6o 



1st March, i8g8. 



Professor M. F. Fitzgerald, B.A., M.I.C.E., in the Chair. 



RAILWAYS AND THEIR PRACTICAL WORKING. 



By W. H. Morris, C.E. 



(Abstract.) 



Mr. Morris commenced with a descriptive account of the 

 old plateways from the year 1676, and their various progression 

 stages, leading up to the introduction of railways at the com- 

 mencement of the present century, and, after giving particulars 

 of the famous " Puffing Billy " and other noted locomotives, 

 the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1827 

 and the Manchester and Liverpool line. He gave an account 

 of the engines and carriages used, the difficulties of promotion 

 and construction, and of the competitive engine trials at Rain- 

 hill, when Stephenson's " Rocket " won. After telling of the 

 famous " battle of the gauges," which lasted for upwards of 

 fifteen years, and various other historical facts, such as the more 

 recent "race to the North," Mr. Morris dealt with the more 

 practical part of modern railway appliances. He next dealt 

 with the various kinds of permanent way and the manner of 

 construction, and with the superiority of timber sleepers over 

 iron or steel, of the train staff in use to prevent collision on 

 single lines, and the block telegraph system ; also of that most 

 important matter of interlocking and signalling with the many 

 safety appliances in use by railway companies, and in addition 

 referred to the other sundry and necessary precautions, such as 

 sight-testing of railway men for colour blindness and defective 

 vision, &c. 



