346 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[OCTOBBR. 



mostly went, and which, in the early stages of the railway system, could no 

 be properly judged of. By way of summary, Mr. Vignoles said he would 

 give, in his next lecture, the actual cost of one or two hues of railway which 

 had come under his direction, and which might be useful by way of reference 

 in making out estimates on other occasions, thout;h the construction and 

 working of railways must be regulated on much more economical principles 

 than had hitherto been the case, or no more of them would be undertaken. 



LECTBRE XIII. 



In continuation of the observations on Railway Eslimates, w hich had been 

 commenced in the last lecture, Mr. Vignoles observed that, having therein 

 gone fully into the items of construction of railways, he had only glanced at 

 the very necessary provision to be made for the efficient working of them — 

 viz., the Stations and Carrying-establishment, upon which he would say a few 

 more words, for it was mostly under this head th«it the chief causes — or, 

 rather, the chief excuses — for extra expenditure, or excess of estimates, had 

 arisen. Properly speaking, this item, so costly, and yet so indispensable, 

 should be taken as falling on a railway company, not as proprietors of the 

 road, but as carriers — the distinction being, that if the railway was let on 

 lease, as canals have been, or if everybody could carry on the railnays, as 

 they do on the canals — if, in short, public safety and public convenience, and 

 generally necessary arrangements, did not make it imperative, or. at least, 

 highly desirable, that the railway companies should be carriers (of passen- 

 gers, at all events), the expense of stations and carrying establishment 

 would not fall on them, though they must still be incurred by some parties, 

 hefore the railway can be brought into profitable operation; nevertheless, 

 the public, who are to use and be benefitted by the road, having, after all, 

 to pay in one shape or another, are greatly interested in a proper expenditure, 

 any excess of which is sure to be felt in increased charges or in diminished 

 accommodation, until the grievous expenditure of a rival line is introduced. 

 In analysing the cost of Stations it is obvious that the land always forms a 

 prominent item, for, being near towns and populous places, it is to be bought 

 by the yard, and not by the acre— building land, villa land, &C., &c., instead 

 of mere fields. Hence, it will not be surprising, if it is found that the cost 

 of the land, for the stations only, on many of the great lines, has amounted 

 to as much as one-third of the whole cost of land for the railway. The 

 buHdings erected at stations may be divided into three classes — those for the 

 accommodation of the passenger traffic — those for the goods, minerals, &c. — 

 and those for the repair and maintenance of the engines, carriages, &c. 

 At principal towns, therefore, large and distinct establishments must be 

 erected ; and, on long lines, a principal central depot for the engines, is 

 often required in addition. At the minor and road stations the whole may 

 be grouped together under one roof. In no department of expenditure 

 have so many diilerences. and so much useless extravagance in construction 

 and arrangement, been displayed, as in the buildings at stations ; and 

 hundreds of thousands of pounds have been absolutely thrown away from 

 want of sufficient forethought and consideration, and by erecting enormous 

 masses of buildings, either at the wrong places or in an Injudicious manner. 

 It was better to wait until the character of the traffic was ascertained, before 

 making such expensive permanent establishments, and then to increase the 

 accommodation by degrees. As an example of a moderate expenditure under 

 this head, Mr. Vignoles mentioned some particular instances, and went 

 somewhat into detail. At the terminus of a railway in a manufacturing 

 town, with 80,000 inhabitants, there had been an expenditure of £9, .500. for 

 the passenger buddings, sheds, &c., &c. ; £5,500. for goods' warehouses ; 

 about £2000. fur the mineral traffic ; and about £3000. for fixtures, tum- 

 plales, &c.— say, in all, about £20,000. exclusive of the land, which had 

 amounted to a very large sum, upwards of £13,000., including a good deal of 

 spare space, existing buildings, &c., Sec. At a smaller town on the line, but 

 with some extent of goods' traffic, the cost for passenger buildings, sheds, 

 Stc, was £2500.; for merchandise accommodation, £3500.; turn-plates, 

 fixtures, tools, SiC, &c., £1000. ; land about £3000. On the same railway 

 the cost of six or seven various minor road stations, including water tanks 

 coke and engine sheds, tools, &c., was £3500. ; land about £1500. ; sundries 

 on the whole line about £1000.— being a gross expenditure of £50,000. on 

 station, land, and buildings, for a line of about twenty -two miles, which is at 

 the rate af £2273. per mile ; and the corresponding carrying establishment 

 of engines, tenders, &c. (for passenger traffic only), was about £19,000. ; for 

 passenger carriages of three classes, horse-boxes, trucks, &c., &c., about 

 £13,000. (the wagons for merchandise, coal, &c., as well as the engines, &c., 

 being provided by carriers on the line, who provided their own carrying 

 stock) ; and the necessary buildings for repair and maintenance of engines, 

 carriages, &c., with tools, fixtures, &c. &c., about £12,000.— making a gross 

 cost of £44,000., or £2000. per mile. The whole of this concern having been 

 arranged «ith the strictest regard to economy, may be taken as a fair ave- 

 rage, and it will be safe to say, that £4000. per mile for an eflectivc carrying 

 establishment, with the necessary stations, is a moderate sum. For lines of 

 less traffic, if of considerable extent— as, for instance, say for some of the 

 long lines from the present railway termini in the north of England, to 



either of the principal towns in Scotland, a smaller amount might be suffi- 

 cient; but Mr. Vignoles considered that it would be unwise to estimate a 

 smaller expenditure than that of £3000. per mile for Stations and Carrying- 

 estahlisliment, on a line to be worked by locomotive engines, and it would be 

 much safer to take £4000. ; on either of these sums, £1500. per mile for the 

 locomotive stock and buildings must always be estimated, and almut £500.. 

 per mile for the carriage department — leaving from £1000. to £2000. per 

 mile fur the stations, according to the extent of accommodation ; keeping 

 the instances of the extraordinary outlay on some of the principal railway 

 lines as examples to be avoided, and not to be imitated, or referred to, as 

 necessary. 



