1S40.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



241 



RAILWAY COMMUNICATION WITH SCOTLAND. 



Second Report of Lieut. -Culouel Sir Frederic Smith, of the Royal Engineers, 

 n lid Professor Harloir, to tlie Lords of the Treasurij, in pursuance of t lie 

 Addresses of the House of Commons, of the \ith and 'lath Auyust, 1839. 



Railwni/ Committee Office, 

 5, Co?nmittee Room, House of Commons, 

 May 10, 1810. 



Sir — The instiiictions of the Lonls Coiiiinissioncrs of tlie Treasury, com- 

 municated to us ill your letter of tlie 26th Noveuiber, 1H.'59, having chrected 

 that we should examine and report niiou the surveyed and projected lines for 

 a railway coniniuiiieatiou lictweeii London and the cities of Edinlnirgh and 

 filasgow, in confornuty with the address of tlie Ilonse of Commons, dated 

 the lull of August. 18150, we entered upon tliis inquiry immediately on re- 

 ceiving from the promoters of these lines the documents which had been 

 ]irepared for the investigation. 



The address to which we liave referred prays " tliat her Majesty w ill he 

 pleased to give dueetious that an engineer, or engineers, may be apjiointed to 

 to iu([iiire and report upon the relative merits, and the preference which 

 ought to be given to the respective already surveyed and projected railways 

 between London and the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, following, namely, 

 via York, Newcastle-ujion-Tyiie, and Berwick; via York, Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, and llexbaiu; via Lancaster, Wlutehaven, and Carlisle; and via Lan- 

 caster, Penrith, and Carlisle ; and said inquiry and report to include the rela- 

 tive merits of the two lines, from London to York, by Derby and Rotherham, 

 aud by Cambridge and Lincoln." 



The investigation entrusted to us divides itself into two branches ; the one 

 being the relative merits of the competing lines between London aud Edin- 

 burgh, and the other, of those projected lietwccn London and Glasgow. 



Their lordships having granted an extension of time to the promoters of 

 certain lines north of tlie Carlisle and Newcastle Railway, for the jiurjiose of 

 enabling these pai'ties to render their surveys more coniplele, and some of 

 the documents necessary for testing the relative merits of the jiroposcd lines 

 of eoinmunicatioii from London to Newcastle not being ready for oiu- ex- 

 amination, we have devoted our attention principally to the subject of the 

 communication between London and Carlisle, and to the merits of the Cum- 

 berland railways, as regards their connexion with the western parts of Scot- 

 land, and the north of Irelaud, to which our attention is called by the address 

 of the House of Commons, dated the 20th August last, and we have now the 

 honour to report the result of our inquiries. 



It ajipears tliat by the London and Birmingham, the Grand Junction, and 

 the North Union lines, the communication by railway is complete as fai* as 

 Preston, being a distance of 218 miles 51 chains, and we find that the Pres- 

 ton and Ijaneaster RaUway is in a state of gi'eat forwardness. When this 

 last-mentioned line shall be finished, the distance by railway from London to 

 Lancaster will be 2.38 miles 69 chains.* 



Description of the comjieting Projects. — Three jirojects were laid before us 

 for the extension of this great trunk line to Scotland. 



One from Lancaster, along the west coast of Cumberland, through White- 

 haven to Maryport, in order to join therailway now in jirogress between the 

 latter place and Carlisle. 



Another from Lancaster by Kirkby Lonsdale, and the valley of the Lune 

 to Penrith, and from thence to Carbsle ; and a tlurd from Lancaster to Ken- 

 dal, and thence up the valley of Long Sleddale, and by Ilawes Water to 

 Penrith, to form a junction with the proposed railway from the last-men- 

 tioned place to Carlisle. 



West Cumberland Coast line. — The documents respecting the Cumberland 

 coast line, delivered to us by the solicitors, Messrs. Haslam and Bischotf, and 

 the engineers, Messrs. Rastrick andllagne, are copies of their parliamentary 

 plan and section ; drawings descriptive of the proposed mode of forming the 

 embankments across Morccambe Bay, and the Duddcn Sands, and a general 

 plan of the country tbroiigh which the line would pass. AVe were also fur- 

 nished with a printed copy of a report on this project, liy the engineers, and 

 with a detailed estimate, formed by Mr. Hague, of the cost of the embanlt- 

 ments. 



The whole of the drawings illustrative of this project have been prepared in 

 a very perfect and creditable manner, and have much facilitated our examina- 

 tion of the country. 



Penrith and Carlisle line. — Mr. Larmer, the engineer, and Mr. Dixon, the 

 secretary to the provisional committee of a Company for forming a railway 

 from Carlisle to Penrith, supplied us with a section of this line, and a map of 

 the county, on which the proposed route is traced. 



Lune line. — We may here observe, that if tlus railway should be formed, it 

 would be connected, at its southern terminus, with either of the inland lines 

 that may be established from Lancaster. Mr. Larmer not only surveyed and 

 projected the line from Carlisle to Penrith, but also that from Penrith to 

 Kirkby Lonsdale. The line from the last-named )ilace to Lancaster, we were 

 informed, was laid down by persons under the direction of Mr. Locke, but 

 the sections of the whole extent between Penrith and Lancaster, and tracing 

 of it on maps of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancaster were placed be_ 



* If a line should be formed from Rugby to Staflbrd, or from Rugby to 

 Stone, the distance ff ouW bs shurteneil by abgut eight miles, 



fore us by Mr. Larmer, by whom we were also furnished with an estimate of 

 the cost of the entire distance from Lancaster to Carlisle, and a report 

 descriptive of this project. 



