48 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



followed, and were provided with spades and axes. They laid 

 the cross-pieces or ties, which were made from good, straight 

 props, cut 6 feet long and about 5 inches in diameter. These 

 were bedded in the prepared track, and their upper surfaces 

 roughly flattened with the axes. The cross-pieces were laid 

 down at about 3 feet apart from centre to centre, and additional 

 pieces were added if the ground was inclined to be wet or 

 marshy. 



The third pair of workmen fixed the poles which served as 

 rails to the cross-pieces. They were provided with nail 

 hammers, cross-cut saw and adze. The poles, both for cross- 

 pieces and rails, were dragged by a horse to convenient points 

 along the marked-out track. The rail poles were specially 

 selected from the props already cut, and were laid on the cross- 

 pieces and firmly nailed down. With the cross-cut saw the end 

 of each pole was cut flush with the last cross-piece to which it 

 was nailed, and 6 inches further back another saw-cut was 

 made half through the pole, and the piece removed with the 

 adze. Another pole was now selected, with a similar end 

 diameter, and was cut to match the end of the pole already 

 laid, before it was fitted in and nailed to the cross-pieces. The 

 adjacent poles were thus made to fit tightly, and joined exactly 

 above a cross-piece. If this is not done the joint is apt to sag 

 when a heavy load passes over it. These joints take the place 

 of the fish-plates used with ordinary steel rails, and it is there- 

 fore important that they should be carefully made and firmly 

 nailed down. 



When the two miles of track had been laid, a small traction 

 engine and a brake drum were purchased, and fixed at the 

 top of the steepest part of the track, about ij miles from 

 the public road. The engine was attached to the drum by 

 a belt and a slack pulley. Eight waggons or bogies were in 

 use. Horses hauled one waggon apiece over the half mile of 

 track from the point where the props were collected to the 

 engine. On their arrival there the horses were unyoked, and 

 the end of the steel cable was attached to one of the bogies by 

 a steel hook. Four of them were then coupled together, and 

 with a slight push they were put in motion downhill, the man 

 at the brake handle regulating their speed. When the bogies 

 arrived at the bottom, the props were quickly transferred to 

 road waggons, and hauled by a traction engine to the railway 



