1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEEERAND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL 



75 



To all classes of merchandise, as well as to all military operations con- 

 nected with railways, one general remark will apply, that in starting from 

 any one point it is usually practicable to obtain a sufficient number of 

 wagons for whatever may be required to leave that point, however 

 irregular the traffic may be ; but, at the convergence of several lines, where 

 the greater number might be of a gauge not corresponding to the gauge of 

 the other lines, if it happened that all were unusually loaded at the same 

 time, it vi'ould probably be impossible to provide on the latter an adequate 

 Dumber of wagons to carry off all the loads thus brought ; the alternative 

 would be, on the one hand, to submit to great confusion, delay, and incon- 

 Teuience, on all the converging lines having the majority on the same gauge ; 

 or, on the other hand, to maintain ou the hues being in the minority a very 

 extensive stock of carriages, which in general would be totally useless. 



There is oue point which forcibly presses on our attention, and the truth 

 of which must be readily acknowledged, but of which the importance is 

 Dot at first equally obvious ; it is, that the greater part of the incon- 

 Teniencies to which we have alluded are not iucouveniencies of rare oc- 

 currence, and which would affect only a small number of persons, but, ou 

 the contrary, that many of them would occur several times in the course 

 of every day to a great number of persons at each point at which a break 

 of gauge might exist. The cumulative amount of such inconvenience 

 would of necessity be very considerable, and we feel bound to sum up our 

 conclusions by stating that we consider a break of gauge to be a very 

 serious evil. 



II. Mechanical means of transference from one Gauge to the^other. 



We are now brought to the second stage of our inquiry,-which is, to 

 discover the means of obviating or mitigating the evils that we fiud to result 

 from the break of gauge. 



The methods which have been laid before us, as calculated for this pur" 

 pose, are as follows : — 



1. AVhiit may be termed telescopic axles; an arrangement of the wheels 

 and axles of carriages, permitting the wheel to slide on the axle, so as to 

 contract or extend the interval between them in such a manner that they 

 may be adapted to either of tlie gauges. 



2. A form of truck adapted to the broad gauge, but carrying upon its 

 upper surface pieces of rail 4 feet 8^ inches asunder, so that a narrow 

 gauge carriage may be run upon these rails without any disturbance of its 

 wheels. 



3. A method of shifting the bodies of carriages from a platform and set 

 of wheels adapted for one gauge, to a different platform and set of wheels 

 adapted to the other gauge. 



4. A proposal to carry merchandise and minerals in loose boxes which 

 may be shifted from one truck to another and of which only one would 

 probably be carried upon a narrow gauge truck, while two would be con- 

 veyed on a broad gauge truck. 



]. Telescopic Axles. 



Of these various methods, the first — if it admitted of being used safely 

 and extensively — would be, in its application, the easiest of all. — By the 

 operations of detaching the wheels from one limiting hold, of pushing the 

 carriage along converging or diverging rails, until the wheels were brouglit 

 to the required width, and of then connecting them by another limiling 

 bold, the transformation of the narrow gauge carried to the broad gauge 

 carriage, or vice versa, would be completed. But this construction is 

 liable to grave objections. It is stated to us as a matter of experience 

 (and we believe it admits of satisfactory explanation), that very small un- 

 steadiness of the wheels o' a railway carriage upon the axle renders the 

 carriage liable to run off the rails. A far more serious objection, however, 

 is, that the safety of a carriage and the whole train with which it is con- 

 nected would depend ujion tlie care of the attendant, who has to make the 

 adjustment of the axle-slide. 



It is true that there are other cases, as in the attendaat on the switches 

 and signals, which depend upon the care of the person who is stationed to 

 work tiiem : but the circumstances differ very \videly. In these cases the 

 attendant has a single act to perform (or at the utmost, two acts only,) he 

 is not hurried, and his whole attention is concentrated on very simple 

 duties. 



In respect to the shifting axles, the attendants would have to adjust a 

 great many carriages in succession (as there are sometimes a hundred 

 wagons in a goods train), the adjustment must be made hurriedly, and 

 often in the night; and the attendant's thoughts would probably have been 

 partly occupied with the loading of goods and other station arrangements. 



On the score of danger, therefore, we think that the construction must be 

 at once abandoned. But we think it proper to add, that even if there were 

 DO such essential ground of objection, a construction of this nature could 

 not be adequately useful unless it were extended to every carriage which 

 is likely to pass the station where the break of gauge occurs. Under the 

 existing system of interchange of carriages, which is adopted by all the 

 railway companies whose hues communicate, and of which the advantages 

 are recognised in special clauses of the acts of Parliament applying to 

 several railways, carriages belonging to distant railways will frequently be 

 found a the place of junction of the two gauges, lliis construction therefore, 

 would lose much of its utility unless every railway carriage were made in 

 conformity to it, that is, unless a vast expenditure of capital, and a corres- 

 ponding annual expense in replacing worn-out carriages. is:c., were in- 

 curred even on railways very distant from the break of gauge. 



