to sleepers. The switch-rails are moveable, and are worked by rods to which heavy weights are attached; the function of the weights being to retain the points in one position, and to act as a self-acting adjustment in restoring them to it—their normal position—after having been shifted for the passage of a train. (See figs. 57 and 58.)

When only one of the terminal rails is moveable, it is called a single switch, and is used only on sidings or branch lines of rail; the double switches being more perfect in action, are adopted on the main line; and, as a general rule, switches on the main line are ordered to be laid with the points in the direction of the traffic, so that passing trains may run out of the points, and not into them. "Facing-points," as they are termed, are such as are laid on the main line, facing or pointing towards the regular advancing trains. Many accidents have been caused to trains by facing-points, improperly set or out of order, turning the train unexpectedly into a siding, with the impossibility of pulling up in time to prevent a collision; or throwing the train off the rails altogether, producing what is called "derailment" in modern railway parlance. So dangerous are facing-points felt to be, particularly on high-speed lines, that on some railways they are absolutely forbidden at all except terminal stations, and at intermediate stations. where every train is ordered to stop. In some situations this rule can only be followed by sacrificing simplicity and increasing the number of backing-points, but it no doubt diminishes the risk of accident.

The stock-rails are notched to receive the ends of the tongues, and in order to guard these notches from the rude contact of the wheel-flanges, as well as for the general guidance of the train through the switches and crossings, guard-rails are fixed at suitable places, as shown in the illustrations. In some designs of switches the fixed rails are preserved entire, without notches, and the sides of the tongues are housed under the rails, in lateral recesses; in these cases the guard-rails are not required.

**Turn-tables.**—These are of two classes—for turning carriages and waggons, and for turning engines and tenders together. For the carrying stock, they are 12 to 14 feet in diameter, sufficiently large to receive conveniently vehicles of which the wheels are 8 to 10 feet apart between the centres. Turn-tables ordinarily used are of cast-iron, carrying two transverse lines of rails, and revolve upon a central pivot, and conical rollers near the circumference, which are upheld and turn upon a cast-iron base bedded in cement, or on a built foundation. (See fig. 59.)

For turning engines and tenders together, and thus superseding the necessity formerly experienced of uncoupling them to be turned on small tables, turn-tables 40 feet long, or thereby, are required. A common plan of table consists of two longitudinal balks of timber, to carry a line of rails, framed together with cast-iron beams, to support the centre on a pivot and the extremities on rollers. The table revolves in a pit about 4 feet deep, on a large circular race of cast-iron bedded on a firm foundation, to carry the rollers, and the motive force is applied by means of gearing. In situations of much thoroughfare it is needful to extend the deck of the table laterally, like wings, to complete the circle, and so cover in the pit.

**Traversers.**—These are a convenient substitute for turn-tables, particularly for working a number of parallel lines of rails. A traverser is simply a low rectangular frame, made with two overhanging rails, to receive carriages or waggons, and moveable on rollers across the lines of rail, so as to receive the carriage from any one line of rail, and deposit it on any other.

**Water-cranes.**—Water-cranes are erected at convenient spots for delivering water to the locomotives. The upright column is firmly erected, and contains the supply-pipe, which ascends within it from the ground. The horizontal member is in direct communication with the supply-pipe within the column; revolving freely, so as to be swung out of the way when not in use. It is sufficiently long to reach over the middle of the line of rails, and has attached to it a leatheren hose to direct the current of water into the tender. The handle of the shut-off valve is shown near the base of the column. In other plans of water-cranes, the shut-off valve is placed at the upper end of the column, or at the extremity of the swinging pipe, and is opened and closed by a screw. (See fig. 60.)

**Signals.**

The want of uniformity in the system and code of signals is to be regretted. The "semaphore" (see fig. 61) is now very generally employed, and has in a great measure superseded the "disc" as a means of signalling; but the companies do not all work it by the same code. One manager uses it to give two signals, and another to give three; a third will have an auxiliary or distant signal placed at 500 or 600 yards from the station, to act as a repeating signal, his neighbours perhaps preferring to use it only as a caution. There are companies which, rejecting the semaphores, use sundry varieties of the disc; and this, though simple and cheap, is limited in its application.

In the employment of the semaphore, the arm is turned straight out, perpendicular to the post, as the signal of dan- Signals; diagonally downwards, at an angle of 45°, as the signal of caution; and it is turned home, disappearing within the post, when the line is all right for the approach of the train. Distant-signals have but one arm, as they act only upon trains approaching in one direction. Station-signals have two arms, right and left, to operate upon trains arriving in either direction. (See fig. 61.) Other essential elements of security consist in a clear definition of the duties of the attendant to the signals, their strict enforcement, the selection of the most suitable men, their adequate remuneration, and providing them with convenient, warm, well-fitted lodges, with ample window-space, within which they may keep a constant watch over the line without exposure to weather. At junctions, where the signal-man works the points in connection with the signals, his lodge or box should be raised some height above the surface, to give him perfect supervision in every direction. This keeps him out of the way of gossips, and he is less likely to be distracted in the discharge of his duties. A similar precaution is of service at all other important signal-stations, even where points may not be wrought in connection with signals.

At night it is needful to supply the place of semaphores or discs by large and powerful lamps, with reflectors, capable of showing lights of three colours,—a white light, a blue or green light, and a red light,—signifying respectively safety, caution, danger. They are changed either by revolving the lamp on its axis, to present a different side with a differently-coloured glass, or by retaining the lamp as a fixture, and sliding differently-coloured glasses in "spectacle-eyes," or otherwise, before the light. Both of these methods of changing the signal are illustrated in the figures annexed.

Signalling has been a subject of much controversy; it has been distinguished by controversialists into two systems—the "positive" system, and the "negative" system. The so-called negative system is in fact the current practice of the day; and by the epithet "negative" it is implied that, inasmuch as the normal state of the signal is that of caution, or that of safety, as the practice may be, and as it is only turned on to danger when specially required for the protection of the station on the line, the habitual caution or safety-signal is in effect no real signal at all, as except in cases of danger it does not demand any active demonstration from the signal-man as to the state of the line, and as a proof satisfactory and assuring to the engineman approaching that he is at his post and attending to his duty. On the contrary, the positive system, so-called, presupposes the normal state of the signal to be that of danger; so that, in the event of the signal-man neglecting his duty to lower the semaphore when the station is clear for the passage of an approaching train, it will at the most—so it is presupposed—be a dereliction of duty on the safe side, and the train, which might have gone innocently forward, would simply be stopped at the forbidding signal until released from embargo by the formal descent of the semaphore. The positive system demands in fact a positive act of duty, or demonstration, on the part of the signalman,—namely, to alter the signal on the approach of a train when the line is clear, without which positive act of duty on his part the train could not approach the station otherwise than by the commission of a clear breach of signal-law on the part of the engineman.

The positive system, it may be observed, is in successful operation at all large and important junctions, where the signals are raised, or, as it is technically described "closed" against every line of rails,—that is their normal condition; and when one or more trains approach the junction, the signal-man has it in his power to keep them all out, or to "open" the signals, one at a time, for the safe and successive passage of the trains through the junction. In such a situation, the use of the positive system is manifestly conducive to the greatest degree of safety, as by the unavoidable intersections of the lines of rails there are many chances of collision. Peculiar situations of risk require peculiarly stringent codes of signals, and the exceptional character of the situation, and of the system of signals, is the best guarantee for the safe conduct of trains at such places.

But the extension of the positive system to every station, on a line of railway would, no doubt, thoroughly defeat the object in view. For the uninterrupted passage of an express train, the active co-operation of successive signalmen at 3-mile intervals (the average distance apart of stations) would be essential; and should any one fail in the duty of timely lowering the signal, there would of course be an interruption of speed and a loss of time, and all the consequent dangers of want of punctuality would ensue. In practice, however, it would undoubtedly be found that engine-men, losing their respect and their patience for such false precautions as signals of danger when there was no danger, would generally disregard the elevated semaphore, and push through, to the extensive and dangerous demoralisation of engine-men and signal-men.

It appears to be overlooked that the human brain is an indispensable element of the machinery of signalization, and that simplicity in the working of the brain is an element in the question, just as simplicity is, in the manoeuvring of the semaphore. The use of the electric telegraph will be considered in treating of railway accidents.

LOCOMOTIVE POWER.

It is hardly necessary to observe that a locomotive engine differs in many particulars from other steam-engines. The source of power—the principle of mechanical life—is a point of agreement; it determines the order to which the locomotive naturally belongs. But in this we have a new species, adapted to other purposes, and possessing different capabilities. The machine, as its name imports, is intended for locomotion; and in order that it may fulfil its purpose, it must carry along with it the fuel and water which are necessary to maintain its action. This condition implies compactness and lightness of construction, combined with the requisite power. To obtain those first, the engine and boiler are united together in the same machine, and the parts are made of much smaller dimensions, in proportion to the power, than in other steam-engines. The requisite power is obtained by using steam of very high pressure—of such a pressure as will allow the steam-cylinders, when the power is developed, to be of small capacity; but, in order to obtain steam in sufficient quantity and of sufficient pressure from a boiler which must also be portable, it was necessary to depart from the common form, and to adopt a mode of construction by which the evaporative power of the boiler—that is, its power of generating steam—would be greatly augmented.

The condition of locomotion at high velocity in so weighty a mass as the lightest and most compact locomotive must be, implies, moreover, subjection to violent strains and shocks, which must as far as possible be provided against by strength and firmness in the framing together of the whole.

It may readily be conceived that locomotive machines did not at once start into their present state of approximate perfection, but have been gradually matured by successive modifications and improvements. The first suggestion of the application of steam-power to the propelling of carriages is due to the illustrious Watt, who proposed it in 1759 to his friend Dr Robison, at Glasgow college. Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, thought of the same thing in 1782, when he patented a "steam-wagon"; but it does not appear that anything more than a good high-pressure stationary engine was the result of his labours. In 1784 Mr Watt patented a locomotive carriage; and in the same year Mr Murdoch, his friend and assistant, constructed a non-condensing steam-locomotive of lilliputian dimensions. This locomotive was placed on three wheels; the boiler was of copper; the flue passed obliquely through it, and was heated by a spirit-lamp; the steam-cylinder was only 4ths of an inch in diameter, with a stroke of 2 inches, turning a crank on the axle of the larger wheels, which were 9½ inches high. This little locomotive, standing not higher than 15 inches above the ground, could run at a speed of six or eight miles per hour.

In 1804 Mr Richard Trevithick constructed a high-pressure locomotive for the Merthyr Tydvil Railway, in South Wales; but the great defect consisted in the slipping of the wheels, which Mr Blenkinsop endeavoured to obviate in 1811 by employing a rack-rail, in which a large toothed wheel was to work. In 1813 Mr Brunton of Butterley contrived a locomotive carriage, to be propelled by levers like horses' feet. In 1814 Mr George Stephenson constructed an engine for the Killingworth Railway, near Newcastle, in which toothed wheels were employed to engage and turn all the four wheels of the engine, and so to utilize all their adhesive power, to "bite" the rails.

The year 1829 is famous in the annals of railways for two things—the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the type and forerunner of modern railways; and the invention and construction of the first high-speed locomotive of the standard modern type, the railway and the locomotive by Mr Stephenson and his son, Mr Robert Stephenson. This engine was made under competition for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and it gained the prize for lightness, power, and speed, awarded by the directors. It weighed 4 tons 5 cwt.; the tender following it weighed 3 tons 4 cwt.; and two loaded carriages drawn by it on the trial weighed 9 tons 11 cwt.; thus, the drawn weight was 12 tons 15 cwt., and the gross total 17 tons. It averaged a speed of 14 miles per hour; its greatest velocity was 29 miles per hour; and it evaporated 18 cubic feet, or 114 gallons of water, per hour.

This engine, the Rocket, comprised the three elements of efficiency of the modern locomotive, the internal water-surrounded fire-box, and the multitubular flue in the boiler, being a number of small tubes in place of one large tube; the blast-pipe, from which the waste steam of the engine was exhausted up the chimney; and the direct connection of the steam-cylinders, two in number, one on each side of the engine, with the driving or propelling wheels, on one axle. The subdivision of the flue into a number of small tubes proved to be of marvellous advantage in accelerating the absorption of heat by the water, and the generation of steam, in virtue of the great increase of heated surface exposed to the water, without adding to the size or weight of the boiler. But the evaporating tubes would have been of little avail, practically had they not been supplemented by the blast-pipe in the chimney, which, by ejecting the steam from the engine after it had done its work in the cylinder, straight up the chimney, excited a strong draught through the boiler, and caused a brisk and rapid combustion of fuel, and generation of heat. The heat was absorbed with proportional rapidity through the newly-applied heating-tubes. The blast-pipe, thus designedly applied, was undoubtedly the invention of Mr Stephenson; in conjunction with the multitubular flue, it altered and vastly improved the range and capacity of the locomotive; and, in further conjunction with the direct connection of the steam-cylinder to one axle and pair of wheels, it was tantamount to a new and original machine.

Fledged and armed with wings, this locomotive, the Rocket, subsequently drew an average gross load of 40 tons behind the tender at 13¾ miles per hour. The old Killingworth engine could only work at a maximum of 6 miles per hour with 50 tons. The Rocket, in the earlier trial, attained a speed of 29 miles per hour. George Stephenson came eminently at the right time in scientific history, gathering into one magnificent fact all the floating prophecies of possibilities, solving the problem, and setting the question of the railway and the locomotive engine at rest for ever by his grand and masterly invention.

