TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 217 



the Car.ta-Gallo line will be permanent, and the works will be so constructed as 

 to be spoeially adapted to its requirements. It will not haTO to contend with the 

 difficulties of an Alpine climate, and, profiting by the experience of two years' 

 working- on the Mont-Cenis, it will have the advantage of important improvements 

 which have been made in the engines, carriages, and permanent way during that 

 period. Consequently the Canta-Gallo and other similar lines now being or about 

 to be commenced ha^e the interest of marking an important development of the 

 capabilities and ad-^antages of the centre-rail system as applied to the construc- 

 tion and working of mountain railways. It may be useful here to record what 

 has already been accomplished in the task of carrying railways over mountain- 

 passes hitherto inaccessible to the locomotive, and of giving it the power of safely 

 carrying trains of passengers and goods upon gradients and curves which would 

 previously have been considered most perilous, and, indeed, impracticable. The 

 Mont-Ceuis Railway has now been open for traffic two years and three months, 

 and during that period the trains have run a distance of more than 200,000 miles, 

 have carried between France and Italy over 100,000 passengers without injury to 

 any one of them, and has effected the transport of a considerable quantity of mer- 

 chandize. Since the month of September last it has carried the accelerated Indian 

 mail, and by the service thus established the delivery of the Indian mail in London 

 rid Marseilles has been anticipated by the Brindisi and Mont-Cenis route by about 

 thirty hours. The ordinary mails between France and Italy have been carried by 

 the Mont-Cenis Railway since its opening, and one night of travelling has been 

 cut oft' the journey between Paris and Turin. Although the Mont-Cenis Eailway 

 cannot be taken as a type of the best or most approved application of the centre- 

 rail system, it has had the effect of proving its mechanical practicability and safety 

 when put to the most crucial test to which any new principle could be submitted. 

 There have been mechanical defects in the construction of the engines Avhicli have 

 added unnecessarily to the cost of traction, and these defects can and will be 

 removed in the engines about to be built for the Brazilian and for future centre- 

 rail lines. The cost of traction, as might be expected imder the circumstances, 

 has hitherto been high (about 3 f. per train kilometre) ; but there can be no doubt 

 that with improved engines and good management the cost of traction may be 

 reduced to If. 50 c. per train kilometre. The Semuiering incline in Austria fur- 

 nishes an example of the economy that may be effected by impro^Ned machinery 

 and management, the cost of locomotive-power having been reduced from 2-85 i. 

 in 1860 to 2-15 f. in 18G3, 1-70 f. in 1805, and 1-49 f. in 18G6. In the fournew 

 engines last built for the Mont-Cenis a considerable saving has been made in 

 the cost of repairs by using four cylinders in place of two. By this arrano-e- 

 ment the inside and outside mechanisms are disconnected, and any contention 

 between the two is avoided. The adhesion, however, is not equal to the two- 

 cylinder engines, and the power is transmitted from the inside cylinders to the 

 vertical axles by means of a train of toothed wheels. In the new engines for the 

 Canta-Gallo line it is proposed to dispense with the toothed wheels and substitute 

 for them a system of direct driving by connecting-rods. The power of adhesion 

 will also be considerably increased. These new engines will have the advantage 

 of being able to run at a speed of from 20 to 30 miles an hour upon the ordinary 

 gradients of the line, and of taking their loads up the mountain-section at a 

 diminished speed of from eight to ten miles an hour. In an economic point of 

 view the result of the application of the centre-rail system to the Canta-Gallo 

 Railway will be as follows. The cost of construction, assuming it to be, as esti- 

 mated, about £300,000, woidd be at least doubled if made on gradients upon 

 which ordinary engines could work. In this case the costs of traction and main- 

 tenance for a centre-rail line will not be greater than for a liue with ordinary 

 gradients passing over the same country. The clear saving, therefore, effected by 

 employing the centre-rail system is at least £300,000, and the construction of a 

 valuable line of railway has been rendered possible, which woidd otherwise have 

 been commercially and financially impracticable. A somewhat similar line of 

 railway is under consideration by the Indian Government, from the port of 

 Karwar to Ilooblc, in the Southern Mahratta country, both by way of the Arbyle 

 and the Kyga Ghats. The distance is 90 miles, and it is proposed to employ 



