RAILWAY. 



RAIN. 



ji 



The good* engine* are usually mode with four driving-wheels coupled, 

 of from 4 feet 6 inches to 6 feet in diatnrtor, and two carrying wheels, 

 for the narrow-range lines, at leant, whero the inclined d n.<- 

 1 in 100. On the line acros* the rkcmering, however, tin n- .nr four 

 driving-wheel* coupled, and mounted on one bogie frame. and >:\ 

 carrying-wheels mounted on another. The object aimed at in th,". 

 cues i to toe ream, us far as possible, the adhesion on the rails ; and 

 to Mcure the greatest possible length of boiler, and the greatest heating 

 surface. The weight of aa ordinary goods train may be considered to 

 be about 150 to 250 tons; that of an ordinary passenger train about 

 60 to 100 tons. 



Statwxt. A very important part of the establishment of a railway 

 ' in the erection of the intermediate and the end illations. 



The result of past experience seems to prove that it is by no means 

 advisable to construct them- buildings, at the first opening of a line, in 

 a costly or a permanent manner ; but rather that the true policy of a 

 railway company in to purchase at once all the land that may be re- 

 quired, and only to erect the permanent buildings when the traffic has 

 bad time to develope iUelf. As- a general rule, it would seem to be 

 necessary to purchase an additional quantity of ground, beyond that 

 which is required for the roadway, of about eight acres for a first- 

 clasa intermediate station ; and of about four acres for a second-class 

 one; the terminal passenger station for a first-class railway will 

 require an area of about 4 to 6 acres ; whilst the goodn station of such 

 a line will require about 25 or 40 acres, and the repairing shops, 

 carriage depots, engine houses, coke ovens, may require at least 12 

 acres. It may be added that in a large passenger station at a ter- 

 minus, as many as forty people are constantly employed ; and in a 

 large terminal goods station there are often as many as 140 ; on a 

 first-class intermediate station there are usually about ten people em- 

 ployed, and on a second-class station only about four. It has been 

 found that the average length of sidings for turn-outs and goods 

 stations, on lines with a large traffic, is not less than from 12 to 15 

 JIT cent, of the whole length of the through way ; and the expense 

 of the station buildings has been found to be not less than 2000A per 

 mile lineal of the distance between the termini, when no very costly 

 or monumental buildings have been attempted. In all cases the 

 embarkation and landing of passengers should be effected under 

 cover, and the same remark of course would apply to goods ; the 

 paauenger platforms should be finished at the level of the floors of the 

 carriages. 



Cto/. Finally, it .may be desirable to state that in England the 

 average cost of all the railways already executed has exceeded 33,0007. 

 per mile ; but that there is little reason for calculating the cost of the 

 railways which may have to be made hereafter at more than 16,0002. 

 per mile, unless there should be an abnormal proportion of the line 

 carried through town property. The rolling stock will be found to 

 have cost from 2000/. to 3500C. per mile of railway ; and of the portion 

 of the capital specially devoted to the construction of the roadway, in 

 double lines of road, the earthworks will cost about 40 per cent. ; the 

 permanent way 40 per cent. ; bridges, &c., 12 per cent. ; and land 8 per 

 cent Of course, however, these figures must only be regarded as 

 rough average approximations. Every line of railway presents its own 

 peculiar difficulties and special causes of expenditure. Thus it has 

 arisen that the average cost of the railways in England has borne 

 to those of other countries so very remarkable a proportion. With 

 us they have cost nearly one-third more than in Prance; twice aa 

 much as in Belgium ; two and a half times as much as in Germany; 

 and about five times as much as in the United States of America. 



Hnl!ttia of Kailimyi. It is difficult to collect any very trustworthy 

 statistics of the precise state, at any particular moment, of a class of 

 operations so essentially exposed to change as railways must be. The 

 following table must therefore only be considered to represent the 

 real state of the coae in a very rude and approximate manner. Every 

 month witnesses the opening of a new line of railway ; every year 

 witnesses the adoption of the railway system in a new country. 



In the year 1850 it was calculated that railways had been com- 

 menced in Europe of the lengths subjoined. The population of the 

 different countries is added. About three fifths of the length then 

 undertaken hod been completed. 



Countries. 

