1846.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



79* 



We musl remark, however, that this calculation is for trains consisting 

 exclusively of passengers and their personal luggage. In the Great 

 "Western average trains of 67 tons there is an allowance of about IG tons 

 for passengers and luggage, including gentlemen's carriages. Allowing 

 the same weight of luggage on the narrow gauge line, the train would 

 still not exceed 50 tons, which is considerably witliin the power of the 

 narrow gauge engine. For it appears, by the evperimeuts that liave been 

 recently made ou the Great Western Railway, the details of which are 

 given in the appendix to the evidence, that the Great Western engine is 

 capable of propelling 13 Ions at a greater speed than the average speed of 

 that line ; and, conseijuently, by the proportion above slated, the narrow- 

 gauge engine would be capable of propelling .53 tons at the same rate. 

 'We conclude, therefore, that the work would be performed at about the 

 same expense for locomotive power. 



That there may be cases in which not only the full power of a broad 

 gauge engine is required, but even the assistance of a second engine is 

 quite certain, but such trains form the exception, and not the rule, in rail- 

 way passenger traffic, and we doubt the soundness of a principle which 

 involves a great expense in construction, for the sake of possessing capa- 

 bilities so seldom called into action.* 



It is proper to observe, that the foregoing comparison would have ap- 

 peared to stand more in favour of tlie narrow gauge, had we taken for the 

 engine of comparison, one of those engines, of whose increased capa- 

 bilities some of the supporters of the narrow gauge system have informed 

 us ; but we have preferred the comparison afforded with the South Western 

 engine, from its being the one on which Mr. Gooch of the Great AVestern 

 Railway, superintended the recorded experiments — hence our deductions 

 are made from data furnished by the advocates of the broad gauge system, 

 without drawing anything from the evidence on the other side ; and as 

 these deductions snliicientiy demonstrate that there is no economy in tlie 

 locomotive expenses for passenger-trains resulting from working a line on 

 the broad gauge system, even on such lines as thusi; which have at the pre- 

 sent moment the most abundant passenger traffic, any analyzation of the 

 evidence offered in support of the narrow gauge system appears to us to 

 be quite superfluous. 



Gross and Net Loads. — There is one point, however, stated in Mr. 

 Gooch's comparative table, and repeated in his evidence, which appears 

 so much at variance with the results we have obtained from other data, as 

 to require explauation. 



Mr. Gooch has asserted that the Great Western Company work their pas- 

 senger-trains at half the expense per ton, at which ihe London and Bir- 

 mingham Company work tiieir passenger-trains. Tlie fact is, however, 

 that Mr. Gooch's calculations refer to the gross and not to the net loads; 

 and therefore, the comparison is not applicable, so far as regards the profits 

 of these companies, and atfords no proof of economy in working the pas- 

 senger trafHc on the Great Western system. 



There can be no doubt, judging both from Mr. Brunei's evidence given 

 to us, and from his report to the directors of the Great Western Railway 

 Company, that he originally expecteil there would be on the Great Western 

 Railway a demand for carrying great numbers of passengers at high velo- 

 cities, but from his own evidence it appears that the only heavy passenger 

 traffic upon that railway is between London and Reading, and between 

 Bath and Bristol, being a total distance of about .iO miles, out of 2-15. 



On the remaining part of the line the passenger traffic, per train, is 

 small. 



Division of Traffic. — If the convenience of the public would admit of 

 the whole of the passenger traffic of this portion of the line being con- 

 veyed daily by two or three large trains, Mr. Brunei's views would have 

 been perfectly correct in providing such powerful means; but experience 

 has proved that the public require passenger-trains to be run many times 

 during the day, and with this frequency of trains, such numbers of pas- 

 sengers as Mr. Brunei has provided for cannot be expected even on rail- 

 ways of the largest trafhc, so that practically there is a waste both of 

 power and of means. In the case of " goods' traffic," the circumstances 

 are not the same, railway conveyance for merchandise seems only to be re- 

 quired a few times in each day, and the trains are generally large. The 

 " through" wago»s have, for the most part, a full load, and the dispro- 

 portion between the gross and the net weight is consequently much kss 

 than in the passenger trains ; still, however, it appears from the evidence 

 of Mr. Home, and of other persons connected with the carrying trade. 

 that on the London and Birmingham Railway it frequently happens that 

 wagons are forwarded to a considerable distance, to " road-side stations," 

 containing not more than a ton of goods : and there can be no doubt that 

 this must happen on any long line of railway. The same also occurs in 

 wagons coming in from branches along the trunk line, and in all such 

 cases the heavy large wagon of the broad gauge must be disadvanta- 

 geous ; but although the evil is not so great with goods' wagons of the 

 hroad gauge as with their passenger carriages, still the loss by dead weight 

 is greater with these than with smaller wagons, and we do not perceive 

 any advantages in the broad gauge to counterbalance it ; for where speed 

 is not an object, and this is the case with goods' trains, we believe from 

 the evidence we have received, that engines of nearly the same jtractive 

 power are to be found on many narrow gauge lines as those in use on the 

 broad gauge. 



* It appears that during the half-year ending June 3U, 18J5, the number of miles run 

 by coupled and assisting engine* for passenger-trains on the Great Western Kailway, 

 •rnounted to 11,628, and for goods trains to 51,15.5. The total number of miles run bv 

 the former trains being 761,-)i«, and of tlie latter, 169,324. 



