1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



413 



GRADIENTS ON RAILWAYS. 



The readers of your valuable Journal will, I have no doubt, be aware that, 

 but a short time since, the opinion of many, if not most, of the eminent 

 engineers of the present day, was, that gradients only of the very first order 

 ought to be employed in the construction of railways intended for passenger 

 traffic, whatever might be the consequent cost. Under this impression we 

 have now completed in this kingdom some of the most magnificent and easy 

 lines of railway in the world, for instance the Great Western, and many 

 others, on all of which, though, it must be owned, that thousands upon 

 thousands of pounds have been expended in order to attain such perfection 

 in gradients. This supposed absolute necessity for easy gradients seems now, 

 however, to be fast losing ground with many of our first engineers, and the 

 result of past experience seems now to say, that " one may pay too dear for 

 one's whistle." So great have been the improvements in the locomotive 

 engine within the last few years, that in the construction of railways at the 

 present time, instead of aiming at absolute perfection in levels, our aljlest 

 engineers are now looking more at the original outlay, and the purchasing 

 of good levels only at what they are really wortli. 



For improvements in railways and locomotive engines, people now, how- 

 ever, generally look to the south, instead of the north of England, and in 

 many cases rightly so too, because the improvements in tlie north have been 

 transferred to the railways in the south, and these improvements have, in 

 some instances, been improved on again ; yet methinks the hot-bed of rail- 

 ways may still be inspected with profit by an inquiring mind, neither ought 

 one to be disrespectful towards the birth-place of railways, or to pass by un- 

 noticed that part of the kingdom where the locomotive engine, rude as it 

 was at first, came from its maker's hands a hideous monster, alike the terror 

 and wonder of every spectator, — I mean the counties of Northumberland 

 and Durham. And to show that gradients which, by many, are condemned 

 as impracticable for the use of the locomotive engine for passenger traffic, 

 may still be employed where the nature of the surrounding country forbids 

 an alteration for the better, I will state a few particulars as to the work per- 

 formed by that beautiful machine tlie locomotive engine, on one of the 

 northern lines, viz. on the Hartlepool Railway. 



In the year 1832, an act was obtained for the making of the Hartlepool 

 Railway, and at that time the science of railway engineering had hardly ad- 

 vanced" so far as to demand such absolute perfection of levels; consequently, 

 the Hartlepool Railway can by no means be classed amongst the number of 

 those possessing gradients and curves of the first order. The railway was 

 certainly not made to suit the peculiarities of the locomotive engine, conse- 

 quently the locomotive engine has been obliged to be made to suit it, and 

 upon it may be daily seen a single locomotive engine, with its train cf car- 

 riages, running up a gradient of 1 in 3-4 for a mile and a half, at the rate of 

 from 25 to 30 miles an hour, and, notwithstanding all the inferiority of 

 gradients, the passenger trains on this railway equal in speed and punctuaUty 

 any of the more refined and southern hues. 



The length of the main line over which the passenger trains run is 121- 

 miles, and in this short distance it rises nearly 450 feet. For a mile and a 

 half there is a gradient of 1 in 34, and the prevailing gradients for the re- 

 mainder vary from 1 in 164 to 1 in 274. The gross load, including engine 

 and tender, varies from 35 to 40 tons, and the number of passengers in each 

 train from GO to 100, and occasionally 120. The engines, "Albert" and 

 " Victoria," with this load mount with ease this tremendous gradient, and 

 I think it may be fairly said that for hard work their Majesties set an example 

 worthy of imitation by their subjects both far and near. A few remarks 

 also as to the other traffic on tliis railway may, perhaps, be worth a passing 

 notice. The number of trains (exclusive of passenger trains) that pass along 

 this railway in a day varies from 60 to 120, and at times amounts to 140. 

 The time occupied for the transit of this enormous traffic is about 13 hours 

 per day, or an average of a train in every 5^ minutes to 11 minutes during 

 the day. The gross weight that passes over the rails varies from 7 to 12 

 tons per minute for 13 hours per day, and occasionally, during the present 

 year, it has exceeded an average of 13J tons per minute for 13 successive 

 hours ! What but an iron road could withstand such a traffic as this. So 

 that, instead of the passenger trains on the Hartlepool Railway meeting with 

 peculiar facilities, both as to gradients and non-obstruction in consequence 

 of heavy traffic thereon (as the charge for fares would seem to warrant), the 

 reverse is the case. Seldom during tlie running of the passenger trains are 

 there less than six other trains on the railway at the same time, in the first 

 four miles. So that what with the engines having to wind their way through 

 this labyrinth of engines and trains, and at tlie same time to encounter 



gradients tliat would frighten some of the first engineers of the day, the 

 passenger trains are performing daily, unheard of and unnoticed, on the 

 Hartlepool Railway, what may be safely said is not being performed on any 

 other railway in the kingdom, and probably in the world, and that at a 

 charge, too, to the passenger, very considerably lower than on other railways 

 possessing gradients so immensely superior. The table underneath shows the 

 comparative cost per mile of travelling on the following railways, and without 

 further comment thereon for the present, I will conclude these remarks : — 



1st class. 2nd class. 3rd class. 

