QUEENSLAND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
-<XX>- 
ON RAILWAYS. 
<x» 
The following paper was read at the last 
meeting of the Queensland Philosophical So- 
ciety by Mr. William Pettigrew : — 
The subject of Kailway communication is oc- 
cupying a large amount of attention at the pre- 
sent time, not only in Queensland, but in every 
civilised country. 
Kailway communication is a very desirable 
thing, but it can be obtained at too great a cost. 
In New South Wales, for instance, the rail- 
ways there made cost the country £500 per 
mile per annum, over and above their earnings, 
and it is said that ours are in a similar posi- 
tion. 
Believing that railways can be made and 
wrought that will not only pay working ex- 
penses, but interest on capital, I have, there- 
fore, put my ideas into shape in this .paper, so 
that they can be fairly examined. 
In designing a railway between two given 
points it is of great importance to take the 
straightest and most uniform line. A survey 
of the line is absolutely necessary. Various 
considerations enter into the question as to 
what is the best line, but I will only make the 
following remarks further on this point. 
The amount of traffic and the nature of it 
will determine the rate of speed required. As 
a rule, the greater the speed the more costly the 
railway. By adopting, in the first instance, a 
low speed, the first cost is kept down j and 
also in working, the working expenses in tear 
and wear and maintenance of line are kept low. 
In any lines at present required in Queensland 
— the one between Ipswich and Brisbane per- 
haps excepted — a maximum speed of eight miles 
per hour is amply sufficient. Compare that 
with a bullock-team going at a rate of ten miles 
per day, for an average of twenty days, equal 200 
miles. And that be it observed can only be done 
under the most favorable circumstances. During 
wet or showery weather they can only move two 
or three miles, and sometimes cannot move out 
of the spot for days, and even weeks together. 
Whereas, with a railway, as I now propose, a 
train could do the distance of 200 miles in two 
or three days as required. It is the certainty 
and economy of communication, not the great 
speed that is required. 
In order to have as little expense as possible 
in cuttings and bankings, I would have the 
bottoms of the longitudinal sleep'ers to rest on 
the natural surface of the ground, and the cross 
sleepers to be sunk into the ground. In cross- 
ing flats, liable to inundation by large floods, the 
longitudinal sleepers should also be sunk into the 
ground, and only the rails left above the surface, 
thereby preventing their being disturbed by 
floods washing the soil from about them. Dur- 
ing the time of floods no trains could pass along, 
but so soon as they subsided the traffic could be 
resumed, whereas at present the roads are sel- 
dom fit for traffic for a week or more after a flood 
subsides. As to gradients and curves, I would 
keep the line as straight as -possible, so as to 
prevent a useless expenditure of power in going 
round curves and grinding the rails and wheels 
to pieces, and would prefer going more up and 
down inclines, as I am informed by a railway con- 
tractor of great experience (Mr. Fountain), that 
a horse can draw a loaded truck up an incline of 
1 in 25 on a straight line as easily as up 1 in 70 
on a curve of seven chains radius. As to the 
limit of steepness, I believe that a train can be 
run as safely up or down an incline of 1 in 12 
(which is the steepest over the Alps) as on 1 in 
50 on our present railways. 
Proper designs and careful men are all that 
are required. The driver must be complete 
master of the train, and to be safe ought to have 
at his command four times the power required 
to stop it. That such inclines are practicable, 
there is the fact of the railway over the Alps on 
one system ; and, a short time ago, Mr. Dal- 
rymple’s traction engine drew three loaded wag- 
gons, weighing with their load twenty- one tons, 
up an incline in Margaret-street of 1 in 9£. I 
do not consider that there is any occasion to 
have such very steep inclines on any railways at 
present required, but if so, there are the means 
to geb up them. This I shall refer to subse- 
quently. 
With reference to the positions of bridges, 
they should be put where the banks are not 
