1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL; 



356 



4| miles long, at abont 20 miles an hour, with a gross load of about 150 

 tons. 



Cannot accurately ascertain the comparative locomotive cost of working 

 goods traina and passengers trains upon this line, the accounts not being 

 separately kept. 



Locomotive Expenses of the Brighton, Croydon, and Dover Railways, 

 compared with the Great Western Railway Company, for the half-year 

 ending December, 1844. 



Uinnber of enRiues and tenders 

 belonging to the Companies . 



JJumber at worlv during the half, 

 year 



Number of engines in steam each 

 day 



J&verage number of miles run dur- 

 ing the half-year 



Average cost per too per mile . 



Average weight of coke per ton 



per mile 

 Average quantity of coke used per 



mile run . 



Average coat of repairs, including 



general charges, per mile 

 Average cost of coke per mile run 

 Average cost of wages per mile run 

 Total cost per mile run 



Great Western Railway 

 Company. 



Passengers. Goods, 



103 



9() 



.15 



r.'iHO 



0-15d. 



lb. 

 0-56 



34'27 



■-'•Sid. 

 3-88 

 1-3U 

 9!I0 



II 



8720 



0-05d. 



lb. 

 0-23 



2'.il 



s-a; 



1'44 

 12-07 



Brighton, Croydon, and 

 Dover Locomotive Comp. 



Passengers. Goods 



14 

 14 



83 



7/ 



3S 



6555 



Passengers and Goods. 



0'183d. 



lb. 

 0'587 



34-93 



3-31 

 4-87 

 l-4'.» 

 U-12 



Dimensions of two engines on Brighton, Croydon, and Dover Railway. 



Distance from Centre to Centre of leading and following Axles. 



Stephenson . . 44 



Sharp ., 8 



Bury .. 23 



Bury . . 39 



Sis wheeled, Passenger Engine ., 10ft. 35 in. 



Ditto ditto .. U 34 



Four wheeled, ditto .. 7 2 



Ditto, coupled .. 7 8 



The passengers of an ordinary train of 10 or 12 carriages could not be 

 changed from one train to the other under 20 minutes. With engines on 

 narrow gauge, even with outside cylinders, there is more difficulty in get- 

 ting access to the axles to clean and oil them than in the broad gauge. 

 This difficulty of oiling the axle depends upon the circumstance of the 

 cylinders being outside, and not upon the breadth of the gauge. It is 

 easier to do this with the wide gauge engines ; on the crank axles the 

 bearing is taken on the outside of the wheels ; on the four-wheel engines 

 the bearings are inside bearings, and there is a difficulty in gelling the men 

 to keep those bearings clean. If the gauge were increased from 4 feet 

 8i to 5 feet 3, the weight of the engines would be increased from 10 cwt. 

 to a ton. Average weight of engines on South Eastern Railway, about 

 14 tons ; on Great Western about 17 tons. Considers that the general 

 construction of th^ roads will admit of heavier engines being placed upon 

 them. 



Weight of rail upon the South Eastern line S5 lbs. a yard. The bear- 

 ings average 3 feet apart upon a cross sleeper. The sleepers are triangu- 

 lar; they are four triangles cut out of a 13-inch square. The rails are 

 fastened to chairs with wooden keys ; and the chairs are fastened to the 

 sleepers by wooden treenails. The boilers upon Great Western are not 

 much larger than those upon the Brighton line. If witness had the con- 

 trol of the engines of the Great Western, should certainly make larger 

 Ix)ilers. There is room to get sufficient strength and cranks, with inside 



cylinders ; but the engine and the boiler have to be raised, which ig a 

 great objection. Would like to have the cranks more separated, and keep 

 the boiler still the same height. To give the cranks strength, obliged to 

 make the baariugs lihorter to get room for the cranks. The thickness of 

 the side of the crank, which is perpendicular to the axis, 4 inches ; some 

 IJ. Does not think it necessary to make that thicker; the great advan- 

 tage would be In getting the bearings longer. The eccentrics are reduced 

 as much as possible. When they are very short bearings, they are apt to 

 heat and get dry; then they cut away the journal, and it is reduced and 

 made weaker. With the present con.struction of the Soulh Eastern Rail- 

 way, should venture to Increase the speed by having much more powerful 

 engines. The quickest train is upon the Brighton line, which runs from 

 Brighton to London in an hour and a half ; that is 50J- miles, stopping 

 once five minutes. The distance is often run in an hour and a quarter; 

 some parts of the distance cannot be run at 40 miles an hour, on account 

 of the gradients ; and other parts have to be run at more than that speed, 

 in order to keep the time. There are 120 engines for the three Companies, 

 working 166 miles. This includes the Dover, Brighton, and Croydon, and 

 two miles of branch to the Bricklayers' Arms, and the branch to Maid- 

 stone. 



