10 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



plienson li.i(l fully broufjlit tlie locomotive into a working shape. 



We may here give a t:ile of ^Villiam Chapman's, as to the begin- 

 ning' of locomotives in the north. In his Report on the Newcastle 

 and Carlisle Railway,'" he says, that "when horses, hay, and corn 

 are dear, locomotives .ire certainly useful, although in point of 

 economy not preferable, but even inferior to horses for short dis- 

 tances.' In a note he says : "The dearness of hay and corn was 

 the cause of their introduction." Whether he means this was the 

 cause with Mr. Blackett of Wylam, Mr. Blenkinsop, and George 

 Stephenson, is not shown. He perhaps alludes to Mr. Blenkinsop. 

 Chapman further says, they had not been universally persevered 

 in, for Mr. Williams, when lessee of Coxlodge Colliery, laid out a 

 great sum in engines, besides relaying the wagonway; but after a 

 long trial gave them up, and went back to horses. 



Blenkinsop, of Leeds, was best known as the worker of loco- 

 motives, for Leeds was more easily got at than Newcastle, and he 

 was the favourite down to 1830. He worked on a rack-rail, and 

 this rack-rail long bothered the heads of railway critics, for 

 all Blenkinsop's friends stood out stoutly for the rack-rail. 



His railway began at Middleton Colliery, and ended in a coal- 

 yard at Leeds. It was about three miles in length, the general 

 bieadth of the road thirty feet, with double fence; part is level, 

 part a gradient of from one-eighth of an inch to three-eighths of 

 an inch in the yard; part inclined pl.ine, so as to require ma- 

 chinery. The part nearest to Leeds was laid double, likewise the 

 inclined planes. The rails were edge-rails of cast-iron, in three 

 feet lengths, with six cogs on each length, on one side of the road; 

 the gauge was 4 ft. 2 in. Horses and locomotives were both 

 used. The locomotives were six-horse power, with cogs on the 

 wheel. It consumed one bushel of coal per hour, and drew 

 twenty-four wagons on the level about three miles per hour; and 

 on the inclined plane and gradient between three and four miles 

 per hour. Each wagon weighed 25 cwt., and would carry 4,5 cwt. 

 of coal." 



Blenkinsop himself said, in 1818,'* that his locomotive had two 

 8-inch cylinders, weighing 5 tons, consumed | cwt. of coal, and 

 SO gallons of water per hour; and would, when lightly loaded, go 

 10 miles an hour. Its cost was 400/. 



Chapman, in 1824, says roundly,'" that the first useful introduc- 

 tion of locomotive-engines was by Mr. John Blenkinsop; and in 

 1831, Mr. Priestly says the same.^" In the report already named, 

 Chapman holds forth that without a continuous line of teeth on a 

 railway, as used at Middleton Colliery, the locomotive could not 

 be depended upon.^' 



In 1825, there were two locomotives on this line.''' 



In 1829, .Mr. Walker and Mr. Rastrick, in their locomotive in- 

 quiry, thought it needful to go and see Mr. Blenkinsop, which 

 they did on the 16th of January. They saw the engine make a 

 journey with 38 wagons, each holding 45 cwt. of coals,^^ making a 

 gross weight of nearly 140 tons. 



The number of locomotives in work in 1822, could not have 

 been much more than half-a-score — namely, five at Killingworth, 

 one or two at Middleton, and perhaps others at Wylam and 

 Coxlodge. 



Of the five locomotives at Killingworth, four were kept in 

 work over wagon-ways of some distance from the three pits 

 to a self-acting inclined plane. Besides the engines, six horses 

 with their drivers were used. A part of the line had then been 

 laid with heavier rails.^'' The engines were, Mr. Wood says, of 

 9 j-horse-power. ^ * 



On the whole, the locomotive engine had been brought into 

 work so far as to show that it was quite able to do all that was 

 wanted, though it was still unsettled whether it was cheaper than 

 horses or the stationary engine. The latter, under the name of 

 the Reciprocating system, was in the hands of Mr. B. Thompson, 

 of Ayton, and until 1830 a powerful rival. 



Skilful men could easily see that the locomotive was but in its 

 beginning, that it had in it the seed from which great deeds were 

 to spring, and they already held forth that the iron horse would 

 beat him of flesh and blood. 



The third head we have before us was not without its weight. 

 Not only had many railways been in working for a number of 



l« Second Edition, 1824, p. 12. 



1 7 ObBervationi on the General Comparative Merits of Navigations and Railroads, 



P- U. Repository of Arts, 181«, p. l;i.?l, Maclaren on Railways, p. 36. 



lain reply to Sir John Sinclair,— Maclaren on Railways, p. 35. 



1 B Ohservatlons on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, p. 5. 



2 History of Inland Navigation, &c. 



i> Report on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. 2nd Edition, p. II. 



az The Finger-Post, p. 37. 23 Report, p. 2, 19, 20, 45, 54, 72. 



»« Mr. B. Thompson, in Newcastle Magazine, May, 1822. 



ss Newcaatle Magazine, June, 1U22. 



years, but two greater undertakings were in hand. We mean the 

 Stratford and Moreton Railway, and the Stockton and Darlington. 