The key-note was struck. Constructors on all sides worked, each in his own way, at the locomotive, to improve the detail and increase the efficiency; and for many years the practice of builders was moulded into two general classes of engines, with two cylinders placed horizontally inside the smoke-box, under the chimney, and otherwise essentially similar to each other, except in one great feature, the number and disposition of the wheels. In one class there were six wheels, of which one pair was placed behind the boiler, typified in the engines of the day made by Mr Robert Stephenson; in the other class there were but four wheels, placed under the barrel of the boiler, leaving the fire-box overhung, typified in the engines made by Mr Bury for the London and Birmingham Railway. Experience has demonstrated the disadvantage of an overhung mass, with a very limited wheel basis, in the four-wheeled engine running at high speed; and now it is the general practice to apply six wheels to all ordinary locomotive stock.

The general features and characteristics of modern locomotive practice are represented by the illustrations (figs. 62 and 63). There are two leading types of passenger-engines, distinguished chiefly by the steam-cylinders being, in the first, situated within the framing, under the boiler, with the main driving axle cranked at two points to receive the power from the two cylinders; and in the second type, the steam-cylinders are placed external to the framing, and connected, not to the axle, which is straight, but to crank-pins fixed between the spokes of the wheels, in connection with the nave. From these distinguishing features, the two types of engines are known respectively as "inside-cylinder locomotives" and "outside-cylinder locomotives." In the latter, the general contour of the cylinders is usually visible at the fore-end of the machine. The tenders have six or four wheels, according to the taste of the designer, and they are supplied with powerful brakes, worked by screws, with blocks of wood placed against each wheel. A water-tank forms the upper part of the tender, namely, the two sides and the back, in the form of a horseshoe, holding 800 to 1200 gallons; and in the hollow of the shoe the fuel is deposited, of which a full charge may weigh 30 cwt. to 2 tons. The engine and tender are suspended on springs placed over the axle-bearings.

Similarly, there are inside-cylinder goods locomotives, and outside-cylinder goods locomotives. In the former the wheels are all of one size, in order that the driving force may be transmitted from the central pair of wheels to the front and back pairs, by means of coupling-rods attached to crank-pins in the wheels, hence called a six-coupled engine. In the latter engine the hind-wheels only are coupled with the central wheels, and the fore-wheels are of less diameter, as, being free, they are not required to be so large; hence called a four-coupled engine. The six-coupled engine can take the heaviest train on a good straight railway,—that is, on one free, to a large extent, of curves or sudden turns in the line of direction of the train; but the four-coupled works most economically on curved lines, and may be made so as to take, in average practice, as heavy a load as the six-coupled engine.

American practice, after having passed through various phases, has arrived at two great types of locomotive for passengers and for goods traffic, which are universally adopted in the United States. The passenger-locomotive has eight wheels, of which four in front are placed in a moveable frame, called a "bogie" or "truck," which swivels on a central pivot, and adapts itself to the curves of the lines; the four wheels behind are the "drivers;" they are larger than the front wheels, and of equal size and coupled. The cylinders are placed outside, just over the track, horizontally. A "cab" or "house" is placed upon the hinder part of the machine, behind the boiler, for the protection of the engine-driver and the stoker from the weather, with ample glazed opening, to afford a clear view ahead. The chimney or "stalk" is in form externally like an inverted cone, expanding upwards; internally, it is cylindrical, and the space between the outer and inner chimneys forms a reservoir for cinders and ashes thrown up through the inner chimney, which are deflected by a baffle-plate at the top, and thrown over into the reservoir, trap, or "spark-catcher." This contrivance is specially designed for the use of wood as fuel, and to prevent the risk of conflagration arising from the numerous sparks which would otherwise be discharged in passing through forests and other ignitable districts. As a further precaution for the prevention of sparks, the top of the stalk is covered with a fine wire-net. The steam-whistle is situated above the boiler for ordinary use; and the bell is hung near to the cab, with ropes within reach of the engineman. The bell is used in passing through the streets. The cow-catcher is hung in front of the engine, to ward off stray cattle, &c., and the American flag is hung behind it. The tender is carried on eight wheels, disposed under two trucks, fore and aft, to facilitate the turning of the tender on the curves. The goods-locomotive is placed on ten wheels, of which six are coupled, to supply driving-power, and the leading four wheels are hung in a swivelling truck.

Weight, Dimensions, and Cost of Locomotives.—The earliest four-wheeled engines made by Messrs Stephenson & Co. as an article of manufacture weighed 9 tons—"with the steam up,"—that is, with a supply of fuel and water in the boiler. The six-wheeled engines weighed 11½ tons. An ordinary passenger-locomotive of the present time weighs 19 to 23 tons, and occasionally as much as 27 tons, which is excessive. A goods-locomotive of the most powerful stamp weighs 27 to 32 tons, distributed on six-coupled wheels. Tenders weigh from 10 to 15 tons, with fuel and water supply. Tank-locomotives, or such as are constructed to carry their supply of fuel and water in reserve, without the aid of a tender, weigh a few tons heavier than the same engine if fitted with a tender. But tank-locomotives are usually made of small size, to work light, branch traffic, and weigh lighter in consequence than most other engines,—from 12 to 20 tons gross. The Great Western broad-gauge 8-wheel passenger-engines weigh 35 tons, or with tender, 50 tons. The goods-engines are not so heavy, weighing about 30 tons, or with tender, 45 tons. But the heavy tank-engines used on the steep lines of South Wales and elsewhere weigh 40 tons gross.

Passenger-locomotives are commonly made with cylinders 15 or 16 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 20 to 24 inches, and driving-wheels varying from 5½ to 7 feet diameter, according to the duty for which the engine is made; for high-speed express trains the larger wheel is used. The cost of a modern passenger-locomotive and tender is about £2300.

Ordinary goods-locomotives have cylinders 16 inches diameter, and 24 inches stroke, with 5 feet wheels. They cost about £2800 with tender.

The fire-grates are 3 feet to 4 feet in length, and about 3 feet 6 inches wide; and the boilers contain 150 to 230 small flue-tubes, about 2 inches in diameter, and 10 to 11 feet in length. Some account of the performances of locomotives will be given in another section. The comparative magnitudes of recent broad-gauge and narrow-gauge engines and tenders may be apprehended from the skeleton elevations (figs. 62 and 63). The carriage-stock comprises all vehicles concerned in the conveyance of passengers and their luggage, and of private carriages and horses, the vehicles to carry the Carriages latter usually being attached to, and run as part of, the passenger train in which their owners are conveyed. The Waggons waggon stock comprises the vehicles employed in the conveyance of merchandise, minerals, and live stock. The common varieties of vehicles employed in railway traffic are as follows:

Passenger-train Stock.—First-class carriage, second-class carriage, third-class carriage, composite carriage, luggage brake-van, horse-box, carriage-truck. To these may be added the mail-carriage or travelling post-office.

Goods-train Stock.—Platform-waggon, open or box wag-

Besides these, there are other waggons specially designed for special traffic, as gunpowder, salt, and lime. Also ballast-waggons, for the private use of the engineer's department.

The classification of carriages is designed to meet the various requirements of the travelling public; some preferring seclusion, ease, luxury, high speed; others preferring society, if tolerable, and economy, with moderate comfort and moderate speed; others looking to economy simply. For the sake of uniformity externally, and in many of the details, carriages are usually made of the same external length, width, and height, and suitably in the interior. The under-works of the stock may thus be identical in construction, and a uniformity of working and wearing parts is thus secured, which is conducive to economy of maintenance.

The waggon-stock should be as nearly uniform as possible. Uniformity of waggons is more important than that of carriages, as their total number and cost are much greater, and the supervision with which they are favoured is less minute; besides, the cost of maintenance is less than where many varieties of waggons exist on the same line. But whatever may be the upper-works, the under-works of the whole of the waggon stock should be entirely uniform.

One of the greatest engineering evils that have been inflicted upon railway companies has arisen from the want of arrangement or consultation between the officers of different lines, in order to consider the question, common to all, as to the best plan and construction of vehicles to be used by them. The result has been, that several companies have built classes of stock unsuited to work conjointly the traffic of their own and other lines. The diversity of practice is no doubt partly occasioned by the growing wants of traffic, and the gradual increase in capacity and tonnage of the carrying stock, incurring unavoidable structural alterations of plan. Amongst the early contributors to the production of the railway waggon were to be found the great carriers, their agents, road-contractors, farmers, builders, wheelwrights, salesmen, graziers, timber merchants, and others whose occupations and opinions, it may be imagined, gave birth to a wide diversity of practice.

Another reason for the want of harmony in past practice has been the separation of the duties of engine and of carriage and waggon superintendence. The carriage superintendent, aiming at the utmost economy of maintenance in his department, has been continually adding to the quantity and weight of material employed in the construction of the carrying stock, as the remedy for the observed failure of weak parts; and thus the stock, particularly waggons, has been increased in strength rather by adding to the mass of matter than by studying to throw the same weight of timber and iron into superior combinations. Doubtless the stock was made very lasting and serviceable, but meantime the heavy trains, handed over to the locomotive department, induced similarly the construction of heavier and more powerful locomotives, when the maximum was quickly reached, and strongly evinced by the sufferings of the permanent way.

It was of course unavoidable, from the need of enlarged Carriages and Wagons.

Dimensions, capacity, and increased strength, both in carriages and wagons, that the dead weight should be to some extent increased. The early first-class carriages weighed 3½ tons, the bodies or upper parts being 15 feet long, 6 feet 6 inches wide, and 4 feet 9 inches high, in three compartments, to hold six passengers each, or 18 in all. Railway carriages have gradually since been increased in weight to 4½ and 5½ tons; and in dimension of body to 18 or 20 feet in length, 7 feet 6 inches wide, and 6 feet 3 inches high.—outside measures for the narrow gauge. The capacity has been increased from 462 cubic feet in the early carriages to 820 cubic feet. The same increase of dimensions has taken place in the other classes of carriages. The great increase in size and weight of carriages has arisen very much in compliance with the demands of the public for greater convenience, speed, and safety. It was found that the old carriages suffered the most in cases of collision, and it became essential, with the increase of speed and length of trains, to add very much to the size, strength, and weight of the carriages. The wheels weighed originally 17 cwt.; they now weigh from 25 to 30 cwt.

First-class narrow-gauge carriages are commonly divided transversely into three compartments, each six feet long, and well lined with cushions; in each compartment there are six seats, and there are in all seats for eighteen passengers. In some instances the seat-partitions or elbow-rests are dispensed with, and the whole width of the compartment thrown open to receive four on each side, or twenty-four passengers in one carriage. Saloon-carriages, having no compartments, are getting into use.

Second-class carriages are usually divided into four compartments, holding eight passengers each, or thirty-two per carriage. They have usually been finished with hard boarding, destitute of cushioning, on the nearly obsolete policy of making them uncomfortable, in the hope of inducing passengers to travel first-class instead. The London and Brighton Railway Company have understood the value of a little encouragement to the public, by meeting them halfway, and supplying comfortably-padded seats in the second class. The receipts in 1858 were materially benefited by the gracious experiment; and other companies must do the same.

Third-class carriages do not differ very much from second-class, except that they are thoroughly hard and square inside, older, and more homely.

Passenger brake-vans are made open inside for passengers' luggage; and are formed with a compartment at one end for the guard, with an elevated perch and glazed chamber about the level of the roof, to facilitate his supervision of the whole of the train. The brakes commonly used are sliding-brakes, with blocks of timber applied to the four wheels, brought up by a screw and handle. The weight of the brake-van is from 5 to 6 tons. Horse-boxes are constructed to carry three horses. All narrow-gauge carrying stock is placed on four wheels.

Broad-gauge first-class carriages are 24 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 6 feet high in the body, divided into four compartments, holding four passengers on each side, or altogether thirty-two. The second and third-class are 27 feet 2 inches in length; the second-class has five compartments for sixty passengers, and one for luggage; and the third-class has six compartments, for seventy-two passengers and a guard's brake compartment. All carriages are placed on six wheels.

The original form of goods wagons generally employed for some years after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1829, was simply a platform about 10 feet long on four wheels, with sides varying from 4 to 10 inches in height. Many of these wagons are still employed for the transport of weighty rough goods; they weighed 2½ to 3½ tons, and carried about 2 tons of goods. The general unfitness of this style of wagons led to the adoption of portable sides and ends, which consisted of open crib-rails dropped into staples; and to these were added the costly tarpauling or sheet to cover the goods, and bind them down. (See fig. 64.) The wagon, thus appointed, made 13 or 14 feet in length, and weighing about 3½ tons, was fitted to carry 4 or 5 tons of ordinary goods. But loose or moveable parts of wagons are objectionable, as they occasionally fall away or are lost, or get out of order, and are costly to maintain. The use of tarpaulings is said to have amounted to an annual charge of L12,000 on one railway. So uncertain is the duration of a tarpauling, that a new one may be spoiled the first day of its use, by injury from projecting angles of goods under cover. Crib-rails and tarpaulings have been to a great extent superseded by built covered wagons, 14 to 16 feet long, with sliding doors and moveable roofs (see fig. 65); so that the crane-chain can deposit or move a bale of goods, however heavy, from any part of the interior of the wagon; and the goods may be perfectly closed and protected from damage by fire, wind, or rain.

Covered wagons weigh from 4 to 5 tons, and can carry, according to their dimensions, 6 to 8 tons. The cost of maintenance of ordinary open wagons is said to amount to from 7 to 10 per cent. of the first cost, as against that of the covered wagons, which is stated to be only 4 per cent.

The Great Northern Railway coal-wagons, which are well designed and constructed, are made with open sides 2½ to 3 feet high, weigh 4 tons empty, and carry 7½ to 9 tons of coal (see fig. 66).

