THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[January, 



NOTES OX EARTH WORK, EXCAVATION, CUTTING, AND 



FORMING EMBANKMENT UPON RAILWAYS. 



Article IV. — Superintendence, Accounts, and Measurements. 



'.' Modem practice has reduced it to a price per cubic yard." 



Professor Vignole's Lecture, Dec. 1841. 



In pursuance of my promise given at the conclusion of my former 

 paper, I shall now attempt to give a description of the methods in 

 use during the execution of railways, as regards the supervision, both 

 on the part of the Company and contractor. First, then, as to the 

 engineering staff; we have parliamentary and consulting engineers, 

 engineer in chief, resident, assistant, and sub-engineers, but the duties 

 of the resident and assistant it will only be necessary for me to notice. 

 The resident controls the whole line and the assistants, and confers 

 with the Directors at all their meetings for finance, and when the line 

 exceeds 50 miles in length, the duties will be so multiplied that two 

 will be requisite. The assistants are subordinate to the resident, and 

 have generally a division of 10 miles each, or perhaps a length of, say 

 three contracts. The duties of an assistant is to observe that the 

 works are executed according to plan, and that the materials are of 

 proper quality, and if not so, to complain, first to the contractor, and 

 if not attended to, then to the resident ; to allow no change to be 

 made in the dimensions without the sanction of the resident, and if 

 any change is ordered, to ascertain the difference for or against the 

 contractor jointly with him or his agent, to enter these measurements 

 in a book, and to" make a return monthly to the resident, as also of all 

 materials received on the Company's account, as rails, chairs, keys, 

 sleepers, blocks, &c. He is also to make a return each fortnight, of 

 the number of men employed by the contractor, to measure works for 

 monthly payments, and price them by the schedule attached to the 

 contract. In taking the measurements, he will much facilitate his 

 work by making them as near as possible to given points, so as to 

 save re-measurements. He is also to see that all levels are executed 

 with reference to bench marks and gradients given, and to preserve 

 the centre or trig line, especially in curves, and to give the half width 

 of railway, and to see that no more land is enclosed than has been 

 purchased, and finally to be in frequent communication with the 

 resident, and if any thing unexpectedly occurs, to lose no time in 

 communicating it. From the above statement of duties, it will be 

 seen that great responsibility is often placed on the shoulders of the 

 assistant, partly owing to the distance that separates him from the 

 resident. 



The accounts in detail are in the province of the contractor, which 

 will be hereafter considered. The assistant should have a knowledge 

 of measuring land and artificer's work, as at the stations on the line 

 he is brought into communication with slaters, joiners, masons, 

 plumbers, &c. The supervision of a contract on the part of a con- 

 tractor will consist of a supeiintendent, clerk, timekeepers, and fore- 

 man over each department of artificers. The superintendent sets out 

 the works, and sub-lets them to the various gangers and butty gangs, 

 and measures and prices their work; he also measures with the 

 assistant engineer for the monthly payments. The clerk keeps the 

 books, &c. and invoices. The foremen superintend their own trade, 

 and examine the goods sent to the works, with the invoice, both as 

 regard quality and quantity ; they also send in a weekly return of all 

 the men's time individually, and the nature of his employment, 

 whether on extra or contract work, and any materials sent to other 

 works, each individual workman making a return to him on a printed 

 form provided for the purpose. The timekeepers collect the names 

 of the ganger's men employed at occasional daywork, and count the 

 number of men in each gang four times daily, and take an average 

 as to the number employed for the day. One day is retained in hand 

 from each man employed at daywork, until he is discharged, the 

 wages being paid on the Saturday, although not for that day, but the 

 Saturday preceding, counting from each Friday night. 



