CHAPTER SIX.
HISTORY OF THE IRON HORSE.
Having gone thus far in our tale, permit us, good reader, to turn asidefor a little to make a somewhat closer inspection of the Iron Horse andhis belongings.
Railways existed long before the Iron Horse was born. They sprang intobeing two centuries ago in the form of tramways, which at first werenothing more or less than planks or rails of timber laid down betweenthe Newcastle-on-Tyne collieries and the river, for the purpose offorming a better "way" over which to run the coal-trucks. From simpletimber-rails men soon advanced to planks having a strip of iron nailedon their surface to prevent too rapid tear and wear, but it was not tillthe year 1767 that cast-iron rails were introduced. In order to preventthe trucks from slipping off the line the rails were cast with anupright flange or guide at one side, and were laid on wooden or stonesleepers.
This form of rail being found inconvenient, the flange was transferredfrom the rails to the wheels, and this arrangement, under variousmodifications has been ever since retained.
These "innocent" railroads--as they have been sometimes and mostappropriately named, seeing that they were guiltless alike of blood andhigh speed--were drawn by horses, and confined at first to theconveyance of coals. Modest though their pretensions were, however,they were found to be an immense improvement on the ordinary roads,insomuch that ten horses were found to be capable of working the trafficon railroads, which it required 400 horses to perform on a common road.These iron roads, therefore, began to multiply, and about the beginningof the present century they were largely employed in the coal-fields andmineral districts of the kingdom. About the same time thoughtful men,seeing the immense advantage of such ways, began to suggest theformation of railways, or tramways, to run along the side of ourturnpike-roads--a mode of conveyance, by the way, in regard to towns,which thoughtful men are still, ever at the present day of supposedenlightenment, endeavouring to urge upon an unbelieving public--a modeof conveyance which we feel very confident will entirely supersede ourcumbrous and antiquated "'bus" in a very short time. What, we ask, inthe name of science and art and common-sense, is to prevent a tramwaybeing laid from Kensington to the Bank, "or elsewhere," which shall betraversed by a succession of roomy carriages following each other everyfive minutes; which tramway might be crossed and recrossed and run upon,or, in other words, used by all the other vehicles of London except whenthe rightful carriages were in the way? Nothing prevents, save thatsame unbelief which has obstructed the development of every good thingfrom the time that Noah built the ark! But we feel assured that thething shall be, and those who read this book may perhaps live to see it!
But to return. Among these thoughtful and far-seeing men was one DrJames Anderson, who in 1800 proposed the formation of railways by theroadsides, and he was so correct in his views that the plans which hesuggested of keeping the level, by going round the base of hills, orforming viaducts, or cutting tunnels, is precisely the method practisedby engineers of the present day. Two years later a Mr Edgeworthannounced that he had long before, "formed the project of laying ironrailways for baggage waggons on the great roads of England," and, inorder to prevent tear and wear, he proposed, instead of conveying heavyloads in one huge waggon, to have a train of small waggons. With themodesty of true genius, which never over-estimates or forms wildlysanguine expectations, he thought that each waggon might perhaps carryone ton and a half! Edgeworth also suggested that _passengers_ mighttravel by such a mode of conveyance. Bold man! What a goose manypeople of his day must have thought him. If they had been alive now,what geese they might have thought themselves. The Society of Arts,however, were in advance of their time. They rewarded Edgeworth withtheir gold medal.
This man seems to have been a transcendent genius, because he not onlydevised and made (on a small scale) iron railways, but proposed to takeordinary vehicles, such as mail-coaches and private carriages, on histrucks, and convey them along his line at the rate of six or eight milesan hour with one horse. He also propounded the idea of the employmentof stationary steam-engines (locomotives not having been dreamed of) todrag the trains up steep inclines.
Another semi-prophetic man of these days was Thomas Gray, of Leeds, whoin 1820 published a work on what he styled a "General Iron Railway, orLand Steam Conveyance, to supersede the necessity of Horses in allpublic vehicles, showing its vast superiority in every respect over thepresent pitiful Methods of Conveyance by Turnpike-Roads and Canals."Gray, whose mind appears to have been unusually comprehensive, proposeda system of railway communication between all the important cities andtowns in the kingdom, and pointed out the immense advantage that wouldbe gained to commerce by such a ready and rapid means of conveying fish,vegetables, and other perishable articles from place to place. He alsoshowed that two post deliveries in the day would become possible, andthat fire insurance companies would be able to promote their interestsby keeping railway fire-engines, ready to be transported to scenes ofconflagration without delay.
But Gray was not esteemed a prophet. His suggestions were not adoptednor his plans acted on, though unquestionably his wisdom and energy gavean impulse to railway development, of which we are reaping the benefitto-day. His labours were not in vain.
Horse railways soon began to multiply over the country. The firstauthorised by Act of Parliament was the Surrey Railway in 1801. Twentyyears later twenty lines of railway were in operation.