 Great Britain . 

 France 



Germany, small states 

 Austria 

 Prussia . 

 Belgium 



Denmark . . . 

 Spain . . . 

 Holland . . . 

 Italy . 

 Kula . 



Population. 

 . 27,323,000 

 . 33,547,000 

 . 16,804,000 

 . 38,400,000 

 . 16,200,000 

 . 4,624,000 

 . 2,132,000 

 . 14,210,000 

 . 3,242,000 

 . 17,000,000 

 . 08,600,000 



Miles of Hallway. 



12,801 



TH2 



2827 



2701 



2557 



1118 



118 



1389 



Ml 



1116 



29 



In Mi. r'enn'a book, 'On the Fund*,' ho quotes (p. 400) from 

 Mr. Dative a table of perhaps greater interest than the one given 

 above, insomuch at it contains much information as to the cost of 

 some of the railways, and as to then- commercial results, not only in 

 Europe, but in other quarters of the globe. 



In addition to these figures, it may be as well to state that, according 

 to the Report on the Railways of Great Britain, issued by the Depart- 

 ment of Railways in 1859, the total number of miles open for traffic 

 was, 



. <f. 



In England and Wales . 7217 miles j the receipts 9,989,959 17 6 

 In Scotland . . . 1869 1,267,792 3 9 



In Ireland . . . 1210 ,, 604,987 9 8 



Totals . 



11,862,739 10 11 



The total sum raised and expended on these lines to the < 

 December, 1859, was not less than 335,435,07M. 



The returns given by Mr. Consul Ward of Leipsic show that in 

 Germany Proper, ill 1858, there were open for traffic 7360 miles of 

 railway, which had cost about 120,000,000?. ; and in addition 1 1 

 about 501 miles of railway had been opened in Hungary and Galliria. 

 The length of railway opened in the United States was, at the < 

 1859, not less than 27,857 miles ; they had been constructed at a cost 

 of 192,209,473?., and they yielded a total revenue of 9,681,5002. nearly. 

 In Canada there were 2061 miles of railway opened up to thi 

 period; and, in our East Indian colonies, 065 miles; whilst in the 

 Cape colony, Ceylon, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Demerara, Jamaica, 

 Australia ; in the Brazils and the central American States, and in 

 numerous lines were opened, and in progress. The great rompany 

 which is at work upon the mam lines of Russia has undertaken to 

 complete in ten years about 4162 miles of railroad ; whilst in Asia 

 Minor and in Egypt there are short lengths already open to traffic. 

 In a very few years, indeed, railroads will be found in every ci 

 country, perhaps even to the exclusion of every other description of 

 road ; for in proportion to the value attached to time in commercial 

 affairs will this rapid means of intercommunication become ui" 

 more necessary. The rates at which goods trains now move are 

 between 17 and 20 miles an hour ; the passenger stopping trains travel 

 at rates of between 27 and 30 miles, and the express trains at rates of 

 between 87 and 45 miles per hour. In these days, when time is 

 emphatically money, no nation, which desires to maintain its position 

 in the world, can dispense with a system which enables it to 

 under the same conditions of speed as its neighbours, notwithstanding 

 that the cost may be considerably greater in one came than in another. 

 The Dutch government at lost has felt this truth, and even it has 

 been induced to commence a series of railways which will involve an 

 outlay of at least 10,000,000?. sterling. 



RAIN. The ancients appear to have been very imperfectly ac- 

 quainted with the constitution of the atmosphere ; and Descartes was 

 probably the first who, in attempting to refer meteorological phenomena 

 to their causes, approached near the hypotheses now generally received ; 

 for he ascribes the formation of clouds, snow, rain, and hail to varia- 

 tions of temperature in the upper regions of the air. He supposes that 

 when the coldness of any portion of those regions becomes intense, the 

 subtle matter disseminated among the particles of vapour becoming 

 too weak to keep those particles at a distance from one another, the 

 latter must rush together, and either form small spicular filaments or 

 spherical drops of ice. The superficies of these filaments or drops being 

 supposed to be considerable when compared with their volumes, hu 



r.i that the resistance of the itir may bo great enough i 

 vent them from descending by their weight, and that thus a 

 assemblage of them may remain 3uspended in the form of a 



