302 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



as well as the foregoing remarks, I have referred to the fact that Colonel 

 Farquharson of Invercauld has commenced to construct a tramway from 

 the Ballater station, on the Deeside Railway, to his estates. In the mean 

 time, until the tramway is completed, the thinnings from the extensive 

 forests on the Invercauld estate are being conveyed to the Ballater station 

 by means of a traction-engine and tracks on the common roads. A large 

 quantity of the thinnings from the forests have been bought by an enter- 

 prising firm of timber-merchants and shipbuilders in Aberdeen ; and 

 when they first purchased, two years ago, they found that the expense of 

 carting by horse-power a large quantity of timber by road to the Bal- 

 later station was excessively large the cost amounting to nearly 10s. 

 per ton ; and when the quantity to be removed annually was upwards of 

 six thousand tons, the firm calculated that, if a slight reduction could be 

 made in cost of the carriage per ton, the saving would be considerable, 

 and they decided upon purchasing a traction-engine and trucks to re- 

 move the timber to the railway. They accordingly purchased one from 

 Messrs Aveling and Porter of Eochester. The engine is ten-horse power, 

 weighs ten tons, and requires a width of eight feet of the road to run in. 

 The wheels are eighteen inches wide in the rims, and six feet in diameter. 

 The waggons are made in much the same way as the low-sided railway 

 waggons are, and the wheels are nine inches broad. These are for the 

 carriage of manufactured wood, such as railway sleepers and barrel- 

 staves. They have another form of waggon in use, for the carriage 

 of timber in its rough state ; it is made similar in form to- the ordi- 

 nary horse wood-waggon. The cost of the engine was 650, and of the 

 waggons 200. The gradients on the road are in some places consider- 

 able as much as 1 in 12. This system has done the work admirably, and 

 has given its owners great satisfaction. The load taken at each time 

 by the engine, however, is not great, being only fifteen tons. This is not 

 to be laid so much to the fault of the engine as to the soft state of the 

 roads. If a liberal supply of fresh materials were kept on the roads for 

 some months after the engine has commenced to work, the weight of the 

 engine and waggon would press them down, and in a short time improve 

 the condition of the roads very much ; and if this were done, and a firmer 

 foundation procured for the engine and waggons to run upon, then a much 

 heavier load could be taken. The great consideration in the construc- 

 tion of a tramway, or of a common road on which engines are to run, is 

 to procure a firm and solid foundation, and also to have the bearing sur- 

 face so made that the wheels will not slip in running. For instance, we 

 all know that, in our everyday railway travelling, trains are often behind 

 the proper time in frosty and wet weather, from the rails being what the 

 engine-drivers term " greasy." This is more especially the case with 