About this time, too, another man of note and of great scientific andmechanical sagacity lent his powerful aid to advance the interests ofthe railway cause. This was Charles Maclaren, of Edinburgh, editor ofthe _Scotsman_ newspaper for nearly thirty years. He had long foreseen,and boldly asserted his belief in, the certain success of steamlocomotion by rail, at a time when opinions such as his were scouted aswild delusive dreams. But he did more, he brought his able pen to bearon the subject, and in December 1825 published a series of articles inthe _Scotsman_ on the subject of railways, which were not onlyextensively quoted and republished in this country and in America, butwere deemed worthy of being translated into French and German, and sodisseminated over Europe. Mr Maclaren was thus among the foremost ofthose who gave a telling impulse to the cause at that critical periodwhen the Iron horse was about to be put on the rail--the right horse inthe right place--for it was not many years afterwards that thatauspicious event took place. Mr Maclaren not only advocated generallythe adoption of railways, but logically demonstrated the wonderfulpowers and capacities of the steam locomotive, arguing, from theexperiments on friction made more than half a century before by Vinceand Colomb, that by the use of steam-power on railroads a much morerapid and cheaper transit of persons as well as merchandise might beconfidently anticipated. He leaped far ahead of many of even the mosthopeful advocates of the cause, and with almost prophetic foresightwrote, "there is scarcely any limit to the rapidity of movement theseiron pathways will enable us to command." And again,--"We have spokenof vehicles travelling at twenty miles an hour; but we see no reason forthinking that, in the progress of improvement, a much higher velocitymight not be found practicable; and in twenty years hence a shopkeeperor mechanic, on the most ordinary occasion, may probably travel with aspeed that would leave the fleetest courser behind." Wonderful wordsthese! At a first glance we may not deem them so, being so familiarwith the ideas which they convey, but our estimate of them will be morejust if we reflect that when they were penned railways had scarcelysprung into being, steam locomotives had only just been born, and notonly men in general, but even many learned, scientific and practical menregarded the statement of all such opinions as being little short ofinsanity. Nevertheless, many deep-thinking men thought differently, andone contemporary, reviewing this subject in after years, said of MrMaclaren's papers, that, "they prepared the way for the success ofrailway projectors."
We have said that the steam locomotive--the material transformer of theworld--our Iron Horse, had just been born. It was not however born onthe rails, but on th
e common road, and a tremendous baby-giant it was,tearing up its cradle in such furious fashion that men were terrified byit, and tried their best to condemn it to inactivity, just as a weak andfoolish father might lock up his unruly boy and restrain him perforce,instead of training him wisely in the way in which he should go.
But the progenitors of the Iron Horse were, like their Herculean child,men of mettle. They fought a gallant fight for their darling's freedom,and came off victorious!
Of course, many men and many nations were anxious to father thismagnificent infant, and to this day it is impossible to say preciselywho originated him. He is said by some to have sprung from the brainsof Englishmen, others assert that brains in France and Switzerland begathim, and we believe that brother Jonathan exercised his prolific brainon him, before the actual time of his birth. The first name on recordin connexion with this infant Hercules is that of Dr Robison, whocommunicated his ideas to Watt in 1759. The latter thereupon made amodel locomotive, but entertained doubts as to its safety. OliverEvans, of Philadelphia, patented a "steam waggon" in 1782. WilliamMurdoch, the friend and assistant of Watt, made a model in 1787 whichdrew a small waggon round a room in his house in Cornwall. In the sameyear Symington exhibited a model locomotive in Edinburgh, and in 1795 heworked a steam-engine on a turnpike-road in Lanarkshire. RichardTrevethick, who had seen Murdoch's model, made and patented a locomotivein 1802. It drew on a tramway a load of ten tons at the rate of fivemiles an hour. Trevethick also made a carriage to run on common roads,and altogether did good service in the cause.
Blenkinsop, of Middleton Colliery, near Leeds, made locomotives in 1811which hauled coals up steep ascents by means of a toothed rail, with atoothed propelling wheel working into it. This unnatural infant,however, turned out to be not the true child. It was found that such apowerful creature did not require teeth at all, that he could "bite"quite well enough by means of his weight alone,--so the teeth wereplucked out and never allowed to grow again.
After this, in 1813, came Brunton of Butterley, with a curiouscontrivance in the form of legs and feet, which were attached to therear of his engine and propelled it by a sort of walking motion. It didnot walk well, however, and very soon walked off the field ofcompetition altogether.
At last, in the fulness of time there came upon the scene the greatrailway king, George Stephenson, who, if he cannot be said to havebegotten the infant, at all events brought him up and effectuallycompleted his training.
George Stephenson was one of our most celebrated engineers, and the"father of the railway system." He may truly be said to have been oneof mankind's greatest benefactors. He was a self-taught man, was bornnear Newcastle in 1781, began life as a pit-engine boy with wages attwo-pence a day, and ultimately rose to fame and fortune as an engineer.
