314 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[September, 



Fig. 1. 



the incapacity of the engineer to construct a safe switch and point. 

 The passengers will enter into the offices by a bridge over or under 

 the railway, as the case may be ; it will not be out of place here to 

 remark upon the most injudicious and unscientific practice adopted 

 upon the Great Western Railway, in common with many others, of 

 laying all the crossings along the line in one direction, by which means 

 it is indispensable to back the train across the line, and brirg it con- 

 sequently to a dead halt twice before it can pass upon the wrong line ; 

 the apology for this i?, tliat the peculiar switches adopted require 

 such an arrangement, in order that the train may pass over them safely, 

 and in the case of the switch being placed improperly, the train not 

 being liable to be thrown off' the rails. My patent switches are formed 

 in such a way as to meet this latter case, and have this additional 

 value attached to them, that a train may pass over them in both di- 

 rections at full speed with perfect securitv, the switch being so made 

 as to form a perfect and unbroken line, whether laid for the main line 

 or cross line ; my patent point or crossing is likewise so made as to 

 require no cut in the line, nor a guard-rail in the main line ; both 

 these contrivances are in use, and when they are more generally 

 known, the practice under discussion will be, it is trusted, altered. 



It is likewise self-evident, that if sidings of this form be placed at 

 intervals along the line, swift trains may pass slow ones with perfect 

 facility by the slow train entering the siding, and leaving the main 

 line open to the fast train; thus neither train need stop, nor would 

 there be any further delay than a slight retardation of the slow train 

 whilst the switches were altered ; but supposing a man kept on the 

 gi-ound on purpose to effect this alteration of the switch, there would 

 be no necessity to reduce the velocity of either train. 



Here, again, therefore, a very general and very judicious regulation 

 might be introduced applicable to all railways. 



Admitting the deep interest which railway engineers ought to have, 

 and the deep breeches-pocket interest which railway directors must 

 have in the perfect working of railways, there is another interest which 

 the Committee was not, perhaps, aware of operating most powerfully 

 against the introduction of improvement, and that is the jealous and 

 selfish feeling of engineers against adopting the contrivances of a con- 

 temporary, however useful such contrivance may be, their interest is 

 to let well alone, and to keep without censure. 



It is surprising it did not occur to Mr. Brunei that in the case of a 

 public officer recommending to one company the adoption of a valu- 

 able improvement made by another, the two parties would be in the 

 same relative position in the event of the compliment being returned, 

 by the first being required to reimprove its own improvement, because, 

 if it were proper in one company to go to an expense to effect a certain 

 object, it is still their duty and interest to incur espence to perfect 

 their arrangements; perhaps he may not be aware how large a com- 

 parative amount of profits is sunk amongst manufacturers to perfect 

 Iheir processes, when the spur of competition urges one man to sur- 

 pass his neighbours, but in the case of railways the same feelings do 

 not operate, which is the most powerful reason of all others why this 

 want sl'.ould be supplied by the interference of the legislature. 



I agree with Mr. Brunei that butTers are matters of secondary im- 

 portance, and I hold them only useful to protect tlie carriages from 

 injury when they arc knocked about in the station; for any purpose of 

 benefit to a train when in motion, I never could discover, inasmuch as 

 the action and reaction of the engine and trains is fullv provided for 

 by the springs connected with the drag links, in fact, were carriages 

 provided with merely two springs acting in reveise ways, so that 

 when the carriages are arranged in trains, a buffer spring connects one 

 end of the links, and a drag spring the other, and supposing the link 

 inflexible, the most perfect ease would be produced in the carriage, 

 and every provision made for any sudden retardation to which the 

 carriage will be subjected. How'ever, a buffer is a buffer, whether 

 formed by springs or hair, or by any other elastic means. 



