ANNUAL ADDRESS. XI. 



railway. The engine and tender when in running order weigh 1 06 

 tons 15 cwts. ; the cylinders are 21 inches diameter by 26 inches 

 stroke, and are, I believe, as powerful as any locomotives in the 

 world. These engines can haul 207 tons up a grade of 1 in 30, or 315 

 tons up 1 in 40. The load hauled by the most powerful engines in 

 1888 was only 144 tons up 1 in 30 and 198 tons up 1 in 40, an 

 increase of about 50 per cent, in favour of the latest type. 



Some important works have been carried out by the Permanent 

 Way department of the rail way during the past year, the new bridge 

 over Iron Bark Creek on the Northern line being one of them. 

 The old bridge of timber consisted of 3 spans of 24 feet, each of 

 compound girders resting on piles, and being in tidal water was 

 completely destroyed by the teredo. Three new bridges having 

 been built since the railway was first made, it was decided to 

 replace the timber structure by one of steel resting on concrete 

 foundations, and as this had to be done without interfering with 

 the traffic, some difficulty was experienced in carrying out the 

 work. The total length of the bridge is 110 feet, and the weight 

 103 tons. Owing to the depth of cross girders necessary to carry 

 a double line of road, the rails were raised 3ft. 6in. above the 

 level of the old bridge. The embankment on each side of the 

 bridge had to be raised for a considerable distance, and to a large 

 extent this could only be carried out at the same time as the 

 bridge was being fixed. The superstructure was built on a 

 temporary staging alongside the old bridge, and on the day 

 previous to fixing in position it was lifted onto small trucks near 

 the ends of the main girders, rails were laid across the line, and 

 by means of four ship-jacks the whole bridge was pushed over 

 and placed in position over the bed plates ; it was then lowered 

 into place. The actual time of travelling the span and lowering on 

 to the bed plate was 1J hours. 



The work of replacing the timber viaduct at Wagga was fully 

 described in a paper by Mr. Shellshear, read before the Australasian 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. The original 

 viaducts consisted of 317 spans of compound timber girders on 