In 1814 he made a locomotive for the Killingworth Colliery Railway. Itdrew thirty tons at the rate of four miles an hour, and was regarded asa great success. In 1825 an engine of the same kind was used on theStockton and Darlington Railway, of which Stephenson had been madeengineer.
But the great crowning effort of Stephenson, and the grand impulse tothe railway cause, which carried it steadily and swiftly on to itspresent amazing degree of prosperity, did not occur till the year 1829.
Previous to that date the Manchester and Liverpool Railway was beingconstructed, and so little was known as to the capabilities of railwaysand the best mode of working them, that the directors and engineers hadsome difficulty in deciding whether the line should be worked by fixedengines or by locomotives. It was ultimately decided that the lattershould be used, and a premium of 500 pounds was offered for the bestlocomotive that could be produced, in accordance with certainconditions. These were--That the chimney should emit no smoke--that theengine should be on springs--that it should not weigh more than sixtons, or four-and-a-half tons if it had only four wheels--that it shouldbe able to draw a load of twenty tons at the rate of ten miles an hour,with a pressure of fifty pounds to the square inch in the boiler, andshould not cost more than 500 pounds.
The Iron Horse was now at last about to assume its right position. Itwas no longer an infant, but a powerful stripling--though still far fromits full growth; as far as six tons is from sixty!
Four iron steeds were entered to compete for the prize. It was inOctober 1829 that this celebrated trial came off, and great was theinterest manifested on the occasion, for not only did the publicentertain doubts as to the capabilities of locomotives, but very feweven of the engineers of the country would admit the possibility of alocomotive engine attaining a speed greater than ten miles an hour!First came the "Novelty" of Braithwaite and Ericson; then the "Sanspareil" of Hawkworth; the "Perseverance" of Burstall; and, lastly, the"Rocket" of Stephenson. Of the first three we shall merely say that the"Novelty," being weak in the wheels, broke down; the "Sans pareil" burstone of her cylinders; and the "Perseverance" turned out to be too heavyto comply with the conditions of the trial.
The "Rocket" advanced, and was harnessed to a train of waggons weighingthirteen tons; the fire was lighted, and the steam got up. The valveslifted at the stipulated fifty pounds pressure, and away it went withits load at an average speed of fifteen, and a maximum speed oftwenty-nine miles an hour! Thus triumphantly the "Rocket" won the prizeof 500 pounds, and the Iron Horse was fairly and finally married to theIron Road. One of the important elements of Stephenson's success lay inthe introduction of numerous tubes into his boiler, through which thefire, and heat passed, and thus presented a vast amount of heatingsurface to the water. Another point was his allowing the waste steam topass through the chimney, thus increasing the draught and intensifyingthe combustion; for heat is the life of the locomotive, and without muchof this, high rates of speed could not be attained.
The difference between the first locomotive and those now in use is verygreat--as may be seen any day in London, by any one who chooses to visitone of our great railway stations, and go thence to the KensingtonMuseum, where the "Rocket" is now enshrined--a memorial of Stephenson'swisdom, and of the beginning of our magnificent railway system. Yetthough the difference be great it is wonderful how complete the "Rocket"was, all things considered. The modern improvements made on locomotivesconsist chiefly in clothing the boiler with wood, felt, and othernon-conductors to increase the life-giving heat; in heating thefeed-water, coupling the driving-wheels, working the cylindershorizontally, economising steam by cutting off the supply at any part ofthe stroke that may be required, and economising fuel by using raw coalinstead of coke, and consuming the smoke, besides many other minorcontrivances, but all the great principles affecting the locomotive wereapplied by George Stephenson, and illustrated in the "Rocket."
It is no wonder that the first Iron Horse was clumsy in appearance andsomewhat grotesque, owing to the complication of rods, cranks, and othermachinery, which was all exposed to view. It required years ofexperience to enable our engineers to construct the grand, massive,simple chargers which now run off with our monster-trains as if theywere feathers. When the iron horse was first made, men were naturallyin haste to ascertain his power and paces. He was trotted out, so tospeak, in his skeleton, with his heart and lungs and muscles exposed toview in complex hideosity! Now-a-days he never appears without his skinwell-groomed and made gay with paint and polished brass and steel.
We have said that the "Rocket" drew thirteen tons at nearly thirty milesan hour. Our best engines can now draw hundreds of tons, and they canrun at the rate of above sixty miles an hour at maximum speed. The moreordinary speed, however, for passenger-trains is from thirty toforty-five miles an hour. The weight of the "Rocket" was six tons.That of some of our largest engines with tenders is from forty to abovefifty tons.
From the time of the opening of the old Manchester and Liverpool Railwayin 1830 to the present day--a period of little more than forty years--railway construction has gone forward throughout the land--and we mayadd the world--with truly railway speed, insomuch that England hasbecome cove
red from end to end with an absolute network of iron roads,and the benefit to our country has been inconceivably great. It wouldrequire a large volume to treat of these and correlative subjects, asthey deserve.
