history of the iron horse.
having gone thus far in our tale, permit us, good reader, to turn aside for a little to make a somewhat closer inspection of the iron horse and his belongings.
railways existed long before the iron horse was born. they sprang into being two centuries ago in the form of tramways, which at first were nothing more or less than planks or rails of timber laid down between the newcastle-on-tyne collieries and the river, for the purpose of forming a better “way” over which to run the coal-trucks. from simple timber-rails men soon advanced to planks having a strip of iron nailed on their surface to prevent too rapid tear and wear, but it was not till the year 1767 that cast-iron rails were introduced. in order to prevent the trucks from slipping off the line the rails were cast with an upright flange or guide at one side, and were laid on wooden or stone sleepers.
this form of rail being found inconvenient, the flange was transferred from the rails to the wheels, and this arrangement, under various modifications has been ever since retained.
these “innocent” railroads—as they have been sometimes and most appropriately named, seeing that they were guiltless alike of blood and high speed—were drawn by horses, and confined at first to the conveyance 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 traffic on railroads, which it required 400 horses to perform on a common road. these iron roads, therefore, began to multiply, and about the beginning of the present century they were largely employed in the coal-fields and mineral districts of the kingdom. about the same time thoughtful men, seeing the immense advantage of such ways, began to suggest the formation of railways, or tramways, to run along the side of our turnpike-roads—a mode of conveyance, by the way, in regard to towns, which thoughtful men are still, ever at the present day of supposed enlightenment, endeavouring to urge upon an unbelieving public—a mode of conveyance which we feel very confident will entirely supersede our cumbrous and antiquated “’bus” in a very short time. what, we ask, in the name of science and art and common-sense, is to prevent a tramway being laid from kensington to the bank, “or elsewhere,” which shall be traversed by a succession of roomy carriages following each other every five minutes; which tramway might be crossed and recrossed and run upon, or, in other words, used by all the other vehicles of london except when the rightful carriages were in the way? nothing prevents, save that same unbelief which has obstructed the development of every good thing from the time that noah built the ark! but we feel assured that the thing 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 dr james anderson, who in 1800 proposed the formation of railways by the roadsides, and he was so correct in his views that the plans which he suggested of keeping the level, by going round the base of hills, or forming viaducts, or cutting tunnels, is precisely the method practised by engineers of the present day. two years later a mr edgeworth announced that he had long before, “formed the project of laying iron railways for baggage waggons on the great roads of england,” and, in order to prevent tear and wear, he proposed, instead of conveying heavy loads in one huge waggon, to have a train of small waggons. with the modesty of true genius, which never over-estimates or forms wildly sanguine expectations, he thought that each waggon might perhaps carry one ton and a half! edgeworth also suggested that passengers might travel by such a mode of conveyance. bold man! what a goose many people 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 with their gold medal.
this man seems to have been a transcendent genius, because he not only devised and made (on a small scale) iron railways, but proposed to take ordinary vehicles, such as mail-coaches and private carriages, on his trucks, and convey them along his line at the rate of six or eight miles an hour with one horse. he also propounded the idea of the employment of stationary steam-engines (locomotives not having been dreamed of) to drag the trains up steep inclines.
another semi-prophetic man of these days was thomas gray, of leeds, who in 1820 published a work on what he styled a “general iron railway, or land steam conveyance, to supersede the necessity of horses in all public vehicles, showing its vast superiority in every respect over the present pitiful methods of conveyance by turnpike-roads and canals.” gray, whose mind appears to have been unusually comprehensive, proposed a system of railway communication between all the important cities and towns in the kingdom, and pointed out the immense advantage that would be gained to commerce by such a ready and rapid means of conveying fish, vegetables, and other perishable articles from place to place. he also showed that two post deliveries in the day would become possible, and that fire insurance companies would be able to promote their interests by keeping railway fire-engines, ready to be transported to scenes of conflagration without delay.
but gray was not esteemed a prophet. his suggestions were not adopted nor his plans acted on, though unquestionably his wisdom and energy gave an impulse to railway development, of which we are reaping the benefit to-day. his labours were not in vain.
horse railways soon began to multiply over the country. the first authorised by act of parliament was the surrey railway in 1801. twenty years later twenty lines of railway were in operation.
