lOG 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Ai-Rir,, 



Tlie cost for looomotivcs and plant is nearly as mnrli as tlie whole 

 pstimate in 1S25: the cost for stations must come near it. The 

 London and North ^^'estern workshops liave cost more than it 

 was thoii^dit would make a long line. 



Of the sixty railways named, all those thus marked (*) have 

 lieen made, hesides others which cannot he identified. There are 

 very few indeed which have not heen made. 



These lines were not however made in 1825, and some of them 

 not for twenty years after. The historian will ask why is this? 

 and the answer is, not that there was any want of means to make 

 the railways, hut hecause the House of (Commons chose to throw 

 the bills out to please the land-owners and shareholders in canals; 

 thereby hindering the labouring classes from employment, which 

 in ten years cannot he reckoned at less than twenty millions, or 

 two millions yearly. How much more forward should we be had 

 the great lines heen finished, as they might have been, in 1830, 

 instead of 1840, and if the other lines likewise had been so far 

 lie'"ore-hand. It would have done more for the trade of England 

 than all the measures of Iluskisson, Peel, and Russell. 



As several of these lines will not again come before us, it may 

 he as well to look at some of the remarks made by the writers of 

 pamplets and reports in 1824 and 1825. 



In the Report on the Engine Railroad, James gives some account 

 of his employment as a land surveyor (p. 7). He advocates the 

 use of the locomotive, and points out the great good which would 

 lie done by a railway from the southern counties to London (p. 20). 

 Tliis is one of the first pamphlets describing a line of railway, and 

 had its beginning in the intercourse between James and Ste- 

 I)henson. 



The "Statement of the Claim of the Subscribers of the Birming- 

 liam and Liverpool Railroad to an Act of Parliament," was written 

 in December 1824, in answer to the opposition of the canal com- 

 jianies, and is a very elaborate pamphlet, in which the subject is 

 investigated by the help of political economy and statistics. 



The pam])hlet in opposition to the railways started between 

 London and Bristol is by some one on behalf of the Kennet and 

 Avon Canal Company, and is %vritten with some care, knowledge, 

 and skill. The writer acknowledges there is great good in rail- 

 ways, but thinks that canals can, under most circumstances, work 

 better and cheaper. He holds that in frosty weather in winter, 

 and in dry weather in summer, the locomotives will not stir, be- 

 cause they have no bite on the rails. One of his speculations is, 

 "What is to become of the engine-driver in a trip all the way on 

 one of the supjiosed long railways. Is a wagon to be fitted-up as 

 a moveable house, or is he to lodge at inns on the road, or only to 

 go a given stage." The writer thought the engine-driver was to be 

 held answerable for the goods carried. 



In his report on the Limerick and Waterford Railway, Alexan- 

 der Nimmo did not rely upon the locomotive. He thought that 

 si.v or seven miles an hour was speed enough for a locomotive. 



Chapman's reports are curious; for in them he discusses the 

 whide railway question as he understood it in 1824. The fastest 

 locomotive, he thought, could go at 4.i to 5 miles per hour;" but 

 without a continuous line of teeth on a railway, a locomotive can- 

 not in every description of weather he calculated to move against 

 the retarding stress upon it.^'^ He is not fully satisfied that loco- 

 motives are better, unless when horse-keep is dear. Chapman 

 liked the stationary-engine system better, though he was not 

 without hopes that a light locomotive might he found useful. i" 

 He wished that country carts should travel on the raihvay, as 

 thereby it would be more useful. Chapman likewise preferred 

 cast-iron rails. ^° 



^'allance's pamphlet is a general onslaught on locomotives, on 

 behalf of his own atmospheric system. It contains some wild as- 

 sertions, but some curious facts. He gives many reasons to prove 

 that locomotives cannot safely he driven beyond si.\ miles an hour, 

 nor could a locomotive be run from London to Brighton in six 

 hours. He gives a list of railways proposed,^' which has been 

 made use of here. 



Before leaving the railway mania of 1825, it should be said that 

 it was not felt here only, but spread abroad. Mr. Sanders says^^ 

 that the Americans were ah'eady alive to it, and that the subject 

 of railways was undergoing discussion at the seat of government. 

 Letters received from Washington were full of inquiries about 

 railways in England. He says, likewise, that the Em])eror of 

 Russia had got a model of a locomotive, and had then a profes- 

 sional agent investigating the railways of the north of England. 

 It is on these grounds that lie urges on the House of Commons to 

 lose no time in carrying out the railway system, a recommenda- 



> 7 liepui't, p. II. 

 ao Uepurl, II. 20. 



1 8 Kejioil, |i. V2. 

 21 Pugeua. 



19 Kei)Ort,p. 10. 

 2 2 raBtlM. 



tion the wisdom of which has now heen fully established. Mr. 

