I8J.9.7 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



69 



driver of a locomotive engine was at first railed an "Engineer," 

 but railway writers, to prevent confusion and keep up the dignity 

 of the professional men, call the civil engineer tlie engineer, and 

 the other the ev gin e-d river. — The word "Gage" is not yet settled. 

 It was once written giiage, and hy some gage, as tlie word is spoken; 

 but a very common way is'to write it, in the teetli of the lexico- 

 graphical authorities, gauge, vhich would he spoken "gawge." 

 "Gage" seems, therefore, to be the better way. 



Many of the words used in railway engineering were brought 

 from the north by the engine-drivers, who, on the opening of pas- 

 senger railways in the south, after 1833, were scattered all over 

 England. It is not settled whether "Switch" or "Points" should 

 be tlie word, but pointsman is a name commonly given to the at- 

 tendant on them. 



The New Englanders, it may be said, have a railway dictionary 

 of their own. To grade a rail'wag is one of their sayings. A car- 

 riage is called a car, and to them belongs the naming of the negro- 

 car. 



The French and Belgians have taken many words from us, as 

 railway and vagon, and have turned others into French. The 

 Northumbrian engine-drivers spread their vocabulary abroad, as 

 the enginemen of the steamers have given a vocabulary to steam- 

 ers througliout the world, and "Stop her," "Easy," will be heard 

 from tlie mouths of those who know no other word of English. 



The growth of railways has led to the introduction of many new 

 words and compound words, the greater use of many words, and 

 the use of many old words in other meanings, as, besides those 

 named, chair, sleeper, siding or turn-out, turn-table, train, cross- 

 ing, buffer, coupling-link, time-table, skew-bridge, &c. 



Some railway words have already been lost, as wagonways, plate- 

 ways, trolley-ways, and prop and pedestal, instead of chair. 



XI. GROWTH OF RAILWAYS. 



Railways in the beginning were used for the carriage of coals to 

 the seaside; and when the canal system spread in the end of the 

 last century, the railway was found very useful to bring down 

 coals, stone, and lime to the wharves. It was for this latter end, 

 that most of the early acts of parliament for railways were passed. 



Perhaps the first railway to work free of a canal, for any length 

 right out, was the Surrey Iron Railway, for which an act of parlia- 

 ment was passed in 1801, and another in 1803; so that the whole 

 length was 21 miles, reaching from the quarries at Merstham, Ilei- 

 gate, and Godstone, to Croydon and the Tliames at AVandswoith. 

 Those who put this forward strongly hoped that it would lead to 

 very great ends; but it was so carried out that it was of no good, 

 for wagons could travel more cheaply on the old turnpike road. 

 Had it not been for the ill-luck which befel this tramway, the rail- 

 way system would have very much spread in the beginning of this 

 century; but it seemed as if rash mismanagement was to be its 

 besetting sin. The Surrey Railway did not pay, and Trevithick's 

 locomotive, brought out soon after, was in no happier hands. 



Although many useful things were done in the meanwhile, it was 

 not until the share-madness of 1824-25, that the railway system 

 was again brought forward; but by that time, many tilings had 

 been brought to bear fi'r its furtherance, and it came to sucli a 

 head, that no one could help seeing it could not be much longer 

 kept back, and that its time was near. Everjthing was therefore 

 done to push it on. 



The true turning point in the liistory of railways, the true date 

 at which it was settled they !^hould become the higli-roads of Eng- 

 land, was in 1825, and not at a hiter time as is commonly believed. 

 The history of the railway mania of 1825, as it is not within the 

 common ken, has not been written ; but it is no less worthy of 

 being written, as belonging to the history of railways, and as be- 

 longing to that of joint-stock undertakings, — and without it the 

 true position of George Stephenson cannot he understood. If, 

 therefore, we seem to forget George Stephenson for the while, we 

 do not in truth. We have undertaken to show how he was led on, 

 what share his own doings had in bringing him to that great height 

 which he reached, and what share the deeds of others had on his 

 lot. To do this rightly, to let the reader see clearly how he stood, 

 we must here show the beginning and growth of railways, — of 

 those undertakings with which his name has become grafted, and 

 on which it flourished. 



The several Mays which led to the one great end of the railway 

 system seem to he these : — What was done to make the rails and 

 chairs better; the working of the locomotive; the planning of 

 longer and greater railways; the trials which were made with the 

 locomotive on the common roads; the suggestion of the use of the 

 locomotive on canals; the researches of men of learning; the 

 writing of books and papers on railways ; the eagerness of capital- 



ists to go into new undertakings ; and the favourable opinions of 

 statesmen. 



