74 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



THE BROAD AND NARROW GAUGES. 



Ki:voET OF TEiE Royal Commissioners. 



May it please your Majesty, — AVe, the Commissioners, ajipoiuted Iiy 

 writ, UDciur your Majesty's I'rivy Seal, bearing date the 1 1 tli of July, in the 

 ninth year of your Majesty's reign, to inquire whether, in future private actsof 

 Parliament for the construction of railways, provision ought to be made for 

 securing an uniform gauj'e, and whether it would be expedient and practi- 

 cable to take measures to bring the railways already constructed or in pro- 

 gress of construction, in Great Hrilain, into uniformity uf gauge, and to in- 

 quire whether any other mode could be adopted of obviating or mitigating 

 the evii;apprchemJed as likely to arise from the break that will occur in 

 railway communications from the want of an uniform gauge, big dutifully 

 to submit, that we have called before us such persons as we have judged 

 to be, by reason of their situation, knowledge, or experience, the most com- 

 petent to afl'ord us correct information on the subject of this inquiry, and we 

 have required the production of such books and documents from the various 

 railway companies as appear to us to be the best calculated to aid our 

 researches. 



We have personally examined into the usual course of proceeding on 

 various railways both at home and abroad, especially those which are in- 

 cident to a break or interruption of gauge, and we have personally inspected 

 several locomotive engines as well as mechanical contrivauci'S invented, 

 either for the general use of railways, or for obviating the sjiecial difficulties 

 presumed to arise from the break of gauge, or otherwise connected with 

 the subject of our inquiry, and as we believe we have now carried our in- 

 Testigation to the utmost useful limits, we feel iu a position dutifully to 

 offer to your Majesty the following report. 



DKEAK OF GAUGE. 



1. Our attention was first directed to ascertain whether the break of 

 gauge could be justly considered as an inconvenience of so much import- 

 ance as to demand the interference of the Legislature. 



Gloucester is the only place where a break of gauge actually exists at 

 the present time. It is caused by the meeting at that place of the broad 

 or 7 feet gauge with the narrow or 4 feet 8i inch gauge. There are other 

 points, however, where a transfer of goods occurs similar to that which 

 must result from a break of gauge, and persons well acquainted with rail- 

 way traffic have no difficulty in seeing the nature of the inconvenience that 

 would arise from any further intermixture of gauge : and we humbly sub- 

 mit the observations that occur to us as to the whole of this important part 

 of the question. 



We will divide the subject of the break of gauge under the following 

 heads : — 



1st, as applying to fast or express trains; 2dly, to ordinary or mixed 

 trains ; 3dly, to goods trains, and 4thly, to the conveyance of your Ma- 

 jesty's forces. 



1st. Fast or express trains. 

 We believe that the inconvenience produced by a break of gauge will, in 

 some respects, be less felt in these than in other trains, because the passen- 

 gers travelling by fast trains are usually of a class who readdj submit to 

 many inconveniences for the sake of increased speed on the journey, and 

 who are perhaps generally less incumbered with luggage than persons tra- 

 velling by the slower trains; and as it is understood to be the t;eueral prac- 

 tice that no private carriages or horses are conveyed by these trains, the 

 inconveniences of a break of gauge are reduced in this instance to the re- 

 moval of the passengers and a moderate quantity of luggage ; and, although 

 such removal must create delay and some confusion, as well as personal dis- 

 comfort, especially at night and m the winter season, besides the risk of a 

 loss of luj^gage, yet we do not consider the break of gauge, in this instance, 

 as being an inconvenience of so grave a nature as to call for any legislative 

 measures, either for its removal or for its mitigation. 

 2dly. Ordinary or mixad trains. 

 In these trains thepasseagers considerably exceed in number those who 

 travel by the fast trains, and they have generally a much greater quantity 

 of luggage. To such travellers a change of carriage is really a serious incon- 

 venience, and it is a well known fact that persons travelling by railways in 

 communication with each other, but under different managements endea- 

 vour to make such arrangements as to admit of their travelling by those 

 trains which atibrd them the accommodation of occupying the same 

 carriage from the begirming to the end of their journey. 



The managers and directors of railways are well aware of this feeling, 

 and in some instances where they do not allow their carriages to run 

 through, yet with a view of diminishingthe inconvenience to which this ex- 

 poses their passengers, they send a luggage train from terminus to terminus, 

 to prevent the evil of a removal of the passengers' luggage ; and some rail- 

 way companies incur considerable expense in running trains of return 

 empty carriages, in order to accommodate the public by enabling travellers 

 to avoid a change of carriage on the journey. 



It is by the ordinary or mixed trains that private carriages and horses 

 are conveyed, and the removal of either from one truck or horsebox to 

 another, at any part of the journey, would be attended with inconvenience 

 and delay ; and with regard to the hurses, it would involve considerable 

 risk. 



