Railway Expansion 257 



on 66 days) and then failed. In another instance the pro- 

 moters expended 100,000 with a like result. 



After the early companies had got their Acts and obtained 

 their land they still, as railway pioneers, had to bear the 

 expense of some very costly experiments, of which railways 

 constructed at a later date had the advantage. The idea that 

 the locomotive would be able to haul trains only on the 

 level involved much unnecessary expenditure on engineering 

 works, while the battle of the gauges led to a prodigious waste 

 of money alike in Parliamentary proceedings and in the 

 provision of lines, embankments, cuttings, bridges and viaducts 

 adapted to a broad gauge eventually abandoned in favour of 

 the narrower gauges now in general use. 



The facts here mentioned will have given the reader some 

 idea of the conditions under which the railways so greatly 

 needed in the interests of our national industries were handi- 

 capped from the very outset by an unduly heavy expenditure ; 

 but there were still other influences and considerations which 

 materially affected the general position, more especially as 

 regards questions and consequences of State policy towards 

 the railway system in general. 



