May  I,  1897.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
797 
Among  the  more  general  questions  considered  by 
the  Commission  the  following  may  be  noted: — 
1.  Tht  necessity  for  Hill  Railways. — Some  of  the 
witnesses,  notably  those  in  the  Badulla  and  Uda- 
pussellawa  districts,  were  inclined  to  regard  increased 
railway  facilities  as  being  almost  necessary,  but  the 
Commission’s  opinion,  on  the  facts  brought  before  it, 
is  that  in  most  districts  the  cart  transport  service 
is  fairly  efficient,  and  that  railways,  although  desirable 
and  wished  for,  cannot  at  present  be  said  to  be 
necessary. 
2.  Tramway  vs.  Railway. — Assuming  as  the  defi- 
nition of  the  former,  a line  having  a grooved  rail 
laid  flush  with  the  roadway,  the  Commission  is  of 
opinion  that  tramways  are  not  suitable.  The  rail 
is  a heavy  and  expensive  one,  and  between  the 
rails  and  on  the  outside  of  each  rail  paving  stones 
or  concrete  would  be  necessary  to  maintain  the 
evenness  of  the  roadway  and  prevent  a dangerous 
blocking  of  the  groove.  Apart,  too,  from  the  ex- 
cessive cost  involved  by  the  use  of  a grooved  rail, 
the  Commission  is  of  opinion  that  such  rails  are 
unsuited  to  the  comparatively  heavy,  powerful  en- 
gines required  to  work  on  the  steep  gradients  and 
sharp  curves  which  would  prevail  on  all  the  lines. 
3.  Nature  of  the  Roads  in  the  Rill  Districts.^- 
Speaking  generally,  the  Commission  finds  that  the 
existing  cart  roads  are  not  of  a nature  to  be  really 
serviceable  as  tracks  for  narrew-gauge  railways. 
They  abound  in  the  sharpest  of  curves,  and  the 
gradients  are  so  extremely  steep,  often  for  several 
miles  on  end,  that,  without  deviations  in  the  form 
of  zig-zags,  locomotives  work  without  racks  could 
not  pull  an  appreciable  load  behind  them.  Work- 
ing under  the  most  favourable  conditions,  a loco- 
motive on  a gradient  of  1 in  20  (and  there  are  many 
miles  much  steeper  than  that)  would,  in  addi- 
tion to  itself,  pull  less  than  twice  its  own  weight, 
and  in  unfavourable  weather  much  less,  so  that, 
after  allowing  for  the  weight  of  the  v chicles 
the  influence  of  curves,  and  a necessary  margin 
to  meet  ordinary  conditions,  the  actual  net  load 
moved  would  be  small 
The  Commission  has  not  sufficient  information 
before  it  to  express  a decided  opinion  on  the  sui- 
tability of  rack  railways  to  surmount  the  long  steep 
inclines,  but  obviously  they  would  be  much  more 
expensive  in  construction. 
The  laying  of  railways  on  the  roads  would  to  a 
great  extent  unsuit  them  for  heavy  traffic,  and  the 
witnesses  have  differed  as  to  the  importance  to  be 
attached  to  this,  although  upon  the  whole  they  in- 
clined to  view  the  boon  of  a railway  as  being  worth 
the  partial  sacrifice  of  the  roads. 
The  estate  factories  have  all  been  built  in  relation 
to  the  existing  cart  roads,  and  were  entirely  fresh 
alignments  selected  for  the  railways,  new  approach 
roads  would  be  required  to  enable  the  traffic  to  get 
to  the  railwav.  This  however,  does  not  apply  in  the 
case  of  the  Badulla  scheme. 
4.  Gauge  of  the  Hill  Railways. — The  Commission’s 
conclusion  on  this  point  unhesitatingly  is  that  the 
gauge  to  be  adopted  should  be  that  of  2 ft.  6 in., 
which  affords  great  advantages  over  tbe  narrower 
gauge  in  the  matter  of  locomotive  construction.  It 
IS  true  that  in  some  cases,  at  all  events,  a 2 ft.  gauge 
would  be  more  economical  and  more  easily  suited  to 
the  sharp  curves,  but  as  the  Kelani  Valley  line  (if 
constructed)  is  to  be  on  a 2 ft.  6 in.  gauge  (and  pro- 
bably a large  section  of  the  northern  line),  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  general  economy  and  conve- 
nience of  adhering  to  one  gauge  for  all  the  branch 
lines  would  far  outweigh  the  saving  which  might  be 
effected  in  some  cases  by  adopting  a narrower  gauge. 
6.  Rates  to  be  charged  for  Freight  and  Passengers. — 
At  the  earliest  stage  of  the  inquiry  it  was 
quite  evident  that  if  the  rates  for  freight  now 
ruling  on  the  Nanuoya  extension  were  adopted  for 
any  of  the  schemes  under  consideration,  the  estimates 
would  in  all  cases  show  a prohibitive  loss  on  working. 
Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at  ; the  velume  of  traffic  to 
be  dealt  with  on  these  feeder  lines  is  naturally  very 
much  smaller  and  running  va  much  shorter  average 
distance  than  that  of  the  trunk  line,  while  the 
gradients  to  be  surmounted  are  extremely  adverse.  It 
is  obvious  therefore  that  the  cost  both  per  train  mile 
and  per  ton  mile  must  be  heavy.  The  Commission 
has  taken  as  its  basis  of  calculation  the  rates  of  cart 
hire  ruling  in  the  district  from  point  to  point,  and  all 
the  witnesses  and  representative  bodies  have  agreed 
that  they  are  willing  to  pay  these  rates  to  the  railway 
if  constructed.  The  Commission  recommends  that 
such  rates  should  be  the  ones  charged  until  any  line 
shows  a substantial  clear  profit  more  than  equal  to 
the  charges  for  interest  and  sinking  fund.  The 
Commission  recommends  that  the  passenger  rates 
should  be  on  the  same  scale  as  those  levied  on  the 
Nanu-oya  line,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Nanu-oya- 
Nuwara  Eliya  section,  where  rather  higher  mileage 
rates  should  be  charged. 
6.  Prospects  of  obtaining  all  the  existing  Traffic. — 
Experience  in  connection  with  some  of  the  Ceylon 
Railways  has  shown  that  it  is  cot  always  safe  to  rely 
on  existing  traffic  finding  its  way  to  the  railway. 
Once  a railway  has  been  constructed  and  its  mani- 
fold advantages  secured  beyond  recall,  the  traffic 
which  was  promised  and  reckoned  upon  has  some- 
times only  in  part  been  given  to  the  railway.  The 
Commission  therefore  recommends  that  the  Gove’*n- 
ment  should  refuse  to  enter  upon  any  scheme  unless 
the  owners  of  the  estates  interested  are  prepared  to 
agree  that  all  their  traffic  will  be  placed  upon  the 
railway  (at  rates  agreed  upon),  and,  in  order  to  give 
binding  effect  to  the  agreement,  consent  to  the  im- 
position  of  prohibitive  road  tolls  on  estate  produce 
and  supplies.  It  is  gratifying  to  record  that  all  the 
witnesses  examined  by  the  Commission  readily  re- 
cognized the  fairness  and  desirability  of  such  a precau- 
tion, and  approved  in  their  common  interests  of  the 
proposal. 
SPECIFIC  SCHEMES  INQUIRED  INTO. 
(fl)  Nanuoya  to  Nuwara  Eliya,  and  an  Exten- 
sion to  Udapussdlawa. — This  line  would  be  approxi- 
mately 18  miles  in  length  (5J  to  Nuwara  Eliya  and 
12i  on  to  Ragalla).  Two  traces  for  a 2 ft.  gauge 
line  were  made  from  Nanu-oya  to  Kandapola,  the 
one  by  Mr.  Waring  and  the  other  by  the  Public 
Works  Department.  Speaking  of  the  section  to 
Nuwara  Eliya,  the  former  adheres  to  the  existing  cart 
road,  and  its  gradients  consequentlj'  are  so  steep  that 
a system  of  rack  rails  has  to  be  introduced.  Thera 
does  not  seem  in  this  case  to  be  any  advantage  gained 
by  adhering  to  the  road,  and,  indeed  the  Com- 
mission understands  that  Mr.  Waring  only  did  so  in 
terms  of  his  instructions.  The  other  trace,  which 
runs  through  Crown  forest  above  the  road,  is  unfor- 
tunately, not  to  be  relied  upon,  and  will  have  to  be 
discarded.  The  Commission  has  asked  that  a new  2 
ft.  6 in.  trace  be  surveyed  and  staked  out  at  once, 
and  recommends  that  it  should  leave  the  Nanuoya 
station  on  the  goods  shed  side  only.  This  will 
involve  passengers  crossing  by  a subway,  but  will 
obviate  the  inconvenience  and  danger  of  having  two 
lines  crossing  one  another,  both  on  steep  inclines. 
The  trace  should  follow  the  direction  taken  by  the 
Public  Works  Department  survey,  and  only  utilize 
the  one  portion  of  the  cart-road  immediately 
below  Blackpool  bridge  for  a maximum  distance  of  40 
chains.  On  entering  the  Nuwara  Eliya  basin  it 
should  trend  to  the  right  and  pass  round  between 
the  lake  and  the  racecourse  to  a point  below  the 
Priory,  where  the  station  would  be.  This  route  (and 
site)  is  approved  of  by  the  witnesses  examined,  and 
it  is  convenient  for  the  extension  to  Udapussellawa, 
That  extension  follows,  with  some  deviations,  the  ex- 
isting cart  road  the  whole  way  to  Ragalla,  but  it  is 
understood  that  the  first  section — to  Lover’s  Leap 
bridge — is  not  to  encroach  upon  or  injure  the  driving 
road.  Prom  Kandapola  to  Ragalla  the  road  wifi 
have  to  be  greatly  given  up  to  the  railway.  Of  the 
various  district  schemes,  this  is  the  only  one  where 
the  project  of  using  the  existing  cart  roads  is  feasible 
without  extensive  deviations.  The  road  wilt  be  of 
great  use  nearly  all  the  way,  and  between  Lover’s 
Leap  bridge  and  Kandapola  is  well  suited  for  a hill 
railway.  From  Kandapola  down  to  Ragalla  the  road 
is  steep,  but  a gradient  of  1 in  26  can  be  got,  and 