I will, perhaps, better explain myself by giving, as it were, instruc- 

 tions to a set of men on a contract as to the manner they should adopt 

 in keeping the accounts : — then as to the clerk, he is to debit the 

 ganger's accouut, with the weekly men received, and enter to his 

 credit the quantities and prices he is to have for his woik ; to fill up 

 a weekly summary, showing how many men have been employed upon 

 each separate description of work, and to render a perfectly separate 

 account of day work. With respect to payments, he is to pay no 

 task man without express sanction of superintendent, and to pay no 

 day man except on a Saturday, unless he discharge himself entirely 

 from the works, when he is to pay the back day kept in hand. He is 

 to receive the invoices after they are examined by the foreman, 

 whose duty it is to receive the goods. The invoices to be filed until 



the monthly or quarterly bills are delivered for examination. The in- 

 voices are to be copied into the day book, materials sent to or received 

 from other works to be entered in books expressly for that purpose, 

 bricks, lime and sand will be kept in separate accounts, backed with 

 the party's name who supplies each material. No goods to be sent 

 by tradesmen without an order, and to have a return ticket on de- 

 livery, for both of which forms are provided. Timekeepers to de- 

 liver to the desk every evening, the correct time and name of every 

 man employed at daywork ; also daily, the name of every ganger, the 

 number of men, where at work, and the description of work. Any 

 claim by the ganger for daywork not to be allowed unless rendered to 

 the office as the regular daymen, and he must apply for payment the 

 next Saturday, as it will not be paid at a subsequent period ; and his 

 account for taskwork must be settled monthly. 



The superintendent lets and measures the works, and is responsible 

 for the levels, and he is in fact the whole executive, the contractor 

 being the capitalist or speculator. In the preceding account, no no- 

 tice is taken of truck system, tommy shops, menage shops, or subsist 

 monev, or any of the tricks of contractors without capital, or such as 

 those would be sure to have the lowest estimate; but the proceedings of 

 a wealthy and reputable contractor are recorded, and from having seen 

 service in both camps, I can bear testimony as to the good effects, 

 both morally and physically, of the latter method of proceeding. The 

 facility now given to contractors of keeping accounts open for an 

 indefinite time, would be much' checked, if engineers would not 

 certify contracts completed, until the contractors previously lodged 

 with them copies of all their extra claims. 



With respect to measurement of works in progress, the various 

 tables published by M'Neil, Day, Bidder, and the prismoidal formula, 

 &c, are perfectly inapplicable, from the broken nature of the ground, 

 it assuming shapes so various and uncouth at the different benches, 

 gullets and levels ; it is, therefore, necessary to take the dimensions on 

 the ground, and by computation, ascertain the cubic contents. A 

 considerable difference of opinion exists as to the modes of so doing, 

 some using the decimal, and others the duodecimal measures ; the 

 former gives the contents in yards by multiplication, and the latter 

 gives greater facility for the application of practice, or the division 

 by aliquot parts; and the total can easily be converted into yards 

 by dividing the number of cubic feet in a yard. In the one case, 

 all dimensions are taken in feet and inches, and in the other, they are 

 taken by a yard and decimal parts, the yard being divided decimally 

 into a hundred divisions ; this latter method is most used by old 

 practitioners: but feet and inches are now being more used than for- 

 merly. The dimensions are recorded in two columns ; one for the 

 length, breadth, and depth, placed one over the other always in the 

 same succession : the other column being left for the cubic contents of 

 each dimension as it is squared, so as to make the addition of the 

 several items into a total more easy. The dimensions of finished 

 cuttings are taken at each chain's length, by a line stretched across on 

 the natural surface of the ground, and a staff held in the centre, by 

 an assistant, and a mean of the two ends taken for the depth. The 

 width is measured half way up each slope in the centre of each 

 chain. The length is measured along the centre of the cutting. The 

 dimensions of each hole in broken w ; ork is taken similarly, but is re- 

 corded as only on account, and at a subsequent measurement it is re- 

 taken from a certain fixed point or chain in the section, which the 

 measurement book will tell if kept on a uniform plan. 



In making the monthly return of work executed, all previous mea- 

 surements are annulled in toto ; and the return made is the total 

 quantity done, and not that that is done between each measurement. 

 When a work is very rugged, it is usual to take the measurement of 

 the embankment, and not the cutting, on account of the fewer di- 

 mensions. The cuttings are measured generally every fortnight, the 

 intervening time being subsist weeks, when the pay is on account, 

 from the timekeeper's return ; and in some cases the number of 

 wagons are computed as a check. The persons who act as time- 

 keepers, are generally of the class that has seen better days ; the 

 excavators are a migratory horde, they are a collection of the 

 agricultural labourers, wdio are more spirited than their fellow- coun- 

 trymen, and who have left their native locality to better their condi- 

 tion ; so that in works of this sort, trusting too much to the honour of 

 such men will not do; and the more checks there are the better, or 

 one stands the chance of knowing experimentally the meaning of the 

 term " sloping," which by this time is fully known in France. 



I have said nothing as to the mode in which the directors, engineer, 

 and secretary, keep a check on each other ; I think, however, that it 

 is done by a system of sub-committees of finance, and the division of 

 the line into districts, and that no monies are paid by the banker 

 without the signatures of three of the directors and the secretary ; 

 being on an analogous plan to that adopted in olden times by corpo- 



