1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



403 



a tunnel and cutting coincide, taking the cost of a lineal yard of tunnel at 

 ^40, and the cost of earthwork at Is. per cubic yard ; when the transverse 

 sectional areas amount to 800 superficial yards, the value of the two will co- 

 incide and give us the transverse extent of cuttings. 



Then as to embankments, taking the number of cubic yards in the trans- 

 verse area at Is. per cubic yard, and the price of brickwork for viaducts at 

 Is. per cubic foot, or 27s. per cubic yard, then the two prices will coincide 

 when the cubical contents of brickwork in any given length of viaduct is 

 27 times the cubical contents of an embankment of the same length. 



The most extensive excavation known to me is the Cowran, on the New- 

 castle and Carlisle Railway, which is 40 chains long, and averages 43 ft. 

 deep, its greatest depth is 112 feet ; the material is sand without water, and 

 the slopes are 1 J to 1. The highest mound or embankment is also in the 

 North, on the Hartlepool Railway, which is 80 feet high. The amount of 

 earthwork per mile on the Midland Counties Railway, London and Bir- 

 mingham, and North Union, were respectively 100,000, 107,000, 125,000, 

 cubic yards. 



There are other embankments of considerable extent in the North of 

 England, and on the Bishop Auckland and Weasdale Railway. The Den- 

 burn Brook, Etherly Dean, Gaunless, and AVear embankments are of 

 the respective heights of 48, 71, 78, and 50 feet. On tlie Hartlepool Rail- 

 way, the Hesleton Dene. Edder Acres, and Pespool embankments, are 

 respectively of the height of 80, 70, and 60 feet. On the Clarence Railway 

 there is the Wliitton embankment 75 feet high, and the StiUington embank- 

 ment 60 feet high. The cutting will be as a matter of course of an ana- 

 logous extent; there are on tlie Clarence Railway, the Russel, Whitton and 

 Rudds Hill cuttings, of the depth of 30, 42, and 67 feet, the latter through 

 new red sandstone, and their cubic contents are respectively 400,000, 220,000, 

 and 200,000 cubic yards, being nearly equal in extent to any of the works 

 on the far famed Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 



The form of embankment will depend on the material of which they are 

 composed, and the angle at which the slopes will stand. The ratio has 

 been stated to be 



For cutting under 20 feet deep . . IJ to 1 



Ditto exceeding . . . . 2 to 1 



For embankments exceeding 50 . . 2J to 1 



Ditto under do. . . . . 2 to 1 



Formation levels are regulated by the gauge of the railway, and distance 

 between the tracks of the road, and proper allowance for side drains. On 

 the Great Western, where the gauge is 7 feet, and the distance between the 

 two roads is 6 feet, the width of cutting at the formation level is 29J feet 

 and 31 feet, and embankments 34 j- feet, and between parapets of bridge 

 30 feet. On other lines where the old gauge of 4 feet 81 inches is used, 

 and the distance between the two roads 4 ft. 8^ in. also, a uniform breadth 

 of 27 ft. is used. A considerable ditference of opinion exists on this sub- 

 ject, viz., the proper gauge of railway; and it is supposed to be a gauge 

 between the two above-named, the Eastern Counties having adopted 5 ft., 

 the Scotch Railway 51 ft., the Irish Commissioners 6 ft., and tlie Belfast 

 and Armagh 6 ft. 2 in. 



To return to the Great Western, the width at level of rails in cutting is 

 40 ft., level of ballast 25, 2oJ, and 28 ft. ' On the Midland Counties 

 Railway the formation and cutting was 27 ft., as also tlie top of ballast, 

 and of embankment 40 ft., being SJ ft. wic!er than the Great Western, al- 

 though the old gauge was adopted. This is the only line where earth in 

 mounds 3^ ft. high was made along the embankment to act as a parapet ; 

 this was the reason of the extra width ; these mounds were abandoned on 

 accouut of their expense and their subsiding unequally. 



The following rule of progress of earthwork on the Midland Counties 

 Railway I extract from the local papers, being returned by Mr. Thomas 

 Woodhouse, who I believe is the only engineer who has given such a com- 

 plete one to the public. 



No. of Station- 



No. of cubic yards No. of Locomo- ary 

 1839. Men. per month. Horses, tives. engines. 



23rd March to 20th April 5071 374,085 511 3 1 



20th April to 18th May 5138 297,960 513 3 2 



4th June to 30th June 4038 13,933 2385 



27th Aug. to 22nd Sept. 4373 203,037 438 1 „ 



22nd Sept. to 27th Oct. 4597 284.160 498 1 1 



27th Oct. to 24tb Nov. 4485 210,722 505 1 1 



24th Nov. to 29th Dec. 4035 195,174 457 2 1 



' On the sections of railways, the formation level is shown by a black 

 inc. the level of top of ballast by a blue lino, and the level of top of rail by 

 a red line. 



