RAILWAY. 



Railway. In the formation and superintendence of public rail- 

 V -*""V*^ wayn, it is obvious thai considerable attention ought to 

 be given to enforce suitable regulations as to the height 

 ami construction of the waggons. In many inst.mrrs 

 railway waggons may be advantageously hung upon 

 Miring-. h seems also a simple and economical me- 

 thod to have the body of the waggon, containing the 

 lit, hung on chains, allowing it a natural .uin/ 

 when any irregular motion or unexpected obstacle oc- 

 curs. 



Regarding the size of waggon wheels, and their con- 

 nection with the axle, various opinions exist. Some 

 have the wheels fixed dead upon the axles, like the an- 

 cient cars, or those still in use in the Irish cart. Others 

 have both wheels and axles fitted for rotatory motion. 

 But the more general, and we would say preferable 

 mode, is to have the axle fixed and ihe wheel revolving. 

 On a railway, where obstacles are not supposed to be 

 met with, as on the common r.oad, the wheels are made 

 comparatively small, which affords a rising or fa- 

 vourable line of traction. To determine this point beyond 

 dispute, and also to ascertain the friction upon axles of 

 various dimensions upon the great scale, would resolve 

 an important problem in mechanics. Perhaps a railway 

 wheel of fifteen inches diameter ought to be considered 

 the minimum, and thirty inches the maximum size. 

 These dimensions are favourable to the yoke, and to the 

 purposes of loading and discharging, while to exceed 

 them would add to the weight of the waggon without 

 obtaining much advantage. Waggon wheels are gene- 

 rally made of cast iron. To prevent their wearing un- 

 equally, Messrs. Stephenson and Losh, of Newcastle, 

 obtained a patent for hardening the rims of railway 

 wheels. 



I^ever It has long been a desideratum in the construction 



iinch-pin. of wheels and axles to preserve the grease and at the 

 same time exclude the dust of the road. This has, in 

 a great measure, been effected in mail coaches, and 

 other carriages, which travel at speed, but has been less 

 attended to in vehicles which move at a slow pace. 

 The consequence is, that upon railways the grease may 

 often be seen dropping with fullness from the linch-pins 

 of one waggon, while the dry axles of another announce 

 its progress upon the road by the most discordant 

 sounds. Mr. Taylor, seeing the disadvantage of this 

 state of things on the railways at his coalworks near 

 Ayr, encouraged his millwright in devising a remedy 

 for this evil, which has at length been effected in a very 

 simple manner, by which he is enabled to have the 

 outward end of the nave of the wheel close, as delineat- 

 ed at letter e in Fig. 3. Plate CCCCLXXVIL the com- 

 mon Iinch-pin, shown at e, Fig. 2. being dispensed 

 with. This is effected by means of an appendage fix- 

 ed to the axle at d, Fig. 3. which we shall term a lever- 

 linch, the extremity of which at e falls into a groove 

 cut on the nave of the wheel marked e e?, which keeps 

 it in its place. Letteryis a swivel bolt, which keeps 

 the lever-linch d and e 1 into the groove e e' above 

 alluded to. A model of this apparatus has been pre- 

 sented by Mr. Taylor to the Highland Society, that the 

 person to whom he gives the merit of the invention 

 may meet with some encouragement, and that the 

 public may be put in possession of this improvement. 

 In practice, however, it may perhaps be found that 

 additional trouble will attend the exact adjustment of 

 the wheels to the axle, which, for the prevention of 

 friction both in the socket or bush of the wheel, and in 

 the groove of the new lever-linch, is a matter worthy 

 of due attention. 



In concluding this article, we cannot help remarking 

 that the time is not very remote,, when from ten to 



809 



fifteen cwt. was considered a fair load for an ordi- Kail way. 

 nary horse upon the common road. But by recent "-v^**. 

 improvements in the line of draught, and the smooth- or * 

 ness of the surface, this load has been at least doubled, "ft"** 

 Further, by the introduction of the railway system, we for "***" 

 now speak confidently of a single horse doing a day's ** 

 work, upon a level line of edge railway, with as many 

 tons as he formerly did with hundredweights on the 

 common road. Nor is this all ; for the Trevethic, or 

 high- pressure-engine, has been mounted upon a rail- 

 way carriage, and made to drag upwards of fifty tons 

 of coal, exclusively of the weight of the "waggon*. 

 Where the draught is upon an inclined plane or up- 

 hill, a row of cogs or teeth must be laid along the 

 outside of one of the rails, into which a wheel, with 

 corresponding teeth, is made to work, and being im- 

 pelled by the steam, the engine-waggon gives motion 

 to the whole train. Upon a level road, or when the 

 acclivity is very little, the wheel with teeth is not found 

 necessary, and in that case the power is communicated 

 immediately to the common wheels of the steam-wag, 

 gon ; but in wet weather, when the friction is less, the 

 wheels of the steam-waggon sometimes revolve with- 

 out dragging its load or moving progressively. Thii 

 contrivance has now been a good many years known 

 to the public, and has been suggested as applicable to 

 carriages travelling at speed, even upon the common 

 road, but as yet it has not become general in any form. 

 We are, however, happy to see that it is still regarded 

 favourably by the public, and have every reason to hope 

 that time and practice will render it more perfect; be- 

 ing that description of machine which speculation can- 

 not complete, and which practice alone will bring to 

 maturity. 



There are other points connected with the subject of Stone rail- 

 railways, which fall so immediately under the article ways. 

 ROADS and Highways, that we shall reserve what far- 

 ther occurs to us, for insertion under that head, parti- 

 cularly what we have to say upon stone-railways, and 

 cast-iron tracks for ordinary carriages. 



Explanation of Plate CCCCLXXVIL 



Figures 5, 6, and 7, Plate CCCCLXXVIL are intend- .Railway 

 ed to represent a rail way- lock, applicable to conveying lock - 

 loads from one level to another, similar to the effect 

 produced by lockage in inland navigation. This is ac- 

 complished by the revolution of the wheels alluded 

 to in the foregoing article, over which pitch-chains 

 work on which the waggons are suspended, and so are 

 moved from a lower to a higher level, and vice versa. 

 This apparatus may be impelled by the power of steam, 

 water, or animal force, according to circumstances ; the 

 axis of the pitch- chain wheels being in either case con- 

 nected with the impelling power, by means of wheel- 

 and-pinion work of strength proportioned to the work- 

 The railway-waggons, as before noticed, may either be 

 set upon a platform fitted to the lock-machine, or they 

 may simply be provided with two strong iron loops at- 

 tached to their opposite sides ; the open parts of which 

 having a downward direction so as to receive the corres- 

 ponding studs of the pitch- chains. These loops are fix- 

 ed towards the top of the waggon, that the points of Mis- 

 pension may be as much as possible above the centre 

 of gravity of the load, that it may become more stable 

 when suspended upon the chain. Let us then suppose 

 that a train of waggons has arrived at the bottom of 

 the lock, when the horse is disengaged, and perhaps 

 yoked to a common gin connected with the machinery 

 at the top ; the first waggon is then pushed along the 

 railway, till its loop range with the pitch-chains on 

 each side, as shown in Fig. 6. The machinery is 



