RAILWAY. 



"intended to be formed, have fincc been looked over ard exa- 

 mined with the view of having iron railways inftead of navi- 

 gable cuts ; and in many cafes this may be the moll advifable 

 and proper, particularly in all fituations where difficulties 

 arde in the conllrutting of navigable canals, or other forts 

 of works for water carriage. 



The county of Laucallcr, too, has a great many of thefc 

 iron railways for the convenience, accommodation, and ad- 

 vantage ot the ditterent collieries, manufaftories, and other 

 works, where heavy loads are to be tranfported. The coal 

 work near St. Helans, in the vicinity of Liverpool, has a 

 double railway fome miles in length ; and at the iron-works 

 of lord Belcarras, near Wigan, as well as his cannel coal 

 pits near the fame place, there are double railways of very 

 Confiderable length. To the fouth of the town of Preiton, 

 at a fmall dittance from Bamber bridge, there is likewife one 

 communicating with the Lancafter and Kendal canal, which 

 is alfo double and of great length ; ferving to convey the 

 coals from the fouthern parts ot the county to that canal, 

 in order to their diftribution in the northern parts, and the 

 adjoining diftritls. 



On the eaft fide of the fame county they alfo prevail in 

 many places, and are found of the greateil nfe, being the 

 means of difpatching much bufinefs in a ready manner and 

 without much expenee of labour. 



The utility of thefe railways has been found to be ex- 

 tremely great in other coal-works and canals, where they are 

 at prefent very cxtenlivcly employed ; and it has been fug- 

 gelled, that tiiey may be applicable in other cafes, as for 

 (horteiiing the team labour of a fann fo as to bring it withm 

 one day's journey, where more than one were formerly ne- 

 ceflary, by which a great faving in labour and expenee may 

 be made. Alfo, in rendering the bufinefs of lime works 

 more eafy and expeditious in different inilances. It has 

 likewife been hinted by Mr. Beatfon, in the tiril volume of 

 Communications to the Board of Agriculture, that they 

 might be had recourfe to on i-oads where there are unavoid- 

 able rifes or falls, for taking up or letting down heavy loaded 

 waggons or other carriages. It is oblerved, that near Cole- 

 brook Dale there is one at a fmall ddtance from the iron 

 bridge, upon which loaded boats are drawn up to a canal, 

 two hundred and twenty feet above the level of the river 

 Severn, and let down in a fimilar manner into it, by which 

 means twenty-two locks are favcd, and the work executed 

 in an expeditious maimer. It is fuppofed, that this is tlie 

 greatefl inclined plane in Europe, or perhaps in the world, 

 for though tlicy arc much ufed in China in the place of locks, 

 he has never heard of any oi them being equal m height to 

 this. The rails are belt made of iron. It is added, that 

 they have been found ufeful in improving foft, moify, boggy 

 lands, on which horfes cannot travel ; a rail road of this 

 fort having been formed through a peat mofs near Man- 

 chefter by Mr. Wakefield, v.-hile it was under improvement, 

 at the expenee only of about three hundred pounds a mile, 

 on which a fingle horfe was capable of drawing with the 

 greateil iacility feven waggons at once, each being loaded 

 with about leven liundred weight of marie, bearing in tlie 

 whole forty-nnie hundred weight, and with the weight of 

 the waggons upwards ol three tons. This was performed, 

 it is obferved, over a place where a tew months before a dog 

 could hardly venture without the danger of being f'wamped. 

 On the Ketley and other canals in the county of Shroplhire, 

 vaft advantages have been derived from laying railways upon 

 inclined planes, and letting down and drawing up the dif- 

 ferent articles by means of machinery, as may be feen in the 

 very able Agricultural Report of that diflricl, where cx- 

 ceUent repi-efcntations of them are given. 



Bcfidcs, thefe different cafes of railways, another has been 

 fuggeflcd by the wriu^ of the Annals of Agriculture, which 

 is that of having them laid from the flack-yards to tlie thrafh- 

 ing machines, by which the grain may be conveyed to them 

 at any time with cafe and convenience, as well as any parti- 

 cular flack that may be wanted. 



It is further ftated by the ingenious Dr. Anderfon, that 

 the bell idea he can give of the benefit that may refult to 

 the community from the ufe of this kind of railways, will 

 be from flating f<mie fafts refpedting them, which were 

 lately communicated to the Society of Arts by Mr. Wilkes, 

 of Meafham, near Loughborough, in Leiccflerlhire ; a 

 fpirited and judicious agriculturift. He had a railway of 

 tliis fort made, which was about five miles in extent, leading 

 from a coal-mine to a market. He found it fo fully to 

 anfwer his expedlations after it wasfiniflied, that he commu- 

 nicated to the above focicty an account of tome trials he 

 had made of it, requefling that fuch of the members of 

 that rcfpeftable inflitution as were defirous of information 

 on that head, would do him the honour to witnefs fome 

 experiments that he wifhed to make upon it, for the informa- 

 tion ot tjie public. A committee of the members was ac- 

 cordingly deputed for that purpofe, and before them he 

 fhewed that a moderate fized horfe, of about twenty pounds 

 value, could draw upon it with eafe down hill (the defcent 

 being one foot in a hundred) thirty-two tons, and without 

 much difficulty forty-three, and feven tons up hill, inde- 

 pendent of the carriages. The dodlor concludes from thefe 

 tacls, that upon a perfedl level a horfe could draw with eafe 

 from ten to twenty tons. It is obferved, that Mr. Wilkes's 

 railway, on which the experiments were made, was, from 

 local circumllances, laid upon wooden fleepers, and is not fo 

 perfcft as thofe done upon ilone. But it is added, that 

 twenty tons are the load which fuch a horfe could draw with 

 eafe, travelling at the ufual waggon rate, in boats upon a 

 canal ; fo that the number of horfes required in this way 

 will not be much, if at all, greater than on a canal. Cer- 

 tain advantages attach to this mode of conveyance, which 

 do not fo well apply to a canal, and vice •verfa; but it is 

 not his intention to draw a parallel between thefe two modes 

 of conveyance. Nobody can entertain any doubt, he thinks, 

 about the utility of canals where they are eafily practicable. 

 He only wilhes to point out this as an eligible mode of con- 

 veyance wliere can;ds cannot be conveniently adopted. 



It is further remarked, that it was cnllomary at the firft, 

 to put the whole load to lie drawn by one horfe upon railways 

 into one waggon ; but now, when the load is to much aug- 

 mented. It has been found eligible to divide it into many 

 parts, fo that no one waggon fliall carry more than one or 

 two tons ; by this method tiie weight is fo divided, that the 

 preffure is never fo great upon one pouit as to be in danger 

 of too much cruthing the road ; the carriages can be made 

 much more limber and light in all their parts, and they are 

 much more eafily moved, and more manageable in all refpefts 

 than they otherwife would have been. And another advan- 

 tage of this arrangement, which deferves to be particularly- 

 adverted to, is, that it admits of (hifting the carriages fo 

 as to leave a load, as it were, in parcels at different places 

 where they may be required, without trouble or expenee. 

 This, when it comes to be fully underllood and carried into 

 praftice, will, he thinks, be a convenience of ineflimable 

 value, a thing that has been aKvays wanted, and never yet 

 has been found though it has been diligently fought for. 

 The able writer has here endeavoured to illullrate its import- 

 ance and utility in traiifporting goods from the wet docks 

 now forming on the Ifle of Dogs to London, and in carry- 

 ing roads to different diftant parts of the country ; in which 



cafes, 



