RAILWAY. 



In South 



Wales. 



Railway, half in thickness, laid with a uniform bearing upon solid 

 *"" """Y"*"*' rock from out- ranal to another, the empty boat* being at 

 tin- same time passed upwards. This inrlinrd plane it 

 \ards in length, having a declivity at the rate of one 

 perpendiru'ar to lour hori/.ontal. In Derby, Stafford, 

 and Warwiekshires, railways are numerous, some of 

 which are connected with inclined planes, and are 

 works of considerable extent, as those of Little Eaton 

 and Butterly. At Mansfield, in Nottingham, there is 

 a public railway nine miles in length, which was de- 

 signed and executed by Mr. Josias Jessop. The labour 

 and materials of this work are understood to have cost 

 about L.22,000 ; but including compensation for lands, 

 and the erection of wharfs and warehouses, the expence 

 of the whole operation amounted to about L.i>:J,00(). 

 In Shropshire, and indeed along the whole course of 

 the Severn, railways have been introduced with the best 

 effects. Those of Coalbrookdale and its neighbour- 

 hood, where Reynolds, the famous ironmaster, first in- 

 troduced the use of cast-iron for railways and bridges, 

 are highly interesting. It was also in this School of 

 Arts upon the great scale that loaded boats were first 

 transported upon inclined planes, between higher and 

 lower lines of canal, by means of steam engines, instead 

 of locking with water in the usual manner. At Chel- 

 tenham in Gloucestershire, Loughborough in Leicester- 

 shire, and Wandsworth in Surrey, and in other situa- 

 tions, there are public railways varying in extent from 

 seven to twenty-six miles, and differing in their lines of 

 draught, according to the situation of the country. 



South Wales, perhaps more than any other country 

 of similar extent, abounds with valuable minerals, 

 .which, from the inaccessible nature of the country, 

 must have been in a great measure shut up, but for 

 the introduction of the railway system. Here a large 

 uninhabited district of sterile mountains may be said 

 all at once to have become the seat of populous towns 

 and villages. Such, for example, is Merthyr-tydvil, of 

 which the Marquis of Bute is Lord of the Manor. When 

 the late Mr. Crashey, the great iron master of this dis- 

 trict, established himself here about the year 1765, the 

 parish of Merthyr-tydvil contained a very scanty popu- 

 lation ; but at the census in 1811, it had increased to 

 11,104- inhabitants ; and in that of 1821, it has mount- 

 ed up to 17,40k The railways of this district are nu- 

 merous and many of them extensive, particularly 

 in Glamorgan, Monmouth, Caermarthen, and Breck- 

 nockshires. Among these may be mentioned the 

 Sirhowy railway, which, with its branches and colla- 

 teral lines, extends upwards of 35 miles. It crosses 

 the Ebbwy by a bridge of 16 arches, forms a con- 

 nexion with the Wye, and has had the effect of re- 

 ducing the price of coal throughout the higher parts of 

 Radnor and Herefordshires. The Cardiff an'J Mer- 

 thyr-tydvil railway is about 27 miles in length ; and 

 it is worthy of remark, that both a common road 

 and a navigable canal are established between those 

 places. An experiment was made on this line of rail- 

 way in the year 1801, when one of Trevethic's high 

 pressure-engines was set upon a waggon as a loco-mo- 

 tive engine, when 10 tons of iron, and about 70 persons 

 were drawn a'ong a distance of nine miles. At the great 

 iron works of Merthyr-tydvil, Dowlais, Penydarran, 

 and others in that neighbourhood, much use is made of 

 railways. Here waggons, loaded with minerals, are 

 transported upon an inclined plane upon a horizontal 

 platform by steam, in a very simple and expeditious 

 manner. Connected with the Neath canal, there are se- 

 veral railways with inclined planes of considerable mag- 

 nitude ; and at Swansea, one is laid to the village of Oys- 

 termouth, adistance of seven miles; but its usefulnesses 



VOL. XVII, PART I. 3 



nearly lost, owingto its vicinity to a blowing drift-Band. 

 On this line, a stage- coach plies daily with pnntengcrt, 

 which indeed appears to be it chief trade. In Cuer- 

 niartlu nshirc, there is a railway to the harbour of La- 

 nelly, which extends about 15 mile* into the interior 

 coal country. 



In the mineral districts of North Wales, connected In Konb 

 with the shire* of Caernarvon, Denbigh, and Merioneth, VV*le. 

 there are several extensive railway works. That be- 

 longing to the slate-quarries of Penrhyn, is about six 

 miles in extent, and is laid out in four successive horizon- 

 tal tracks, which communicate with ench other by means 

 of three inclined planes, varying in length from 130 to 

 300 yardi. On these the work is so arranged, that in 

 passing down the loaded waggons, the empty ones are 

 taken up by a track-rope, wnich winds round the axle 

 of a brake-wheel. On the more level parts of the road, 

 the waggons are drawn by horses. The Penrhyn rail- 

 way may now be considered a pretty old establishment ; 

 and its good condition affords an example of the stability 

 of the edge-railway, having been in (1824) use for seven- 

 teen or eighteen years. This neighbourhood we may 

 mention as not less interesting to the engineer, from its 

 public works, including the stupendous bridge now 

 stretching across the Straits of Menai, the slate-quarries 

 of Penrhyn, and the copper mines of Anglesea, than to 

 the man of taste, for the beauties of its scenery, in- 

 cluding the mngnificent ruins of the castles of Caer- 

 narvon, Beaumaris, and Conway. 



In Ireland there are yet but few railways, excepting in Ireland, 

 those at the Harbour-works of Dublin, and at quarries 

 and other works of that description, which, from their 

 temporary nature, are not generally calculated to af- 

 ford good specimens of the art ; but in the progress of 

 the improvement of that fine country, we may look for- 

 ward to the period, when such works will be more gene- 

 rally established, and conducted with all the improve- 

 ment and systematic precision of the sister kingdom. 



In connexion with the railways noticed above, we Surveys f 

 may mention several extensive surveys, which have new work*, 

 been made for works of this description. One of 

 these by Mr. Telford, extends across the country from 

 Glasgow to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a distance of 125 

 miles, with a rise of 636 feet to the water-shade, in 

 the parish of Dolphingstoun. The survey from Ber- 

 wick to Kelso, by the late eminent Mr. Rennie, has 

 been farther continued up Gala Water to Dalkeith, 

 Edinburgh, and Leith, by Mr. Stevenson, who has al- 

 so made a survey upon the opposite side of the Fritb 

 of Forth, on an uninterrupted level from the river 

 Tay, through the great valley of Strathmore to Aber- 

 deen, with branch-lines to the ports of Stonehaven, 

 Montrose, Arbroath, Dundee, and Perth, comprising 

 upwards of one hundred miles of level road. A colla- 

 teral line has likewise been traced by the same engi- 

 neer from the confluence of the rivers Earn and Tay, 

 through the county of Fife to the westward of Dunferm- 

 line, with various branch-lines communicating with the 

 Frithof Forth. An extensive survey has lately been made 

 by Mn James, for connecting Liverpool with Manches- 

 ter by a railway, notwithstanding the water communi- 

 cations already established between these places by the 

 river Mersey and the Irwell canal. It may further be 

 mentioned, that after looking forward for many years 

 for a canal across the country between the Tyne and 

 the Solway, (a track of all others most desirable for 

 such a work,) a railway is now contemplated, even by 

 those who were most anxious that tins improvement 

 should be a navigable canal. These operations, or cer- 

 tain compartments of them, may be expected ere long 

 to be carried into effect, as the benefits of the railway 



r 



