TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 223 



On the Application of Spring Fenders to Pier-Jieacls. By Mortimer Evans. 



On a Safety-Loch for Facing-points. By Mortijier Evans. 



On the Experiments made at the Gamp at Aldershot with a neiu form of Military 

 Field-Railway, for rapid construction in war time. By J. B. Fell. 



Field-railways are now recognized as being amongst the most important appli- 

 ances in modern warfare ; but hitherto it has been found impossible to have tliem 

 constructed with such rapidity as to be available for the transport-service at the 

 commencement of a war. 



The Crimean war was far advanced before the Balaclava railway was finished. 

 The Abyssinian war was over about the same time as the railway from Zoolla to 

 the Koomaglee Pass was completed. 



The railway made by the German army in the Franco-German war was not ready 

 for working until within a few days of the fall of Metz, when it became useless. 



The railway sent out to the Gold Coast was absnlutel}^ useless, and the difficulties 

 and dangers of the expedition were much increased by want of the means of trans- 

 port which the railway might have aflforded for the first 30 miles on the road to 

 Coomassie. Consequently the use of field-railways to a great extent depends upon 

 the rapiditj' with which they can be constructed. 



The cause of the partial failure of the military railways hitherto made is to be 

 found in the impossibility of executing the works of which ordinary railways con- 

 sist, such as cuttings, embankments, and masonry, with the rapidity necessary for 

 laying down a field-railway at the commencement, or even in the early part of 

 a war. 



Our Government have therefore had under consideration the practicability of 

 adopting some other method of construction by which the difiiculties hitherto 

 experienced might be overcome. For this object the Royal Engineer Committee 

 at Chatham have had a series of experiments carried out at the camp at Aldershot, 

 of which Captain Luard, R.E., and the writer of this paper had charge. The 

 experimental railway consisted of a succession of timber viaducts, which supplied 

 the place of earthworks, culverts, and bridges, and which, when the materials had 

 been prepared, could be erected with great rapidity. The conditions the Com- 

 mittee desired to have fulfilled in the trials were, that an engine, not exceeding six 

 tons in weight, should take a train of thirty tons up an incline of 1 in 50, and travel 

 at an average speed of 10 miles and maximum of 20 miles an hour. The waggons 

 were required to carry a load of three tons of dead weight each, and from 300 to 

 500 cubic feet of bulky articles, such as tents, hay, and commissariat stores. A 

 seven-ton siege-gun was to be carried on two waggons ; and it was to be shown to 

 be practicable to construct one mile of railway per day over such ground as was 

 selected by the Committee at Aldershot, by the labour" of 500 men. 



The experimental railway was one mile in length, the gauge 18 inches ; steepest 

 gradient 1 in 50, the sharpest curve 3 chains radius, and one of the viaducts was 

 660 feet in length and 24 feet in height. The structure was of a simple form, and 

 consisted of two beams, which were bolted to a kind of trestle-work supports, 

 which were sunk to a depth of 12 inches and firmly fixed in the ground ; the rails* 

 being laid on the beams, completed the railway, for the construction of which no 

 other than military labour was required. 



The experiments occupied at intervals a period of twelve months, and the Com- 

 mittee came to the conclusion that the result of the trials had proved that the 

 above-named conditions had been in every respect complied with and exceeded. 



It had been shown that a sino-le line of field-railway, constructed on the system 

 employed at Aldershot, would be capable of can-ying ammunition and commissa- 

 riat stores sufficient for the supply of an army of l00,000 men ; that a double line, 

 and day and night service, would be capable of supplying an army of 300.000 men ; 

 that a single line of railway could be made, over ground similar to that at Aldershot, 

 at the rate of 2 miles a day by 500 men ; and that, if it should ever be required, it 



