CHAPTER III. 



Permanent way Rails Sleepers Fastenings and Permanent way laying. 



Rails. Accustomed as we now are to the substantial character 

 of the permanent way of our railways, we can scarcely realize 

 that in the earlier examples the rails or tram-plates were made 

 of wood. The first lines of which we find any record were 

 those constructed to facilitate the conveyance of coal, iron ore, 

 stone, slate, or other heavy materials to shipping ports or points 

 of distribution. Speed was a matter of little importance, the 

 principal object being to introduce a distinct surface or roadway 

 which would allow a heavier load to be hauled without in- 

 creasing the hauling power. As a heavily loaded wheelbarrow, 

 difficult to move on an ordinary road, can be readily wheeled 

 along a wooden plank, so it may have been inferred that strong 

 timber, laid in parallel lines and level and even on the upper 

 surface, would form a track, or roadway, presenting far less 

 resistance than the ordinary gravelled or paved roads. 



The wooden tramway was the first improvement over the 

 ordinary road. The idea once originated, various types were 

 soon introduced, and the sketch shown in Fig. 227 illustrates 

 one which appears to have been early suggested and largely 

 adopted. Wooden cross-sleepers, A, A, were placed at con- 

 venient spaces, and on the top of these strong timber planks or 

 beams, B, B, were spiked at proper distances to suit the wheels 

 of the waggons or four-wheel trucks, which had flat tyres like 

 ordinary carts. The spaces between the sleepers were filled in 

 with gravel or broken stone to form a roadway or hauling path 

 for the horses. A little later double rails were introduced, by 

 placing a second or upper timber on the top of the lower one, as 

 in Fig. 228. 



This double rail arrangement not only strengthened the 

 framework, but by increasing the height allowed a greater 