It may be stated generally that properly-made open wagons may carry twice their own weight of goods, and covered wagons 1½ times their own weight of goods; but that ill-designed, heavily-made wagons may carry no more than their own weight in goods. The great demand for weight in wagons arose, as much as from anything else, Carriages from the absence of spring-buffers at the ends, and the imperitive need of strength to resist the inevitable hard concussions to which they were subject in daily use. To reduce the violence of such contingencies, and also not to

add very much to the cost of the waggon, buffing-springs were applied at one end of each waggon, leaving the other end "dead," as shown in fig. 64. The benefits of this partial arrangement became evident; and as at the same time several forms of external buffers—compact, efficient, cheap, and easily applied,—had been matured, and had become regular articles of manufacture, the practice of springing one end of the waggon has been gradually extended in new stock to the other end, as in fig. 65. Waggons, as formerly made, were, in long trains, likewise subjected to violent shocks in starting into motion at stations and otherwise; and therefore the draw-bars also were placed upon springs. Some persons have gone further, and placed the guard or side chains upon springs. Thus the waggon has come to be defended by springs at all points. The substitution of elastic action for dead shocks has proved very beneficial in promoting the durability of waggon stock; and there is no doubt that the extra cost so incurred has been amply compensated in saving of materials and in durability. Spiral springs for buffing and drawing, made of round or oval steel, have answered very well.

Broad-guage waggons have been constructed sufficiently strong to carry 20 tons of load. But they are not generally made to carry more than 10 tons. They are carried on six wheels.

An impression of the relative dimensions and bulk of broad and narrow guage carriages may be gathered from the outline elevations of a first-class carriage of each guage (figs. 67 and 68) on the same scale. The relative costs are about £340, narrow-guage, and £640, broad-guage. A narrow-guage open goods waggon costs £80, as compared with a broad-guage waggon costing £140. The number of miles run per annum varies very much with circumstances. An engine, when on duty, may perform a duty averaging 120 train miles per day, amounting to upwards of 37,000 miles per annum, excluding Sundays. But as a portion of the stock is always under repair, and a portion in reserve, it is safe to allow 50 per cent. of the total number as off duty, leaving 50 per cent. at work, which would reduce the average performance per engine of the whole stock to 18,000 or 20,000 miles per annum.

The circumstances of many lines do not admit of such a high average mileage; and the gross average mileage run by each locomotive, passenger and goods, may be taken at 16,000 train miles per annum; and as the gross mileage performed in 1857 amounted to upwards of £3,000,000 train-miles, there would be 5200 locomotives then on stock, which, if they be estimated at an average cost of £2000 each, would amount in cost to £10,400,000. The number of vehicles of all classes varies within very wide limits in proportion to the number of locomotives on different railways. The North-Eastern, doing a very large mineral traffic, has probably the largest proportion,—namely, 53 vehicles per locomotive. The Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire has 38 per locomotive, the Glasgow and South-Western 36, the Great Northern 27½, the Eastern Counties 27, the London, Brighton, and South Coast 25, the Midland 24, the Scottish Central 21, the Bristol and Exeter 16. An average of 30 vehicles per locomotive for all the railways gives a total number equal to 156,000 vehicles, which, at an average rate of £100 per vehicle, would amount in cost to £15,600,000.

According to these estimates, the total cost of carrying stock is one and a half times the total cost of locomotives, and the sum of the two is £26,000,000, equivalent in round numbers to £3000 per mile of the mean length of railway open in 1857.

Besides the train-miles run by engines, which are in fact the only performance recognised from a commercial point of view, they run many miles unavoidably "empty,"—that is, without a train; the proportion of the empty or unprofitable mileage being dependent on the exigencies of the traffic and the nature of the line. A line with locally heavy gradients must have "assistant" or "pilot" engines in readiness to assist the trains up the inclines, which usually have to return empty to the depot; and in cases of special trains, empty engines are run to or from the train, before or after duty, according to the situation of the engine-depot, as the case may happen.

There is another duty, of a passive description, which is imposed on engines,—to stand "in steam," or with the steam up and the fire in good order, in readiness to act when required. Assistant engines necessarily stand thus many hours a day while on duty, and there is a certain consumption of fuel incurred in so maintaining the steam. Some railway companies therefore, for the purpose of placing the whole duty of the locomotive department on record, register the whole time of engines being in steam, also the empty mileage run, besides the time on active duty and the train-miles run. The nature of the duty of goods engines, which is various, is also distinguished, so as, in short, to make a complete record of the work done. In the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway accounts, it is believed, the laudable practice of detailed records, as above indicated, was initiated; and it is in course of adoption by other companies. The following statement contains a list of the rolling stock of that line, and the particulars of the duties performed by the engines during the second half-year 1857; and it may be taken as an example of the proper method of recording such duties:

Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway.—Half-year ending December 31, 1857.

List of Rolling Stock—

| Locomotives and tenders | 115 | | Twin carriages | 1 | | First-class carriages | 51 | | Second-class do. | 89 | | Third-class do. | 127 | | Dummies | 6 | | Horse-boxes | 19 | | Carriage-trucks | 11 | | Luggage-rans | 32 | | Brake-waggons | 55 | | Waggonage | 3933 | | Sheets or tarpaulings | 2200 | | Horses | 107 |

Number of hours in steam—Running | 95,337 | " " Shunting | 49,093 | " " Standing | 28,842 |

Total hours in steam | 173,272 |

Coke consumed | 241,527 | Coal | 229,681 |

Cost per hour | 23 05 pence | " mile | 2 45 "

Mileage run by Engines—

| Passenger train-miles | Miles. | | Goods | 693,921 | | Mixed | 360,243 | | Coal | 87,244 | | Stone | 94,189 | | Cattle | 162 | | Ballast | 8,772 | | Actual train-miles | 1,245,576 | | Assisting | 34,250 | | Empty | 81,327 |

Total for the half-year | 1,361,153 |

In this statement the assisting and empty miles, taken together, constitute an extra mileage of 9¾ per cent on the train-miles.

The North-Eastern Railway Company possessed, at the end of 1857, 414 locomotives and tenders, and 22,125 vehicles for passenger and goods traffic, amongst which there were 2321 goods-waggons, 1362 trucks for timber, and 15,073 coal-waggons. The Midland Railway, with 413 locomotives, just one less than on the North-Eastern, had only 9944 vehicles, or less than half the number on the other line, including 8727 waggons; but the Midland waggons are of much larger capacity, as there are amongst the North-Eastern stock 10,050 chaldron-waggons suited to the habitudes of the coal-trade of the Newcastle district.

The London and North-Western Railway Company had, at the end of 1858, 779 engines and tenders, with a passenger-train stock 2552 in number, and a goods-train-stock 13,718 in number,—in all, 16,270 vehicles, comprising 11,012 goods-waggons.

LENGTH OF RAILWAYS.

By the official report to the Board of Trade for the year 1857 it appears that, at the end of the year, there were completed and in actual operation in the United Kingdom 9116 miles of railway. This extent of railway communication was distributed between England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in the following proportion:

| England and Wales | Miles. | | Scotland | 6777 | | Scotland | 1269 | | Ireland | 1070 |

Total | 9,126 | Of the 9116 miles open in 1857, there were only 740 miles of broad gauge, and 261 miles of mixed gauge; together 1001 miles in England, or 12 per cent. of the whole mileage in England and Scotland.

Of the 9116 miles open in 1857, the following were the lengths of single line:

| Country | Miles | |---------------|-------| | In England and Wales | 1715 or 23 per cent. | | In Scotland | 409 | | In Ireland | 651 |

Total: 2775

The rate at which the construction of railways has proceeded during the last fourteen years in these countries may be estimated from the following statement, showing the consecutive additions to the gross length of railway, year by year, in the second column, and the total lengths in the third column:

| Year | Length of line opened during the Year | Total length of line opened at 31st Dec. | |------|-------------------------------------|----------------------------------------| | 1843 | | | | 1844 | | | | 1845 | | | | 1846 | | | | 1847 | | | | 1848 | | | | 1849 | | | | 1850 | | | | 1851 | | | | 1852 | | | | 1853 | | | | 1854 | | | | 1855 | | | | 1856 | | | | 1857 | | |

It may be observed that, subsequently to 1845, the annual addition to the length of line opened, which was about 300 miles in that year, doubled itself in 1846, and rose to nearly 1200 miles in 1848. During the five years 1846-50, 800 miles of new lines were opened annually. These accelerated rates of construction arose out of the railway mania of 1845-46, when, during these two years alone, 7238 miles of railway were authorized by acts of Parliament to be made. Subsequently to 1850, when the extreme pressure of construction subsided, the annual increase of mileage opened averaged 356 miles per year to the end of 1857; and, according to recent returns, about 340 miles were opened in 1858.

There were 774 miles of railway in course of construction in 1857, not opened in this year; and they make, in addition to the lines already opened, a total of 9890 miles, or nearly 10,000 miles.

RAILWAY EMPLOYÉS.

Upon the lines in course of construction during the ten years 1848-57 the average number of persons employed varied from 63-6 per mile in 1848, and a maximum of 69 per mile in 1849, to 44 persons per mile, or 44,037 persons on 1004 miles in June 1857.

Upon lines open for traffic on the 30th June 1857, in all 8942 miles, 109,660 persons were employed, or 12-26 persons per mile, variously employed, and distributed as in the annexed statement:

| Position | Per Mile | |---------------------------|----------| | Secretaries or managers | 221 or 024 | | Treasurers | 26 | | Superintendents | 308 | | Accountants or cashiers | 201 | | Station-masters | 291 | | Ticket-collectors | 404 | | Guard or brakemen | 3716 | | Switchman | 3263 | | Carry forward | |

In 1848, 52,688 persons were employed upon 4252 miles, or 12-391 per mile, as against 12-263 per mile in 1857, showing that the total numbers per mile are the same. An analysis of the component elements, however, indicates a proportional reduction in the numbers engaged in the more general services of railways, and an increase in the numbers engaged in the outdoor service of the traffic; thus, there were 364 switchmen per mile in 1857, against 249 per mile in 1848, showing an increase of nearly one-half more; gatekeepers, 223 per mile in 1857, against 094 in 1848, or two and a half times the number; guards or brakemen, 415 per mile in 1857, against 352 in 1848, or one-sixth more. This comparative increase would appear to show that the safe working of the trains has been well provided for with the development of the railway system.

If it be assumed that each employé contributes to the support of two or more other persons, it would appear that 1 per cent. of the population of the United Kingdom was maintained by the railways in operation, independently of the considerable amount of labour employed on railways in course of construction. Mr Stephenson has estimated that, collaterally, in the manufacture of iron, the felling and transport of timber, the production of stores, the erection and improvement of buildings, &c., railways give employment to at least 50,000 men; and that, taking every one together, 2 per cent. of the population derive their maintenance from railways.

MONEY INVESTED IN RAILWAYS.

On December 31, 1857, the total amount of capital raised for the construction of railways was a small fraction under L315,000,000 (or L314,989,826), representing an expenditure of about L35,000 per mile (or L34,950). Some small portion of this cost belongs to the lines in course of construction at that date. The money has been raised in the following proportions:

| Item | Amount | |---------------------------|--------------| | By ordinary share capital | L178,567,935 | | By preference shares | 58,061,655 | | By loans | 78,360,236 | | Total capital | L314,989,826 |

Say L315,000,000.

Average interest on preference shares: 4-86 per cent. Do. do. loans: 4-52 Do. available dividend on the ordinary share capital: 3-60 Average percentage of nett receipts to total capital and loans: 4-06

The relative proportions of ordinary capital, preference capital, and loans above given, have been stationary during the three years 1855, 1856, and 1857; but during the previous six years the proportions of preference and loan... capital had been increasing from 9 per cent. and 22 per cent. respectively in 1849, to what they have just been stated to be in 1857, namely, 18 per cent. and 25 per cent.

In 1845-6 the dividends of railways appear to have been at their maximum, of which the following are examples:

| Railways | Dividend on Share Capital in 1846 | |---------------------------------|----------------------------------| | Dublin and Drogheda | 4 per cent. | | Eastern Counties | | | Edinburgh and Glasgow | | | Glasgow and Ayr | | | Great Western | | | Lancashire and Yorkshire | | | London and North-Western | | | London and Brighton | | | London and South-Western | | | Midland | | | South Eastern | | | York and North Midland | | | York, Newcastle, and Berwick | |

The precipitate influx of new lines during the four years from 1846 to 1850, the expensive contests before Parliament to prevent such competing lines from being made, the unhappy competitions for the privilege of constructing branch lines, the leasing of new lines by older lines at unremunerating rates, competition for traffic, and other causes leading to great extensions of capital, and arising from the attempts to execute works in three or four years which might advantageously have been spread over twelve or fifteen years,—such causes have been in operation to depress the dividends of railways, and with such power as to reduce the average proportion of nett receipts in 1849 to 2-83 per cent. of the total capital and loans raised at that time. Such, however, is the virtue of railway property that the nett receipts have increased since 1849 from 2-83 per cent. to 4-06 per cent. of the total capital and loans raised in 1857; and notwithstanding the accumulation of preference capital and loans, both taking precedence of ordinary capital, the available dividend on the latter increased from 1-88 per cent. to 3-6 per cent.

The average cost of railways per mile open in 1857 was as follows:

| England and Wales | L.39,275 | | Scotland | 28,225 | | Ireland | 15,684 | | Total average | L.34,950 |

—say L.35,000 per mile. But it is worthy of notice that the average cost of independent lines of railway authorized since 1848, and opened for traffic in the course of the ten following years, amounted to only L.11,823 per mile; namely, for England L.14,559; Scotland, L.7243; Ireland, L.7303 per mile. The difference in cost thus exhibited arises, among other causes, partly from the less costly character of the newer lines, and partly from the fact, that the existing lines, which have had no addition to their length for several years, have continually increased their capital. Thus, upon twenty-nine railways, having an aggregate length of 1200 miles, the capital increased from L.39,000,000 in 1853 to L.43,000,000 in 1857, or at the rate of above L.600 per mile per annum. But during the same period the nett receipts of these lines rose from 3-4 per cent. to 4-2 per cent. of the entire capital and loans. In 1849, when a total of 5996 miles had been opened, the total share capital and loans raised was L.229,747,778, or L.38,300 per mile; and as at that time a large proportion of capital was applied to lines in course of construction, this may be accepted as a full mileage cost; whereas, notwithstanding the additional construction of 3120 miles—half as much again,—at much less mileage cost, the 9116 miles open in 1857 are found to average about L.35,000 per mile, not much less than in 1849, owing to the continual additions made to the capital of the older lines.

