Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/265

Rh RAILWAY 247 straight line at a speed of 60 miles per hour. A tractive force of 10 or 12 lb is capable of drawing 1 ton on a level at 10 miles per hour. At 60 miles per hour the required tractive force is about 45 lb for 1 ton of gross weight. CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS. r ai ;ies The common varieties of vehicle employed in railway traffic are if 1 1- as follows : (1) Passenger-train stock : first-class carriage, second- ly class carriage, third-class carriage, composite carriage, luggage eh e. brake-van, horse-box, carriage-truck. To these may be added the mail - carriage or travelling post-office. (2) Goods -train stock: platform-waggon, open or box waggon, high-sided round-end wag- gon, covered goods -waggon, cattle - waggon, sheep - waggon, coai- "vvaggon, coke-waggon, brake-van. Besides these there are other waggons specially designed for special traffic, as gunpowder, salt, and lime, also ballast -waggons, for the private use of the engineer's department. Carriages are usually made of the same external length, width, and height. The under works of the stock may thus be identical in construction, and an economical uniformity of working and wearing parts is secured. Uniformity of waggons is still more important than in the case of carriages, as their total number and cost are much greater, and the supervision with which they are favoured is less minute ; besides, the cost of maintenance is less than where many varieties of waggon exist on the same line. But, whatever may be the upper works, the under works of the whole of the waggon stock should be entirely uniform. One of the greatest evils of railway engineering has been want of uniformity in stock, partly due to different companies not arranging to have stock suitable for joint use on each other's lines and partly to inevitable changes of plan to meet the growing wants of traffic. Another source of mischief was the separation of the duties of engine and of carriage and waggon superintendence. The carriage superintendent, aiming at the utmost economy of maintenance in his department, continually added to the quantity and weight of "material employed in the construction of the carrying stock, as the remedy for the observed failure of weak parts ; and thus the stock, particularly waggons, was increased in strength rather by adding to the mass of matter than by studying to throw the same weight of timber and iron into superior combinations. Meantime the heavy trains, handed over to the locomotive department, led to the construction of heavier and more powerful locomotives, when the maximum was quickly reached, and strongly evinced by the damage done to the permanent way. It was found, moreover, that the older carriages suffered most in cases of collision ; hence there was an additional inducement to add to the size and weight of carriages. But this line of development has been mainly deter- mined by the demands of the public for greater convenience, speed, and safety, and from the growth of traffic, involving greater length and weight of trains. - The early first-class carriages weighed 3^ tons, the bodies or - upper parts being 15 feet long, 6 J feet wide, and 4 feet 9 inches high, divided into three compartments, to hold six passengers each, or eighteen in all. They now weigh from 8 to 13 tons each, and are from 20 to 30 feet in length and from 8 to 8J feet wide. Carriages have until recent years been placed almost all on four wheels ; but six wheels on three axles are now generally in use. A modern first-class carriage, 28 to 30 feet long with four compart- ments, gives 7 to 7J feet of total length for each compartment, as against 5 feet in the early carnages. Second and third class carriages, in length from 28 to 31 feet, are divided into five com- partments, each from 5 feet 7 inches to 6 feet 2 inches long. Saloon carriages are occasionally used, so called because two or more of the ordinary compartments are merged in one. Second- class carriages originally were destitute of cushioning, hard and square, on the nearly obsolete policy of making them uncomfort- able in the hope of inducing passengers to travel first class. The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company in 1857-58 were the first to supply comfortably padded seats in their second- class carriages, and the receipts of that company were in 1858 materially augmented in consequence. Third-class carriages have been improved, under the stimulating example of the Midland Railway Company, who abandoned their second-class caniages, and raised their third-class stock to an equality with the second- class vehicles of other lines. But there are yet lines of railway on which the third-class carriages are little better than obsolete first and second class carriages converted into third-class. Passenger luggage brake-vans are made open (for the most part) inside for passengers' luggage. They are fitted with a dog-box or small enclosure from side to side with doors at both ends, and with projecting sides, glazed, to accommodate the guard and afford a view of the train from end to end. A pair of doors are placed in each side for luggage. In some designs a separate compartment is partitioned off for the guard, in other cases a compartment of a passenger carriage is allotted for luggage and for the guard. The luggage van is fitted with a powerful brake ; it should be fitted with three pairs of wheels. Horse-boxes are constructed to cany three horses. The long double-bogie passenger-car