Me arrive, therefore, at the conclusion that the break of gauge would 

 nflict considerable loconvenieuce on travellers by the trains now 



under consideration, and that this inconvenience would be macb increased 

 at points of convergence of more than two lines. 



'The change of carriages, horse-boxes and trucks, and the transference of 

 luggage of an entire tram of much extent, must even iu the day time, be an 

 inconvenience of a very serious nature, but at night it would be an into- 

 lerable evil, and we think legislative interference is called for to remove or 

 mitigate such an evil. 



3dly. Goods trains. 

 From the statement? made to us b) carriers on railways, and from our 

 own observation, we are induceil to believe, that not only a considerable 

 degree of care, judgment, and experience is necessary in the stowage of 

 merchandise in railway wagons, but also, that it is desirable that when 

 properly packed the articles should, generally speaking, not be disturbed 

 until the journey is completed. We find that in the arrangement of mer- 

 chandise, the heavier goods are placed at the bottom, and the lighter at the 

 top of the load, and so secured as to prevent friction us far as practicable 

 from the jolting of the wagons; audit is considered very desirable, with 

 a view to prevent loss by pilfering, that the sheeting, which is placed over 

 the load, should not be removed till the completion of the journey. Indeed, 

 acting upon this principle carriers find it profitable to scud their wagons 

 partially filled from various stations on the line, thereby increasing their 

 toll to the railway company, rather than incur the risk of loss by 

 theft, to which they would be exposed by uncovering the wagons on the 

 journey to fill up with intermediate local goods wagons that may have 

 started with light loads from one of the termini. 



The stations for re-arranging the goods trains are therefore as few as 

 possible ; thus, between Leeds and London, the points for unsheeting the 

 goods wagons are only Derby and Leicester, and iielween Liverpool and 

 Loudon, the re arrangement is confined to Birmingham and Kugby ; and 

 even at those stations the proportion of wagons which are uncovered is 

 very small : indeed, it is slated that at the important town of liirmingham 

 five-sixths of the wagons pass without rearrangement. 



In the conveyance of machinery and articles of a similar class, which 

 are both heavy and delicate, it is of the utmost consequence that the load 

 should not be disturbed between the beginning and the end of the journey; 

 a change of carriage, such as would result in all probability from a break 

 of the gauge, would altogether prevent the transport of such articles by 

 this mode of coveyance. 



M'e belitve that the traffic upon the line of railway between Birming- 

 ham and Bristol has been greatly restricted by the interruption of gauge 

 at Gloucester. 



In respect to the conveyance of minerals, the inconvenience of a break 

 of gauge would be very serious; the transfer being attended with aa 

 expense which would be sensibly felt in consequence of the low rate 

 tolls charged on such articles ; moreover, many descriptions of coal, such 

 as a considerable proportion of that of the Blidland Counties, are subject 

 to great deterioration by breakage. 



In regard to various articles of agricultural produce, the loss b^ removal 

 would be less than on other classes of goods; much inconvenience, how- 

 ever, would be found in the transfer of timber ; and the difficulty of 

 shifting cattle would be so great as to present an insurmoontable obstacle 

 to such an arrangement, from the excited stale of the animals after 

 travelling by railway, and the resistance they in consequence oB'er when 

 it is attempted to force them a second time into a railway wagon. 



4thly. Conveyance of Troops. 

 There is another use of railways which we have deemed it necessary to 

 consider; we allude to the transport of your Majesty's troops, with 

 their military stores, &c., either in the ordinary movement of corps through 

 the country in the time of peace, or in the mere pressing and urgent case 

 of their movements for the defeuceof coast or of the interior of the country. 

 We have carefully weighed the important information given to us by the 

 Quartermaster-General of your Majesty's Forces, as well as by the In- 

 spector-General of Fortifications, both officers of great experience; and 

 we deduce from their opinions, that although a break of gauge on the line 

 of route would produce both delay and confusion, yet that, as in time of 

 peace it is usually practicable to give notice of the intended movements of 

 a body of troops, the inconvenience of the break of g:auge might be so re- 

 duced as not to bean evil of great importance; but, iu the event of ope- 

 rations for defensive objects against an enemy, the inconvenience would 

 assume a serious character. 



It would appear, that for the defences of the coast, the proper course 

 would be to retain the great mass of troops in the interior of the country 

 to wait until the point selected by the enemy for his attack should be ascer- 

 tained with certainty, and then to move upon that point such an over- 

 whelming force as should be adequate to the emergency. 



It is obvious that the success of such a system of defence must depend 

 upon the means of conveying the troops with great dispatch, and without 

 interruption on the journey. 



The troops should be carried with their equipments complete in all their 

 details, and with their artillery and ammunition ; and it therefore appears 

 indispensably necessary, in order toinsure the requisite supply of carriages 

 where perhaps little or no notice can be previously given, that the whole, 

 should be conveyed in the same vehicles from the beginning to the end of 

 the journey. 



The effect of a break of gauge might ia this view of the case expose the 

 country to serious danger. < 