William Cubitt, Esq. : The limit to safe speed on narrow gauge lines 

 is the want of evaporating surface and space for the fire boxes, the want 

 of solidity and perfection In the road, the want of base for engines or car- 

 riages, the want of greater strength In the rails, and greater security ia 

 connecting them with sleepers ; many accidents have been caused by at- 

 tempting to go too fast upon a bad road. And that danger Is very much 

 increased by Increased velocity. A speed of 15 or 20 miles an hour may 

 be safely attempted on a bad road, while double that speed would throw 

 engines and cariages off the line of road. Attention to the state of the 

 road has not kept pace with the improvement in the driving machine. 

 Before increased speed is attempted that particular should be attended to. 

 The perfection of the permanent way has been less thought about than 

 almost any other part of railway mechanism, and that Is the basis upon 

 which it all rests. Does not think that the speed might be increased, 

 without a corresponding increase of danger to the traveller, by adding to 

 the width of the narrow j^auge; considers the narrow gauge wide enough 

 for safety at almost any practicable speed, but not wide enough to get the 

 most perfect machinery for speed. An addition of C or 8 inches over the 

 present nanow gauge is wide enough, perhaps, for all practical purposes 

 of machinery of locomotive engines and carriages. A gauge of about 

 6 feet would be the best. Has often heard that an increase of gauge 

 would involve the necessity for widening the tunnels; does not concur in 

 this opinion ; if the size of the largest loads is not altered, nothing need 

 be altered but the gauge. Does not think that if they had carriages upon 

 a wider gaui,'e, they would wish to carry larger loads ; in railway opera- 

 tions would rather adopt the same width, making the vehicles of greater 

 length, which, would produce greater safety and greater convenience thau 

 by shortening them, so as to produce greater width and greater height. 

 The adoption of a wider gauge in tunnels would not restrict the room for 

 workmen, as regards trains passing ; the wheels are always far inside the 

 outside of the trains, and so they would with the 6 feet gauge, because the 

 loads are 8 feet ; the only difference would be that the two inner rails 

 would be nearer to each other, and the two outer rails would be nearer to 

 the walls ; the centre of gravity would be the same if the loads were no 

 higher. 



An increase of the width of gauge would not render it imperative to 

 have a corresponding increase of the radius of the curves. Au increase 

 of the gauge would not render necessary a corresponding Increase of the 

 height of the driving wheel. Does not think that In reference to the num- 

 ber of miles run on the broad gauge, and the number of miles run on the 

 narrow gauge, that there are fewer accidents on the broad gauge than on 

 the narrow. The superiority of either gauge depends not upon the gauge, 

 but upon the condition of the permanent way. Gradients are of less im- 

 portance If the road Is in perfect order. Rigidity in a road is preferable 

 to elasticity in a road. With elastic rails, it becomes like driving over a 

 series of points. If there be any elasticity at all, it is best to have it in 

 the whole road, like having a perfect road laid upon a bog, as In Chat 

 Moss, or any other soft ground, where the whole railway itself could, in a 

 very great length, have a very slight elasticity. There Is less cost in the 

 repair of Chatmoss than any other part of the Manchester and Liverpool 

 Railway on that account. It always will be so upon soft ground. If you 

 have a good permanent way, thick enough and strong enough in itself, and 

 lying upon a substratum, which has a little tendency to elasticity, it is 

 most easily kept in repair. Cross-sleepers are belter than longitudinal 

 sleepers for keeping in repair. Any sleeper of a proper form can be 

 packed, whether it lies longitudinally or transversely. There is a greater 

 length of bearing to be obtained upon cross-sleepers than upon longitudi- 

 nal sleepers. If we were to have a railway laid from end lo end, all upon 

 cross-sleepers, there would be a much greater length of bearings than upon 

 a railway wheie it is all upon longitudinal bearings; and the greater 

 number of sleepers we have the better the road will be. 



Is not aware of the exact limits of contraction and expansion, by cold 

 and heat, of a 16-foot rail ; has known the road lifted up ; has known it 

 bent sideways by expansion; has never had time or opportunity to mea- 

 sure it exactly ; it Is a difficult thing to ascertain what the expansion is iu 

 certain cases ; it can be done best off the line, by ascertaining the tempera- 

 ture of certain lengths of bar uniformly. Expansion and contraction oo 



31" 



