LOCOMOTION BY" RIVER AND RAILWAY. 



railways, and those of which the maintenance has proved least 

 expensive, have been constructed in this manner. The road 

 structure, however, varies according to the traffic. Rails are 

 sometimes laid weighing only from 25 Ib. to 30 Ib. per yard. In 

 some cases of great traffic they are supported on transverse sleepers 

 of wood, like the European railways ; but in consequence of the 

 comparative cheapness of wood and the high price of iron, the 

 strength necessary for the road is mostly obtained by reducing 

 the distance between the sleepers, so as to supersede the necessity 

 of giving greater weight to the rails. 



22. The same observance of the principles of economy is main- 

 tained with regard to their locomotive stock. The engines are 

 strongly built, safe, and powerful, but are destitute of much of 

 that elegance of exterior and beauty of workmanship which have 

 excited so much admiration in the machines exhibited in the 

 Crystal Palace. The fuel is generally wood, but on certain lines 

 near the coal districts coal is used. The use of coke is nowhere 

 resorted to. Its expense would make it inadmissible, and in a 

 country so thinly inhabited, the smoke proceeding from coal is not 

 objected to. The ordinary speed, stoppages included, is from 

 fourteen to sixteen miles an hour. Independently of other consi- 

 derations, the light structure of many of the roads would not allow 

 a greater velocity without danger ; nevertheless, we have frequently 

 travelled on some of the better constructed lines at the ordinary speed 

 of the English railways, say thirty miles an hour and upwards. 



Of late years, however, many exceptions to this system of 

 economical construction are presented. The competition for goods 

 traffic which has been recently produced by the great and rapid 

 extension of railway communication has induced the companies to 

 impose a more strict limit on the gradients and curves, and the 

 engineer is often restricted in laying out the lines to gradients not 

 exceeding forty feet per mile, and curves not less than 2000 

 feet radius. 



23. The lines are also more generally now built with greater soli- 

 dity. The flat bar rail is fast giving way to rails of the more durable 

 form, weighing from 40 Ib. to 60 Ib. per yard. On the Camden and 

 Amboy roads, rails have lately been laid down, having a depth of 

 not less than seven inches, and weighing 90 Ib. per yard. 



Within the last few years, also, more attention has been given 

 to the style of the engines. They still continue generally light 

 compared with the English locomotives, but the working machi- 

 nery vies with that of the river boats in beauty of workmanship, 

 and the engine is often even covered with a profusion of super- 

 fluous ornament. 



On the railways of the Northern and Eastern States, the platform 

 46 



