NARROW GAUGE AS APPLIED TO BRANCH RAILWAYS IN N.S.W. XXXI. 



the most curious facts in the history of mechanical science. 

 Had the question been investigated at all, the comparatively 

 high specific gravity of most of the goods loading to be expected 

 in England, such as coal, iron, manufactured articles, and general 

 merchandise, would have pointed to the adoption of a narrower 

 gauge than the 4ft. 8^in., as has been shown, had there been 

 nothing but dead weight to be thought of ; but this would have 

 been over-balanced by the necessity, then probably unforeseen, of 

 high speed, which is only economically obtainable on the wider 

 line — speed, which is not only now found to be indispensable for 

 the large passenger traffic, and for special classes of goods, but 

 also to enable the lines to be cleared of the enormous amount of 

 general traffic which has to be dealt with in a limited space. 



Goods traffic only has hitherto been considered, and in New 

 South Wales this must over-ride, from its preponderance, any 

 passenger question, but it will be found that the branch 

 passenger service will suffer also by the adoption of a small 

 gauge. It must be remembered that in France and Prussia, 

 where the 2ft. lines are most prevalent, the passenger traffic is 

 more important than the goods, and it is largely made up of farm 

 people, attending markets at the numerous and contiguous 

 villages of thickly populated agricultural districts, to which there 

 is no parallel in Australia. In the districts accommodated by 

 these European branches, the average passenger journey would 

 be probably only 4 or 5 miles in length ; then on account 

 of the expense of horse-keeping there is no other alter- 

 native between travelling by rail, or on foot, with the great 

 majority, and even a speed of 9 miles per hour is a consideration. 

 Far different are the colonial conditions, every small farmer has 

 his horse and trap, and owing to cheap horse flesh and feed, few, 

 indeed, are without easy means of travelling by road. If, there- 

 fore, a passenger service of 9 miles per hour is offered to such a 

 population, it is such a small improvement on its existing 

 means, both as regards time and money, that, practically, the 

 whole passenger traffic, on the 2ft. branches, would be lost, by 

 the passengers driving themselves to the main line. 



