1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



265 



proposed for a church, it would be objected to as totally inadequate. 

 It seems to be one of our prejudices, that we cannot have too many 

 windows in a building, nor too much light, as if a strong light must 

 produce a corresponding degree of effect ; whereas it more frequently 

 diminishes and sometimes quite destroys it. 



V. The Nelson Monument people would have done a good work, if, 

 instead of hoisting up an enormously expensive column (for at the best 

 the effect will be in no proportion to the cost), they had offered to re- 

 move the present trumpery-looking screen of the Admiralty, and erect 

 in lieu of it a low but simple and dignified architectural elevation, the 

 centre of which would have served as a basement for some sort of 

 superstructure forming the "monument" itself, adorned with sculp- 

 ture, and surmounted by a colossal figure of the hero of Trafalgar. 

 There would surely have been neither impropriety nor want of 

 meaning, in so attaching to that building a memorial of one of the 

 most distinguished of British admirals. At all events the Admiralty 

 would have had what it now very much wants — something to mark it 

 to the eye, and to intimate that it is a public building, and one of 

 some importance — at least in its purpose. It may, indeed, not quite 

 unreasonably be objected that any piece of monumental architecture 

 of the kind erected in front of it would neither have improved the 

 actual appearance of that building, nor rendered it the friendly ser- 

 vice of shutting it out from view; but that, on the contrary, the 

 building would have shown itself as an unworthy accompaniment to 

 the monument. Still there would have been no very great difficulty 

 in contriving that the monument should appear an independent com- 

 position not otherwise connected with the "large house" behind it, 

 than as being erected in the open space in front of the latter, as af- 

 fording a convenient site between that house and the street. The site 

 itself being somewhat confined would have been rather a favourable 

 circumstance than the reverse, because the monument would have 

 been of greater comparative or proportional magnitude. As a piece 

 of colonnaded architecture or facade, the present screen looks posi- 

 tively diminutive; but an erection of the same dimensions might be 

 made to appear almost colossal as a portion of a monument reared in 

 the centre of it. 



NOTES ON EARTHWORK, &C, UPON RAILWAYS. 

 Article VII. — Principle and Construction of Earth Wagons. 



In a former paper (ante, p. 186, vol. v), when treating of the "plant" 

 employed in excavations, the cost of earth wagons and the expence of 

 repairs were fully stated. I am, nevertheless, induced from the little 

 information to be obtained, to make wagons the subject of an entire 

 paper. I will first allude to the introduction of wagons for railway 

 purposes. Mr. Nicholas Wood, C.E., in his Treatise on Railroads, 

 p. 12, states, on the authority of Gray's Chorographia, published at 

 Newcastle, 1649, that " the carts employed in conveying the coals, 

 were in 1602 called " waynes," and the carriages introduced by Master 

 Beaumont, " wagons," and also that ever since that period the car- 

 riages employed upon railroads have been designated by the latter 

 name ; we may therefore infer, that the wagon of Mr. Beaumont was 

 applied upon a railway, and that he was the first to introduce them 

 into the north." Also, page 16, the ground being formed pretty even 

 from the pit, the whole length of the intended railroad or 'wagon way,' 

 as it was termed." Here we have the ancient term retained in the 

 modern nomenclature of "railway," not railroad, which is contracted 

 to rail, in town. The wagons which are now used to carry coals, quit 

 their load at the bottom, it being hung on hinges, and the form of 

 body is hopper shaped, and they are made to carry 53cwt. 



Earth wagons are used in the making of railways for conveying the 

 excavated soil, and are of two descriptions, called End Wagons and 

 Side Wagons, from the direction in which they discharge the earth, 

 which is done by a tilt like a tilt cart, the end or side being raised as 

 the case may be. The timber framing which carries the hinge on 



which the body of the wagon turns in the act of tipping, it called the 

 " soles," and sometimes the framing of the body of the wagon is called 

 the upper soles. The form of the body is generally nearly square; 

 the chief desideratum is that the construction should be simple, and 

 rigid or firm, and that the height should be no more than will allow 

 the wagon body sufficient elevation for the earth to leave it with the 

 impulse that the wagon has obtained before coming to the tiphead. 

 The annexed engravings, Figs. 1 & 2, show the construction of one of 



WAGON, NORTH SHIELDS RAILWAY. 





fWfer-*-^* 



/ 



i> ,-a: ■■■( 



Fig. 2.— Plan of Under-framing. 



the wagons used on the North Shields Railway, drawn to a scale of 

 3 feet to the inch. The following is a specification describing the 

 construction. The "soles," a, of the underframing to be 6 in. deep by 

 5 in. broad, with three cross " sheths," c, 6 in. by 4 in., having three 

 bolts 1 in. diameter, one on the side of each sheth to keep the soles 

 together. The soles, 6, of the upper frame, also, to be 6 in. by 5 in.f 

 with two cross sheths, d, 6 in. by 4 in., and two iron bolts the same as 

 the under frame ; these two sheths, d, to be morticed into the soles, b. 

 Besides these, the upper frame to have four cross sheths, e, 4 in. by 3 in. 

 thick, projecting over the frame and wheels on which the bottom 

 deals are to be fixed. The length of the cross sheths, e, to be such as 

 to make the wagon 6 ft. 6 in. broad at the hind end, and 6 ft. at the 

 fore end, measured along the bottom deals, and the length in the clear 

 of the bottom to be 6ft. 'Jin. and the top 7 feet. The "cleading 

 deals " are to be 1| in. thick, of elm or oak. The top sheths, e, to be 

 bolted down to the soles, b, with i in. bolts, a cross sheth, J\ to be 

 bolted down to the undersole, a, to support the front part of the wagon. 