Two hundred years ago the course of post between London and Edinburghwas one month; before an answer could be received two months had toelapse! About a hundred years later there was one stage-coach betweenthe two cities, which did the distance in a fortnight, renderingcommunication and reply possible once in each month. In those daysroads were uncommonly bad. One writer tells us that, while travellingin Lancashire, a county now traversed by railways in all directions, hefound one of the principal roads so bad that there were ruts in it,which he measured, four feet deep, and that the only mending it receivedwas the tumbling of stones into these holes to fill them up. Theextremely limited goods traffic of the country was conducted by the slowmeans of carts and waggons. Enterprising men, however, then as now,were pushing the world forward, though they were by no means so numerousthen as now. In 1673 it took a week to travel between London andExeter, and cost from forty to forty-five shillings. About the sameperiod a six-horse coach took six days to perform the journey betweenEdinburgh and Glasgow and back. To accomplish fifty miles orthereabouts in two days with a six-horse stage-coach, was consideredgood work and high speed about the beginning of last century. Near themiddle of it (1740) travelling by night was for the first timeintroduced, and soon after that a coach was started with a wicker-basketslung behind for outside passengers! Some years afterwards anenterprising individual started a "flying coach" drawn by eight horses,which travelled between London and Dover in a day--the fare being oneguinea. Even at the beginning of the present century four miles an hourwas deemed a very fair rate of travelling for a stage-coach.
With the improvement of roads by the famous Macadam in 1816, beganimproved travelling and increased speed. The process was rapid.Mail-coaches began to overrun the country in all directions at the thenremarkable pace of from eight to ten miles an hour,--and, let us remarkin passing, there was a whirl and dash about these stage-coaches whichrailway trains, with all their velocity can never hope to attain to,except when they dash into each other! Man is but a weak creature insome senses. Facts are scarcely facts to him unless they touch his eyeor ear. The smooth run of a train at twenty or even thirty miles anhour, with its gradual start and gentle pull up, has but a slight effecton him now compared with the splendid swing of the well-appointed mailcoach of old as it swept round the bend of a road, and, with red-coateddriver and guard, cracking whip, flying dust and stones, and reekingfoam-flecked horses, dashed into town and pulled up, while at nearlyfull speed, amid all the glorious crash and turmoil of arrival! Nodoubt the passing of an express train within a yard of your nose issomething peculiarly awful, and if you ever get permission to ride onthe engine of an express, the _real_ truth regarding speed, weight,momentum, will make a profound impression on you, but in ordinarycircumstances the arrival of a train cannot for a moment compare withthe dash, the animal spirit, the enthusiasm, the romance of the mailcoach of days gone by.
About the time that the day of slow speed was drawing to a close (1837)licenses were granted to 3026 stage-coaches, of which 1507 went to andfrom London, besides 103 mail-coaches. And it has been estimated thatthe number of passengers carried in the year about that time was twomillions. In regard to the merchandise traffic of the kingdom, wecannot give statistics, but we ask the reader to bear in mind that itwas all conducted by means of heavy waggons and slow-going canal barges.
Now, let us contrast this state of things with the condition andinfluence of railways up to the present time. As we have said, the ironhorse began his career in 1830 on the Liverpool and Manchester line--long since become part of the London and North-Western Railway--at thattime thirty-one miles long. Eight years later, Liverpool, Manchester,and Birmingham were completely connected with London by railway. Then,as success attended the scheme, new lines were undertaken and opened ata still more rapid rate until, in 1843--despite the depression causedfor a time by over-speculating--there were nearly 2000 miles of railwayopen for traffic. In 1850 there were above 6000 miles open; in 1860,above 10,000. In 1864 the railways of the kingdom employed upwards of7200 locomotives, 23,470 passenger carriages, and 212,900 goods andmineral waggons. In that one year about five million passengers andgoods trains ran 130 millions of miles--a distance that would encirclethe earth 5221 times--the earth being 24,896 miles in circumference. In1866 the gross receipts of railways was about forty millions of poundssterling. At the present date (1871) above 14,000 miles of railway areopen in the United Kingdom. This mileage is divided amongst about 430companies, but a considerable number of these have been incorporatedwith the larger companies, such as the London and North west, the GreatWestern, etcetera.
All the lines carried in one year (1870) somewhere about 307 millions ofpassengers--in other words, that number of passenger journeys wereperformed on them. The mail and stage-coaches in their best days onlyconveyed, as we have said, two millions! See note at end of chapter.
It is almost overwhelming to consider what a vast change in thecondition and habits of the people of this country is implied in thesefigures. Forty years ago none travelled but the comparatively rich, andthat only to an extent equal to about two-thirds of the presentpopulation of London. Now-a-days the poorest artisan can, and does,afford to travel, and the number of journeys performed each year on allour British railways is equal to more than the entire population ofEurope! which, in Stewart's "Modern Geography," is set down at 285millions. From this of course it follows, that as many thousands ofmen, women, and children never travel at all, many others must haveundertaken numerous journeys in that year.