The number of railway companies, and the average length worked by them, was, for 1857, as follows:

| England | 52 | | Scotland | 29 | | Ireland | 21 | | Total | 33 |

The London and Blackwall Railway, costing L.311,912 per mile, and the North London Railway, costing L.146,320 per mile, stand pre-eminently at the top of the list in capital expenditure per mile, for which their localization in and about London sufficiently accounts. But the third on the list, the Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction, from Birkenhead to Chester and Warrington, costing upwards of L.75,000 per mile, stands, a beacon and an example to all railway companies, on the battle-ground of the London and North-Western and the Great Western companies. The exalted cost of that line was incurred partly by the protracted contests in which it has been involved with the neighbouring railways, and partly by the costly works of construction joining the railway to the docks at Birkenhead.

The principal and older railways have been constructed at a heavy rate of cost per mile, compared generally with the more recent lines; the difference is attributable to the costly legislation and land charges they have incurred, as well as to the magnitude of the works of construction, involving deep cuttings, high embankments, long viaducts and tunnels, in order to obtain the most favourable gradients and curves, conforming, as nearly as possible, to a straight and level course. Of the railways in England, the Carlisle and Silloth Bay, one of the most recently opened, has the honour of standing at the foot of the list, 13 miles long, and costing L.6474 per mile, or little more for the whole line than the cost of a single mile of the Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction.

Of the Scottish lines, the Caledonian stands at the head of the list, costing L.48,000 per mile; and the East of Fife, 7 miles long, at the foot, costing L.4351 per mile. But the cheapest lines of any length are the Forth and Clyde, costing L.5525 per mile; and the Peebles Railway, costing but L.20 more than that, L.5545 per mile.

Of the Irish lines, the Dublin and Kingstown, a suburban line, 8 miles long, cost the highest amount per mile, about L.53,000. The next to it, of any considerable length, is the Ulster Railway, L.25,000 per mile. The cheapest line is the Limerick and Foynes, L.5282 per mile; and this appears to be the cheapest line of considerable length in the United Kingdom.

The proportions of expenditure on capital account cannot, from want of data, be exactly determined. The following may be accepted as an approximate analysis of average cost of the railways open in 1856-7:

| Description | Per mile | Percent | |--------------------------------------------------|----------|---------| | Law and parliamentary expenses | L.2,000 | 6 | | Land and compensation | 7,000 | 20 | | Works of construction and stations complete | 17,500 | 50 | | Locomotive and carrying stock | 3,000 | 9 | | Interest on stock, discounts, bonuses, dividends from capital, contingencies, etc. | 5,500 | 15 | | Total | L.35,000 | 100 |

From this statement it would appear that the nett cost of construction and equipment is L.20,500 per mile, or above half of the entire cost; that the cost of land and compensation is L.7000 per mile, or one-fifth of the entire cost per mile. Out of 315 millions of capital, then, it would appear that above 60 millions have been absorbed in charges for land and compensation; of this sum, six-sevenths went intact into the pockets of the landowners, the remainder being dissipated in costs. ### Railways

**Statistics of Railways in Europe, America, India, and the Colonies.**

| Name of State, &c. | Year | Length of Line Open. | Total Capital Expended. | Capital per Mile. | Traffic Receipts per Mile. | Working Expenses per Mile. | Net Receipts per Mile. | Proportions of Working Expenses to the Traffic Receipts. | Proportion of the Nett Receipts to the Capital. | |--------------------|------|----------------------|-------------------------|------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------|-----------------------|-------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------| | Austria | 1856 | Miles. | L. | L. | L. | L. | L. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | | Belgium (government lines) | 1856 | 445 | 7,294,783 | 16,391 | 2158 | 1290 | 898 | 58.2 | 6.3 | | France | 1854 | 2,913 | 74,772,594 | 25,658 | 2706 | 1191 | 1515 | 44.9 | 6.6 | | Germany (exclusive of Austria and Prussia) | 1855 | 2,229 | 29,185,250 | 13,111 | 1816 | 897 | 919 | 49.4 | 5.7 | | England and Wales | 1857 | 6,765 | 263,145,238 | 39,275 | 3161 | 1584 | 1597 | 48.9 | 4.1 | | Great Britain | 1857 | 1,243 | 35,038,288 | 28,225 | 2107 | 941 | 1166 | 44.0 | 4.1 | | Scotland | 1857 | 1,070 | 16,750,300 | 15,664 | 1091 | 465 | 623 | 38.0 | 4.0 | | Ireland | 1857 | 163 | 2,348,845 | 19,931 | 1709 | 1042 | 667 | 61.0 | 3.3 | | Holland | 1857 | 130 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | | Prussia | 1856 | 2,503 | 35,295,043 | 14,101 | 1877 | 968 | 909 | 51.6 | 6.2 | | Sardinia | 1855 | 234 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | | Spain | 1855 | 130 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | | Switzerland | 1856 | 203 | 4,037,427 | 19,988 | 635 | 341 | 253 | 54.3 | 1.5 | | Tuscany | 1856 | 132 | 2,653,493 | 15,556 | 260 | 446 | 520 | 50.2 | 3.3 | | United States of America | 1856 | 17,412 | 144,846,953 | 8,275 | 1234 | 656 | 568 | 54.0 | 5.7 | | India (capital estimated) | 1857 | 200 | 2,982,000 | 10,280 | 729 | 308 | 421 | 42.2 | 4.1 | | Canada | 1857 | 1,252 | 14,648,195 | 11,720 | 939 | 648 | 291 | 69.0 | 2.5 | | New South Wales | 1857 | 38½ | 1,226,034 | 31,845 | 1166 | 840 | 326 | 72.0 | 1.0 |

### Passenger Traffic

The returns forwarded to and printed by the Board of Trade, from which the statistics of traffic are derived, are neither uniform nor complete; and it is difficult to balance the various elements of such returns. The data in many cases can only be approximated to; and they are here presented as nearly correct as is permitted by the nature of the returns. In some instances data are simply reproduced as rendered in the Report of Captain Galton, the secretary to the railway department of the Board of Trade.

The total number of passengers of each class conveyed in 1857 was as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 15,671,696 | 36,603,069 | 63,562,252 | 115,846,906 | | Scotland | 1,823,542 | 2,180,284 | 10,723,594 | 14,733,500 | | Ireland | 1,112,188 | 3,382,941 | 3,912,183 | 8,416,579 | | **Total** | **18,606,826** | **42,165,285** | **78,189,129** | **139,006,888** |

Note.—There were about 11,000 season or periodical ticket-holders in England, 3000 in Scotland, 4500 in Ireland; in all 18,500, averaging the two half-years.

The proportions were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 13.5 | 31.6 | 54.9 | 100 | | Scotland | 12.5 | 14.7 | 72.8 | 100 | | Ireland | 13.3 | 40.2 | 46.5 | 100 | | **Total** | **13.4** | **30.4** | **56.2** | **100** |

The numbers conveyed per mile of the mean length of railway open in 1857—namely, in England 6610, in Scotland 1226, in Ireland, 1064 miles—were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 2371 | 5537 | 9616 | 17,527 | | Scotland | 1148 | 1778 | 8749 | 12,017 | | Ireland | 1045 | 3179 | 3676 | 7,909 | | **Total** | **2090** | **4737** | **8786** | **15,617** |

The average distances travelled by passengers of each class in 1857 were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 19.0 | 13.5 | 11.7 | 13.8 | | Scotland | 17.0 | 9.3 | 10.7 | 11.3 | | Ireland | 17.8 | 12.2 | 15.2 | 14.3 | | **Total** | **18.8** | **13.8** | **11.7** | **13.3** |

The number and mileage of passenger trains in 1857 were as follows:

| Countries | Total Number | Total Mileage | Average Mileage per Train | |-----------|--------------|---------------|---------------------------| | England | 1,612,357 | 37,601,375 | 23.3 | | Scotland | 218,031 | 3,972,494 | 18.2 | | Ireland | 135,315 | 3,263,367 | 24.1 | | **Total** | **1,965,703** | **44,837,236** | **22.8** |

The average number of passengers per train in 1857 was as follows:

| Countries | Average Passengers per Train | Average Mileage traveled by Passengers per Train | Average Mileage run per Train | |-----------|-----------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------| | England | 72 | 13.6 | 23.3 | | Scotland | 68 | 11.3 | 18.2 | | Ireland | 62 | 14.3 | 24.1 | | **Total** | **71** | **13.3** | **22.8** |

The actual receipts from passengers of each class in 1857 were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | L. 2,753,123 | L. 3,147,393 | L. 2,921,158 | L. 9,004,760 | | Scotland | L. 251,184 | L. 176,778 | L. 471,432 | L. 916,697 | | Ireland | L. 163,161 | L. 248,812 | L. 244,628 | L. 671,332 | | **Total** | **L. 3,167,468** | **L. 3,574,988** | **L. 3,637,218** | **L. 10,592,788** |

The proportions of receipts were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 20.5 | 34.9 | 32.5 | 100 | | Scotland | 27.4 | 19.5 | 51.5 | 100 | | Ireland | 24.3 | 37.0 | 38.4 | 100 | | **Total** | **29.9** | **33.7** | **34.3** | **100** |

The average receipts in 1857, per mile open, were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 416 | 476 | 442 | 1332 | | Scotland | 294 | 146 | 384 | 746 | | Ireland | 154 | 234 | 230 | 618 | | Total | 860 | 856 | 1056 | 2772 |

The receipts per train-mile run are reported to have been as follows:—England, 64½d.; Scotland, 62½d.; Ireland, 54½d.

The average receipts per passenger of each class in 1857 were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 42·2 | 20·6 | 11·9 | 18·3 | | Scotland | 39·1 | 19·7 | 10·8 | 14·7 | | Ireland | 35·2 | 17·6 | 15·0 | 18·7 | | Total | 35·5 | 20·3 | 11·2 | 17·9 |

The average fares per train-mile, of passengers of each class, in 1857, were as follows:

| Countries | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Total | |-----------|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------| | England | 2·01 | 1·41 | 0·87 | 1·23 | | Scotland | 1·77 | 1·55 | 0·87 | 1·13 | | Ireland | 1·81 | 1·35 | 0·90 | 1·20 | | Total | 1·97 | 1·41 | 0·87 | 1·25 |

From the foregoing statements it appears that the average distance travelled, in 1857, by passengers of all classes, was only 13·3 miles; the greatest average was 19 miles by first-class passengers in England. These figures are suggestive—they demonstrate that the bulk of the passenger-traffic is local, confined mainly to short distances, and that long journeys, though important, are but secondary sources of income. In 1843, first-class travelling averaged 26 miles per passenger; second-class, 14·4; third-class, 12·5 total, 16·1 miles. The generally lower averages of 1857 are to be ascribed to the extension of short local lines and branches, and to the improved accommodation for second and third class travellers, by which these classes of traffic were promoted. As might be expected, however, on different lines and in different localities the average distances travelled by the different classes vary within considerably wide limits.

The total number of passengers conveyed in 1857 has been seen to be upwards of 139 millions, and the total receipts to be upwards of 10½ millions sterling. Of this large amount of receipts, the third-class traffic, at less than a penny per mile, contributes the most. The first-class receipts are the lowest, and are about 30 per cent. of the entire receipts; the second-class receipts are about 34 per cent., and the third-class about 36 per cent.; and second and third conjointly amount to 70 per cent. of the entire receipts from passengers. It is obvious from these comparative results, that the lower fares pay the best, even with inferior accommodation. The excessive preponderance of third-class receipts in Scotland results partially from the practice of running only first and third class on the Caledonian and the Great North of Scotland railways.

There is a decided preponderance of third-class traffic on the continental railways. In Holland and Prussia the third-class receipts amount to 50 per cent. of the whole; and in France to 43 per cent. On continental lines generally, three-fourths of the passengers are third-class.

GOODS TRAFFIC.