The railways then at work, and their lengths, seem to be 

 these": — 



Aberdare 



Ashby de la Zouch and Meashain 15 miles. 



Bollo Pill, or Dean Forest 8 „ 



Hrecon and Hay 24 ,, 



Brampton and Carlisle 



Cardiff and Merthyr 2C| „ 



Carmarthenshire 15 „ 



„ Branch 9 „ 



Cheltenham and Glo'ster 9 „ 



Dartmoor 



Dean Forest 6 „ 



Dewsbury and Birstall 3 ,, 



Hftton 7 „ 



Killingworth 5 „ 



Middleton 3 „ 



Peak Forest 6 „ 



Penclawdd 



Purbeck 3 „ 



Sirhowey 28 „ 



Somersetshire or Radstnck 8 „ 



Surrey or Wandsworth 26 „ 



Swansea 7^ ., 



Oyster Mouth 74 „ 



Wibsey Low Moor 



Wylam 



The whole length to be made out from the above list is 250 

 miles, to which may be added for those left out 150 miles; making 

 four hundred miles of railway. 



The Stratford and Moreton Railway, although not longer than 

 some of the above, being only 16i miles long, had some greater 

 works than were common on railways. It had a tunnel near 

 Shipston, and crossed the rivers Avon and Stour by viaducts; that 

 over the Stour being looked upon as costly. We have, in our 

 seventh chapter said^' that William Henry James laid down the 

 Stratford and Moreton Railway, but he carried it no further than 

 the beginning, and he left it to the late Thomas Baylis, C.E.^' 



The Stockton and Darlington Railway was longer than the 

 Stratford and Moreton Railway, and had some considerable works 

 upon it, as we have already shown. 



We may observe, that the rate of charge first thought of on the 

 Stratford and Moreton Railway, for goods, was 3^d. per ton per 

 mile. 



These two works, however small they may be in the eyes of the 

 engineers of these days, were great for that time, and were looked 

 upon with attention and anxiety, as much as the Liverpool and 

 Manchester afterwards was.^' 



The fourth head is the weiglit the common road locomotive had 

 in bringing about railways. This has been looked on as a rival to 

 railways , but perhaps it helped their growth as much as anything 

 else. When a greater speed was wished for on common roads, it 

 was at once seen, that if a power was to be found in the locomotive 

 over the horse, so could a power be found in a better road over the 



26 statement of the Claim of the Birmingham and Liverpool Railroad, p. 47. 



2 7 On the authority of Ritchie on Railways, p. 37. 



2 8 [We have received a tetter from B. Baylis, Esq., C.E., In which he thus remarks on 

 our former statement : — 



•• I have read witli ranch interest the Memoir of that eminent engineer, George Ste- 

 phenson, which appeared in the recent numbers of the JoiiruHl. It is generally admitted, 

 that the first railway of any length ciinstructad for general purposes— na«ieiy, for the car- 

 riage of passengers, merchandise, and minerals, was the Stratford and Moreton Railway ; 

 but you erroneously attribute the merit of that undertokliig to William James, whereas It 

 was designed and carried out by the late Thomas Kayiis, C.E. The survey of the railway, 

 as appears from a diary kept by Thomas Baylis, was commenced In September, 1819; la 

 May, 1820, the proposed line was inspected by Rlr. Telford , and in 1821, the bill was 

 passed, and received the royal assent. 1 may be allowed to remark that the survey of the 

 line attaclied to tiie act of parliament, which I have now before me, bears the signature 

 or Thomas Baylis as engineer; and many parties now living who formed the company, 

 can bear testimony to the correctness of my statements. The merit of the work in ques- 

 tion is also attributed (by Rickmau) to Telford (see his Life, p. 22 of preface), but he was 

 called in merely to suppoit the bill through parliament. William James at the time was 

 engaged as land agent, &c. to several of the neighbouring gentry, and he certainly has 

 left us no works that testify that he possessed a knowledge of practical engineering. In 

 1829, Thomas Baylis published a Map of Railways (engraved by Gardner), showing the 

 most desirable routes to be taken for the main lines, and also showing the relative advan. 

 tages railways possessed over canals and common roads. The principal portion of these 

 lines have been carried out, and his predictions, contra-distingulsed from those of Messrs. 

 Walker and Rastrick In their memorable Report on the Liverpool and Manchester Rail- 

 way, have been fully verified. — B. BAYLIS." 



We will only remark on the above, that It Is uot inconsistent with the line having been 

 planned, and the preliminary survey made, by William Henry James, as was the rase 

 in the Liverpool and Manchester. If Mr. Baylis would clear up this dou>>t it would be 

 useful.— We may add in support of Mr. B. Baylls's letter, if indeed it needs support, that 

 Joseph Priestley in the account of the Stratford and Moreton Railway, in his " History 

 of Inland Navigation, &c.," expressly states that it was executed i)y Thomas Baylis.] 



29 « Observations on the General Comparative Merits of Navigations and Railroads," 

 p. 15. 