The facilities afforded by railways are altogether innumerable. If sodisposed you may sup one night in the south of England and the nextnight in the north of Scotland. Thousands of families dwell in thecountry, while the heads thereof go to their business in town by railevery morning and return home every evening. Huntsmen, booted andspurred, are whirled off, horses and all, to distant fields, whence,after "crossing country" all day, they return to the railway and arewhirled back to town in time for dinner. Navvys and artisans areconveyed to their work at a penny a mile, and monster-trains carrythousands of excursionists to scenes of rural delight that our fathersnever dreamed of in their wildest flights of fancy.
One of the most remarkable and interesting facts in connexion with allthis is, that although mail-coaches have been beaten off the field,there are actually more horses employed in this country now than therewere in 1837, while canals are doing more business than they ever did,and are making higher profits too. In 1865 the carriage of cattle byrailway amounted to between fourteen or fifteen million head of allkinds. The consumption of coal, in the same year, by our railwaysamounted to four million tons, and the quantity of that and otherminerals carried by rail continually is enormous.
The benefit derived by the post-office also from our railways isincalculable. We cannot afford space to enter into details, but it maybe truly said that but for railways the Post-Office Savings Bank systemcould not have existed; and of course, also, our frequent deliveries ofletters and rapid as well as cheap communication with all parts of thekingdom would have been impossible. The railway service of thePost-Office is over 60,000 miles a day, and the gross sum paid by thePost-Office to railways in one year was 570,500 pounds.
These are but a few of the amazing statistics connected with our railwaysystem, which, if fully enlarged upon, would fill a bulky volume. Ifour readers desire more there are several most interesting andinstructive works on the subject, which are well worthy of perusal. Seenote 2 at the end of the chapter.
Before closing this perhaps too statistical chapter, we shall say a fewwords as to the construction of a railway. No one who has not lookedpretty closely into the subject can form any adequate conception of thedifficulties that beset an engineer-in-chief in the formation of a lineof railw
ay. We will suppose that all the Parliamentary battles havebeen fought, opposition overcome, the heavy expenses connected therewithpaid, and the work begun.
The engineer has walked again and again over the country through whichthe railway is to be carried and selected the best route, his assistantshaving meanwhile taken for him "flying levels" and "cross levels." Toofrequently prejudice, ignorance, and selfishness interpose to preventthe best route being taken, and immense sums that might have been savedare spent in constructing the line on the next best route. As soon asthe course of a line is fixed, accurate surveys are made by theassistant engineers, copies of which are placed, according to Act ofParliament, with the various clerks of the peace of the counties,through which the line is to pass, with the Commissioners of Railwaysand others, besides which there has to be prepared for each parish itsproportion, and for each landholder a section showing the greatest depthof cutting or embankment in any of his fields.
As soon as all this has been done, and the Act of Parliament authorisingthe line obtained, an accurate plan and section of the whole line ismade, from which the engineer ascertains and lays down its gradients, inother words its ascents and descents, determines the number and size ofthe bridges and viaducts to be made, calculates the quantity ofembankments required to fill up hollows, and the number of cuttings tolevel obstructions, in which latter calculations he estimates that thecutting down of elevations will be made subservient as far as may be, tothe elevation of depressions. All this involves very nice and exactcalculation as to quantity of material, masonry, etcetera, and thesinking of "trial shafts" to ascertain the nature of the various stratato be excavated or tunnelled. Then the cost of all the works has to beestimated in detail, apportioned into lengths and advertised forexecution by contract. To each section of the line thus apportioned--forty or fifty miles--an experienced engineer is appointed, having underhim "sub-assistants," who superintend from ten to fifteen miles each,and these again are assisted by "inspectors" of masonry, mining,earth-work and permanent way, to each of whom a district is assigned.
These managing and guiding men having been appointed, the physicalworkers are then called into action, in the form of bands of navvies.As the steam and mechanism of the locomotive are useless except inregulated combination, so brain and muscle can achieve nothing withoutwise and harmonious union. If boys and men would reflect more deeply onthis great truth, pride, boasting, and the false separation of classeswould be less rife. We say _false_, because there is a separation ofclasses which is natural and unavoidable. No one ever complains of_that_. If ill-advised or angry navvies were to refuse to work, whatcould directors and engineers do? If, on the other hand, ill-advised orangry directors and engineers refused to pay, what could navvies do?Antagonism is an unhealthy condition of things. There is far too muchof it between employers and employed in this world. "Agree with thineadversary quickly" is a command which applies to bodies of men quite asmuch as to individuals, and the word is "agree," not coerce or force.If we cannot agree, let us agree to differ; or, if that won't do in ourpeculiar circumstances, then let us agree to separate. Fighting, savein self-defence, is only fit for fools.
But to return. When bone and muscle have been for the time welded tobrain, then the work of construction goes on "full swing." Difficultiesand obstructions are overcome in a way that appears to the unskilled eyenothing less than miraculous. But the work is often hindered andrendered greatly more expensive by the sudden appearance of evilsagainst which no amount of human wisdom or foresight could have guarded.