The following are the mishaps which have been most prominently before 

 the public. On the Great Western, the Sunning cutting in Berkshire, 57 ft. 

 deep, with slopes 2 to 1. On the Croydon Railway, at New Cross, about 5000 

 cu. yards slipped, and stopped the traffic, the stratum being plastic clay inter- 

 mixed with strata of sand and gravel. On the North Union, the Ribble em- 

 bankment 45 ft. high, principally sand, with a 20 ft. culvert, fell in ; a 

 similar occurrence, with an S ft. culvert and 40 ft. embankment, hapjiened 

 at Paddington, on the Great Western Railway. The Hanwell embankment, 

 on the same line, about 70 ft. high, sunk about 13 ft. in one night, in con- 

 sequence of being seated on a soft clay, the turf, hedges and trees were 

 displaced at a distance of 100 yards on the south side of the line ; it was 

 remedied by weighting and increasing the ratio of the slojiijs, and by driving 

 an adit to drain off the water. A bridge of 3 arches had to be taken down 

 on the Pontop and South Shields Railway, being forced in by pressure of 

 embankment ; on the dock branch of the Brandling Jtmction Railway, a 

 similar event took place. I have enumerated the above with no invidious 

 feeling, but merely to show that a considerable allowa:ice is due to con- 

 tractors for their risk in upholding works after completion, which is now 

 generally compulsory for the first year after their completion. In cuncIusiOD, 

 I refer you to the quotation at the head of this paper, from Professor 

 Vignoles, and I trust I have answered the query as to the price per cubic 

 yard in actual p°nce; the Professor in a subsequent section states, " the 

 price of earthwork abstractedly, is the amount of work t!iat an able bodied 

 man can perform in a day." I wish the Professor had given the amount of 

 work done by an able bodied man, and not dealt so exclusively in generalities. 



I had prepared a table of the principal cuttings and embankments on the 

 various public works, giving the local name of each, with the length, 

 depth, quantity in cubic yards, value of the strata, time occupied in exe- 

 cution, the ratio of the slopes, and as far as could be ascertained, the cost 

 per cubic yard, as also the datum line of the several railways, and tbf 

 highest summit yet overcome above the level of the sea ; but I was afraid of 

 unnecessarily occupying the pages of the Journal with supcrflous matter, 

 and merely now state that the Northern lines are as heavy as the Southern 

 in extent of individual knolls, as the following brief comparison will show. 

 Northern lines ; — Hartlepool, Crunden cut, 800,000 cubic yards ; Clarence, 

 Russell's 'cut, 400,000 cubic yards. Southern lines ; — Liverpool and Man- 

 chester, Olive Mount excavation 480,000 ; Kenyon 800,000 ; Edge Hill 

 220,000; Ram Hill 220,000. The now almost forgotten Cromford .lud High 

 Peak Railway is the most extensive in rock excavations, principally of the 

 hardest mountain limestone, and 168,000 cubic yards have been taken from 

 one hill; this line has more variety of strata than most others, going through 

 sandstone, day, clunch, shale, freestone, lime, and grit. \n elaborate account 

 is published in the Companion to the British Almanac, 1830, by Thomas 

 Woodhouse, Esq., C. E. Extensive as the above works are, they are sur- 

 passed by Telford's canal works at Birmingham, the Bloonifieid cut being 

 80 chains long and 90 ft. deep, containing 1,000,000 cubic yards; the 

 Smethwick 160 chains long, 71ft. deep, and containing 4,697,000 cubic yards, 

 and being executed in 2i- years, the slopes being 1^ to 1. I will perhaps 

 return to this subject again, and give superintendence, account, and measure- 

 ment. 



St. Ann's, J^eiecastle-on-Tyae. 0. T. 



RE-OPENING OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH. 



It n natural to aticipate with eagerness, and to contemplate with some- 

 thing of exultation, there-opening of a long closed religious edifice; and 

 when, as in the case of the Temple church, the charms of antiquity combine 

 with the claims of sanctity to render laudable a liberal, yet reverent, resto- 

 ration, every one must enter into the feehugs, blending in some degree the 

 pleasurable and the proud, with which the modern Templars flocked to their 

 ancient church, so worthily honoured by its present guardians — so hallowed 

 by associations of the past. Invested by age with no common historical 

 interest, its site half consecrated by memories of the enthusiastic, though 

 mistaken piety of its warlike founders — its existing form presenting a noble 

 specimen of Gothic architecture in all its chastened beauty, its solemn dig- 

 nity, and grand simplicity — it has been restored with a liberality which, 

 lavish as it was, was not only directed by the purest taste, but controlled by 

 the most discerning judgment ; and, above all, by that deep reverence for the 

 venerable antiquity, and that due regard for the nature and sacred character 

 of the building, which allowed not even generosity to be misled, nor per- 

 mitted an ardent desire for the accumulating of all the honours which re- 



