RAILWAY. 



307 



Hallway, lockage. In suggesting such a machine, it will per- 

 be better to avoid views which may be consi- 

 gned speculative, and apply such as are more or less 

 known in practice. We shall therefore first notice one 

 which we have Keen very prettily exemplified upon the 

 Mnall Kcale in the Lanark cotton-mills, where it ii 

 worked by a power taken from one of the water-wheels 

 of these works. This contrivance is employed for con- 

 veying the cotton to the hands of the spinners in the 

 upper stories of these extensive mills. A similar ap- 

 paratus is employed, upon the large scale, by Mr. 

 Baird, at the Shotts iron-works, where the machinery is 

 impelled by a steam engine, of the power of six 

 horses, for raising the minerals from the under- 

 ground workings. But any power adequate to the 

 purpose may be applied to the lying shaft of this ap- 

 paratus, which altogether is simple in its structure, and 

 very complete in its operation. In so far as it is ap- 

 plicable to our purpose, we shall term it n Railway-lock. 

 It consists of two large cast-iron wheels, placed upon 

 the same axis at a convenient distance from each 

 other, to admit of a railway waggon being suspended 

 between them. Upon the peripheries of these wheels, 

 teeth of a certain description are formed calculated to 

 hook into the continuous links of what is technically 

 termed a Pilch-chain. When waggons are to be raised or 

 lowered from one railway to another, the machine is set 

 in motion, and the pitch-chains upon which the waggons 

 are hooked ; or by different arrangement of the appa- 

 ratus they may be placed upon a platform connected 

 with the pitch-chains, and thus moved from one level 

 to another, by the revolution of the machinery, as will 

 be more fully understood from Plate CCCCLXXVII, 

 and its technical description. 



Another machine, suitable for lifts upon a smaller 

 scale, which may also be worked by any convenient 

 power, is described in Stevenson's Account of the Bell- 

 Rock Lighthouse, at page 508, under the appellation of 

 a Sheer-crane, the machine being represented in Figs. 

 1. and 2. Plate XI. of that work. The sheer- crane was 

 worked by manual labour at the Bell- Rock, where it 

 was employed for raising blocks of stone out of boats 

 and laying them upon railway waggons ; the lift vary- 

 ing from three to seven feet, according to the state of 

 the tide. 



In laying out a public railway, a breadth of not less 

 than twenty feet should always be contemplated, so as 

 to admit of two entire sets of tracks, with the necessary 

 sides, paths, and drains. In a private road with one 

 set of tracks, a space of twelve feet in breadth may be 

 found sufficient ; but in this case it is generally neces- 

 sary to make provision for about four passing places 

 in each mile. But this description of road should sel- 

 dom be resorted to for a public railway, against which 

 the inconveniency of the heavy drag at the turns of the 

 passing places, and the frequent stoppage of the wag- 

 gons, should prove sufficient objections, especially as 

 the economy in forming and making such a road 

 will not be found great after every thing has been ta- 

 ken into account. It is further of importance to the 

 steady motion of the waggons, particularly hi high 

 winds, that they be made rather of a broad and low 

 construction, and that the railway tracks should not be 

 laid at less than four feet apart, which will afford a 

 sufficient tracking-path for the horse, without his being 

 apt to injure the props of the rails. Attention should 

 also be paid to the thorough drainage of the road, 

 that the horse path rests upon a firm bottom, be 

 finished with a smooth and compact surface, and made 



Breadth of 

 road. 



altogether of the best materials the country through Railway. 

 which it passes can afford. ^^- ,^. 



In tlu ((instruction of rail way-tracks, timber and cart- Of cut and 

 iron have hitherto been chiefly employed, but malleable BM " N 

 iron is now coming into very general use. The great lroB "*"** 

 t-xpence of malleable iron, and perhaps the want of im- 

 portance formerly attached to railways a* a mode of ge- 

 neral traffic, were the chief bars to its introduction into 

 the railway system ; but, strength for strength, we be- 

 lieve it can always be furnished as cheap as cast-iron. It 

 has sometimes been objected to malleable iron, that it is 

 liable to oxidation or rust, and that it may yield, with* 

 out its being observable, while the work may thus be 

 continued, under a disadvantageous power, and that it 

 were even better that a rail should break than be thus 

 liable to distortion. These objections, however, appear 

 to be rather of a negative description. With regard to 

 the process of oxidation, it does not seem to carry much 

 weight ; as railways of malleable iron may be seen at 

 Lord Carlisle's works at Tynedale-fell, which have 

 been in use for ten years, without appearing to have 

 suffered materially in this respect. The advantages of 

 malleable iron rails are manifest in their not being lia- 

 ble to break, and in diminishing the number of joints. 

 To prevent their yielding in a hurtful manner, it is only 

 necessary somewhat to increase the numberof props, and 

 instead of a junction at the distance of every three or four 

 feet, the bars may be extended to twelve or eighteen 

 feet, or might, indeed, by welding, be formed of any 

 length. Upon the whole, therefore, we are inclined to 

 give a decided preference to the use of malleable iron 

 for railway tracks. In the year 1820, the Bedlington 

 iron company of Northumberland were induced to take 

 a patent for certain improvements in the construction 

 of malleable iron rails, suggested to that company, 

 from the perusal of Mr. Stevenson's Report on the Edin- 

 burghRailtvaym 1819, as noticed in the printed remarks 

 attached to their specification. The patentees insist 

 chiefly upon forming the bars of a prismatic figure, 

 and some other particulars, intended to improve 

 their stability. The manner in which these rails are 

 drawn and manufactured is highly creditable to the 

 works at Bedlington ; but in recommending malle- 

 able iron for railway tracks, we have always had in 

 view the simplest form of the bar with parallel edges. 

 Whether malleable or cast-iron be adopted, the rails 

 should be of the edge form, and be more massive and 

 strong than they commonly are ; of the former material 

 for loads of about three tons on a public railway, they 

 should not be less than 30 Ib. and the latter 45 Ib. 

 per lineal yard, of single rail, and so in propor- 

 tion, as the weight to be carried is more or less. It 

 is proper, however, to observe, that a little additional 

 weight of metal, in the first instance, in making a sub- 

 stantial apparatus, will in the end prove great economy. 



It is also an important matter to determine the de- Form of 

 scription or form of rails best adapted to the road, rail* 

 These are chiefly of two kinds, the plate and the edge- 

 rail, the former represented in Plate CCCCLXXVII. 

 Figs. 1. and 2. is always made of cast-iron. In Fig. 1. 

 a b b c is a plan, and Fig. 2. a section of the Plate rail ; 

 with a saddle-piece, a c, shown in Fig. 1. which has 

 lately been introduced by Mr. Wilson of Troon, the 

 more effectually to command the joint. The crest or 

 flange b b, in Fig. 2. gives strength to the rail, and is 

 intended as a guide to keep the wheel b d in its place. 

 From the mode in which the strength is applied in this 

 description of rail, it must evidently require a propor- 

 tionally greater weight of metal to sustain the same 