about this time, too, another man of note and of great scientific and mechanical sagacity lent his powerful aid to advance the interests of the railway cause. this was charles maclaren, of edinburgh, editor of the scotsman newspaper for nearly thirty years. he had long foreseen, and boldly asserted his belief in, the certain success of steam locomotion by rail, at a time when opinions such as his were scouted as wild delusive dreams. but he did more, he brought his able pen to bear on the subject, and in december 1825 published a series of articles in the scotsman on the subject of railways, which were not only extensively quoted and republished in this country and in america, but were deemed worthy of being translated into french and german, and so disseminated over europe. mr maclaren was thus among the foremost of those who gave a telling impulse to the cause at that critical period when the iron horse was about to be put on the rail—the right horse in the right place—for it was not many years afterwards that that auspicious event took place. mr maclaren not only advocated generally the adoption of railways, but logically demonstrated the wonderful powers and capacities of the steam locomotive, arguing, from the experiments on friction made more than half a century before by vince and colomb, that by the use of steam-power on railroads a much more rapid and cheaper transit of persons as well as merchandise might be confidently anticipated. he leaped far ahead of many of even the most hopeful advocates of the cause, and with almost prophetic foresight wrote, “there is scarcely any limit to the rapidity of movement these iron pathways will enable us to command.” and again,—“we have spoken of vehicles travelling at twenty miles an hour; but we see no reason for thinking that, in the progress of improvement, a much higher velocity might not be found practicable; and in twenty years hence a shopkeeper or mechanic, on the most ordinary occasion, may probably travel with a speed that would leave the fleetest courser behind.” wonderful words these! at a first glance we may not deem them so, being so familiar with the ideas which they convey, but our estimate of them will be more just if we reflect that when they were penned railways had scarcely sprung into being, steam locomotives had only just been born, and not only men in general, but even many learned, scientific and practical men regarded the statement of all such opinions as being little short of insanity. nevertheless, many deep-thinking men thought differently, and one contemporary, reviewing this subject in after years, said of mr maclaren’s papers, that, “they prepared the way for the success of railway projectors.”
we have said that the steam locomotive—the material transformer of the world—our iron horse, had just been born. it was not however born on the rails, but on the common road, and a tremendous baby-giant it was, tearing up its cradle in such furious fashion that men were terrified by it, and tried their best to condemn it to inactivity, just as a weak and foolish 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 this magnificent infant, and to this day it is impossible to say precisely who originated him. he is said by some to have sprung from the brains of englishmen, others assert that brains in france and switzerland begat him, and we believe that brother jonathan exercised his prolific brain on him, before the actual time of his birth. the first name on record in connexion with this infant hercules is that of dr robison, who communicated his ideas to watt in 1759. the latter thereupon made a model locomotive, but entertained doubts as to its safety. oliver evans, of philadelphia, patented a “steam waggon” in 1782. william murdoch, the friend and assistant of watt, made a model in 1787 which drew a small waggon round a room in his house in cornwall. in the same year symington exhibited a model locomotive in edinburgh, and in 1795 he worked a steam-engine on a turnpike-road in lanarkshire. richard trevethick, who had seen murdoch’s model, made and patented a locomotive in 1802. it drew on a tramway a load of ten tons at the rate of five miles 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 1811 which hauled coals up steep ascents by means of a toothed rail, with a toothed propelling wheel working into it. this unnatural infant, however, turned out to be not the true child. it was found that such a powerful creature did not require teeth at all, that he could “bite” quite well enough by means of his weight alone,—so the teeth were plucked out and never allowed to grow again.
after this, in 1813, came brunton of butterley, with a curious contrivance in the form of legs and feet, which were attached to the rear of his engine and propelled it by a sort of walking motion. it did not walk well, however, and very soon walked off the field of competition altogether.
at last, in the fulness of time there came upon the scene the great railway king, george stephenson, who, if he cannot be said to have begotten the infant, at all events brought him up and effectually completed 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 one of mankind’s greatest benefactors. he was a self-taught man, was born near newcastle in 1781, began life as a pit-engine boy with wages at two-pence a day, and ultimately rose to fame and fortune as an engineer.
in 1814 he made a locomotive for the killingworth colliery railway. it drew thirty tons at the rate of four miles an hour, and was regarded as a great success. in 1825 an engine of the same kind was used on the stockton and darlington railway, of which stephenson had been made engineer.