2. Shifting Narrow Gauge Carriages on to Broad Gauge Truclis. 



2. The plan of placing a narrow gauge carriage upon the top of a broad 

 gauge truck has, on the face of it, this obvious difficulty, that a broad 

 gauge carriage cannot be placed in the same manner upon a narrow gauge 

 truck, and therefore, unless not only the broad gauge railway, but also as 

 others communicating with it, be furnished with trucks proper for carrying 

 narrow gauge wagons, and with narrow gauge wagons also, and unless 

 the loads travelling towards the narrow gauge be placed only in these 

 narrow gauge wagons, the system effects nothing as regards the passage 

 in one direction. But even with regard to the passage from the narrow 

 gauge to the broad gauge, the system will not bear examination. If the 

 trucks are supported on springs, there is practicnllv a difficulty in running 

 the wagons upon them ; and if they are not supported on sprino-s they 

 will sustain great injury on the journeys. If they are loaded singly there 

 will be a great delay ; if they are placed in a row, and the narrow" gauge 

 carriages are run through the whole series, very great caution will be 

 necessary to secure each carriage both in front and in rear. When heavy 

 loads are thus placed in elevated positions, and when the security of each 

 depends upon adjustments hurriediy made, there will be the danger to which 

 we have alluded in uoticing the first proposed construction. Finally an 

 enormous amount of dead weight will be carried ou the broad gauge I'ine 

 We reject this proposal as entirely inapplicable to the traffic of railways. " 



3. Sliifling tlie bodies of carriages from oue set of wheels to another. 



3. The system of shifting the bodies of carriages from road wheels to 

 railway wheels is practised successfully in France, where the diligences 

 from Paris to distant towns, proceeding on road wheels from the Jless'agerie 

 of Paris to the railway station, are carried on a peculiar railway truc°k as 

 far as liouen and Orleans, and are then again placed ou road wheels to 

 continue their journey. At the low speeds of the French railways this 

 system is safe, but we doubt whether it would be safe with the speeds 

 of the English railways. Moreover it deprives the railway system of one 

 of its greatest conveniencies; namely, its readiness to receive almost any 

 number of passengers without warning, and to carry them to any distance, 

 small or great. Carriers' carts are also conveyed (but to no great amount) 

 jD the same manner. In France, as we understand, it is not thouiiht likely 

 jhat the system will be in any degree retained when those railways shall 

 l^ave been extended further. The same remarks, we conceive', would 

 gPply entirely, or in a great measure, to similar proposals for the shifting 

 J the bodies of railway carriages ; but as this plan has never been 

 gtrenuously urged, it is unnecessary to criticise it more minutely. 



4. Conveying Goods in Loose Boxes. 



The system of conveying goods in loose boxes, carried upon railway trucks, 

 has been seriously discussed. It has been repealcHly tried, and we are able 

 therefore to give an opinion on it, founded on experience. 



The result of this experience is, that in one instance of a temporary 

 character, where the whole operation was under the control of one engineer , 

 it succeeded , in other instances, although always under the controf of one 

 engineer or one company, it has usually failed; and these failures have 

 occurred where from the deterioration, caused by hand-shifting, to 

 the mineral conveyed, it was matter of anxiety to avoid transference of the 

 load from one box or wagon to another, and where no expense was spared 

 in the erection of machinery proper for the transference of the loose boxes. 



These failures, it is to be remarked, occurred in a traffic which is com- 

 paratively regular, viz., that of coal ; in traffic of a less regular character 

 the causes tending to produce failure would be very much more numerous. 



We consider that this method is totally inapplicable to remedy the in- 

 conveniencie of a break of gauge. 



Some of the witnesses whom we have examined are of opinion that there 

 would be less difficulty in unloading the wagons of one gauge, and placing 

 the articles in wagons of the other gauge, by having two rows of wagons 

 on the different gauges, marshalled alongside of each other; but having 

 witnessed this process at Gloucester, we are of opinion that such a system 

 is totally inapplicable to an extended traffic. 



Me sum up our conclusion on this head, by slating our belief that no 

 method has been proposed to us, which is calculated to remedy in any 

 important degree the inconveni#ices attending a break of gauge. 

 III. Policy or Uniformity of Galge. 



Considerations on the general policy of establishing an uniformity of 

 gauge throughout the country. 



Me approach this momentous question with a full convictiou of its im- 

 portance, and the responsibility that rests upon us. 



That an uniformity of gauge is now an oliject much to be desired, there 

 can, we think, be no question. In the earlier period of the railway history 

 of this country the great trunk lines were so far separated as to be indepen- 

 dent of each other, as it were, isolated in their respective districts, and no 

 diversity of gauge was then likely to interfere with the personal convenience or 

 the commercial objects of the community; but nowtfiat railways are spread- 

 ing in all directions, and becoming interlaced with each other in numerous 

 places, that isolation is removed, that independence has ceased, and the time 

 has arrived when, if steps cannot be taken to remove the existing evil of the 

 diversity of gauge, at least it appears to us imperative that a wider spread of 

 this evil should be prevented. 



If we had to deal with a qnestion not affecting the interests of parties, who 

 are not only unconnected, but who are opposed to eaih other in a spirit uf 

 emulation, it not of rivalry; or if we were dealing with the property of the 



