CHAPTER VIIT. 



Railways of different ranks Progressive improvements Growing tendency for 

 increased speeds, with corresponding increase in weight of permanent way and 

 rolling-stock Electricity as a motive-power. 



LOOKING at railways in their present stage of development, they 

 appear to be divided into three ranks, each one distinct from 

 the other as regards its importance, capability, and prospects. 



In the first rank are the great trunk lines, which, at home 

 or abroad, pass through thickly populated districts, rich in 

 manufactures, minerals, or shipping industries, with their enor- 

 mous movement of materials and people, and consequently 

 requiring the most ample works, equipment, and appliances 

 for security. 



In the second rank may be classed those railways which run 

 through ranges of country where the population is moderate, 

 or where the manufacturing industries are few in number and 

 of minor importance. Although of the utmost value to the 

 community of the long series of small towns and agricultural 

 districts through which they pass, and forming the only great 

 commercial highway, or connecting link, with some distant 

 seaport, or leading business centre, the traffic returns upon such 

 lines are too small to permit of the introduction of the more 

 complete appliances and luxuries to be met with on the richer 

 railways. In newly opened-out countries, and in distant colonies, 

 such lines have often to struggle on for years against financial 

 returns so small as to barely enable them to maintain a condition 

 of efficiency ; but where there are natural advantages in soil and 

 climate, combined with a judicious development of all the 

 available resources, the result will be the raising of the standard 

 of the railway itself, and the enrichment of the entire district 

 through which it passes. When laying out lines of this descrip- 

 tion, it may be necessary to curtail as much as possible the 

 expenditure on works and equipment, but there should be no 

 hesitation in obtaining liberal quantities of land for future 