The total quantity of merchandise, minerals, live stock, parcels, &c., conveyed in 1857 are as in the annexed table:

**Heavy Goods Traffic in 1857.**

| Goods | England | Scotland | Ireland | Total | |-------------|---------|----------|---------|-------| | General merchandise | 21,138,732 | 2,909,139 | 980,056 | 25,027,927 | | Minerals | | | | | | Coal | 23,320,306 | 1,942,968 | 982,225 | 25,655,500 | | Unclassed minerals, coal, lime, &c. | 14,318,994 | 6,584,925 | 28,465 | 20,932,834 | | Total Minerals | 37,639,303 | 8,527,893 | 1,267,888 | 49,294,084 | | Total | 58,778,032 | 11,437,032 | 1,106,844 | 71,321,911 |

**Live-Stock Traffic in 1857.**

| Stock | England | Scotland | Ireland | Total | |------------|---------|----------|---------|-------| | Cattle | 1,778,259 | 331,443 | 255,027 | 2,364,729 | | Sheep | 5,663,092 | 1,042,568 | 349,113 | 7,054,773 | | Pigs | 1,112,346 | 37,973 | 442,967 | 1,593,286 | | Total with unclassed | 8,588,129 | 1,411,984 | 1,047,047 | 11,047,160 |

**Light-Goods Traffic in 1857 (by Passenger-Trains).**

| Goods | England | Scotland | Ireland | Total | |-------------|---------|----------|---------|-------| | Passengers' luggage | 14,324 | 45 | 424 | 14,794 | | Parcels | 7,669,988 | 632,293 | 388,821 | 8,689,102 | | Carriages | 18,056 | 5,244 | 3,503 | 26,803 | | Horses | 186,779 | 25,946 | 19,726 | 222,451 | | Dogs | 226,589 | 37,884 | 27,377 | 291,850 |

The proportions of merchandise and minerals carried in each country were as follows:

| Goods | England | Scotland | Ireland | Total | |-------------|---------|----------|---------|-------| | General merchandise | 35 | 26 | 83 | 35 | | Coal | 39 | 17 | 9 | 35 | | Unclassed minerals | 25 | 67 | 25 | 30 | | Total minerals | 64 | 74 | 11 | 65 | | Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |

The weights carried per mile of the mean length of railway open in 1857 were as follows:

| General Merchandise | Total Minerals | Total | |---------------------|---------------|-------| | England (6610 miles) | 3,198 | 56,804 | 59,922 | | Scotland (1295 miles) | 2,273 | 62,950 | 65,223 | | Ireland (1064 miles) | 920 | 129 | 1,049 | | Total (8900 miles) | 2812 | 5202 | 8014 |

The number and mileage of goods trains in 1857 were as follows:—

The actual receipts from goods-traffic in 1857 were as follows:

By Goods-Trains.

| Countries | General Merchandise | Minerals | Live Stock | Total | |-----------|--------------------|---------|------------|-------| | England | L6,728,667 | L3,313,256 | L410,267 | L10,452,190 | | Scotland | 767,297 | 657,592 | 47,912 | 1,472,801 | | Ireland | 285,770 | 16,444 | 69,177 | 361,400 | | Total | L7,781,743 | L3,957,292 | L517,356 | L12,285,391 |

By Passenger-Trains.

| Countries | Parcels &c. | Carriages, Horses &c. | Mails | Total | |-----------|-------------|----------------------|-------|-------| | England | L548,585 | L293,047 | L319,156 | L1,970,788 | | Scotland | 38,128 | 17,570 | 56,283 | 111,981 | | Ireland | 28,216 | 16,807 | 67,628 | 112,651 | | Total | L614,929 | L237,424 | L443,067 | L1,295,420 |

The proportions of the above receipts were as follows:

By Goods-Trains.

| Countries | General Merchandise | Minerals | Live Stock | Total | |-----------|--------------------|---------|------------|-------| | England | Per Cent. | Per Cent.| Per Cent. | 100 | | Scotland | 64 | 32 | 4 | 100 | | Ireland | 52 | 45 | 3 | 100 | | Total | 63 | 33 | 4 | 100 |

By Passenger-Trains.

| Countries | Parcels, &c. | Carriages, &c. | Mails | Total | |-----------|-------------|----------------|-------|-------| | England | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | 100 | | Scotland | 51 | 19 | 30 | 100 | | Ireland | 34 | 16 | 50 | 100 | | Total | 48 | 18 | 34 | 100 |

The average receipts from goods traffic in 1857, per mile open, were as follows:

| By Goods Trains | By Passenger Trains | Total | |-----------------|---------------------|-------| | England | L1,531 | L1,622 | L1,743 | | Scotland | 1,201 | 91 | 1,292 | | Ireland | 340 | 105 | 445 | | Total | L1,890 | L1,444 | L3,324 |

The receipts per goods train-mile are reported to have been as follows, though it appears from the foregoing figures they should be higher:

England: 76.6 Scotland: 67.0 Ireland: 82.6

These statistics of goods-traffic show that upwards of 71 million tons of heavy goods were transported in 1857 in the United Kingdom, two-thirds of which were minerals. But in Scotland the minerals constitute three-fourths of all the heavy goods carried; and the greatest tonnage of goods per mile open is carried in that country. There were upwards of £2 millions parcels carried on all the railways; and 11 millions of live stock. The total receipts from goods-

traffic exceeded 13½ millions sterling; and they stand highest per train-mile in Ireland, probably because the greater part of Irish goods-traffic consists of general merchandise and live stock, which pay better than minerals.

PASSENGER AND GOODS TRAFFIC.

The mileage of trains in 1857 was stated to be as follows:

| Countries | Passengers | Goods | Total | |-----------|------------|-------|-------| | England | Train miles | 37,691,375 | 32,215,676 | 69,917,051 | | Scotland | 3,972,494 | 5,249,495 | 9,221,990 | | Ireland | 3,263,337 | 1,057,013 | 4,320,350 | | Total | 44,837,236 | 38,622,185 | 83,459,421 |

The total receipts from all kinds of traffic in 1857 were as follows:

| Countries | Passengers | Goods | Total | |-----------|------------|-------|-------| | England | L1,904,769 | L11,522,978 | L20,527,747 | | Scotland | 916,697 | 1,584,782 | 2,501,479 | | Ireland | 671,332 | 474,051 | 1,145,383 | | Total | L1,092,798 | L13,581,811 | L24,174,609 |

The following is a general statement of the capital raised, and the gross receipts from passengers and from goods, in 1857, reduced to annual and weekly mileage rates:

| England | Scotland | Ireland | Total | |---------|----------|---------|-------| | Mean length of railway open (miles) | 6,610 | 1,226 | 1,064 | 8,900 | | Capital per mile open December 31 | L39,275 | L28,225 | L15,664 | L34,050 | | Receipts per mile per annum—From passengers | L1,382 | L746 | L631 | L1,191 | | From goods | 1,743 | 1,292 | 446 | 1,524 | | Total | L3,105 | L2,638 | L1,077 | L2,715 | | Receipts per mile per week—From passengers | L26 | L14 | L12 | L23 | | From goods | 34 | 25 | 9 | 29 | | Total | L60 | L39 | L21 | L52 | | Proportions of receipts—Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | | From passengers | 44 | 37 | 59 | 44 | | From goods | 56 | 63 | 41 | 56 | | Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | | Proportion of gross receipts to capital | 7.9 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 7.8 |

The table shows that the goods is considerably greater than the passenger traffic, the former averaging 56 per cent., and the latter 44 per cent. of the whole receipts. These proportions are identical with those of England alone, whilst they differ widely from those of Scotland and Ireland individually. In Scotland there is much more goods than passenger traffic; in Ireland there is more passenger than goods traffic; whilst the proportions of traffic in England represent the average of Scotland and Ireland together. The gross receipts per mile for England, Scotland, and Ireland are in the ratio of 3, 2, 1; and the total average is L27.15 per mile per annum, or L52 per mile per week. The goods-receipts are shown to be absolutely greater than the receipts from passengers. This preponderance of goods-receipts has been the growth of years, the increase of goods-traffic having from the first been greater than that Passenger of the passenger-traffic. The proportional receipts in 1849 and Goods and 1857 may be thus contrasted:

| Traffic | 1849 Per Cent. | 1857 Per Cent. | |---------|---------------|---------------| | Passenger receipts | 53 | 44 | | Goods receipts | 47 | 56 | | Total | 100 | 100 |

The following table affords a summary of the expenditure of railways, as to the amount of working expenses per mile, per annum, and per train-mile run, as well as the proportion of working expenses, in Great Britain and Ireland, during 1857:

### Working Expenses for the Year 1857

| Countries | Maintenance of Way | Locomotive and Carrying Stock | Traffic Charges | Miscellaneous Including Police, Veterinary, Compensation, &c. | Rates and Government Duty | Total | Corresponding Receipts from Traffic | Proportion of Expenditure to Receipts | |-----------|--------------------|-------------------------------|----------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|-------|------------------------------------|-------------------------------------| | England | £1,533,259 | £3,701,238 | £2,563,837 | £1,191,971 | £717,193 | £9,707,498 | £20,195,460 | 48 | | Scotland | 155,055 | 444,414 | 249,986 | 183,021 | 61,484 | 1,093,970 | 2,488,890 | 44 | | Ireland | 63,998 | 190,172 | 110,381 | 54,124 | (no duty) | 438,771 | 1,139,296 | 33 | | **Total** | **1,752,322** | **4,335,824** | **2,924,204** | **1,429,116** | **798,773** | **11,210,239** | **23,821,646** | **47** |

### Working Expenses per Mile per Annum

| Countries | L | L | L | L | L | L | |-----------|---|---|---|---|---|---| | England | 247| 597| 413| 152| 115| 1564| | Scotland | 133| 382| 215| 158| 53 | 941 | | Ireland | 68 | 202| 117| 57 | 21 | 465 | | **Total** | **208**| **515**| **347**| **170**| **95**| **1335**|

### Working Expenses per Train-Mile Run

| Countries | d. | d. | d. | d. | d. | d. | |-----------|----|----|----|----|----|----| | England | 59 | 8-9| 4-1| 2-6| 32-8| | Scotland | 4-3| 6-2| 4-6| 1-7| 2-3 | | Ireland | 3-6| 6-2| 3-1| 1-2| 2-9 |

### Proportion of Working Expenses

| Countries | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Per Cent. | Total | |-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------| | England | 15-5 | 38-4 | 26-3 | 12-7 | 7-1 | 100 | | Scotland | 14-2 | 40-6 | 22-9 | 16-7 | 5-6 | 100 | | Ireland | 14-6 | 43-3 | 25-2 | 12-3 | 4-6 | 100 | | **Total** | **15-5** | **38-4** | **26-3** | **12-7** | **7-1** | **100**|

Note.—The receipts of such railways as have not made public their working expenses are not included in this table.

The appropriation of the gross receipts to working expenses, interest, and dividend, would therefore be as follows:

| Item | Per Cent. of Gross Receipts | |-----------------------|-----------------------------| | Maintenance of way | 7-3 | | Locomotive and carrying stock | 18-0 | | Traffic department | 12-4 | | Miscellaneous | 6-6 | | Rates, &c. | 3-3 | | Total working expenses| 47 | | Interest on preference stock and loans | 27 | | Balance available as dividend on ordinary share capital | 26 | | **Gross receipts** | **100** |

The relative receipts and expenditure per train, as reported, are as follows:

| Countries | Passengers | Goods | Total | |-----------|------------|-------|-------| | England | 64-8 | 76-0 | 70-3 | | Scotland | 62-6 | 67-0 | 65-0 | | Ireland | 54-5 | 82-0 | 60-7 |

| Countries | Expenditure | Per Cent. of Receipts | Surplus Receipts | |-----------|-------------|-----------------------|------------------| | England | 32-3 | 48 | 37-5 | | Scotland | 28-3 | 44 | 36-7 | | Ireland | 24-9 | 38 | 35-8 | Analysis of Locomotive Expenses.—The average cost of locomotive power has been found to be approximately 8½d. per train-mile, passengers and goods; it is greater for main lines and less for secondary lines. The following are the usual proportions of the locomotive expenditure on principal lines for working, repairs, and renewals:

| Item | Passengers per Train-Mile | Goods-Engines per Train-Mile | |-------------------------------------------|--------------------------|------------------------------| | Wages of enginemen and firemen, cleaning, oil, tallow, water, coking-wages | 25 | 25 | | Coke, at 16s. per ton | 20 | 40 | | Repairs and renewals, including general charges | 40 | 45 |

It will be observed that the element of coke for fuel is a very important item of expense; and as the average cost of coke fit for railway purposes is more than double that of coal, it has become a desideratum to substitute coal for coke, in order to reduce the working expenses of railways. The difficulty hitherto in effecting this desirable object has consisted in the smoke discharged from coal, which is forbidden to be emitted on railways by act of Parliament. There is no doubt of the nuisance of coal-smoke, and of the desirability of extinguishing it; and Mr Joseph Beattie of the London and South-Western Railway has laboured since 1853, with much success, at the problem of smoke prevention on railways. Mr Sylvester Lees and others have followed in his track; and more recently, in 1857, Mr D. K. Clark introduced a method of burning coal without smoke by means of steam-induced air-currents, delivered into the fire-box above the fuel, and amongst the smoke; a plan which has operated successfully in consuming the smoke, and in promoting the efficiency of the engine. In the course of a few years longer there is no doubt that coke will be generally superseded by coal on railways. By the proper use of coal, half the cost of fuel will be saved, say an average of 1½d. per train-mile, which, upon 83,000,000 miles, would amount to a saving of L700,000 per annum in the item of fuel alone, and would raise the available dividend on the original capital of railways nearly one-half per cent. (See Steam-Engine.)

THE DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF TRAFFIC.

The statistics of traffic returns of railways in the United Kingdom, since 1842, indicate a remarkably steady and rapid increase of traffic. In 1842 the total receipts amounted to upwards of L4,250,000 sterling; in 1852 they were nearly L16,000,000; and in the five years ending 1857 they were as follows:

| Year | Average Miles Open | Gross Receipts | Receipts per Mile | Receipts per Mile per Week | |------|--------------------|----------------|------------------|---------------------------| | 1843 | 7488 | 18,035,879 | 2408 | 46 | | 1854 | 7846 | 20,215,724 | 2577 | 49 | | 1855 | 8177 | 21,597,599 | 2630 | 51 | | 1856 | 8592 | 23,165,493 | 2725 | 52·4 | | 1857 | 8901 | 24,174,616 | 2716 | 52·2 |

Showing an increase of one-third in the gross receipts since 1853, with an increase of one-fifth in the miles open. The receipts per mile increase, notwithstanding their continual dilution by the infusion of new lines. These results, taken together, indicate the inherent elasticity of the railway system, and its seemingly inexhaustible resources.