but the great crowning effort of stephenson, and the grand impulse to the railway cause, which carried it steadily and swiftly on to its present amazing degree of prosperity, did not occur till the year 1829.
previous to that date the manchester and liverpool railway was being constructed, and so little was known as to the capabilities of railways and the best mode of working them, that the directors and engineers had some difficulty in deciding whether the line should be worked by fixed engines or by locomotives. it was ultimately decided that the latter should be used, and a premium of 500 pounds was offered for the best locomotive that could be produced, in accordance with certain conditions. these were— that the chimney should emit no smoke—that the engine should be on springs—that it should not weigh more than six tons, or four-and-a-half tons if it had only four wheels—that it should be 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, and should not cost more than 500 pounds.
the iron horse was now at last about to assume its right position. it was no longer an infant, but a powerful stripling—though still far from its full growth; as far as six tons is from sixty!
four iron steeds were entered to compete for the prize. it was in october 1829 that this celebrated trial came off, and great was the interest manifested on the occasion, for not only did the public entertain doubts as to the capabilities of locomotives, but very few even of the engineers of the country would admit the possibility of a locomotive engine attaining a speed greater than ten miles an hour! first came the “novelty” of braithwaite and ericson; then the “sans pareil” 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” burst one of her cylinders; and the “perseverance” turned out to be too heavy to comply with the conditions of the trial.
the “rocket” advanced, and was harnessed to a train of waggons weighing thirteen tons; the fire was lighted, and the steam got up. the valves lifted at the stipulated fifty pounds pressure, and away it went with its load at an average speed of fifteen, and a maximum speed of twenty-nine miles an hour! thus triumphantly the “rocket” won the prize of 500 pounds, and the iron horse was fairly and finally married to the iron road. one of the important elements of stephenson’s success lay in the introduction of numerous tubes into his boiler, through which the fire, and heat passed, and thus presented a vast amount of heating surface to the water. another point was his allowing the waste steam to pass through the chimney, thus increasing the draught and intensifying the combustion; for heat is the life of the locomotive, and without much of this, high rates of speed could not be attained.
the difference between the first locomotive and those now in use is very great—as may be seen any day in london, by any one who chooses to visit one of our great railway stations, and go thence to the kensington museum, where the “rocket” is now enshrined—a memorial of stephenson’s wisdom, and of the beginning of our magnificent railway system. yet though the difference be great it is wonderful how complete the “rocket” was, all things considered. the modern improvements made on locomotives consist chiefly in clothing the boiler with wood, felt, and other non-conductors to increase the life-giving heat; in heating the feed-water, coupling the driving-wheels, working the cylinders horizontally, economising steam by cutting off the supply at any part of the stroke that may be required, and economising fuel by using raw coal instead of coke, and consuming the smoke, besides many other minor contrivances, but all the great principles affecting the locomotive were applied by george stephenson, and illustrated in the “rocket.”
it is no wonder that the first iron horse was clumsy in appearance and somewhat grotesque, owing to the complication of rods, cranks, and other machinery, which was all exposed to view. it required years of experience to enable our engineers to construct the grand, massive, simple chargers which now run off with our monster-trains as if they were feathers. when the iron horse was first made, men were naturally in haste to ascertain his power and paces. he was trotted out, so to speak, in his skeleton, with his heart and lungs and muscles exposed to view in complex hideosity! now-a-days he never appears without his skin well-groomed and made gay with paint and polished brass and steel.
we have said that the “rocket” drew thirteen tons at nearly thirty miles an hour. our best engines can now draw hundreds of tons, and they can run at the rate of above sixty miles an hour at maximum speed. the more ordinary speed, however, for passenger-trains is from thirty to forty-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 above fifty tons.
from the time of the opening of the old manchester and liverpool railway in 1830 to the present day—a period of little more than forty years—railway construction has gone forward throughout the land—and we may add the world—with truly railway speed, insomuch that england has become covered from end to end with an absolute network of iron roads, and the benefit to our country has been inconceivably great. it would require a large volume to treat of these and correlative subjects, as they deserve.