Upon the first head we do not think it needful (as it is by far the 

 best understood) to go into the several plans of William Jessop, 

 William Outrani, .losiah ^Voodbouse, Mr. Wyatt, and Mr. Le 

 Caan for rails and cliairs. As already said, the patent of Stephen- 

 son and Losh. of Se]it. 30, 1816, was not only for the locomotive, hut 

 for new rails and cliairs. It may be worth while to take a few 

 words from the specification," as giving Stephenson's thought at 

 that time on tlie railway question. The specification, indeed, so 

 far from being dry, is argumentative, and it gives a full description 

 of the then way of laying tram and rolley-ways. It will seem 

 strange just now that one ground given by the patentees for get- 

 ting a more level road, is to put a stop to "a great waste of coal 

 from the shaking of the wagons." 



"When locomotive steam-engines are employed as the moving 

 or propelling power, we have,' say the patentees, or rather Ste- 

 phenson, "from niucli practice found it of the utmost importance 

 that tliey should move steadily and as free as possible from shocks 

 or vibration, whicli have the effect of deranging the working jiarts 

 of the machinery and lessening their power. It is therefore to 

 produce that steadiness of motion, and to prevent the engines from 

 receiving shocks, and to preserve their equilibrium, that we employ 

 the floating pistons." Alter showing the good that will follow from 

 the new way of making rails and chairs, and the tyres of the 

 wheels, the s'pecification goes on: "It is perhaps impossible to crift 

 the bars or jilatcs of metal of which railways and plate-ways are 

 composed perfectly straight, and correctly even and smooth <;!! 

 their surfaces; and equally difficult to fit the joints with mathe- 

 matical accuracv : tlie wheels of the engines and wagons will 

 always have some inequalities to encounter." Stephenson was 

 little able to foresee Ijow much he would himself do to carry out 

 that which he here said was impossible, and which he has shown, 

 and we now know, not to be so. 



"We have no liesitation in saying (for we speak from the expe- 

 riments we have already made) that on a railway constructed on 

 our plan, and with a locomotive engine and carriage-wheels on our 

 principle, the expedition with which goods can be conveyed with 

 safety will be increased to nearly double the rate with which they 

 are at present usually taken along railways, and with less interrup- 

 tion from the breakage of wheels, rails, &c. than at present occurs, 

 ard with much less injury to the working parts of the engine." 

 These are bold words, but they were borne out.'^ 



Stephenson, in truth, did as much as any man, if not more, to. 

 make the working of tlie railway smooth for the locomotive. This 

 is perhaps why he so readily took up Birkinshaw's rails. The loco- 

 motive was his fondling, and he spared no pains for its further- 

 ance. This is one of Stejihenson's best deeds. He cannot be 

 looked upon as having in the character of an inventor gone much 

 beyond Trevithick ; rather we should say he did not do as much, 

 for it was a greater thing to build the first locomotive and to set it 

 going than to make a better one than that which worked at Wy- 

 lam: it was greater to make the first locomotive with one cylinder, 

 than to build a new one and put in two cylinders. Trevithick, 

 however, left the locomotive to get on as it could : it was the 

 steady care of George Stephenson which fostered it. 



The next great step was Mr. John Birkinshaw's patent for 

 wrought-iron edge-rails, which was taken out in December, 1820.'^ 

 Birkinshaw's rail was not much unlike that now in use. He was 

 first led to use wrought instead of cast iron rails by reading the 

 Report of Mr. Stevenson on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail- 

 way;"* and lie planned a new shape for wrought-iron rails, instead 

 of that then followed. One great good in the wrought-iron rail 

 was, that it could be used in greater lengths, and therefore there 

 were fewer breaks or joints. It was likewise cheaper, and lasted 

 longer. Birkinsliaw suggests" that the joints could be welded 

 together, so as to make one continuous rail : this has not been 

 found to answer. t)ne ground on which many objected to the 

 wrought-iron "as on the belief that it was more likely to rust, 

 and even so late as 1829, "William Chapman in his Report on the 

 Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, held to this belief. The peculii.r 

 way in which rails in work keep bright was not commonly known, 

 and therefore not commonly believed. 



The next thing is as to the locomotives. Upon them we have 

 spoken in the third chapter, which shows that Trevithick and Ste- 



» I Heperiury of Arts, Vol. XXX., p. 325. 



12 It may be noted here, that in this si>ecification the name is spelled ** SteveiiFon,'* 

 instead ol " Slephenson ,'' and so iigain in the Repertory, Vol. XXXIl., p. 2yy. In sn 

 extruct frrm the Durham Advertiser aOout the aulety-laiiip, llie in&iription on the ian- 

 kard is given as ■' Georf^e Stevenson." He is thus tailed even in Priesiley's * History.' 



13 Specitication, &c. Newcastle, lo2*'. ^* .Specification, p. 7. 

 13 Specification, p. in. 