 Maclaren says^' that t)ie French were em|doyed in the same way, 

 and that he had before him a work by M. Cordier, a French en- 

 gineer, on railways. It was merely an abstract of various tracts 

 published on railways in England. The French do not, however, 

 seem to have made much way, and it was not till 1828 that any- 

 thing was done.^* 



XIII. BEGINNING OF THE I.IVEKPOOL AND MANCHESTEB RAILWAY. 



Thomas Gray seems to have been the first who thought of a 

 railway between Liverpool and Manchester, for as early as 1821 he 

 set it forth in his "Observations on a General Iron Railway." He 

 says (p. 5): "In times like the present, it behoves every one to 

 assist as much as possible in the alleviation of |iublic distress. 

 When this can be done by a work of national utility it is still 

 more desirable, and no time is so favourable for such an undertak- 

 ing as one of general peace. It has frequently occurred to me of 

 late, that an iron railway from London to Edinburgh (passing 

 near to all the commercial towns of Leicester, Nottingham, Shef- 

 field, Wakefield, Leeds, &c., with branch railways to Birmingham, 

 Bristol, jManchester, Liverpool, &c.), would be productive of 

 incalculable advantage to the country at large; and here 1 would 

 suggest the propriety of making the first essay between Manches- 

 ter and Liverpool, which would employ many thousands of the 

 distressed population of the country." 



Again, Gray says further on (p. 15): "The plan might be com- 

 menced between the towns of Manchester and Liverpool, where a 

 trial could soon be made, as the distance is not very great, and 

 the commercial part of England would thereby be better able to 

 appreciate its many excellent properties, and prove its efficacy: in 

 consequence of the number of cotton factories in Lancashire, the 

 present severe times are as much felt there as in any part of the 

 kingdom; therefore, the project before us would, by the abundance 

 of labour it may yield, greatly assist in relieving that distress too 

 prevalent in all manufacturing towns; and provided that success 

 attend my plan, which nothing but impracticability will prevent, 

 all the great trading towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire would 

 eagerly embrace the opportunity to insure so commodious and 

 easy a conveyance, and cause branch railways to he laid in every 

 possible direction." 



This is a distinct announcement of a locomotive railway between 

 the two towns, and could hardly fail to he known to James. In 

 1822, James went to Liverpool, taking a letter of introduction to 

 Mr. Joseph Sandars,^' an eminent corn merchant there, and a 

 man ardently fond of science and of art, and a great encourager 

 of their deserving professors. James could hardly have applied 

 to a better man. 



James was introduced to Mr. Sandars upon the Exchange, at 

 Liverpool, and the latter gentleman agreed to grant him an iiiter- 

 A'iew in the evening, when James showed his drawings and ex- 

 plained the working of the locomotive on his friend Stephenson's 

 plan. Mr. Sandars, who was most earnest to find some better way 

 for carrying goods between the two towns, asked James for how 

 much he would make a preliminary, or as it was called ocular 

 survey, for a railway between Liverpool and Manchester. James 

 said ten pounds a mile; and taking the length at thirty miles, this 

 made three hundred pounds. Mr. Sandars, with great liberality, 

 said that he would at once agree to pay this sum; and not only 

 that, but would enter into a written agreement to that eft'ect. 

 Thus Mr. Sandars became the father of the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester Railway. 



The survey was begun,^° hut not without great del.ay on the 

 part of James, and the outlay of more money than he had first 

 wanted; indeed Mr. Sandars had some trouble in getting him to 

 go through the work. This line of road laid down by James was 

 not that afterwards made, hut it Mas the beginning of the under- 

 taking, and (Ui which Mr. Sandars went forward with it.-' 



What made IMr. Sandars the more earnest in the undertaking 

 was the grinding monopoly of the canal companies, by which tlie 

 trade of Liverpool was shackled. The freight of goods was made 

 so high it was unbearable, and there was the greatest need that it 

 should be forthwith lowered. In the "Letter on the subject of 

 the Proposed Railroad between Liverpool and Manchester," which 

 Mr. Sandars afterwards wrote, he unmasked this fearful monopoly, 

 and thereby helped to break it down, no less than by bringing 



1!3 Railways, p. 47. 



24 In 1S28, a menioire was published on the Andrezieux and Roanne Railway, which 

 is in Ihe Library of tlie Instiliition of t'ivil Engineers, an'l in lti:W one on the Ilaatine 

 and St.-Etienne Railway, - both of which have been carried out. In the former memoire 

 are quoted three worlds on railways, publisiicd in Paris in 18J8, by M. fllallet. 



25 Booth's Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, p. 3. 



26 Weale'B Knsaniples of RttiUiays. 2T Booth, p. 4. 



