'62 Cc. O. BURGE. 
sharpness” (than to steep grading) ‘“‘in attaining economical con- 
struction for cheap lines.” A table is given below of curves actually 
employed in four feet eight and a-half inch roads :— 
New York, New Haven and Hartford... ... 6°21 chains radius. 
Lehigh and Susquehanna ... ... ... 4:60 to 5:80 ss 
Baltimore and Ohio, ... «2 “... “. 4:00'to 68 us 
Warcinia Central... 9... <1) ) sss) “ey o,00lUOMew os 
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago ..._ ... 3°73 mS 
Enough has been said to shew that, as regards sharp curves, 
locomotive and construction engineers can meet one another on 
common ground. 
As to the question of steep grades, a special design of locomotive 
for light lines, where such grades are necessary, is indispensable, 
but independently of this, the following considerations suggest 
themselves. There has latterly been a strong set of opinion in 
this Colony against heavy grades, arising perhaps from their 
former rather indiscriminate use in more or less important lines ; 
but we should be cautious in insisting on easy grading every where; 
proportion having been rather lost sight of in this matter. No- 
body is more convinced than the author of this paper that, on main 
lines and heavy traffic branches, easy grades should prevail, and 
that large expense may be economically incurred to attain them. 
In a recent instance it was estimated that an expenditure of 
£53,000 in reducing the ruling grade of a portion of the main 
Southern Line from one in thirty to one in forty, would result in 
a saving of about £9,000 a year, even with the existing traffic, 
and, with the increase of the future, still more saving would follow. 
On the London and North Western, on the Liverpool and Man- 
chester Section, one thousand one hundred and twenty-eight trains 
are moved per day. It is evident that, if the sight reduction in 
ruling grades were made on such a section which would enable 
one extra vehicle to be taken in each train, and, assuming the 
average train to consist of thirty vehicles, the number of trains 
could be reduced by about thirty-seven over each mile every day, 
over the thirty-one and a-half miles. This would amount toa 
