78 TEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



whole distance is little more than a mile and a quarter. A junction 

 in Conway-street enabled the carriages to return from the park by 

 Hamilton-street to the point from which they originally started. 



Nothing can well be less complicated than the machinery which is 

 employed for the accomplishment of this double journey. The tram- 

 way itself consists simply of two iron plates, each being raised about 

 an inch on the outer side, and running parallel to one another, as in 

 the case of the rails on an ordinary railroad. They are fixed upon 

 longitudinal bearers, which rest upon transverse sleepers, and are so 

 let into the street as to run completely on a level with its surface. 

 They do not, therefore, interfere in the slightest degree with the 

 ordinary traffic. To ply on these iron plates carriages capable each 

 of affording abundant accommodation to from 50 to 60 passengers 

 were built by Mr. Main, of Birkenhead. They are more than double 

 the size of au ordinary omnibus, are somewhat similar in shape, and 

 are provided underneath with wheels like those of a railway carriage, 

 but somewhat smaller in size. Each carriage is 24 feet long by 7 

 feet wide ; 7 feet being also the height of the interior from floor to 

 roof. It furnishes sitting room for 24 persons inside and for as 

 many more outside. A space of two or three feet intervenes between 

 the passengers on each side of the interior. A small platform at 

 each end of each carriage, raised about a foot and a half from the 

 ground, and separated from the horses — which may be yoked to 

 either end — by a contrivance somewhat resembling the splashboard 

 of a Hansom cab, affords the means of ready ingress and egress to 

 the new conveyances. Each has its sliding windows, with louvres, 

 to prevent a draught. Each is provided also with a driver and con- 

 ductor, both of whom have it in their power to control, by means of 

 a patent break, the machinery by which the progress of the carriages 

 is stopped or retarded. 



Shortly before ten o'clock, two of the new carriages were drawn 

 out from the depi' t in Canning- street and placed upon the line. At 

 eleven, two horses were yoked to each, and they proceeded on their 

 way well freighted with passengers, gliding along the rails at the 

 rate of about four miles an hour — a rate of speed which might without 

 difficulty be increased to six or seven miles an hoar — smoothly and 

 uninterruptedly, turning one or two extremely sharp curves with the 

 utmost facility, and setting down passengers at their several destina- 

 tions in security. An idea seems to be entertained that 'such a 

 tramway and its adjuncts are unprecedented in Europe ; but, for 

 some years, the very same sort of conveyance (which has been for 

 many years advocated, for London and other towns, in the Builder) 

 has existed in Paris. There are also tramways (of granite) even in 

 the streets of London, the last of which were laid along new West- 

 minster Bridge ; but large omnibuses Specially adapted to run along 

 such tramways — and, indeed, tramways specially adapted for such 

 omnibuses — have not yet existed in London. 



We have another instance of the previous mention of horse railway 

 trains, made nearly 50 vears since, and lrss known than it il. 

 to be. In Sir Richard Phillips's Morning's Walk from London to Kcw 