As the main trunk-lines constitute the foundation of the railway system, so also those which converge towards and terminate in London—the metropolitan lines—are more important than the provincial lines. The county of Middlesex contained, according to census, in 1851, a population of nearly 2,000,000, or fully one-tenth of the whole population of England and Wales. London is the great heart of the country, and is the chief centre of commerce; and as, moreover, the metropolitan railways, taken together, possess a greater variety of traffic than others, they will be selected as the basis of the subsequent discussions, illustrative of the growing magnitude and distribution of traffic. Now it appears that, on the metropolitan railways, nine in number, including the London and Blackwall and North London, the following were the receipts for the four years ending 1857:

| Year | Average Miles Open | Gross Receipts | Receipts per Mile | Receipts per Mile per Week | |------|--------------------|----------------|------------------|---------------------------| | 1854 | 2579 | 9,344,425 | 3627 | 70 | | 1855 | 2664 | 9,920,609 | 3724 | 72 | | 1856 | 2778 | 10,559,638 | 3801 | 73 | | 1857 | 2834 | 10,743,118 | 3792 | 73 |

The metropolitan railway mileage, it may be noted, constitutes one-third of the total mileage, whilst it produces nearly half the whole traffic receipts in the country; inasmuch that the receipts per metropolitan mile are two-fifths more than the gross average receipts per mile. Again, it appears that 35 per cent. of the total increase of receipts during the four years 1854-57 was acquired from only 32 per cent. of the average mileage; and but for the baleful competition during 1856-7 between the London and North-Western and Great Northern companies, the proportion of increase would have been more nearly 45 per cent. Whether the increase of receipts be compared with the total increase or with the mileage, the traffic of the metropolitan railways increases the most rapidly, as it is also of the greatest absolute magnitude.

Separating, further, what may be distinguished as the coast lines to the south and east (the Eastern Counties, South-Eastern, Brighton, and South-Western) from the interior lines to the north and west (the London and North-Western, the Great Western, Great Northern, Blackwall, and North London), the receipts of the metropolitan lines may be thus classified and compared with the receipts in other parts of the United Kingdom for 1857:

| Line | Average Miles Open | Receipts per Mile | Receipts per Mile per Week | |-------------------------------|--------------------|------------------|---------------------------| | Metropolitan interior lines | 1315 | L86·5 | | | Metropolitan coast lines | 1319 | | | | Other English lines not included in the above | 3619 | | 51·5 | | Scottish railways | 1183 | | 40·5 | | Irish railways | 1044 | | 21·9 |

This comparative statement shows that the densest traffic in England, averaging L86, 10s. per mile over 1315 miles, lies to the north and west of the metropolis; that the railway traffic of the country is very partially distributed, and that, taking London as the great focus, the traffic radiates and converges in all directions with generally decreasing intensity as the distance from London increases. The northern and western districts, it is true, were in 1857 more freely supplied with railway communication than the southern and eastern districts. But the chief concern of the railway economist is to equalize the flow of the traffic, and, with this design, to provide a sufficiency and suitable localization of converging lines. It is easy to foresee that a third line between London and Oxford, on the narrow gauge, occupying the territory between the London and North-Western and Great Western railways, shall be one day constructed as a direct outlet for the densely-crowded traffic of the north-western districts. A railway was in fact projected with this object, and a bill applied for in 1853; but the bill was thrown out under the combined opposition of the neighbouring railway companies,—the opposition of party, with the bugbear cry of injurious competition.

The capacity of a railway for traffic is regulated by the number and weight of the trains, by the speed at which they can be run, by the degree of punctuality of their arrivals and departures at all the stations, and by the length of the line. The number of trains must be limited ultimately by the contingencies of the traffic, and the regularity with which they can be propelled; for the same conditions of safety and expedition which require the use of distinct up and down lines, operate also in limiting the number of trains per day moving in the same direction. A margin must be allowed for unforeseen delays and the want of absolute punctuality; and therefore some fixed intervals must be adopted as the minimum period of time which can be interposed between the starting of successive trains from a terminus.

The weight of the trains is another important element, and it is one which has been overlooked in the economy of railways. Heavy trains demand heavy engines, capable of drawing heavy loads and of keeping time. Now heavy engines at high speeds operate most injuriously upon the road, and so seriously as to have made it a matter of certain experience that the economical limits of engine-weight has on some lines been exceeded. The more nearly the speeds of trains can be approximated, the higher may the speeds be, and the greater the number which may be run, though of course the probability of accidents by collision or otherwise, at the higher speeds, is increased by unforeseen causes of irregularity. The reason is obvious; fast trains are not so shortly brought up as slow trains, and collisions are greatly more disastrous. The length of line also affects the capacity for traffic, as the contingencies of transit increase in proportion with the length; and the daily number of through trains should be less. The shorter the lines in general, the more frequent are the trains. Great and continuous length of line is then, so far, an element of weakness, as much of the traffic on every section of a long line depends upon the arrivals from other parts; and its safe and beneficial working must depend all the more upon the aid of the telegraph.

The traffic of the London and North-Western Railway affords ample illustration of the foregoing doctrine. The main line was partially opened in 1837, and in 1838 it was opened through. The traffic of this line sprang up from very small dimensions in 1837, and rapidly developed, as may be observed in the following historical summaries of the traffic. The daily numbers of trains to and from the principal termini or stations of different sections of the line, at successive intervals of years, were as follows:

| Railways | 1837 | 1848 | 1852 | 1857 | |-------------------|------|------|------|------| | London (Euston) | | | | | | Stafford | | | | | | Manchester | | | | | | Total | 59 | 172 | 292 | 109 |

The average weight of engines working these trains varied from 7 tons in 1831, to 18 or 19 tons in 1848. In 1852 the weight of engines, with tenders, averaged 36 tons at Euston, 28 tons at Stafford, and 32 tons at Manchester; and in 1857 the average of engine and tender rose to about 40 tons at Euston. The running speed of goods trains averaged from 10 miles per hour in 1831 to 20 miles per hour in 1848-57. The average weight of trains, without engine and tender, was as follows:

| Railways | Trains | Tons | Tons | Tons | Tons | |-------------------|--------|------|------|------|------| | London | Passenger | 45 | 57 | 72 | 87 | 140 | | | Goods | 112 | 141 | 72 | 87 | 140 | | Stafford | Passenger | 45 | 53 | 66 | 75 | | | | Goods | 118 | 159 | 66 | 75 | | | Manchester | Passenger | 11 | 55 | 58 | 64 | | | | Goods | 45 | 111 | 58 | 64 | |

These data show a great increase both in number and in weight of trains at all the stations,—from 172 trains per day in 1848, to 292 trains per day in 1852. Taking London trains for special analysis, there went into and out of Euston station 44 trains daily, averaging 72 tons weight, in 1848; 109 trains daily, averaging 140 tons weight, in 1857;—showing an increase to two and a half times the number, and to double the weight; or, upon the whole, to five times the magnitude of the London traffic, as it was in 1848, during the subsequent period of nine years. This appears an overwhelming rate of progress; and it looks still more formidable when it is considered that, into and out of London, during the period from 1848 to 1852, the daily number of trains increased 10½ per cent. per annum; 1852-57, 46; the weight per train increased, 1848-52, 4 tons; 1852-57, 11 tons; the whole train weight increased, 1848-52, about 1000 tons; 1852-57, 1500 tons per annum.

This statement plainly indicates that in the earlier stages of development, whilst yet the line was free and unburdened with business, the number of trains was freely increased to conduct the growing traffic, with a small increase in their weight; but that subsequently, as the line became crowded with trains, and the circulation of traffic embarrassed, the number of trains was much more slowly increased, whilst considerable additions were made to their weight; so much so, that the whole train-weight, indicating the general magnitude of the traffic, has increased in an accelerating ratio since 1848.

So early as 1849 the question of heavy engines and high speeds, incidental to the crowded traffic of the London and North-Western Railway, was one of considerable embarrassment in its engineering aspects. The effects on the rails and other parts of the permanent way, produced by the increased weight and speed of the engines and trains, had become very marked, and the deterioration of the road had increased very rapidly under the heavy engines introduced; and further, the immediate damage to both the road and the rolling stock, from high speed, outweighed, in positive loss to the company, the additional fare received. To remedy this state of affairs, it was proposed to reduce the number of passenger-trains, augmenting their weight and diminishing their speed, in order to give more scope for the working of the heavy goods-trains, which were often obliged, even at that time, to be taken at speeds of 25 to 30 miles per hour, though timed for 20 miles an hour. In dealing with the passenger traffic, it was proposed by the general manager to use the lighter class of engines for short local trains, and on branch lines to run fewer carriages with trains, by causing passengers to change their seats at junction instead of attaching the carriage itself; in connection with which it was found that the average capacity and actual number of passengers in the carriages, in 1848-9, were as follow:

| Class | Capacity for Passengers | Average Number of Passengers per Carriage | |-------------|-------------------------|------------------------------------------| | First class | 18 | 7 | | Second class| 25 | 13 | | Third class | 32 | 21 | It was obviously considered in 1849, that at that time the natural limits of the traffic of the London and North-Western Railway were, if not exceeded, at least, under the circumstances, fully attained.

Nevertheless, in 1853, as compared with 1849, the engine-mileage increased 16 per cent., merchandise and mineral tonnage 56 per cent., train-weight 33 per cent., and engine-weight practically 10 per cent., on the lines open in 1848. To provide for the working of this largely-increased traffic, many of the lighter engines were condemned as unfit for the purpose, and were replaced by heavier engines. Secondly, the road was made much stronger, with heavier rails and chairs, larger sleepers, deeper ballast, and better drainage. But the damage to the road, and cost of maintenance, notwithstanding its greater strength, has unavoidably increased; and it was estimated that in 1853 the "life" of the rails was reduced from 20 years to 15 years. Thirdly, The electric telegraph was extensively introduced over the line, the use of which greatly facilitated and economized the working of the traffic, and practically doubled the capacity of the railway for traffic.

In 1856 an extension of the system of telegraphic signaling, by detail sections, was applied and in operation over the entire distance from London to Rugby, 83 miles,—the section of greatest traffic,—upon a plan which was considered by Captain Huish in 1858, after two years' experience of its working, to be the nearest to perfection that could be arranged. A signal apparatus was stationed every 2½ miles on the whole distance; and every train as it comes upon a fresh length of 2½ miles is telegraphed forward to the next station in the series, and when it leaves that length its passage forward is telegraphed back to the station behind. By this means they have the power of preventing trains being within 2½ miles of each other, be their speed or irregularity what it may. This system of communication has conducted very materially to the safety of the line, and it inspires great confidence into the men whose duty it is to work the traffic. During fog, the telegraph apparatus is of inestimable utility, in conjunction with the use of fog-signals, which are fixed to the rails, and discharged with a loud report by the engine in passing over them. Captain Huish mentions that, during two days of such intense fog that a train could not be seen at the distance of its own length, 400 trains were run, without diminishing the speed, by the aid of the signals, and without accident. It was like a discharge of platoon firing from one end of the line to the other. In view of the formidable and increasing traffic, a third line of rails was in 1858 commenced to be laid down from London, for a distance of 5¼ miles, for the running of the goods and mineral trains, at slower and more economical speeds, without interfering with the rapid trains of the main line; and it was anticipated that the saving of tear and wear, by diminished speed, and the saving of shunting and delaying slow trains to let the fast trains pass, would pay the interest of the cost of the third line. There can be no doubt of the sound policy of this course.

Meantime, the pressure exerted upon the resources of the railway by the mixing of slow with fast trains, has driven the London and North-Western Railway Company to the expedient of working the majority of their slow or goods trains during the night, when the road is comparatively clear. Thus, the average number of passenger and of goods trains on the southern division, that passed Tring station, 32 miles from London, during the twenty-four hours, in April 1857, was as follows:

| Passenger Trains | Goods Trains | Total Trains | |------------------|--------------|--------------| | 6 A.M. to 12 noon | 10 2 | 7 | 22 2 | | 12 noon to 6 P.M.| 18 4 | 10 4 | 28 8 | | 6 P.M. to 12 midnight | 11 | 13 4 | 24 4 | | 12 midnight to 6 A.M. | 2 | 26 2 | 28 2 |

Day's total (specials extra) 47 6

Showing that the greater number are goods trains; that 26 goods trains, or nearly half their whole number, were run after midnight; and that the busiest periods of the 24 hours were after mid-day and after midnight, so equally and unavoidably was the traffic distributed over the day and night: the stupendous machine being in ceaseless operation, working double turns. The greatest average number of passing trains, about five per hour, indicates an arrival at average intervals of 12 minutes, or 24 minutes interval, each way, up and down. This appears a fair allowance of time, but it conceals the inequalities of speed and the unpunctualities of slow and fast trains. It was found, in the course of one week's observation at Tring station, that there were, in the arrivals of passenger-trains alone:—Up-trains, 18 arrivals behind time 5 minutes and upwards,—maximum lateness 34 minutes; down-trains, 29 arrivals behind time 5 minutes and upwards,—maximum lateness 16 minutes; in all, 47 late arrivals, or 8 per day,—being at the rate of one late arrival in six passenger trains, independently of the irregularities of goods trains. It is superfluous to dwell on the highly-disciplined organization which is demanded to insure the safe working of traffic so complicated and of such magnitude.

Such is, in brief, the material history of the most hardly-worked line in the kingdom,—a "representative" line—developing the successive stages of a growing traffic, and the successive contrivances and organizations to provide for it.

RAILWAY SPEEDS AND LOCOMOTIVE PERFORMANCES.

"Railway speed" is a variable quantity, varying in the same country, and different in different countries, according to the amount of business done and the relative value of time. The cost of transport is affected by the element of speed more, perhaps, than by any other condition:—the actual tractive force of engine necessary to draw a given train increases much faster than the ratio of the speed simply. At the higher speeds it increases nearly as the square of the speed. Thus, if an engine and tender, weighing together 32 tons, and exerting a given tractive force, takes, say, forty loaded carriages, weighing 290 tons, at 20 miles per hour on a level, the loads which it could take if it exerted the same tractive force at higher speeds, would be only as follows:

**On a Level.**

At 20 miles per hour, 40 carriages, weighing 290 tons.

| Speed | Carriages | Weight | |-------|-----------|--------| | 30 | 30 | 220 | | 40 | 21 | 160 | | 50 | 15 | 115 | | 60 | 11 | 85 | | 70 | 8 | 60 |

The influence of gradients, also, is very important. If an engine and tender, weighing together 32 tons, be capable of drawing a maximum train of, say, 56 loaded carriages, weighing 420 tons, at 20 miles per hour on a level, it would only draw the following loads, at the same speed, on the following inclines:

**At 20 Miles per Hour.**

Level............. 56 carriages, weighing 420 tons.