two hundred years ago the course of post between london and edinburgh was one month; before an answer could be received two months had to elapse! about a hundred years later there was one stage-coach between the two cities, which did the distance in a fortnight, rendering communication and reply possible once in each month. in those days roads were uncommonly bad. one writer tells us that, while travelling in lancashire, a county now traversed by railways in all directions, he found 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 received was the tumbling of stones into these holes to fill them up. the extremely limited goods traffic of the country was conducted by the slow means of carts and waggons. enterprising men, however, then as now, were pushing the world forward, though they were by no means so numerous then as now. in 1673 it took a week to travel between london and exeter, and cost from forty to forty-five shillings. about the same period a six-horse coach took six days to perform the journey between edinburgh and glasgow and back. to accomplish fifty miles or thereabouts in two days with a six-horse stage-coach, was considered good work and high speed about the beginning of last century. near the middle of it (1740) travelling by night was for the first time introduced, and soon after that a coach was started with a wicker-basket slung behind for outside passengers! some years afterwards an enterprising individual started a “flying coach” drawn by eight horses, which travelled between london and dover in a day—the fare being one guinea. even at the beginning of the present century four miles an hour was deemed a very fair rate of travelling for a stage-coach.
with the improvement of roads by the famous macadam in 1816, began improved travelling and increased speed. the process was rapid. mail-coaches began to overrun the country in all directions at the then remarkable pace of from eight to ten miles an hour,—and, let us remark in passing, there was a whirl and dash about these stage-coaches which railway trains, with all their velocity can never hope to attain to, except when they dash into each other! man is but a weak creature in some senses. facts are scarcely facts to him unless they touch his eye or ear. the smooth run of a train at twenty or even thirty miles an hour, with its gradual start and gentle pull up, has but a slight effect on him now compared with the splendid swing of the well-appointed mail coach of old as it swept round the bend of a road, and, with red-coated driver and guard, cracking whip, flying dust and stones, and reeking foam-flecked horses, dashed into town and pulled up, while at nearly full speed, amid all the glorious crash and turmoil of arrival! no doubt the passing of an express train within a yard of your nose is something peculiarly awful, and if you ever get permission to ride on the engine of an express, the real truth regarding speed, weight, momentum, will make a profound impression on you, but in ordinary circumstances the arrival of a train cannot for a moment compare with the dash, the animal spirit, the enthusiasm, the romance of the mail coach 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 and from london, besides 103 mail-coaches. and it has been estimated that the number of passengers carried in the year about that time was two millions. in regard to the merchandise traffic of the kingdom, we cannot give statistics, but we ask the reader to bear in mind that it was all conducted by means of heavy waggons and slow-going canal barges.
now, let us contrast this state of things with the condition and influence of railways up to the present time. as we have said, the iron horse began his career in 1830 on the liverpool and manchester line—long since become part of the london and north-western railway—at that time 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 at a still more rapid rate until, in 1843—despite the depression caused for a time by over-speculating—there were nearly 2000 miles of railway open for traffic. in 1850 there were above 6000 miles open; in 1860, above 10,000. in 1864 the railways of the kingdom employed upwards of 7200 locomotives, 23,470 passenger carriages, and 212,900 goods and mineral waggons. in that one year about five million passengers and goods trains ran 130 millions of miles—a distance that would encircle the earth 5221 times—the earth being 24,896 miles in circumference. in 1866 the gross receipts of railways was about forty millions of pounds sterling. at the present date (1871) above 14,000 miles of railway are open in the united kingdom. this mileage is divided amongst about 430 companies, but a considerable number of these have been incorporated with the larger companies, such as the london and north west, the great western, etcetera.
all the lines carried in one year (1870) somewhere about 307 millions of passengers—in other words, that number of passenger journeys were performed on them. the mail and stage-coaches in their best days only conveyed, as we have said, two millions! see note at end of chapter.
it is almost overwhelming to consider what a vast change in the condition and habits of the people of this country is implied in these figures. forty years ago none travelled but the comparatively rich, and that only to an extent equal to about two-thirds of the present population of london. now-a-days the poorest artisan can, and does, afford to travel, and the number of journeys performed each year on all our british railways is equal to more than the entire population of europe! which, in stewart’s “modern geography,” is set down at 285 millions. from this of course it follows, that as many thousands of men, women, and children never travel at all, many others must have undertaken numerous journeys in that year.
