INLAND CONVEYANCE. 



known in England, and at the same time popular- 

 ised a method of subterranean transit almost as 

 marvellous as anything in the way of viaducts. 

 The Woodhead Tunnel is 3 miles 60 feet in length, 

 and the Severn Tunnel is about 3 miles long. 

 But all our tunnels have been cast into the shade 

 by that through the Alps near Mont Cenis. The 

 highest summit of the section immediately over 

 this tunnel is 9527 feet, and the summit level of 

 the tunnel, 4246 feet above sea-level. It was com- 

 pleted in 13 years, cost about ^200 per lineal 

 yard, the total length being 7-6 miles, and was 

 opened on the 26th December 1870. The time 

 occupied in passing through the tunnel by train is 

 25 minutes. The St Gothard Tunnel, begun in 

 1872, was pierced by February 1880. The length 

 is 9-2 English miles; the cost by estimate was 

 ^2,000,000. The Arlberg Tunnel, begun in 1880, 

 was pierced by the end of 1883. It is 6 miles 

 long, and gives railway communication between 

 the Austrian province of Vorarlberg and Innsbruck 

 in the Tyrol. The work of tunnelling has been 

 greatly expedited, and the cost much reduced, by 

 the invention of rock-boring machines. 



In January 1872, a joint-stock company was 

 registered for making a tunnel near Dover to a 

 point near Calais. The government, however, in 

 1883, declined to sanction this undertaking. 



Viaducts are bridges, frequently of stone, and of 

 handsome architecture, or now more commonly 

 of malleable iron girders of various forms set in 

 stone or iron piers. In the construction of 

 viaducts, there is a growing boldness of concep- 

 tion, originating with the success of the famed 

 railway viaducts across the Menai Strait, the 

 river Tamar. and the St Lawrence. The Tay 

 Bridge, of iron girders, across the estuary of the 

 Tay near Dundee, 3450 yards (nearly 2 miles) 

 long, was opened in 1878, but was partially 

 destroyed by a violent storm at the end of 1879. 

 Remarkable works are the great suspension East 

 River Bridge to connect the cities of New York 

 and Brooklyn, more than a mile long, the central 

 opening having a span of nearly 1600 feet; and 

 the St Louis Bridge, a magnificent bridge crossing 

 the Mississippi by three arches of unequalled width, 

 the centre span being 520 feet clear of masonry. 



Cost of Permanent Way. Owing to the obstruc- 

 tions offered by landowners and their excessive 

 claims for amenity damages, and also to the opposi- 

 tion of rival companies, the cost of railways was at 

 one time very much greater than it is at present. 

 It is estimated that in Britain the amount paid 

 for land-claims has averaged ,8000 per mile con- 

 structed. The expenditure incurred in securing 

 legislative authority to construct railways was 

 likewise enormous. The parliamentary costs of 

 the Brighton Railway averaged ^4806 per mile ; 

 of the Manchester and Birmingham, 5190 per 

 mile ; and of the Blackwall, ,14,414 per mile ! 

 The cost of carrying the Liverpool and Manchester 

 line was 27,000. It has been shewn that the 

 solicitor's bill for the South-eastern Railway con- 

 tained 10,000 folios, and amounted to ,240,000. 

 At the end of 1876, the total average cost of all 

 the railways in the kingdom was 37,000 per 

 mile open, or about double that of any other 

 country. These few facts, however, afford but a 

 feeble idea of the reckless wastefulness of capital 

 on railway undertakings ; it is universally allowed 

 that, under a better policy, not only a much better 



railway system might have been provided, but an 

 immense saving of capital effected. 



The cost of construction varies so much, that it 

 is impossible to say definitely what would be the 

 average cost nowadays ; but in England a double 

 line, including station-houses, signals, and all other 

 fixed plant, would probably cost, under ordinary 

 circumstances, from ,20,000 to ,24,000 per mile. 

 Single lines are made at perhaps a fourth less, 

 but nowhere in the United Kingdom have they 

 been executed so economically as in Scotland. 

 There, some single lines have cost for land and 

 everything not more than about ,5000 per mile- 

 such economy, however, being greatly due to the 

 fact, that the undertakings were promoted and 

 watched over by bodies of land-proprietors deeply 

 interested in restraining expenditure. 



Maintenance of Way. Every railway, great or 

 I small, is at a considerable expense in keeping 

 1 the line in proper working order, for which pur- 

 pose a staff of officials is required. Besides a 

 general superintendent, there is an effective staff 

 of ' plate-layers,' whose duty it is to watch over 

 and repair the permanent way. 



ROLLING STOCK. Under this head are com- 

 prehended locomotives, carriages, and trucks foi 

 goods and minerals, the whole forming an im- 

 portant part of railway undertakings. 



Locomotives. Locomotives are of several kinds, 

 varied in construction to suit the traffic for which 

 they are designed. They may be classed as 

 express, ordinary, passenger, goods, and tank 

 engines. In the latter class the tender for fuel 

 and water forms an extension of the locomotive, 

 I but for the most part the tender is detached, and 

 only connected by couplings. Locomotives for 

 ordinary traffic have generally six wheels. In the 

 first two classes, where speed is the principal 

 object, only two, or at most four of the six wheels 

 are driven, and these are made of large diameter. 

 There has been a continual tendency to increase 

 the speed, and this has led to the increase of the 

 size of the driving-wheels, which are in some cases 

 8 feet in diameter. All the wheels of locomotives 

 for heavy traffic are coupled together, so as to 

 utilise the entire weight for adhesion. The 

 smaller class of locomotives have only four wheels. 

 The present price of first-class locomotives of the 

 largest size in general use including the tender, 

 varies from ,3000 to ,4000. Locomotives are 

 now made at Crewe almost entirely (except the 

 tubular boiler) of Bessemer steel, lighter, stronger, 

 and cheaper in the end than those of iron. 



Carriages. There are three distinct kinds of 

 carriages to suit the several classes of passengers. 

 Each first-class carriage consists of three or 

 four distinct compartments ; but in the other 

 classes the backs of the seats are in many cases 

 not carried to the roof, leaving the upper part of 

 the carriage open fore and aft At night the 

 carriages are lighted with lamps ; on the Metro- 

 politan lines gas is sometimes used. Saloon- 

 carriages are chiefly reserved for royalty. The 

 first-class compartments are handsomely fitted up, 

 and in winter are furnished with long-shaped tin 

 vessels of hot water for the feet Recently, some 

 of the first-class comforts have been conceded to 

 the other classes. The Midland Company have 

 introduced large and luxurious sleeping-saloon 

 carriages, by the Pullman Company of America. 

 Other companies have done the same with saloon- 