Under the last'head of Management, came all the various and miscellaneous 

 items of expenditure, between the first concoction of the project, to the 

 closing of the capital account. The preliminary expenses of examining the 

 ground, levelling, surveying, maps, 8tc., and all the formalities in the en- 

 gineer's department, to enable application to be made to Parliament ; the 

 ascertainment of the traffic, revenue, travelling, and other expenses of 

 various kinds, &c., &c., generally undertaken by tlie secretary ; the valuation 

 of land, &c., by the surveyor; the collections of the names of owners and 

 occupiers, notices to them, applications for their assents, &c., and the ma- 

 nagement of the Bill throughout all its stages, fading to the charge of the 

 solicitor. All these must be incurred before a spade was put into the ground, 

 and had heretofore varied from £500. to £1000. per mile, according to the 

 facilities afforded, the opposition encountered, the length of the line, &;c. In 

 future estimates, it was to he hoped this item might fairly be put, as not ex- 

 ceeding the smaller of these sums. Then came the setting out of the line, 

 the detailed levels and surveys, and all the office work of the engineer, until 

 the works are put into the hands of the contractor. The minute valuations 

 of the property to be taken, and the juries, references, conveyancing, stamps, 

 and all the various legal steps until the company are put into full possession. 

 Then the office establishment for regulating all the financial and ministerial 

 affairs, and the temporary arrangements, police, lawsuits, and legal and 

 illegal charges of all kinds, ta.xes and rates, interest and commission to 

 agents and brokers, travelling expenses, salaries, and a great variety of dis- 

 bursements of a miscellaneous kind, which, in the aggregate amount to a 

 large sum. The whole of the outlay thus coming under the head of Ma- 

 nagement has varied from 5 to 10 per cent, on the gross cost of the railways 

 hitherto executed, according to their extent, and the amount of capital em- 

 barked, and especially according to the degree of vigilance exercised to keep 

 down expenses, which depends chiefly on the director or secretary, or under 

 whatever name the acting manager of the company may superintend. 

 Judging from the examples past, and the deep impression which has been 

 made on the public mind of the necessity of economy in every department, 

 Mr. Vigmdes thought 5 per cent, might be estimated hereafter, unless the 

 lines were very short, and the capital small. 



In recapitulation, the Profes.sor observed, that the young engineer should 

 always keep in view, for his estimates, the preceding great divisions of the 

 cost — viz,, land, including the damages, and fencing — earthwork — works of art 

 (bridging, masonry, &c.) — upper works (the permanent railway proper) — 

 stations and carrying establishment — management — and having, in his first es- 

 timates, allowed amply for each of those items under their several heads, 

 he should add at least 10 per cent, for unforeseen contingencies. .Some of 

 the preceding items would be common to almost all railways, and others, of 

 course, would vary greatly, according to local circumstances, chiefly regu- 

 lated by the amount of earthwork ; for, as that is heavy, so the works of art 

 become costly, since the works of art are merely to restore the existing com- 

 munications of the country, and the natural or artificial water-courses and 

 drainage to their state before disturbed, or as near as may be, and that to an 

 extent in exact proportion to the civilisation and improvement of the coun- 

 try, to enforce all which stringent clauses are inserted in the Acts of Par- 

 liament, and plenty of persons are alwa)'^ on the watch to enforce them. 

 Mr. Vignoles observed, that the land, levelling of the ground, and restoring 

 of communications, might, on the average, including contingencies, extra 

 land, &c., be taken as forming about 50 per cent, on the total outlay of 

 railways hitherto executed. But, referring to the items the Professor had 

 gone over in detail in previous lectures, it appeared that, when proper 

 economy and circumspection was used, the necessary cost of the railway 

 proper — that is, the necessary quantity of land for the road only, a good 

 substantial set of upper works for a double way, and a complete and elTective 

 carrying establishment — might, and had been, obtained for £10.000. per 

 mile. All beyond is expenditure to obtain gradients, more or less perfect, 

 and Mr. Vignoles thought that the great error all engineers had hitherto 

 committed, the cardinal mistake — of which he himself was far from guilt- 

 less — was, seeking to make railways, intended, as they were, chiefly for 

 passengers, ioo per/fc<— that is, of cutting down hills, and filling up valleys 

 to too great an extent, on the erroneous supposition that the engines were 

 always to carry maximum loads, which was very seldom the case, and never 

 would be so on lines at a distance from the metropolis, particularly such as 

 the hnes into .Scotland, previously mentioned. In short, the Professor in- 