the facilities afforded by railways are altogether innumerable. if so disposed you may sup one night in the south of england and the next night in the north of scotland. thousands of families dwell in the country, while the heads thereof go to their business in town by rail every morning and return home every evening. huntsmen, booted and spurred, are whirled off, horses and all, to distant fields, whence, after “crossing country” all day, they return to the railway and are whirled back to town in time for dinner. navvys and artisans are conveyed to their work at a penny a mile, and monster-trains carry thousands of excursionists to scenes of rural delight that our fathers never dreamed of in their wildest flights of fancy.
one of the most remarkable and interesting facts in connexion with all this is, that although mail-coaches have been beaten off the field, there are actually more horses employed in this country now than there were in 1837, while canals are doing more business than they ever did, and are making higher profits too. in 1865 the carriage of cattle by railway amounted to between fourteen or fifteen million head of all kinds. the consumption of coal, in the same year, by our railways amounted to four million tons, and the quantity of that and other minerals carried by rail continually is enormous.
the benefit derived by the post-office also from our railways is incalculable. we cannot afford space to enter into details, but it may be truly said that but for railways the post-office savings bank system could not have existed; and of course, also, our frequent deliveries of letters and rapid as well as cheap communication with all parts of the kingdom would have been impossible. the railway service of the post-office is over 60,000 miles a day, and the gross sum paid by the post-office to railways in one year was 570,500 pounds.
these are but a few of the amazing statistics connected with our railway system, which, if fully enlarged upon, would fill a bulky volume. if our readers desire more there are several most interesting and instructive works on the subject, which are well worthy of perusal. see note 2 at the end of the chapter.
before closing this perhaps too statistical chapter, we shall say a few words as to the construction of a railway. no one who has not looked pretty closely into the subject can form any adequate conception of the difficulties that beset an engineer-in-chief in the formation of a line of railway. we will suppose that all the parliamentary battles have been fought, opposition overcome, the heavy expenses connected therewith paid, and the work begun.
the engineer has walked again and again over the country through which the railway is to be carried and selected the best route, his assistants having meanwhile taken for him “flying levels” and “cross levels.” too frequently prejudice, ignorance, and selfishness interpose to prevent the best route being taken, and immense sums that might have been saved are spent in constructing the line on the next best route. as soon as the course of a line is fixed, accurate surveys are made by the assistant engineers, copies of which are placed, according to act of parliament, with the various clerks of the peace of the counties, through which the line is to pass, with the commissioners of railways and others, besides which there has to be prepared for each parish its proportion, and for each landholder a section showing the greatest depth of cutting or embankment in any of his fields.
as soon as all this has been done, and the act of parliament authorising the line obtained, an accurate plan and section of the whole line is made, from which the engineer ascertains and lays down its gradients, in other words its ascents and descents, determines the number and size of the bridges and viaducts to be made, calculates the quantity of embankments required to fill up hollows, and the number of cuttings to level obstructions, in which latter calculations he estimates that the cutting down of elevations will be made subservient as far as may be, to the elevation of depressions. all this involves very nice and exact calculation as to quantity of material, masonry, etcetera, and the sinking of “trial shafts” to ascertain the nature of the various strata to be excavated or tunnelled. then the cost of all the works has to be estimated in detail, apportioned into lengths and advertised for execution by contract. to each section of the line thus apportioned—forty or fifty miles—an experienced engineer is appointed, having under him “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 physical workers are then called into action, in the form of bands of navvies. as the steam and mechanism of the locomotive are useless except in regulated combination, so brain and muscle can achieve nothing without wise and harmonious union. if boys and men would reflect more deeply on this great truth, pride, boasting, and the false separation of classes would be less rife. we say false, because there is a separation of classes which is natural and unavoidable. no one ever complains of that. if ill-advised or angry navvies were to refuse to work, what could directors and engineers do? if, on the other hand, ill-advised or angry directors and engineers refused to pay, what could navvies do? antagonism is an unhealthy condition of things. there is far too much of it between employers and employed in this world. “agree with thine adversary quickly” is a command which applies to bodies of men quite as much 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 our peculiar circumstances, then let us agree to separate. fighting, save in self-defence, is only fit for fools.
but to return. when bone and muscle have been for the time welded to brain, then the work of construction goes on “full swing.” difficulties and obstructions are overcome in a way that appears to the unskilled eye nothing less than miraculous. but the work is often hindered and rendered greatly more expensive by the sudden appearance of evils against which no amount of human wisdom or foresight could have guarded.
