Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/242

Rh RAILWAY the track. The leading objection to this system was that the rail was liable to be covered with dust. Jessop therefore in 1789 laid down at Loughborough cast-iron " edge rails," raised above the ground so as to allow a flanged cast-iron wheel to run on them (fig. 2). This appears to have been the first system of rails laid on cast-iron chairs and on sleepers. The rails were pinned or bolted into the chairs. A wrought-iron rail was patented by Birkenshaw in 1820, as the "fish-belly" rail, similar in form and mode of support to Jessop's rail, but rolled in continuous lengths, embracing a number of spans, withl|| stiffening ledges or flanges on thet^ Fio. 2. The edge rail, 1789. under side. This form of rail grew into favour. It weighed 33 Bb per yard, and was laid in cast-iron chairs, spiked down to square stone blocks at 3-feet bearings (see fig. 3). The, edge rail and the flanged wheel consti- tute the basis of the whole system of a railway. The rails forming a line of way were placed to a gauge or dis- tance apart of 4 feet 8J inches, JHL JHL TUT TEJ FIG. 3. The fish-belly rail, 1820-30. and two parallel lines of way were spaced with 6 feet between the inner rails of the ways. This interspace is popularly known as the " six-foot." The benefits derived from the use of the tramway or railway for the transport of coal suggested to reflective persons the employment of it for the conveyance of general merchandise and of passengers. For the conveyance of heavy merchandise inland the canals little more than sixty years ago furnished the principal means. Though there were three such water-routes between Liverpool and Man- chester, they were sometimes so crowded that cotton took a month to pass from the seaport to the manufacturing towns in the interior ; yet the whole of the merchandise passing between Liverpool and Manchester did not average more than 1 200 tons a day. The average rate of carriage was 18s. per ton, and the average time of transit on the 50 miles of canal was thirty-six hours. The conveyance of passengers by the improved coach-roads was comparatively rapid, but Stockton it was very costly. The first great movement to mend this andTDar- state of things was the passing of the Act in 1821 for construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Colliery railways were in evidence to prove the benefits of railway communication by steam-power. The Hetton Railway, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, from the colliery to the river Wear, was 7 miles long, and trains of 60 tons net weight were taken over the line a1 a speed of 4J miles per hour. On the Killingworth Rail way an engine and tender weighing 10 tons drew a loac of 40 tons at a speed of 6 miles per hour, consuming 50 ft of coal per mile run. Whilst animal-power only was first relied on for working the Stockton and Darlington ' Railway, the Act provided for working with men and xorses or " otherwise." By another Act applied for at the equest of George Stephenson, who became engineer to the ine, the company was empowered to work the railway with ocomotive engines. The line, with three branches, was over 38 miles in length, and was at first laid as a single e, with passing places at intervals of a quarter of a mile, the way being constructed with wrought-iron fish- jelly rails, weighing 28 Bb per yard. It was opened in icptember 1825 by a train of thirty -four vehicles, making a gross load of about 90 tons, drawn by one engine driven Stephenson, with a signalman on horseback in advance. The train moved off at the rate of from 10 to 12 miles an lour, and attained a speed of 1 5 miles per hour on favour- able parts of the line. A train weighing 92 tons could be drawn by one engine at the rate of 5 miles per hour. The principal business of the new railway was the conveyance of minerals and goods, but from the first passengers in- sisted upon being carried, and in October 1825 the com- pany began to run a daily coach, called the " Experiment," to carry six inside, and from fifteen to twenty outside, making the journey from Darlington to Stockton and back in two hours. The fare was Is., and each passenger was allowed to take baggage not exceeding 14 Bb weight. The rate for carriage of merchandise was reduced from 5d. to one-fifth of a penny per ton per mile, and that of minerals from 7d. to l|d. per ton per mile. The price of coals at Darlington fell from 18s. to 8s. 6d. per ton. The Monklands Railway in Scotland, opened in 1826, Earlie was the first to follow the example of the Stockton and lin es. Darlington line, and several other small lines including the Canterbury and Whitstable, worked partly by fixed engines and partly by locomotives quickly adopted steam- traction. But the inauguration of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1829, made the first great impression on the national mind that a revolution in the modes of travelling had really taken place. In 1838 a line was opened between London and Birmingham, and the first train accomplished the whole distance 112 miles at an average speed of over 20 miles per hour. The London and Greenwich, the London and Southamp- ton, the Great Western, Birmingham and Derby, Bristol and Exeter, Eastern Counties, Manchester and Leeds, Grand Junction, Midland Counties, North Midland, South- Eastern, London and Brighton, Manchester and Birming- ham, and Edinburgh and Glasgow, together with many small Bills, were all passed within four years from the time of the passing of the London and Birmingham Bill. Thus in the course of four or five years the foundations were laid of most of the existing trunk lines of railway in Great Britain. The original Liverpool and Manchester line, 30 miles in length, now forms part of a network of lines, the property of one company, nearly 1 800 miles in extent, representing a capital invested in railway works and plant of 100,000,000. Meantime the construction of the way was the subject Kinc of much consideration. The fish-belly form of wrought- raiL iron rail was troublesome to roll, and so the flat-bottom or flat-foot rail (fig. 4) was designed, combining a solid head with a flange base. This rail, with holes through the flange to hold the spikes, was used to some extent, and was laid on longi- tudinal timber sleepers, and also on transverse sleepers. The disadvantage was want of vertical stiffness of the system ; and, if the rail was made higher, it was liable to rock on the sleeper and work loose on the spikes. This rail, known as the Vignoles rail, has been much improved in form and proportions and is extensively used. The bridge rail (fig. 5) so called FIG. 4. The flat- bottomed rail.