universally in use in the United United States, originally introduced by Ross Winans on the Balti- States more and Ohio Railroad, is distinguished essentially from the cars, carriages on British railways by the longitudinal passage in the centre of the body, reaching from end to end of the car, with seats at each side, and admitting of the free passage of the conductor throughout the train. The absence of doors at the sides permits of the enlargement of the body laterally. These cars are also dis- tinguished by the use of two four-wheeled bogies or tracks on which the body is carried, and to which it is pivoted, allowing the car to pass with facility over quick curves. There is generally but one class of travellers ; yet for the long journeys Pullman and other sleep- ing cars have come into use, at extra fares. From the Atlantic cities to the West there is a special " immigrant " class, as also over the Pacific railroads ; and between the chief Western cities and the sea- board of late years a second-class system has been begun : passengers are usually carried in smoking cars at rates but little Tower than first- class fares, which on these lines are about Id. per mile. Refresh- ment cars are also attached to trains. Ordinary passenger cars are 9J to 10 feet wide and 44A in length of body, or 49 feet over the extreme platforms. They are about 7 ,J feet high at the sides, inside the body, and nearly 10 feet high at the centre. The car is entered by steps at the ends. The middle passage is about 2 feet wide. On each side there are fourteen seats, placed transversely, each 38 inches wide and holding two persons. The backs of the seats, which do not rise more than 34 inches above the floor, are mounted on swivels, by which the seat is made reversible. A window is placed next each seat, having a movable glass and a Venetian blind. The cars are heated by stoves or steam heaters, burning coal, and are lighted by oil-lamps or candles, on some lines by compressed coal-gas. Each car is provided with a water-closet and a supply of iced water, and a vendor of books, papers, and cigars patrols the cars. There is a cord of communication with the engine-driver. The car, complete, weighs from 17 to 20 tons, and sleeping cars about one-half more. The form of goods truck generally used for some years after the Goods opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1829 was trucks, simply a platform about 10 feet long, on four wheels, with sides varying from 4 to 10 inches in height, weighing from 2 to 3 tons. Many such waggons were employed for transporting heavy rough goods of 2 tons weight. The general unfitness of this style of waggon led to the adoption of portable sides and ends, which consisted of open crib-rails dropped into staples ; and to these was added the costly tarpauling or sheet to cover the goods and bind them down. The waggon thus appointed, 13 or 14 feet in length and weighing about 3 tons, was fit to carry 4 or 5 tons of ordinaiy goods. But loose or removable parts of waggons are liable to be lost or get out of order, and are costly to maintain, while a new tarpauling may be spoiled on the first day of using it by injury from projecting angles of goods under cover. Crib-rails and tarpaulings, therefore, have been to some extent superseded by built covered waggons from 14 to 16 feet long and 1 feet wide, with sliding or hinged doors and roofs, so that with the crane- chairs a bale of goods, however heavy, can be deposited at or moved from any part of the interior of the waggon, and the goods may be perfectly enclosed and protected from damage by fire, wind, or rain. Covered waggons weigh from 4 to 6^ tons, and they can carry, according to their dimensions, from 6 to 8 tons of goods. The cost of maintenance of ordinary open waggons is said to amount to from 7 to 10 per cent of the first cost, whilst that of covered waggons is said to be only 4 per cent. It may be stated generally that waggons if properly made will carry 60 per cent, more than their own weight of goods, but that ill- designed badly -made waggons will carry no more than their own weight of goods. The great demand for weight in waggons arose, as much as from anything else, from the absence of spring- buffers at the ends, which exposed them daily to rude and trying- collisions. By and by buffing-springs were introduced at one end of the waggon, the other being left " dead, " and at length, cheap and convenient buffers having been devised, springs came to be placed at both ends of new stock. Waggons, as formerly made, were in long trains likewise subjected to violent shocks in starting into motion, and therefore the draw-bars also were placed upon springs. Some companies have gone further and placed the guard or side chains upon springs. Thus the waggon has come to be defended by springs at all points, and there is no doubt that the extra cost so incurred has been amply covered 'by savings on repairs and diminished breakages of goods. Spiral springs for buffing and drawing, made of round or of oval steel, fixed externally to the ends of waggons, have been much employed ; but laminated springs, placed under the floor, are taking their place. Broad-gauge (7-feet gauge) waggons have been constructed sufficiently strong to carry 20 tons of load on six wheels ; but they were not generally made to carry more than 10 tons. Even 10 tons is considered in some quarters to be excessive as a maximum waggon-load on the ordinary or 4 feet 8 inch gauge. On the Midland Railway, for instance, the standard coal -waggon is constructed to carry 8 tons. The