the kilsby tunnel of the london and north west railway is a case in point. when that tunnel was proposed, it was arranged that it should be about 3000 yards long, and 160 feet below the surface, with two great ventilating shafts 60 feet in diameter. it was a gigantic work. the engineer examined the ground in the usual way, with much care, and then advertised for “tenders.” the various competing contractors also examined the ground minutely, and the offer of one of them to work it for 99,000 pounds was accepted. forthwith the contractor went to work, and all went well and busily for some time, until it was suddenly discovered that a hidden quicksand extended 400 yards into the tunnel, which the trial shafts had just passed without touching. this was a more tremendous blow to the contractor than most readers may at first thought suppose, for he believed that to solidify a quicksand was impossible. the effect on him was so great that he was mentally prostrated, and although the company generously and justly relieved him from his engagement, the reprieve came too late, for he died. it then came 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 placed his chief dependence on the steam-engine to keep the water down while the 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 drove into the roof, and a deluge of water burst in on them, and although they tried to continue their work on a raft the water prevailed and at last drove them out. they escaped with difficulty up one of the air-shafts. the water having put an effectual stop to the work, the directors felt disposed to give it up, but stephenson begged for a fortnight more. it was granted. by means of thirteen steam-engines, the amazing quantity of 1800 gallons of water per minute was pumped out of the quicksand night and day for eight months. with the aid of 1250 men and 200 horses the work was finally completed, having occupied altogether thirty months from the laying of the first brick.
two very singular accidents occurred during the course of the construction of this tunnel. on one occasion a man who had been working in it was being hauled up one of the shafts, when his coat caught in an angular crevice of the partition, that separated the pumps from the passage for the men, and became so firmly jammed that he was compelled to let go the rope, and was left there dangling in the air, about a hundred feet from the bottom, until his horrified comrades went down and rescued him by cutting away the piece of his coat. this piece of cloth was 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 down the shaft, executing some repairs, when a huge navvy, named jack pierson, fell from the surface, went right through the platform, as if it had been made of paper, and fell to the bottom. fortunately there was 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 to shout for a rope to those above, and they hallooed their advice down the shaft in reply. in the midst of the confusion jack pierson himself calmly advised them to make less noise and pull him out, which they very soon did, and the poor man was carried home and put to bed. he lay there for many weeks unable to move, but ultimately recovered.
what we have said of the kilsby tunnel gives a slight glimpse of some of the expenses, difficulties, and dangers that occasionally attend the construction of a railway.
of course these difficulties and expenses vary according to the nature of the ground. in some places the gradients are slight, bridges few, and cuttings, etcetera, insignificant; but in other places the reverse is emphatically the case, and costly laborious works have to be undertaken.
one such work, which occurred at the very opening of our railway system in 1828, was the bridging of the chat moss, on the liverpool and manchester 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 on with safety, and in some places an iron rod laid on the surface would sink by its own weight. like many other difficulties in this world, the solidification of the chat moss was said to be impossible, but the great engineer scarce admitted the propriety of allowing the word “impossible” to cumber our dictionaries. he began the work at once by forming an embankment twenty feet high, which he carried some distance across the treacherous soil, when the whole affair sank down one day and disappeared! undismayed, stephenson began again, and went on steadily depositing thousands on thousands of tons of earth, which were greedily swallowed up, until at last a solid foundation was obtained over the greater 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 this hurdles interwoven with heath were spread, and on these earth and gravel were laid down. when this road showed a tendency to sink below the level, stephenson loaded the moss beyond the track to balance it; when water oozed through, he invented a new kind of drain-pipe formed of old tallow casks, headed into each other, and ballasted to keep them down, and at last the feat was accomplished—the railway was run over the wet quaking moss on firm dry land.
