1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



183 



the inconveniences attending a change of gange are less than supposed by 

 witness; could iiol, therefore, as a government oflicer, supposing all the 

 railways novv made the property of government, advise a change of broad 

 to narrow gauge witliout greater experience. 



Reason of engineer of Great Western Railway adopting wide gauge, 

 after the Bill had passed through Parliament, supposed to be a desire to 

 attain greater speed, a better road, and greater economy of construction ; 

 one great item of expense in locomotive engines supposed to be the rapid 

 reciprocation of the piston : and to diminish this was thought very desir- 

 able ; but the expense of working locomotives on narrow gauge has di- 

 minished from 2s. 6d. to 2s., Is. 4d. down to lOd, per mile run ; it is very 

 <loublful v\bether the expense is not just as great on Great Western as on 

 the narrow gauge; Mr. Brunei at first intended using wheels of much 

 larger diameter than are used at present ; wheels on Great Western for- 

 merly 10 feet in diameter ; those now used only 7 feet; only 6 inches 

 larger than those at present working on South Western Railway ; the 

 adoption of the broad gauge it was supposed %vould tend to diminish the 

 Working expem^es ; this result, however, has not yet been proved. Con- 

 siders that a far higher speed can be obtained on narrow gauge lines than 

 is compniible with safety. If desirable to change gauge of South Western 

 to broad gauge, should take certain length, and use a single line ; this is 

 the practice when any substantial repair is in progress, when a mile or 

 mile and a half of rail is taken up, using a single line, and keeping a 

 policeman at each end. The tunnels on South Western line nut large 

 enough for broad gauge, and while enlarging these, the traffic must be 

 stopped ; the bridges and viaducts would also require alteration. 



Has bestowed considerable attention to the consiructiou of locomotives, 

 particularly at the time the difficulty was first experienced in obtaining 

 greater speed on narrow gauge lines. The first engines used on Grand 

 Junction line of very inferior construction; the dirtirully of obtaining 

 greater speed on this line first induced witness to turn his attention to im- 

 provements in the construction of locomotive engines. Outside cylinders 

 introduced on Kingstown and Dublin line without outside frames; by this 

 plan the cylinders overhung the frame too much On Grand Junction 

 line outside frames were used, but the outside bearings were attached to 

 the front and hind wheels only; the cylinder by being attached to the 

 driving wheels, without the intervention of the outside frame, kept the 

 engine more compact. By this arrangement the widtli of engine was di- 

 niinistied several inches. Inside cylinder has necessarily a crank axle, 

 and more liable to break; on Grand Junction line, accidents from this 

 cause formerly a source not only of expense but of danger, as the crank 

 broke when the train was in motion, and often threw it off" the line. Has 

 not had a single accident from breakage since the introduction of outside 

 cylinders. Engines getting o(f the line not of frequent occurrence ; more 

 60 now than formerly, in consequence of the increased speed. 



Tenders on Great Western line of greater capacity to contain water 

 than on other lines, and run longer distances without changing. Tenders 

 could be made f<ir narrow gauge lines larger than those on Great Western 

 if considered necessary ; tenders upon Great Western line all upon six 

 wheels ; on other lines upon four wheels only. The 10-feet driving wheels 

 on Great \V esleru abandoned from the difficulty of getting engines large 

 enough to moie the trains at any ordinary speed, and the further difficulty 

 of slopping iheni when once started. Wheels of these dimensions not 

 suitable ou a line with severe gradients. By increasing the size of the 

 wheel there will be a danger of the springing of the wheel itself on its 

 motion, from the axle not being sufficiently rigid. In going through points 

 or crossings with a ^ery large wheel, a very little force applied to the 

 flange will spring the wheel unless it is made proportionately strong, and 

 if you do that jou will have a wide boss ; the bosses are 8 or 10 inches, 

 the spokes are 4 or H inches, tapering up to 3 inches at the rim ; if you 

 increafe it from 6 or 7 feet to 10 feet you must increase the width of your 

 boss, and you will have a very heavy weight and very wide boss. Weight 

 of largest engine ou Southampton line, about 17 or 18 tons. No evil will 

 result tu the road by increasing the weight of the passenger engines. 



Wagons on either gauge can be made to contain 5 tons ; in the north of 

 England, where so much more is carried than in the south, small wagons 

 are still adhered to. Wagons upon both lines made to carry 10 tons of 

 coals. Narrow gauge most convenient for side lines running to the pits. 

 Relative cost of vvoikiiig trains at 16 miles and at 40 miles an hour about 

 one-third more. Some engines on Grand Junction line burn 10 lb. of coke 

 per mile. Probable consumption of express trains about 4 or 5 lb. per 

 mile more ; on Great Western the consumption is considerably more than 

 this; they have larger and heavier engines ; on South Western line, the 

 <]uantity of coke consumed per mile is considerably less than on Great 

 Western. 