New Railways. — Thns far we have considered the question with refer- 

 ence to the railways as they now exist, and composed, in a great measure,, 

 of trunk lines of considerable traffic, but the railways to be made in future 

 will, in some degree, be branches or lines in districts having traffic of less 

 magnitude than is to be provided for in the existing railways ; and hence, 

 if for the greater trunk lines a superiority werel due to the broad gau'e 

 system, that superiority would be less for lines yet to be constructed of a 

 smaller amouut of traffic; and, necessarily, if the preference were given- 

 to the narrow gauge for the existing lines, that system would be still more 

 entitled to the preference for the railways of smaller traffic to which we 

 look forward . 



Experiments on Broad and Narrow Gauze. — We must here add that 

 towards the close of our inquiry, Mr. Brunei requested, on the part of 

 the broad gauge companies, to institute a set of experiments to test the 

 power of their engines, and Mr. Bidder, on the part of the narrow gauge 

 companies, undertook, in consequence of such application, to make corre- 

 sponding experiments ou the narrow gauge. After sanctioning these trials, 

 and being present at the performance of them, a record of which will be 

 found in the appendix, we may observe, without entering into a minute 

 detail of the results, or the discrepancies between the returns as furnished 

 by the two parlies themselves, that we consider them as conlirniing the 

 statements and results gives by Mr. Gooch, in his evidence, provin» as 

 they do, that the broad gauge engines possess gi-eater capabilities fur speed 

 with equal loads, and, generally speaking, of propelling greater loads with 

 equal speed ; and, moreover, that the working with such engines is econo- 

 mical where very high speeds are required, or where the loads to be con- 

 veyed are such as to require the full power of the engine. They confirm, 

 also, the evidence given by Mr. Bidder as to the possibility of obtaining 

 high evaporative power with long engines for the narrow gauge ; but under 

 somewhat peculiar circumstances. It appears, moreover, that the evupo-- 

 ration thus obtained does not produce a corresponding useful effect in the- 

 tractive power of the engine ; a ciixumstance that would probably be dif- 

 ferently explained by Mr. Gooch and by Mr. Bidder; but as we do not 

 refer to the power of this description of engine in the deductions we have 

 made, it is unnecessary for us to allude further to tliem. 



Conclusions. — .\fter a full consideration of all the circumstances that 

 have come before us, and of the deductions we have made from the evidence, 

 we are led to conclude — 



1. TIcat as regards the safety, accommodation, and convenience of the pas- 

 sengers, no decided preference is due to eitlier gauge, but that on tlie broads, 

 gauge the motion is generaUij more easy at high velocities. 



2. That in respect of speed, ice consider the adrantages are with the broad 

 gauge, but we think the public safety would be endangered in employing the 

 greater capabilities of the broad gauge much beyond their present use, except 

 on roads more consolidated and more substantially and pirfectty formed, than 

 those of the cristiug lines. 



3. That in the commercial case of the transport of goods, we believe the 

 narrow gauge to possess the greater convenience and to be tlit more suited to ■ 

 the general traffic of the country. 



4. That the broad gauge involves the greater outlay, and that we have not 

 been able to discover either in the maintenance of way, in the cost of locomo- 

 live power, or in the other annual expenses, any adequate reduction to com- 

 pensate for the adtiitional first cost. 



Therefore, esteeming the importance of the highest speed on express trains 

 for the accommodation of a comparatively small numoer of persons, how- 

 ever desirable that may bo to them, as of far less moment than affording 

 convenience to the general commercial traffic of the country, we ai'e in- 

 clined to consider the narrow gauge as that which should be preferred for 

 general convenience; and, therefoi'e, if it were imperative to produce uni- 

 formity, we should recommend that uniformity to be produced by an alter- 

 ation of the broad to the narrow gauge, more especially when we take 

 into consideration that the extent of the former at piesent in work is only 

 274 miles, while that of the latter is not less thau l,i)Ul miles, and that 

 the alteration of the former to the latter, even if of equal length, would be 

 the less costly as well as the less difficult operation. 



Intermediate Gauges. — We are desirous, however, of guarding ourselves^ 

 from being supposed to express an opinion, that the dimensions of lour feet 

 eight and a half inches is in all respects the mosts suited for the geueral 

 objectsof the country. Some of the engineers who have been examined- 

 by us have given it as their opinion, that fire feet would be the best di- 

 mension for a railway gauge ; others have suggested .5 ft. 3 in., .5 ft. G io.,, 

 and even tt ft., but none have recommended so great a breadth as 7 ft., except 

 those who are more particularly interested in the broad gauge lines. Again 

 some engineers of eminence contend that a gauge of 4 ft. 8j in. gives ample 

 space for the machinery of the engine and all the railway requirements, 

 and would recommend no change to be made in the gauge. 

 '-We may observe, in reference to this part of the question, that the 

 Eastern Counties Railway was originally constructed on a gauge of 

 5 feet, and has since been converted into a gauge of 4 feet 8\ inches, to 

 avoid a break of gauge ; and we have been informed that some lines iu 

 Scotland, originally ou the gauge of 5 ft. 3 in., are about to be altered to 

 4 ft. Si in. for the same reason. 



Gauge of Foreign Railways. — AVhatever might be the preferable course 

 were the questions now to be discussed of the gauge for an entiie system of 

 railways, where none previously existed to clash with the decision, yet, 

 under the present state of things, we see no sufficient reason to suggest or 

 recommend the adoption of any gauge intermediate between the narrow 

 gauge of 4 ft. 8.^ in., and the broad gauge of 7 ft., and we are peculiarly 