it was in the formation of this, the true beginning of railways, that the british “navvy” was called into being. to perform the laborious work, stephenson employed the men called “inland navigators,” in other words, the canal excavators. this body of strong “navigators” or “navvies” formed the nucleus, which gathered recruits from all parts of the kingdom. as the work of railway making, which thenceforward grew fast and furious, was unusually severe, only men who were unusually powerful were suited for the navvy ranks, so that they became a distinct class of gigantic men, whose capacity for bread and beef was in accordance with their muscular development and power to toil. splendid fellows they were, and are; somewhat rugged and untamed, no doubt, with a tendency to fight occasionally, and a great deal of genuine kindness and simplicity. that they are capable of being imbued with refined feeling, noble sentiment, and love to god, has been shown by the publications of miss marsh, which detail that lady’s interesting and earnest labours to bring the unbelievers among these men to our saviour.
another celebrated piece of railway engineering is the britannia bridge over the menai straits, which separates caernarvonshire from the island of anglesey. this was the first bridge ever built on the tubular principle. the importance of crossing the strait was very great, as it lay in the direct route to holyhead and ireland. telford, the engineer, daringly resolved to span the strait with a suspension bridge 100 feet above the water. he began it in 1818, and on the last day of january 1826 the london mail coach passed over the estuary. the bridge remains to this day a vast and beautiful monument of engineering skill. but when railways began to play, something more ponderous and powerful became necessary. a bridge with arches was talked of, but this was considered likely to be obstructive to the navigation of the strait, therefore another plan was demanded. at this juncture robert stephenson came forward with a plan. pounding his opinion on the known fact that hollow columns are stronger than solid ones; that hollow beams are better than solid beams, he leaped to the bold conclusion that a hollow iron beam, or tube, could be made large enough to allow a train to pass through it! as usual there sprang up a host of cold-waterers, but thanks to british enterprise, which can dare anything, there were found enough of men willing to promote the scheme. it was no sooner resolved on than begun. massive abutments of stone were raised on each shore to the height of 100 feet above high-water. the width of the strait between these abutments is nearly 500 yards. midway across is the britannia rock, just visible at half tide. the engineer resolved to found one of his towers on that rock. it was done; but the distance being 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 to the tube a very slight arch, which, however, is barely perceptible.
the tubes were rectangular, with double top and bottom made of plates of wrought-iron, from three-eighths to three-quarters of an inch thick, and varying in length according to their position—the whole when put together forming a single tube about 500 yards long. the two centre ones were the largest and most difficult to manage, each having to be built on shore, floated off on barges, and lifted by hydraulic power a height of about 100 feet. some idea of what this implied may be gathered from the following fact. each tube weighed 1800 tons—the weight of a goodly-sized ocean steamer! a perfect army of men worked at the building of the tubes; cutting, punching, fitting, riveting, etcetera, and as the place became the temporary abode of so many artificers and labourers, with their wives and children, a village sprang up around them, with shops, a school, and a surgery. two fire-engines and large tanks of water were kept in constant readiness in case of fire, and for many months rivet-making machines, punching machines, shearing machines, etcetera, were in full work. there were two million rivets used altogether, and the quantity of three-quarter-inch iron rod used in making them measured 126 miles. the total weight of iron used was nearly 12,000 tons. the bridge was strengthened by eighty-three miles of angle iron. for many months the outlay in wages alone was 6000 pounds a week, and the cost for the whole of the works more than 600,000 pounds. a curious fact connected with this enormous mass of iron is, that arrangements had to be made to permit of shrinkage and expansion. the tubes were placed on a series of rollers and iron balls, and it was afterwards found that in the hottest part of summer they were twelve inches longer than in winter—a difference which, if not provided for, would have caused the destruction of the towers by a constant and irresistible pull and thrust! the menai bridge 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 great engineering works that railways have called into being. we can merely point to such achievements as the high-level bridges at newcastle-on-tyne, berwick-on-tweed, and at saltash, over the tamar. there are viaducts of great height, length, and beauty in all parts of the kingdom; there are terminal stations so vast and magnificent as to remind one of the structures of eastern splendour described in the arabian nights entertainments; and there are hundreds of miles of tunnelling at the present time in the united kingdom.
the metropolitan railway is the most important and singular of these tunnels—for it is entitled to be regarded as a gigantic tunnel—which burrows under the streets of london.
