LIGHT RAILWAYS FOR NEW SOUTH WALES. 245 
rolling stock to Sydney and Newcastle for repairs, that would be 
unnecessary, for at the present time very extensive repairs were 
done to the four feet eight and a half inches gauge stock at many 
country stations. When it became absolutely necessary to send 
an engine up, it could be done by the use of temporary wheels 
and axles of four feet eight and a half inches gauge. In reference 
to what had fallen from one speaker, he would point out that in 
Japan, on a three feet six inches gauge, there were running loco- 
motives having eighteen by twenty-two inch cylinders, which were 
more powerful than many of our Mogul engines here on lines of 
four feet eight and a half inches gauge. 
Mr. T. R. Firtx considered there was no doubt that some 
parts of the Colony could be satisfactorily served by a less expen- 
Sive description of railway than had hitherto obtained, but few 
places could be so treated and enjoy the regularity that now 
existed in the railway traffic throughout the Colony. In parts of 
the interior, where the country for miles around appeared to be 
as level as a bowling-green or. dead level, the rails might be laid 
with only a few inches of ballast under them, at a cost for earth- 
works of only about £100 per mile, or, including clearing and 
grubbing, of say £150 per mile, but such a line would only be 
available during dry weather for the lightest locomotives to pass 
over, and half a day’s rain would be sufficient to stop all traffic 
for several days, as well as incurring heavy expense in putting the 
road in good order. No engineer of any experience would advise 
the construction of such a line, and the author’s estimate of £300 
a mile for earthworks on the most favourable country might be 
taken as the lowest at which a railway could be satisfactorily 
and economically made. Where thesurface was apparently level 
or undulating only the higher portions should be on what is 
termed “forming ” or surface levelling, and all depressions should 
have not less than one foot of embankment so as to raise the for- 
mation and keep a dry base for the ballast. In making the 
embankment from the side cutting it would also assist in draining 
the subsoil as well as giving the means of allowing the water to 