Had H'n F. Smith been simply a man of invention, without any con- 

 nexion with the Board of Trade, and had he not the means of making 

 his suggestions respected, his treatment from railwav companies and 

 railway otlieers would have been the very reverse of 'that he has found 



it, and the fact that his suggestions are treated with respect is a most 

 jiowerful reason that the public supervisor should be the vehicle 

 through which suggestions should be made, otherwise my experience 

 and that of numberless other men prove that their thoughts and their 

 time will be exerted in vain, in fruitless appeals to railway companies 

 or their agents. 



Mr. Brunei's objection to the 15 minutes interval is fair and well- 

 considered ; such an arrangement is wholly impracticable, and if 

 adopted might lead to accidents in another point of view than that 

 stated: a train miglit break down a few minutes after it had left a 

 station, the guards and engine-men might be killed or disabled, then 

 supposing the night dark or foggy, the succeeding train would run 

 upon it, and very sad results would ensue ; but if signals such as I 

 have contrived were adopted, and which have been since ably recom- 

 mended by Sir George Cayley, formed in such a way that the engine 

 shoidd make its own signal, and leave notice a mile behind it, whether 

 it had passed or not the next signal post a mile in advance ; 

 the engine man would be thus certain of being informed of the 

 state of the line in advance, and supposing any disarrangement of the 

 signal, no delay or embarrassment would arise beyond the caution 

 necessary in proceeding a mile forward, or perhaps one or two mi- 

 nutes in that distance. This objection is, I conceive, conclusive against 

 any signals acting by time, as it would most infallibly fail at those 

 times it was wanted, viz., in cases of accidents in bad weather. Whilst 

 upon the question of signals, I cannot but advert to the evidence of 

 Mr. Entwistle on this subject ; that more accidents have not happened 

 upon the Greenwich Railway is indeed a most providential circum- 

 stance ; what would become of the trains in the case of a foggy night, 

 with a bleak driving storm of rain or snow and wind from the north- 

 west, and what security would there be that the men would hear the 

 approach of a train and pass it, supposing a Croydon train was coming 

 from London, time enough for eitlier the Croydon train to pull up, or 

 the Gi'eenwich train from Greenwich to do so, or both ; because, as- 

 suming that Mr. Entwistle's la men were most advantageously disposed 

 of, placing men from the junction towards London, and 5 towards 

 Greenwich, the other 5 towards Croydon, the men on the London side 

 would have to pass the word 400 yards towards Greenwich before the 

 Greenwich train could be advised, and then either the one or the other 

 would require to be brought to a dead halt within 200 yards, or a col- 

 lision would ensue. I very much doubt whether Mr. Entwistle would 

 not have been puzzled had the question been put to him, when was 

 the last occasion that he was aware that this plan had been adopted, 

 and how many times since he had been a director of the Greenwich 

 Railway ? 



My experience tells me that if Mr. Brunei employs a break to his 

 tender and engine-wheels of sufficient power to drag or stop the 

 wheels, he will very soon destroy both the wheels and engine and 

 railway. If any one thing has been settled in the management of a 

 railway, it is this very fact, that, to block the wheels is to wear a flat 

 place in the circumference, which, whenever the break is applied, 

 allows the wheel to revolve until this flat place comes in contact with 

 the rail, and which, by every successive operation, becomes worse, 

 then, when the break is released, the flat side strikes the rail with a 

 violent blow, and to such an amount that I have known one case on 

 the Greenwich line when nearly a dozen rails were broken, on one oc- 

 casion, by a bad wdicel, the cause of which arose from this most vicious 

 practice; if, therefore, Mr. Brunei realizes his notion, he will have 

 good reason very soon to alter his plan. It is unquestionably a good 

 plan that a large rubbing surface should be opposed to the momentum 

 of the train, but that this sliould be sought, not by blocking, destroying 

 the wheels, but by an independent method, similar to that I have 

 already patented, and published in your Journal. 



Mr. Brunei's opinion of the class of men for engine drivers, and his 

 disposal of book principles amongst them, is most excellent, both in 

 its substance, and in the w-ay he defines it. I cordially and fully assent 

 to all he says on the subject, and only wish, for his own reputation, he 

 could always see his position as clearly and state it as cleverly as he 

 has done in this instance. 