Incline 1 in 600, 45°... 340 1 in 300, 36°... 270 1 in 150, 27°... 200 1 in 120, 20°... 150 1 in 75, 16°... 120 1 in 50, 12°... 90 1 in 40, 9°... 65 1 in 30, 6°... 45 1 in 20, 3°... 24 1 in 10, nil... nil

It is here shown that, on an incline of 1 in 20, the engine would only be capable of taking up three loaded carriages, about 24 tons weight, and that on 1 in 10 its whole power in this particular case would be absorbed in pulling up its own weight. Hence the prime importance, in the early stages of railway experience, of constructing the gradients as nearly level as was practicable, as they absorbed, according to their steepness, large proportions of the power of the light engines of the time, in ascending hills; and that which would otherwise appear unwarrantable—the costly construction of the early railways by expensive tunnelling, viaducts, bridges, and cuttings, to approximate to the desired horizontal standard—is abundantly explained by the paramount necessity of usefully employing the limited power of the engines then constructed. This was the stand-point of the elder Stephenson; he maintained the superiority of "flat" gradients, and the sound policy of incurring a large expenditure in construction in order to avoid otherwise heavy inclines and heavy expenses. The ruling gradient of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was fixed at 1 in 900, excepting of course the inevitable incline at Rainhill summit, for working which special provision was made; that of the next great line, the London and Birmingham, was fixed at 1 in 330; and it is well known at what cost even this gradient, though considerably steeper than the Liverpool and Manchester, was obtained. It was the object of Mr. Stephenson to make this railway as mechanically perfect as possible, reducing the gradients to the minimum consistent with the conformation of the country. On the Great Western Railway, one of the earliest made lines, the ruling inclination is 1 in 1320 for the greater part of the way. Mr. Joseph Locke initiated the system of cheaply-constructed railways, as the facilities for increasing the power of locomotives became better understood; he constructed lines with long steep gradients, some of them 1 in 70, 1 in 75, 1 in 80. The Great Northern Railway, of comparatively recent origin, is constructed on a ruling gradient of 1 in 200; and in general the more recently made lines have the steepest gradients. Following thus the variable surface of the country, this system became known as the "undulating system," and it has even been deemed preferable to the system of perfect or approximate levels, being supposed to afford breathing intervals, as was thoroughly understood in coach-driving, when the horses were eased by "getting the shoulder off the collar," going down-hill. The analogy is not sound; an engine never tires, and its power does not necessarily fluctuate like horses' power. The question of levels versus gradients appears to involve the question of straight lines versus curves; for, inasmuch as steep railways are generally also lines of frequent curves, which by common consent operate very prejudicially in absorbing locomotive power, the question is rather as between gradients and curves on the one part, and levels and straight lines on the other part. Moreover, the ruling speeds, as they may be called, have in the course of years increased. The question is not susceptible of a comprehensive and satisfactory solution otherwise than by means of a comparative analysis of all the elements of working expenses during a series of years.

**Working Speeds of Passenger-Trains.**—The average speed of express trains, including stoppages, varies from 36 to 42 miles per hour; and of parliamentary trains, stopping at all the stations, the average speed, including stoppages, varies from 17 to 21 miles per hour. The speeds of ordinary trains are intermediate between those of express and parliamentary trains, dependent on the frequency of the stoppages.

If the delays incurred by stoppages be allowed for in bringing up express trains, and in getting up the speed, for which four minutes per stoppage may be allowed, and also the time standing at stations, the average speed while running with steam on, would vary from 42 to 48 miles per hour. The following are the comparative speeds of express trains on the broad and narrow gauges in 1859:

| Gauge | Train Type | Average Speed Including Stoppages | Average Full Speed While Running | |----------------|------------------|-----------------------------------|----------------------------------| | Broad Gauge | London and Birmingham | 42 | 45 | | | Average | 37 | 45 | | Narrow Gauge | London and Brighton | 40-4 | 45 | | | Average | 38-5 | 45 |

The average full speed on the Great Northern Railway (narrow gauge) is 47 miles per hour, and a speed of 62 miles per hour is frequently run. During periods of active competition the trains on the Great Western Railway (broad gauge) have been run at a speed of 65 miles per hour. But, such a high speed can only be run, with any pretension to safety, on the best parts of the lines, free of curves, and with the road in first-rate order. The average practice in speeds of passenger-trains appears to be the same on the broad and the narrow gauges.

**Working Speeds of Goods Trains.**—The ordinary average progress of goods-trains, including all detentions, varies from 10 to 18 miles per hour over long distances. The ordinary actual speed while running varies from 15 to 25 miles per hour; 20 miles per hour is a common running speed. The very large goods-traffic of the London and North-Western and Great Northern Railways is conducted at higher than average speeds, in order to clear the passenger traffic—15 to 20 miles per hour, including stoppages, and frequently at a running speed of 30 to 35 miles per hour, or occasionally 40 miles per hour when the stoppages are long.

**Locomotive Performances.**—The duty and performance of locomotive engines vary materially, as may be supposed, on different lines, according to the nature and extent of the traffic. The following are a few characteristic performances on different railways.

London and North-Western Railway, southern division. The principal passenger trains have been classified thus:

| Description of Train | Number of Carriages | Train Weight | Running Speed | Number of Stoppages | |----------------------|---------------------|--------------|---------------|--------------------| | Express | 9 | 45 | 42 | | | Day mail | 13 | 66 | 38 | 5 | | Night mail | 17 | 86 | 34 | 7 | | Stopping train | 21 | 106 | 31 | 9 | | Heavy stopping train | 25 | 126 | 23 | 11 | | Extra train | 34 | 171 | 36 | 5 |

The average speed, including stoppages, and the consumption of coke per mile run, are as follows:

| Description of Train | Average Speed | Consumption of Coke per Mile Run | |----------------------|---------------|----------------------------------| | Express | 39 | 21 | | Day mail | 33 | 30-6 | | Night mail | 31 | 26-6 | | Stopping train | 27 | 30-6 | | Heavy stopping train | 26 | 29-2 | | Extra train | 33 | 42-3 |

Goods-trains have been run from Rugby to London (81½ miles) with the following results:

| Description of Train | Number of Wagons | Train Weight (tons) | Running Speed (miles per hour) | Number of Stoppages | |----------------------|------------------|---------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------| | 1st Goods Train | 63 | 450 | 17 | 10 |

The average speeds, including stoppages, and the consumption of coke, were as follows: The coal-trains on the London and North-Western, Midland, and Great Northern railways, are generally made up of 30 to 35 waggons, carrying each 6 or 7 tons of coal, or a total load of 200 to 240 tons coal, amounting to a total train-weight of 400 tons. This train is taken by a six-wheel coupled goods-engine, with two steam-cylinders, 16 inches diameter, and 24 inches stroke, and 5 feet wheels, weighing 30 to 32 tons, with a tender 13 to 15 tons. The gross weight of engine, tender, and train, is therefore about 445 tons, which ascends inclines of 1 in 200 at a speed of 10 to 15 miles per hour, and travels the entire route to the metropolis, including stoppages, at a speed of 18 miles per hour. The steam-pressure in the boiler is usually 120 lb. per square inch; but on the Great Northern Railway 140 lb. steam is employed in the goods-engines, and they can take a train of 40 loaded waggons, carrying 290 tons of coal, weighing altogether 455 tons, or, with engine and tender, 500 tons gross, up an incline of 1 in 178 at 10 miles per hour, and otherwise perform the whole journey in good time.

The Lickey incline of the Birmingham and Gloucester line is 2½ miles in length; gradient, 1 in 37. A tank-engine, with cylinders 17 inches diameter and 24 inches stroke, with 4 feet-4 inch coupled wheels, can take a train-weight of 134 tons, or a total gross weight, including the engine, of 168 tons, at 8 miles per hour. The exertion of engine-power to perform this duty would be equal to the traction of a gross weight of seven times the amount, or nearly 1200 tons, on a level.

The Kittybrewster incline, on the Great North of Scotland Railway at Aberdeen, is made on a gradient of 1 in 59, with quick curves, and about 2 miles long. A tank-engine, with cylinders 15 inches diameter and 24 inches stroke, and four 4½ feet coupled wheels, weighing 25 tons, can take up a train-weight of 200 tons at 10 miles per hour, equivalent to a gross weight of 900 tons on a level.

But perhaps the most extraordinary example of a dead pull by one engine is to be seen on the Vale of Neath Railway, broad gauge, with a gradient of 1 in 90, worked by a six-wheel coupled tank-engine weighing 40 tons, with cylinders 17 inches diameter and 24 inches stroke, wheels 4 feet 9 inches diameter. This engine can take up the incline, 1 in 90, a train of 25 loaded waggons, 15 tons each, or 375 tons total, and, with the engine, 415 tons gross,—equivalent to a gross weight of 1245 tons on a level.

A goods-engine, working at full power, exerts a tractive force of 10,000 to 12,000 lb., or about 5 tons pull on the train; so that a pull of 5 tons from the engine suffices to draw behind it 1000 tons on a level.

A tractive force of 10 or 12 lb. is capable of drawing 1 ton on a level at 10 miles per hour. At 60 miles per hour the required tractive force is about 45 lb. for 1 ton of gross weight.

ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS.

The question of railway accidents involves the whole question of railway management in detail. Accidents may be called the weak points of the system, where imperfection is manifested, where failure crops out, and where the line of demarcation may be drawn between the practicable and the impracticable. "If the road is perfect," says Captain Huish, "if the engine is perfect, if the carriages are perfect, and I will go on to say, if the signalman is perfect, and if everything about the railway is perfect, almost any amount of speed that can be got out of an engine may be done with safety." But we deal not with theoretical excellence, but with practical facts, and none of these things are perfect; and in a large machine like a railway they cannot always be kept perfect." "The question of railway communication," he adds, "divides itself into two great parts:—there is the great commercial principle involved, there is the great public principle of safety and convenience." The adjustment of the claims of the proprietors, who look for a return for their money on the one part, and the claims of the public looking for increased accommodation on the other part,—this is an expression of the whole question, and involves of course the consideration of railway accidents.

Safety to life and limb is of course the most important consideration in the working of railway traffic. Yet the problem is substantially this:—there are upwards of 140 millions of passengers and 70 million tons of goods per annum conveyed over our railways; assumed that all these must be transported by railway, what is the best way to do it? It must at the best be by a species of compromise; there must be a limit to tentative measures, there must be a risk. "If you do not go at all," says Mr Seymour Clarke, "there is no risk of an accident; if you go one mile an hour it is more risky than if you stand still; it is a natural attendant upon all travelling that there is a liability to accident of some sort." And, again, Mr Locke thinks "that where you have the certainty of inflicting an inconvenience on the public by a prospective advantage in the saving of an accident, you should be very careful how you entail a perpetually recurring inconvenience for the sake of preventing an accident which may never arise."

The evidence adduced before the select committee of the House of Commons on railway accidents in 1858, from which the foregoing extracts have been made, has led the committee to the conclusion, that accidents on railways arise from three causes:—inattention of servants; defective material, either in the works or the rolling stock; and excessive speed. Of the accidents reported to the Board of Trade that happened in 1857, there appears to have been twice as many by collision between trains as by running off the rails; and of the accidents by collision, five-sixths took place between passenger-trains and goods-trains; and only about one-sixth between passenger-trains, one against another. It further appears that a very small proportion, not above one in twenty, of the accidents reported, have directly arisen from excessive speed, but in every case in conjunction with imperfections in the permanent way. It may be observed that the greater proportion, if not all of these accidents, may be traced primarily to the crowding of trains, timed for unequal speeds, and the want of punctuality, which involve the risk of every kind of accident as a consequence,—by a want of perfect manifestation or apprehension of signals, or by excessive speeds. As tentative measures, the free use of the electric telegraph for giving intelligence of the exact relative positions and circumstances of trains on the line, and the use of the most powerful brakes for bringing up the trains in the shortest practicable distance, are probably of the most urgent necessity. The admirable utility of the road-telegraph is undisputed; and Captain Galton adduces some remarkable illustrations of its beneficial operation in the entire prevention of accidents by collision on lines where it is thoroughly enforced, and where previously to its use such accidents were incurred. Perfect brakes are also indisputably promotive of safety in working traffic and in compensating for unavoidable irregularities. With the usual amount of braking power, a train at 50 miles per hour may not be stopped within 900 or 1200 yards. An instantaneous brake is not of course what is wanted; on the contrary, a length of 200 yards appears to be the shortest desirable space within which a train at 50 or 60 miles per hour should be stopped, so that the process of retardation should not be accompanied by the risk of Railway carriages over-riding each other, or of violence to the passengers; and this appears to have been accomplished on the Lancashire lines by Newall's and by Pay's brake; Chambers' and Champion's brake, applied to a series of carriages in a train, has been proved to be serviceable and efficient on the North London Railway, where it is employed in working the traffic of that line, than which there is not a more hardly-wrought line in the kingdom, in its special character of an omnibus line, with stations averaging a mile apart, at which all the trains are stopped, the journey being run at an average speed of 16½ miles per hour, including stoppages. There are other very powerful systems of train-brakes in operation. Steam-brakes applied to the locomotives and extended to the tenders, and even to the brake-vans, have been found beneficial, and capable of stopping a train within half the usual distance.