There would be increased difficulty in the ordinary working as regards 

 the maintenance of way, packing the rails, &c., if the narrow and broad 

 gauge were combined. The easiest mode of maintaining the road would 

 he, where you have the broad gauge, by transverse sleepers, and then put- 

 ting a single rail upon one single sleeper ; that is the best mode of keeping 

 the road in repair : but it is not a good mode of laying the road for two 

 carriages, nor is it couvenient for working, because the centre of gravity is 

 not in the same line. If you take two rails between the longitudinal 

 bearings of the wide gauge, jou have not space enough to put longitudinal 

 bearings, unless juu put them close together: and you cannot ram them ; 

 if you ram down one side jou will run a risk of eh vating the other rail ; 

 auU in ramming down the inner rail you would run a risk of lifliog it up 



out of the level on the opposite side; in fact, the want of the facility of 

 getting to both sides of the baulk would be found a very serious inconve- 

 nience. Would propose, under those circumstances, to lay both rails upon 

 transverse sleepers ; and if railways w ere to be made in that manner, 

 should certainly lay a large sleeper, long enough to take both gauges. 



A considerable number of the transverse sleepers upon the Great West- 

 ern Railway have been changed ; their duration is very variable; those not 

 well saturated decay sooner than others ; their duration also affected by 

 the nature of the soil. Construction of passenger carriages on Grand 

 Junction line much improved ; they are now made stronger and more sub- 

 stantial. They are now made solid instead of being carved out. This 

 change is adopted partly from economy and partly to obtain greater strength. 

 Liverpool and Manchester Company began with very light carriages, con- 

 sidering that the lighter the carriages the less the draught; on the slightest 

 collision they got out of the square; they have been gradually increased 

 in strength up to the present time ; they now weigh about 3 or 3f tons, 

 but have not yet adopted the solid frame ; cost more from the quantity of 

 iron-work used in their construction. Reasons for the adoption of the 

 solid frame were these :— In the bolt-holes in all these small scantlings of 

 timber not more than 4 inches square, or 4 by 3, on taking a carriage to 

 pieces, you found a little decay ; that one corner of the bolt-hole gets a 

 little larger, and there is a little play ; consequently it has to be renewed 

 far sooner than if it had been a solid and substantial piece of timber, for 

 the least decay in a small piece of timber renders it unfit for its work, and 

 it must be renewed. 11 pon seeing this at the Grand Junction workshop 

 at Crewe, witness advised the directors to abandon entirely the construc- 

 tion of the carriages on that plan, and to adopt the solid frame; and they 

 now have carriages with solid frames. Considers the public safety much 

 increased by the alteration. Many engineers entertain a dilTerenl opinion, 

 and consider that very high velocities may be obtained with much lighter 

 carriages than those now used; Mr. Brunei and Mr. Cubitt are both of 

 opinion, that by the atmospheric system, they will be able to keep the road 

 in better order, use lighter carriages, and go at greater speed than has 

 hitherto been attained on any of the locomotive lines. Witness altogether 

 disapproves of light carriages, and considers that with them accidents are 

 more frequent, and when occurring, more dangerous than with the stronger 

 carriages. Safely of train depends greatly upon weight of engine which 

 draws it. If the engine were a light engine, at the speed at which it 

 sometimes travels, it would leave the rail ; but, as it is heavy, it gives 

 security to the train behind it. Recent accident on Great Western line, 

 where all the light carriages were more or less damaged, while the strong 

 one, in the same line, was scarcely strained. SIrepers can be renewed on 

 transverse system at much less expense than on continuous bearings. Es- 

 timated expense of one mile of permanent way, £4,838. — 



jg 8. d. 

 Rails, 75 lb. per yard . . . 2311 tons at £11 . . 2,596 



Chairs 56 tons „ £9 . . . 504 



Sleepers 2 640 „ 5s. . . . 660 



Ballast 9,080 yards „ Is. 6d. . . 726 



Laying Road, including Spikes and Keys, 3,520 at 2s. 352 



Total 4,838 



The prices of Rails, Chairs, and Ballast are variable. 

 (To be continued. J 



AMERICAN PATENTS. 

 Granted in March 1845, reported in the American Franklin Journal. 



MARBLE POLISHING MACHINE. 



A machine for " polishing flat plates or tables of marble." Jacob Zieglcr, 

 Philadelphia, Peunsjivania. 



The plates of marble, &c., to be polished, are placed, face upwards, on 

 the top of a carriage which carries them slowly under the rubber, which 

 is a flat plate qf wood or other material, covered with the polishing sub- 

 stance. This rubber receives a movement from two cranks or cog wheels, 

 attached to the lovier ends of parallel vtrlical shafts, geared together and 

 driven by an inteimediate cog wheel on Ihe driving shaft. These shafts 

 are hung in a sliding cross head suspended by levers, 6.C., tu regulate the 

 pressure of the rubber. 



BRICK-MAKING PRESS. 



For an " improvemettt in the bricK press." John Waite, Leicester, Mas- 

 sachusetts, 



The improvement is for arranging and operating on the brick machine, 

 so that while one brick is being compressed in one couipartment of the 

 mould by the compressing pistons, the discharging pistou shall be per- 

 forming its office of expelling from the mould the brick which had next 

 previously been formed ; the mould being progressively mi.ved forward at 

 regular intervals of time, so as to present that comparliuent of it jn winch 

 the brick has been coroprcised to the action ot the discharging pisien. 