The Kilsby tunnel of the London and North west Railway is a case inpoint. When that tunnel was proposed, it was arranged that it should beabout 3000 yards long, and 160 feet below the surface, with two greatventilating shafts 60 feet in diameter. It was a gigantic work. Theengineer examined the ground in the usual way, with much care, and thenadvertised for "tenders." The various competing contractors alsoexamined the ground minutely, and the offer of one of them to work itfor 99,000 pounds was accepted. Forthwith the contractor went to work,and all went well and busily for some time, until it was suddenlydiscovered that a hidden quicksand extended 400 yards into the tunnel,which the trial shafts had just passed without touching. This was amore tremendous blow to the contractor than most readers may at firstthought suppose, for he believed that to solidify a quicksand wasimpossible. The effect on him was so great that he was mentallyprostrated, and although the company generously and justly relieved himfrom his engagement, the reprieve came too late, for he died. It thencame to be a question whether or not the tunnel should be abandoned.Many advised that it should. At this juncture Mr Robert Stephenson,son of the great George, came forward and undertook the work. He placedhis chief dependence on the steam-engine to keep the water down whilethe work was in progress. At first he was successful, but one day,while the men were busy laying their bricks in cement one of them droveinto the roof, and a deluge of water burst in on them, and although theytried to continue their work on a raft the water prevailed and at lastdrove them out. They escaped with difficulty up one of the air-shafts.The water having put an effectual stop to the work, the directors feltdisposed to give it up, but Stephenson begged for a fortnight more. Itwas granted. By means of thirteen steam-engines, the amazing quantityof 1800 gallons of water per _minute_ was pumped out of the quicksandnight and day for eight months. With the aid of 1250 men and 200 horsesthe work was finally completed, having occupied altogether thirty monthsfrom the laying of the first brick.
Two very singular accidents occurred during the course of theconstruction of this tunnel. On one occasion a man who had been workingin it was being hauled up one of the shafts, when his coat caught in anangular crevice of the partition, that separated the pumps from thepassage for the men, and became so firmly jammed that he was compelledto let go the rope, and was left there dangling in the air, about ahundred feet from the bottom, until his horrified comrades went down andrescued him by cutting away the piece of his coat. This piece of clothwas long preserved in the engineer's office as a memorial of the event!On another occasion some men were at work on a platform, half-way downthe shaft, executing some repairs, when a huge navvy, named JackPierson, fell from the surface, went right through the platform, as ifit had been made of paper, and fell to the bottom. Fortunately therewas water to receive him there, else he had been killed on the spot.The men, whom of course he had narrowly missed in his fall, began toshout for a rope to those above, and they hallooed their advice down theshaft in reply. In the midst of the confusion Jack Pierson himselfcalmly advised them to make less noise and pull him out, which they verysoon did, and the poor man was carried home and put to bed. He laythere for many weeks unable to move, but ultimately recovered.
What we have said of the Kilsby tunnel gives a slight glimpse of some ofthe expenses, difficulties, and dangers that occasionally attend theconstruction of a railway.
Of course these difficulties and expenses vary according to the natureof the ground. In some places the gradients are slight, bridges few,and cuttings, etcetera, insignificant; but in other places the reverseis emphatically the case, and costly laborious works have to beundertaken.
One such work, which occurred at the very opening of our railway systemin 1828, was the bridging of the Chat Moss, on the Liverpool andManchester line. George Stephenson, the constructer of the "Rocket,"was also the hero of the Chat Moss. This moss was a great swamp or bog,four miles in extent, which was so soft that it could not be walked onwith safety, and in some places an iron rod laid on the surface wouldsink by its own weight. Like many other difficulties in this world, thesolidification of the Chat Moss was said to be impossible, but the greatengineer scarce admitted the propriety of allowing the word "impossible"to cumber our dictionaries. He began the work at once by forming anembankment twenty feet high, which he carried some distance across thetreacherous soil, when the whole affair sank down one day anddisappeared! Undismayed, Stephenson began again, and went on steadilydepositing
thousands on thousands of tons of earth, which were greedilyswallowed up, until at last a solid foundation was obtained over thegreater part of the bog. But there was a particularly soft part of it,known by the name of the "flow moss," which was insatiable. Over thishurdles interwoven with heath were spread, and on these earth and gravelwere laid down. When this road showed a tendency to sink below thelevel, Stephenson loaded the moss beyond the track to balance it; whenwater oozed through, he invented a new kind of drain-pipe formed of oldtallow casks, headed into each other, and ballasted to keep them down,and at last the feat was accomplished--the railway was run over the wetquaking moss on firm dry land.
