1873 •] Railway Development. 163 



the directors venture on a start, and something begins to 

 show in the country. Then comes the fatal step, the trunk 

 line, which the branch runs out of, never having had any 

 confidence in the little sucker, and having treated it with 

 contempt, if not with hostility, begins to see an actual move, 

 and therefore undertakes to work the line at 50 per cent, 

 perhaps, of the gross receipts. All goes well now, the 50 

 per cent agreement is what everybody has been crying out 

 for, and at last have got, but it is a new era of misfortune 

 only — the reign of King Stork over King Log. 



The working company, before taking over the new 

 property, instructs its engineer to report upon its condition ; 

 he is a gentleman who has been used to the substantial 

 abundance of the past ; he does not understand the " light " 

 system ; to him a light rail is a bad one. His engines 

 weigh 45 tons with their tenders ; and he knows the 

 locomotive superintendent will pick out one of the oldest 

 and worst to work this unfortunate branch, besides a few 

 old coaches unfit for the main line, therefore he cannot 

 accept light bridges. Again, he will find that all the gradients 

 have been made steep, and the curves sharp, to avoid 

 expensive earth works ; this in his opinion, and justly, would 

 actually involve a heavier permanent way than he is using 

 on his main line, and so on, till the whole thing has to be 

 re-made; and the working expenses — nominally 50 per cent, 

 but, in effect, with all sorts of junction charges and renewal 

 claims, over 65 per cent — entirely swamps the " light 

 system," and its specious and delusive economy. 



Wise and able men amongst engineers have seen and felt 

 this, and have freely acknowledged that a branch line must 

 be absolutely something different from the parent stem, so 

 that it could not be worked in common with and into it. 

 Hence, they have advocated change of gatige, apart from its 

 own intrinsic merits, as most completely defining the two 

 systems and preventing their overlapping; it certainly does 

 give to the smaller system an independence and integrity 

 which has great advantages in many ways, but the isolation 

 is too complete in a small country like England, already 

 intersected with lines of a generally standard gauge, except 

 in one or two instances, and these especial. For the un- 

 developed States of Europe and America, for South America 

 and our Indian Empire, where distances are vast and traffic 

 sparse, a gauge narrower than 4 feet 8J inches can be used 

 with some advantage and economy ; and if the country is 

 at all rough or mountainous, with a mineral traffic, then 

 the necessity for the small gauge is paramount, for it then 

 becomes a question of small gauge against no line at all. 