The general adoption of a simple method of communication between the guard and the driver of a train in motion is a desideratum. There are various plans obvious and sufficient enough, but it would appear that, to insure their adoption by all railway companies, legislative interference must be invoked.

RAILWAY LEGISLATION.

Since Parliament began to legislate for railways, a multitude of laws have been placed upon the statute-book, which will certainly excite the wonder, if they fail to be the admiration, of future generations. The London and North-Western Railway alone is regulated by nearly two hundred different acts! Not only are the statutes numerous; they are irreconcilable in principle and detail. Several different select committees have, at various times, deliberately reported against the possibility of maintaining competition between railways, and to this principle Parliament has as often assented. Yet, the practical operation of the laws which have received legislative sanction has been throughout, and at the same time, to negative this principle, by almost invariably allowing competition to be obtained wherever it has been sought. Whatever may have been the effect for the time, the competition which Parliament permitted has generally been terminated by combination. As Mr Stephenson puts it:—"Where combination is possible, competition is impossible."

The expenses, direct and incidental, of obtaining an act of Parliament have been in many cases enormous, and generally are excessive. There are three parties responsible for such extravagance,—Parliament itself, the railway companies, and the landowners. In 1855, it was shown, by a return of Mr Hadfield, which was, however, far from complete, that the amount expended by existing railway companies in obtaining the acts of Parliament by which they are incorporated was no less, in parliamentary, legal, and engineering costs, than fourteen millions sterling! The adherence to useless and expensive forms by parliamentary committees, in what are called the standing orders, or general regulations for the observance of promoters of railway bills, on the one part, and the itching for opposition of railway companies, to resist fancied invasion on vested rights, and supposed injurious competition, on the other part, have been amongst the chief sources of excessive expenditure. By a return of Colonel Wilson Patten, in 1859, it was shown that the parliamentary expenses alone, incurred by railway companies owning L263,000,000 capital, amounted to about 8½ millions sterling, or 3·2 per cent. Mr Stephenson mentions an instance showing how Parliament has entailed expense upon railway companies by the system complained of. The Trent Valley Railway was, under other titles, originally proposed in 1836. It was, however, thrown out by the standing orders committee, in consequence of a barn, of the value of L10, which was shown upon the general plan, not having been exhibited upon an enlarged sheet. In 1840, the line again went before Parliament. It was opposed by the Grand Junction Railway Company, now part of the London and North-Western. No less than 450 allegations were made against it before the standing orders sub-committee, which was engaged twenty-two days in considering those objections. They ultimately reported that four or five of the allegations were proved, but the committee nevertheless allowed the bill to proceed. It was read a second time and then went into committee, by whom it was under consideration for sixty-three days; and ultimately Parliament was prorogued before the report could be made. Such were the delays and consequent expenses which the forms of the House occasioned in this case, that it may be doubted if the ultimate cost of constructing the whole line was very much more than the amount expended in obtaining permission from Parliament to make it. This example serves to show the expensive formalities, the delays, and difficulties, with which Parliament surround railway legislation. Another instance, quoted by the same authority, will show not only the absurdity of the system of legislation, but also the afflicting spirit of competition and opposition with which railway bills are canvassed in Parliament, and the expensive outlay incurred by companies themselves.

In 1845, a bill for a line now existing went before Parliament, with eighteen competitors, each party relying on the wisdom of Parliament to allow their bill at least to pass a second reading! Nineteen different parties condemned to one scene of contentious litigation! They each and all had to pay not only the costs of promoting their own line, but also the costs of opposing eighteen other bills. And yet, conscious as government must have been of this fact, Parliament deliberately abandoned the only step it ever took on any occasion of subjecting railway projects to investigation by a preliminary tribunal. Parliamentary committees generally satisfied themselves with looking on and watching the ruinous game of competition for which the public are ultimately to pay. In fact, railway legislation became a mere scramble, conducted on no system or principle. Schemes of sound character were allowed to be defeated on merely technical grounds, and others of very inferior character were sanctioned by public act, after enormous parliamentary expenses had been incurred. Competing lines were granted,—sometimes parallel lines through the same district, and between the same towns.

The following are the costs incurred in obtaining the original acts of some of the older railway companies:

| Company | Cost | |------------------------------|--------| | Great Western Railway act | L88,710| | London and Birmingham act | 72,868 | | Eastern Counties act | 45,190 |

It is not, of course, to be ignored that the parliamentary agents and the general body of lawyers—solicitors, conveyancers, and council—concerned in railway enterprise, get up and carry out new lines and branches as a matter of business, and that they necessarily profit by the complications and delays incidental to parliamentary routine. It has been found that in past years legal and parliamentary expenses have varied from L650 to L3000 per mile. In one contest, L57,000 was spent amongst six counsel and twenty solicitors. The sum expended by one company alone in nine years, in legal and parliamentary expenses, had reached L480,000, averaging L53,300 a year. Notwithstanding the greatly diminished cost of railway-making in more recent times, the average capital expenditure on railways has, as formerly observed, been nearly maintained, by otherwise excessive expenses, at the same high rate,—having amounted in the end of 1857 to L35,000 per mile.

But the expenses incurred through the opposition of railway companies amongst themselves, influenced by the The bill was before the Upper House between three and four weeks; and in the same year (1846) it was granted. The promoters of the rival projects were bought off, and all their expenses paid, including the costs of the opposition of the neighbouring lines already named, before the Great Northern bill was passed; and the "preliminary expenses," comprising the whole expenditure of every kind up to the passing of the bill, was £590,355, or more than half a million sterling, incurred at the end of two years of litigation. Since the passing of the act an additional sum of £172,722 has been expended for "law and engineering expenses in Parliament" to 31st December 1857, which has been spent almost wholly in obtaining leave from Parliament to make various alterations. Thus it would appear that a sum total of £763,077 was spent as parliamentary charges for obtaining leave to construct 245 miles, being at a rate of £3115 per mile.

During the same period, the payments made by the Great Northern Railway Company for "land compensation" amounted to £1,901,371, or nearly two millions sterling, at the rate of £7760 per mile. The parliamentary and land compensation charges together make a sum of £2,664,448, or £10,875 per mile of the original line. The total payments on capital account were £1,112,299,300; and of this amount, those items constitute the formidable proportion of 23½ per cent., being nearly one-fourth of the capital forestalled before the ground was broken.

The particulars of the Peebles Railway may next be quoted in contrast to those of other lines, as a perfect example of economical construction and legitimate expenditure. The railway is a single line, 18¾ miles in length, from Peebles station to the point of junction with the North British Railway at Eskbank station, 8 miles from Edinburgh. There was no opposition to the project in any quarter, and the landowners agreed to give the lands required at thirty-five years' purchase of the agricultural value,—the value and severance damage being fixed by arbitration. Nor did the turnpike-road trustees make any claim for damages. The act was passed in July 1853, and the actual cost of obtaining it was only £650, no fees to counsel having been found necessary. The total parliamentary expenses, up to the obtaining of the act, was £1569; but further expenses were incurred in 1857 in applying for power to raise new capital. The charges for land and compensation amounted to £21,222, or £1131 per mile. Seven stations, with approaches, including Peebles station, averaging one for every 2¾ miles, were built at an average cost of about £1200 each. The works were constructed for about £3600 per mile, and the locomotive and carrying stock cost about £1000 per mile. The railway was opened in July 1855, two years after the passing of the act. The total cost at the end of 1858 amounted to £6688 per mile, of which the following is an analysis:

| Item | Total | Per Mile | |-------------------------------------------|---------|----------| | Preliminary and parliamentary expenses | £2,753 | £1,147 | | Engineering and surveying | 2,400 | 128 | | Land and compensation | 21,222 | 1131 | | Works | 67,157 | 3382 | | Stations, sheds, &c. | 8,352 | 445 | | Interest | 263 | 14 | | General charges | 1,494 | 76 | | Electric telegraph | 710 | 38 | | Machinery | 259 | 14 | | Locomotive and carrying stock | 20,590 | 1098 |

Total capital cost in 1858........£125,410 £6688

Reform in Railway Legislation.—In 1858 a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider the best means of amending the tribunal for the examination of railway bills. One object was to diminish the time and labour of the members of committees on railway bills; the other was to diminish the cost of the pro-

Railway proceedings. From the evidence taken it appeared generally that there was a want of consistency and uniformity of principle in the modes of dealing with railway bills by committees of the House, and also a needless expenditure of time and money, in consequence of the changing elements of committees, and their want of experience; that the permanent appointment of paid chairmen of character and experience would considerably expedite the business of committees, and diminish expenses, principally from their being able to direct the inquiry, to conduct deliberations, to prevent irrelevancy, to restrain superfluous evidence, and to keep counsel in check. It was also suggested, that all parties should be allowed to appear in opposition before committees, and that the check upon the abuse of that privilege should be the power of examining witnesses on oath, as is done before committees of the Upper House, and of awarding costs in cases of vexatious or unnecessary proceedings. It appeared in evidence that during the eleven years 1847-57 the number of railway bills introduced was 913, or 83 per annum, on which the committees sat 1676 days, or 152 days per annum. The committee reported in favour of a few obvious expedients suggested by the evidence, but did not deal with the essential elements of reform,—namely, the recognition of a permanent tribunal or, at all events, of permanent chairmen or judges, and the power of awarding costs.

Mr Stephenson, in 1856, suggested that, instead of leaving the treatment of railway bills to inexperienced tribunals,—the ordinary parliamentary committees,—a mixed commission should be organized of practical men of acknowledged legal, commercial, and mechanical ability, willing to devote its attention to railway subjects only. "Give us," he said, "a tribunal competent to form a sound opinion. Commit to that tribunal, with any restrictions you think necessary, the whole of the great questions appertaining to our system. Let it protect private interests, apart from railways; let it judge of the desirability of all initiative measures, of all proposals for purchases, amalgamations, or other railway arrangements; delegate to it the power of enforcing such regulations and restrictions as may be thought needful to secure the rights of private persons, or of the public; devolve on it the duty of consolidating, if possible, the railway laws, and of making such amendments therein as the public interests and the property now depending upon the system may require; give it full delegated authority over us in any way you please; all we ask is, that it shall be a tribunal that is impartial, and that is thoroughly informed; and if impartiality and intelligence are secured, we do not fear the results." Mr Stephenson, apprehends, nevertheless, that any such tribunal appointed by government would fail to give adequate security for the proper fulfilment of the high duties which they would have to perform. Probably such an intermediate course as that suggested in the evidence, already alluded to, before the committee on railway legislation, would be advisable, as a preliminary step to a more perfect institution. No one will doubt, after the experience of the last 30 years, that it would have been better for the railways had they never appeared against each other at all; for it is clear that the money which has been spent unproductively, in opposition before committees, would have been economized. It is obvious that the reduction of dividends to less than one-half of their former amount by a course of fruitless litigation and profitless accumulation of capital, which has nothing to show for it, had better have been effected by doubling the extent of railway communication and subdividing the traffic, even supposing such a declension of dividend to follow of necessity the extension of railways. The fact is, however, that the dividends would have continued undiminished under liberal management, even with all the additional new lines, because the business of the old-established lines really has not declined, but, on the contrary, has wonderfully and unexpectedly augmented.

MANAGEMENT OF RAILWAYS.

Railways, as a system, have been upwards of twenty years in operation, and have been wrought with various degrees of success. In all that appeals directly to common-sense, common feeling, discretion, judgment, and reputation, railways have upon the whole been successfully and creditably managed. They have, however, been afflicted with the worst evil characteristic of joint-stock management, of which the central vice and weakness may be expressed in a few words,—namely, that the interests of the managing class are different and distinct from those of the proprietary body. Mr Stephenson, sensible of the defects of the prevailing system of management, promulgated in 1856 a plan of working railways on lease, which appears to provide for the real necessities of the situation. "Looking at the question in a broad point of view," he says, "the consideration occurs, whether it might not be possible, by some operation analogous to that of a trading company under the Limited Liability Act, to give an entirely new and greatly improved character to the relations between shareholders and managers? Suppose a limited number of men of business, varying say from ten to twenty, and capable of giving good security, agreed together to take a line from the shareholders at a fixed rental. They might depute their management to two or three of their own body; or even, if the line was short, to one gratuit. Under such circumstances there would be no clamour from shareholders at half-yearly meetings—no sudden changes of directorates, involving ruinous alterations of policy,—no cabals between one set of directors and another,—and no mischievous interferences with the development of the system. The manager, free from the apprehension of being saddled personally with all the responsibility and liability, would be able to embark in enterprises not comprehended in the terms of the act of Parliament, but essential to the prosperity of their line." "They would be free from apprehensions as to the liabilities they incurred; and whilst they would not be turned from their course of policy by the outcry of any discontented individual able to make his voice heard through any public channel, they would give practical security that the public interests would be consulted, because the interests of the public and those of the managers would be in every respect identical." These important observations point precisely to the general principle essential to permanent success; and it may be added that they are confirmed by the great authority of Mr Bidder, who has frequently directed his large capacity and pure analytical mind to the most complicated and most delicate questions of railway policy.

(The following authorities have been consulted in the preparation of this article:—Report of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, 1857; Report of the Select Committee of Parliament on Railway and Canal Legislation, 1858; Report of the Select Committee of Parliament on Accidents on Railways, 1858; Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1850-1858: "Permanent Way," "Railway Stations," "Railway Accidents"; Address of Mr Stephenson as president; Address of Mr Locke as president; Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1851-58: "Railway Carrying Stock," "Locomotive Workshops," "Railway Machinery," by D. K. Clark, 1855; Statistics of Metropolitan Railways, by D. K. Clark, 1853; European Railways, by Holley and Colburn, 1857; On Deterioration of Railway Plant and Road, by Mark Huish, 1849; Railways, their Capital and Dividends, by E. D. Chattaway, 1856.)