It was in the formation of this, the true beginning of railways, thatthe British "navvy" was called into being. To perform the laboriouswork, Stephenson employed the men called "inland navigators," in otherwords, the canal excavators. This body of strong "navigators" or"navvies" formed the nucleus, which gathered recruits from all parts ofthe kingdom. As the work of railway making, which thenceforward grewfast and furious, was unusually severe, only men who were unusuallypowerful were suited for the navvy ranks, so that they became a distinctclass of gigantic men, whose capacity for bread and beef was inaccordance with their muscular development and power to toil. Splendidfellows they were, and are; somewhat rugged and untamed, no doubt, witha tendency to fight occasionally, and a great deal of genuine kindnessand simplicity. That they are capable of being imbued with refinedfeeling, noble sentiment, and love to God, has been shown by thepublications of Miss Marsh, which detail that lady's interesting andearnest labours to bring the unbelievers among these men to our Saviour.
Another celebrated piece of railway engineering is the _BritanniaBridge_ over the Menai Straits, which separates Caernarvonshire from theisland of Anglesey. This was the first bridge ever built on the tubularprinciple. The importance of crossing the strait was very great, as itlay in the direct route to Holyhead and Ireland. Telford, the engineer,daringly resolved to span the strait with a suspension bridge 100 feetabove the water. He began it in 1818, and on the last day of January1826 the London mail coach passed over the estuary. The bridge remainsto this day a vast and beautiful monument of engineering skill. Butwhen railways began to play, something more ponderous and powerfulbecame necessary. A bridge with arches was talked of, but this wasconsidered likely to be obstructive to the navigation of the strait,therefore another plan was demanded. At this juncture Robert Stephensoncame forward with a plan. Pounding his opinion on the known fact thathollow columns are stronger than solid ones; that hollow beams arebetter than solid beams, he leaped to the bold conclusion that a hollowiron beam, or tube, could be made large enough to allow a train to passthrough it! As usual there sprang up a host of cold-waterers, butthanks to British enterprise, which can dare anything, there were foundenough of men willing to promote the scheme. It was no sooner resolvedon than begun. Massive abutments of stone were raised on each shore tothe height of 100 feet above high-water. The width of the straitbetween these abutments is nearly 500 yards. Midway across is theBritannia Rock, just visible at half tide. The engineer resolved tofound one of his towers on that rock. It was done; but the distancebeing too great for a single span of tube, two other towers were added.The centre towel rises 35 feet higher than the abutments, thus giving tothe tube a very slight arch, which, however, is barely perceptible.
The tubes were rectangular, with double top and bottom made of plates ofwrought-iron, from three-eighths to three-quarters of an inch thick, andvarying in length according to their position--the whole when puttogether forming a single tube about 500 yards long. The two centreones were the largest and most difficult to manage, each having to bebuilt on shore, floated off on barges, and lifted by hydraulic power aheight of about 100 feet. Some idea of what this implied may begathered from the following fact. Each tube weighed 1800 tons--theweight of a goodly-sized ocean steamer! A perfect army of men worked atthe building of the tubes; cutting, punching, fitting, riveting,etcetera, and as the place became the temporary abode of so manyartificers and labourers, with their wives and children, a villagesprang up around them, with shops, a school, and a surgery. Twofire-engines and large tanks of water were kept in constant readiness incase of fire, and for many months rivet-making machines, punchingmachines, shearing machines, etcetera, were in full work. There weretwo million rivets used altogether, and the quantity ofthree-quarter-inch iron rod used in making them measured 126 miles. Thetotal weight of iron used was nearly 12,000 tons. The bridge wasstrengthened by eighty-three miles of angle iron. For many months theoutlay in wages alone was 6000 pounds a week, and the cost for the wholeof the works more than 600,000 pounds. A curious fact connected withthis enormous mass of iron is, that arrangements had to be made topermit of shrinkage and expansion. The tubes were placed on a series ofrollers and iron balls, and it was afterwards found that in the hottestpart of summer they were twelve inches longer than in winter--adifference which, if not provided for, would have caused the destructionof the towers by a constant and irresistible pull and thrust! The MenaiBridge was begun in 1846 and opened for traffic in March 1850.
Space would fail us were we to attempt even a slight sketch of the greatengineering works that railways have called into being. We can merelypoint to such achievements as the high-level bridges atNewcastle-on-Tyne, Berwick-on-Tweed, and at Saltash, over the Tamar.There are viaducts of great height, length, and beauty in all parts ofthe kingdom; there are terminal stations so vast and magnificent as toremind one of the structures of Eastern splendour described in the_Arabian Nights Entertainments_; and there are hundreds of miles oftunnelling at the present time in the United Kingdom.
The Metropolitan Railway is the most important and singular of thesetunnels--for it is entitled to be regarded as a gigantic tunnel--whichburrows under the streets of London.
This stupendous work was undertaken in order to relieve the traffic inthe streets of London. The frequent blocks that used to occur not manyyears ago in the main thoroughfares of the Metropolis, had renderedrelief absolutely necessary. When the increase of railways began topour human beings and goods from all parts of the kingdom into London ina continuous and ever-increasing stream, it became obvious that some newmode of conveyance must be opened up. After much deliberation as to thebest method, it was finally resolved that an underground railway shouldbe made, encircling the Metropolis, so that travellers arriving from allpoints of the compass might find a ready and sufficient means ofconveyance into the central parts of the city. There was opposition tothe scheme, of course; but, through the persevering energy of thesolicitor to the undertaking and others, the work was at length begun,and the line opened for traffic in January 1863. Its extraordinarysuccess soon proved the wisdom of its promoters.