 London and Brighton . . 344 2-26 1-42 



London and Birmingham ., 3-20 2"13 



Great Western . . 305 2-13 1-27 



Hartlepool Railway .. 1-47 1-22 0-81 



S. T. N. 



SCHOOLS OF DESIGN. 

 Sir— In the Somerset House Drawing Book, No. 1, it is laid down :— 

 1st. That ornamental art, as an imitative art, ranks midway between fine 

 art and mechanical art, and partakes of the nature of both. 



2nd. That the fine arts, in dealing with poetry, history, and moral expres- 

 sion, occupy a ground in which the oninmentist has no riglil to enter ! 



And yet thirdly, that on beauty, the artist and ornamentist occupy the 

 same ground ! 



Again, the author says the power of imitating objects artistically, is not 

 adequate to the ends the ornamentist has in view-, and yet at page 3, the 

 author says, " It is not merely with lines the ornamentist lias to do, he has 

 often to represent the colour and effect of metallic substances, the glitter of 

 gems, in short to make a picture of the article manufactured, which shall show 

 its general character and appearance, rather than the exact details of its 

 form and ornament, and there is no other leaij of acquiring the power of doing 

 this, than by the habit of copying, as an artist, the objects themselves or simitar 

 ones." 



Again he says, the ornamentist arrives at practice through science— the 

 artist to science through practice. 



And yet he sa\ s in the same page. " a saving of time would be effected, if 

 the chief labour at commencement were bestowed (by the ornamentist) on 

 drawing by the hand ! 

 In reply to these inconsistences,*I beg leave to state that — 

 1st. The ornamentist and the artist, both express their thoughts and in- 

 ventions by the mechanical operation of imitating natural objects by form, 

 colour, and light and shadow. Imitation of natural objects is, therefore, the 

 basis of both ornamental art and high art, and the easiest plan of practising 

 the eye to see, the brain to conclude, and the hand to obey, is the best plan 

 at the beginning, both for ornamentist and artist. 



A student may puzzle his memory so long by scientific distinctions, if he 

 begin by science, as to find when he has acquired science his hand per- 

 fectly helpless ; and, therefore, both in the case of the ornamentist and artist, 

 a certain degree of purblind practice of hand, eye, and brain, is absolutely 

 necessary for the highest genius in each department, as well as the humblest, 

 so that «hen their minds comprehend any principle of science, or any object 

 of nature, their hands may at once be able to illustrate them by design. 



No great artist of the Greek and Italian schools was considered a great 

 artist without science, and no great ornamentist was considered a great orna- 

 mentist unless he was a great artist too. Rafl'aello was a great ornamentist ; 

 Giovanni d'Udine, and Cellini, were artists as well as ornamentists, and the 

 foundation of both characters is first, a power of imitating what you see. 



There is no doubt the imitation of senseless angles and cones, and octa- 

 gons and pentagons, may generate a dead sort of mechanical imitation, but 

 the mind uf the mechanic an.l artist sleeps, because there is nothing whatever 

 to interest their sensibilities in the progress ; give them beautiful eyes, their 

 svmpathies are excited, and the circle and ellipsis being portions in the 

 shape of eyes, they acquire the same power of imitation, and exercise their 

 powers of thinking too-folluw eyes by the nose, they learn the perpendi- 

 cular— let them then practice the mouth, they are obliged to make it hon- 

 zontal, or at right angles with the perpendicular of the nose ; the shape of 

 the head is an ellipse, the forehead and chin, portions of the circle. 



A human head is thus got through— combined with a human look, and a 

 human expression ; the students feel as they proceed ; what practice for 

 geometrical designs is left out in the figure ? Then come action, repose, in- 

 tention, and thought, by circles, ellipses, angles, and perpendiculars, but 

 combined as a whole to convey a meaning ; when the artist and mechanic 

 are got thus far. show them if you please, where is the geometry of the 

 head and figure, practice thorn in angles and circles, that they may know 



3 M 