Kendal line. — From Mr. Cornelius Nicholson, secretary to the provisional 

 conuuittee for the Kendal line, we received a section of this proposed rail- 

 wav, and a ma]i of Westmoreland and a part of Lancashire, on which the 

 direction of the line is traced. The sm-vey, as well as a gross estimate of the 

 cost of the line, were prepared by Mr. Bintley, of Kendal, by whom a report 

 respecting it was drawn up, which will be found in the appendix.* 



In the course of our examination of the documents sulmiittcd to us, we 

 found that, with the exception of the dravrings and report of the coast line, 

 they were insufficient for the purpose of fairly testing the relative merits of 

 the several projects now under consideration, and we therefore called for 

 further information, not only as to their nieehanieal, but also as to their 

 statistical properties. This information having been in part supplied on the 

 18th February, we commenced on that day an examination of the country 

 through which tliese jirojeetcd railways would pass, and we shall now give a 

 general description of theu- principal features, beginnuig with the Cumberland 

 coast line. 



Cumherland Coast line. — It is proposed that this railway shoidd commence 

 at the terminus of the Lancaster aud Preston Railway, and that, cuning round, 

 towards Skirton, it should first cross the Kendal Canal, and then the River 

 Lune ; the latter on a bridge, the arching of which is represented by Mr. 

 Rastrick to be 660 yards in length, and of Ihc extreme height of 67 feet above 

 the bed of the river. From Skirton the line is to proceed by Torrisholme to 

 the village of Poidtoii ; from hence it would be carried, in the direction of 

 Leonard's Point, in the peninsula of Low Fimiess, on a lofty embankment of 

 10 miles and h\ chains in lengili, to be constructed across the cstuaiy of 

 Morccambe Bay, into which the Kent, the Crake, and the Leven empty them- 

 selves. Through the peninsula the railway would have to be formed in aline 

 of double curvature, and in some deep cuttings in sandstone rock. It is also 

 jiroposed to form an embankment across the Duddcn Sands, from Ronhead 

 Crag to Ilodbarrow Point, a distance of one mile and 65 chains. These em- 

 bankments are understood to be the suggestions of Mr. Hague, whose plan 

 provides locks and fiood-gates for the rivers, the channels of which he pro- 

 poses to straighten and embank. It is here proper to state that the pro- 

 moters of thisline calculate upon reclaiming by the two embankments 52,000 

 acres of land, which they value at 23/. per acre, and they have therefore taken 

 credit for £1,196,000 in the estimate of this part of their project. 



From Hodl)arrow the line would pass near Bootle to Ravenglass, through 

 a country presenting no engineering work of difficulty or great expense until 

 arriving at the River Esk, where a viaduct will be necessary of upwards of a 

 quarter of a mile in length, and of 23 feet in the extreme height, aiiproached. 

 bv an embankment of about a mile in length, and of the average height of 15 

 feet. 



The line is to curve at Ravenglass, passing the rivers Esk and Mite, and to 

 take a direction towards the coast, crossing the river Calder at its month. It 

 is also to be earned over the river Ehen, and thence to keep along the shore, 

 requiring the occasional formation of enibanknients, between high .•'.nd low 

 water niark, to the valley of St. Bees. Here a curve is proposed towards the 

 north-east to unite with one bending towards the north-west, which would 

 bring the line, witli tolcralily easy work, to Whitehaven. It is proposed to 

 carry the railway through the whole lengtli of this town, on a series of arches, 

 which Mr. Rastrick's section shows to be of the extreme height of 27 feet, 

 and of the length of half a mile. On leaving Whitchaveu a tunnel of 1,320 

 yards in length would have to be cut through sandstone. The line is from 

 iienceto ]iass towards Harrington, along the coast, through some short, but 

 rather deep cuttings, and over four embankments, measuring altogether two 

 miles in length, and of the respective heights of 18, 23, 27, and 3t feet. 



Mr. Rastrick's plan is to cross the upjicr end of the harbour of Harrington 

 by a bridge, which his section shows to be 120 yards long, and 27 feet high. 

 ' From hence the line is intended to take the direction of Workington, and 

 to cross the harbour, as well as the Derwent river, ou bridges and embank- 

 ments. 



From the Derwent to the terminus of the Maryport Railway, with which 

 Mr. Rastrick's line is proposed to be joined, the woi-k will be easy. 



Ejpemive, or ohjectionable parts of the Cumberland Coast line. — The opera- 

 tions of an expensive, difficult, or objectionable character on the coast line, 

 which we have thus briefly descrilied, aie as follows : — 



1 . The bridge over the river Lune. 



2. The embankments across Moreeambe Bay and the Dudden Sands, with 

 the embankments to confine the courses of the rivers which empty themselves 

 into these estuaries. 



3. The cuttings in rock tlu-ough Low Fiirness. 



4. The viaducts and embankment across the rivers Esk and Mite, ando\er 

 the sands at Ravenglass. 



" We must observe, that Ihc report omits to mention some of (he expensive 

 operations on this line, and but slightly notices other important works in- 

 volved ill Mr. Bintley 's project; and we cannot help expressing our surprise 

 that he should have stated that the proposed tunnel through the Gale.Scarth, 

 which Ihe highest geological authorities represent to be composed of green 

 slate and porphyry, could bo formed at the rate of £50.000 per mile, a sum 

 which is totally'inadcquatc to cover the cost of si) formi<lable an undertaking, 

 particularly as the summit is nearly I, '200 feet above the tunnel, 



K2 