At first it was thought that the chief revenues would be derived fromthe conveyance of goods from the west to the eastern districts ofLondon, but its enormous passenger traffic eventually became the chiefcause of its great prosperity. In the very first year of its openingthe number of passengers who travelled by it between Farringdon Streetand Bishop's Road, Paddington, amounted to nearly nine and a halfmillions of individuals, which is more than three times the entirepopulation of London--also, let us add, more than three times the entirepopulation of Scotland!
The number of trains which are constantly following each other in quicksuccession (at times every two or three minutes) on this magnificentrailway has rendered a most perfect system of signalling necessary, aswell as a working staff of superior intelligence and activity. Thedrivers are all picked men, and indeed it is obvious to every one whotravels by it that the porters, and guards, and all employed on the lineare unusually smart men. The engineering difficulties connected withthe Metropolitan railway were very great as may easily be believed,seeing that it had to be formed under streets whose foundations wereunavoidably shaken, and amongst an infinite ramification of gas andwater-pipes and sewers whose separate action had to be maintained intactwhile t
he process of construction was going on. Some of the stationsare most ingeniously lighted from the streets above by bright reflectingtile-work, while others, too deep for such a method, or too muchovertopped with buildings to admit of it, are lit perpetually with gas.The whole of the works are a singular instance of engineering skill,reflecting great credit on Mr Fowler, the engineer-in-chief. Despiteits great length of tunnelling the line is perfectly dry throughout.
At first fears were entertained that human beings could not with safetytravel through such tunnels as were here formed, but experience hasproved those fears, like many others, to have been groundless, and avery thorough analysis of the atmosphere of the line in allcircumstances, and by the most competent men of the day, hasdemonstrated that the air of the Metropolitan railway is not injuriousto health. The excellent general health of the employes also affordsadditional and conclusive testimony to this fact even although it isunquestionably true that there is at times a somewhat sulphurous smellthere.
This thorough ventilation, of course, could only have been achieved byingenious arrangements and a peculiar construction of the engines,whereby the waste steam and fumes of the furnaces should be preventedfrom emitting their foul and sulphurous odours. The carriages arebrilliantly lighted with gas, contained in long india-rubber bags ontheir roofs, and the motion of the trains is much gentler than that ofordinary railways, although they travel at the rate of from fifteen totwenty miles an hour, including stoppages,--a rate, be it observed,which could not have been ventured on at all but for the thorough andeffective system of telegraphic and semaphore signalling employed, toindicate from station to station the exact state of the line--as totrains--at all times. On the whole the Metropolitan Railway has provedone of the most useful and successful undertakings of modern times. SeeNote 3 at the end of the chapter.
In reference to foreign railways, we have only space to say that thereare works as grand, and as worthy of note, as any of which we can boast;and it is with much regret that we feel constrained to do no more thanpoint to such magnificent undertakings as the _Mont Cenis_ Railway,which ascends and tunnels through the Alps; and that stupendous line,the Union Pacific Railroad, 3000 miles in length, formed by the daringand enterprising Americans, by means of which the prairies and the RockyMountains are made of no account and New York is brought within sevendays of San Francisco! The engineering works on the Sommering Railway,between Vienna and Trieste; the mighty Victoria Tubular Bridge atMontreal; the railway bridge over Niagara; the difficulties encounteredand overcome in India; the bold achievements of railway engineers amidthe dizzy heights and solitudes of the Andes--all these subjects must bepassed over in silence, else our readers will, we fear, come to theconclusion that we have lost command of the Iron Horse altogether,allowed him to take the bit in his teeth and fairly run away.
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Note 1. Many readers may find it difficult to form an adequateconception of such a vast number as 307 millions. It may help one tosome idea of it to know that, if a man were to devote himself to countit, one by one,--sitting down after breakfast counting at the rate ofone every moment, and working without intermission for eight hours everyday, excepting Sundays,--he would not conclude his task until thethirty-fifth year.
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Note 2. We would refer them particularly to Messrs. W. and R. Chambers'comprehensive and popularly written work on "Railways, Steamer, andTelegraphs;" Money's "Rambles on Railways," which bristles with figuresand swarms with anecdote; "Stokers and Pokers," by Sir Francis Head, acapital and very full work, though somewhat old; W.B. Adams' "Roads andRails," and Bremrer's "Industries of Scotland."
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Note 3. We had intended to devote much larger space to this mostinteresting line, but the nature of our book forbids it. We quit thesubject regretfully; referring the reader, who may desire to know more,to an able notice of the Metropolitan Railway in "The Shops andCompanies of London," edited by Henry Mayhew.