this stupendous work was undertaken in order to relieve the traffic in the streets of london. the frequent blocks that used to occur not many years ago in the main thoroughfares of the metropolis, had rendered relief absolutely necessary. when the increase of railways began to pour human beings and goods from all parts of the kingdom into london in a continuous and ever-increasing stream, it became obvious that some new mode of conveyance must be opened up. after much deliberation as to the best method, it was finally resolved that an underground railway should be made, encircling the metropolis, so that travellers arriving from all points of the compass might find a ready and sufficient means of conveyance into the central parts of the city. there was opposition to the scheme, of course; but, through the persevering energy of the solicitor to the undertaking and others, the work was at length begun, and the line opened for traffic in january 1863. its extraordinary success soon proved the wisdom of its promoters.
at first it was thought that the chief revenues would be derived from the conveyance of goods from the west to the eastern districts of london, but its enormous passenger traffic eventually became the chief cause of its great prosperity. in the very first year of its opening the number of passengers who travelled by it between farringdon street and bishop’s road, paddington, amounted to nearly nine and a half millions of individuals, which is more than three times the entire population of london—also, let us add, more than three times the entire population of scotland!
the number of trains which are constantly following each other in quick succession (at times every two or three minutes) on this magnificent railway has rendered a most perfect system of signalling necessary, as well as a working staff of superior intelligence and activity. the drivers are all picked men, and indeed it is obvious to every one who travels by it that the porters, and guards, and all employed on the line are unusually smart men. the engineering difficulties connected with the metropolitan railway were very great as may easily be believed, seeing that it had to be formed under streets whose foundations were unavoidably shaken, and amongst an infinite ramification of gas and water-pipes and sewers whose separate action had to be maintained intact while the process of construction was going on. some of the stations are most ingeniously lighted from the streets above by bright reflecting tile-work, while others, too deep for such a method, or too much overtopped 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. despite its great length of tunnelling the line is perfectly dry throughout.
at first fears were entertained that human beings could not with safety travel through such tunnels as were here formed, but experience has proved those fears, like many others, to have been groundless, and a very thorough analysis of the atmosphere of the line in all circumstances, and by the most competent men of the day, has demonstrated that the air of the metropolitan railway is not injurious to health. the excellent general health of the employés also affords additional and conclusive testimony to this fact even although it is unquestionably true that there is at times a somewhat sulphurous smell there.
this thorough ventilation, of course, could only have been achieved by ingenious arrangements and a peculiar construction of the engines, whereby the waste steam and fumes of the furnaces should be prevented from emitting their foul and sulphurous odours. the carriages are brilliantly lighted with gas, contained in long india-rubber bags on their roofs, and the motion of the trains is much gentler than that of ordinary railways, although they travel at the rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour, including stoppages,—a rate, be it observed, which could not have been ventured on at all but for the thorough and effective system of telegraphic and semaphore signalling employed, to indicate from station to station the exact state of the line—as to trains—at all times. on the whole the metropolitan railway has proved one of the most useful and successful undertakings of modern times. see note 3 at the end of the chapter.
in reference to foreign railways, we have only space to say that there are 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 than point 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 daring and enterprising americans, by means of which the prairies and the rocky mountains are made of no account and new york is brought within seven days of san francisco! the engineering works on the s?mmering railway, between vienna and trieste; the mighty victoria tubular bridge at montreal; the railway bridge over niagara; the difficulties encountered and overcome in india; the bold achievements of railway engineers amid the dizzy heights and solitudes of the andes—all these subjects must be passed over in silence, else our readers will, we fear, come to the conclusion that we have lost command of the iron horse altogether, allowed him to take the bit in his teeth and fairly run away.
note 1. many readers may find it difficult to form an adequate conception of such a vast number as 307 millions. it may help one to some idea of it to know that, if a man were to devote himself to count it, one by one,—sitting down after breakfast counting at the rate of one every moment, and working without intermission for eight hours every day, excepting sundays,—he would not conclude his task until the thirty-fifth year.
note 2. we would refer them particularly to messrs w. and r. chambers’ comprehensive and popularly written work on “railways, steamer, and telegraphs;” money’s “rambles on railways,” which bristles with figures and swarms with anecdote; “stokers and pokers,” by sir francis head, a capital and very full work, though somewhat old; w.b. adams’ “roads and rails,” and bremrer’s “industries of scotland.”
note 3. we had intended to devote much larger space to this most interesting line, but the nature of our book forbids it. we quit the subject regretfully; referring the reader, who may desire to know more, to an able notice of the metropolitan railway in “the shops and companies of london,” edited by henry mayhew.
