Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/271

Rh RAILWAY 253 construction. The lines are laid to a uniform gauge of 4 feet 8 inches. ,ori Victoria has a uniform gauge of 5 feet 3 inches. The railways all belong to the state. There were 1562 miles of railway open at the end of 1883, besides which 130 were in progress. mi In Queensland a system of light substantial railways has been laid out on the 3 feet gauge, mainly from motives of economy and to moderate the difficulties of carrying the line over the main range to the tableland of the Darling Downs. The first section of the Southern and Western Railway was opened in 1867. At the end of 1883 there were 1038 miles of railway open for traffic, and 454 were in course of construction. The Adelaide and Port Adelaide Railway, 7| miles long, was opened a. in 1856, and the Adelaide and Kapunda Railway, connecting the capital with the chief copper mines, 50J miles long, was opened in 1857. At the same time railways on a 3J feet gauge were also con- structed ; the first of these, between Port Wakefield and Blyth, was partly opened in May 1867. The Port Augusta and Port Darwin Railway, destined to connect the Indian Ocean with the Southern Ocean, will, when completed, be about 2000 miles in length. The colony had 991 miles of railway open for traffic at the end of 1883, with 225 in course of construction. In view of the inconveniences of a break of gauge, the progress of the broader gauge lines was stayed northwards, after the junctions had been effected, and new main lines into the interior are constructed on the 3J feet gauge. ite In Western Australia there were only 55 miles of railway open for traffic at the end of 1883 and 68 in course of construction. Li. At the end of 1883 Tasmania had 167 miles of railway completed, and in 1884 207 miles in course of construction. 'Z- New Zealand. The first railways in New Zealand were con- 1. structed in the province of Canterbury : the Lyttelton and Christ- church Railway, connecting the port town with the capital of the province, 6 miles long, was commenced in 1860, and opened in 1867, laid to a gauge of 5 feet 3 inches. The Great Southern Rail- way, a portion of the trunk line to the south, of the same gauge, was opened, also in 1867, to the river Selwyn, distant 23 miles from Christchurch. A comprehensive system of railways connecting the chief towns of the colony was commenced at the expense of the Government in 1872, for which the 3^ feet gauge was adopted as the standard. The first lines so constructed were the Wellington and Woodville Railway and the Napier and Manawatu Railway. At the end of 1883 there were 469 miles open for traffic in the North Island and 926 in the South Island, besides 91 of private lines, making in all 1486 miles. (D. K. C.) United States. i- Construction. The low cost of American railways has been due to largely to a close adaptation of the alignment to the natural surface i. by the use of grades and curves. The importance of saving in materials, labour, and cost has been very much greater than in Europe, because labour and nearly all materials but timber were much costlier, and especially because the interest on money was very much higher, until about 1875, on the average probably 9 or 10 per cent. The use of the ' ' truck " or ' ' bogie " under locomotives and cars made it possible for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first long line in a mountainous country, to be constructed with curves of 600 feet radius, and on temporary lines on the same rail- way with curves of 300 and 278 feet radius. Curves of 955 and even 716 feet radius are common through difficult country ; curves of 573 feet radius occur on some important lines ; and 410 to 383 feet radii are not uncommon in mountainous regions. On the United States military railroads in 1864 an immense traffic passed safely over temporary lines with a curve of 50 feet radius. Early experi- ments as to the real power of the locomotive to surmount gradients led to the adoption of 110 and 116 feet per mile for ascents 17 miles long, and to the successful use on a temporary track over a tunnel (in 1852) of gradients of 1 in 10, over which a locomotive weighing 25 tons hauled regularly one-car trains weighing 53J tons, including its own weight. A gradient of 1 in 12J, 7 miles long, in a mining branch in Colorado is now regularly worked. In the construction proper a noticeable peculiarity has been the free use of open trestle- work of timber, to save both masonry and earth or rock excavation. Some of these timber structures have been of enormous proportions, as the Portage Viaduct (see vol. iv. p. 328) over the Genesee River, 234 feet high and 800 feet long, in 50 feet spans, built in eighteen months (1858), at a cost of only $140,000, and containing 125,000 cubic feet of timber and 80 tons of bolts. Structures of timber exceeding 100 feet in height have been rare, but of all dimensions below that exceedingly common, the iisual intent and practice hav- ing been to replace them as they became unserviceable with masonry embankments. Although their use has not unfrequently been abused by permitting them to become unsafe from decay, they have in the main been thoroughly solid and substantial. For bridge spans of 30 to 250 feet the wooden "Howe truss" bridge, a type peculiar to America, was early invented and almost universally used where wrought -iron trusses would be now used both in Europe and America. The piers and abutments for such trusses were usually of stone, but not unfrequently of timber also. These wooden trusses are now being rapidly replaced with iron,-the lead- ing types being the Whipple, Post, Fink, and Bollman trusses (see BRIDGES, vol. iv. p. 322 sq.). The sleepers (in America called ties or cross-ties) are usually of hard wood (white oak), hewn on top and bottom, with the natural surface of the tree on the sides. The usual dimensions are 6 (sometimes 7) inches thick, 8 (sometimes 8 or 9) feet long, and 8 to 10 or even 12 inches face. The usual rule is to place them 2 feet or less apart, and 2640 to 2700 to the mile. The large bearing surface thus afforded has especially favoured the use of the flat-based or Vignoles rail, and it is in exclusive use throughout North and for the most part South America. The rails now most largely rolled weigh from 56 to 65 R> per yard. On the light-traffic lines of the south and west there are still many 50 R> rails, and in the north and east rails of 70, 72, 75, and 80 lb sections are in limited but increasing use. An average for the whole United States would now be somewhat under 60 K>. The close propinquity of the sleepers gives much greater stiffness to the rail than com- parative weights alone would indicate, a 60 ft> rail being fully equivalent in stiffness and strength to an 80 tt> rail supported on chairs 3 feet between centres. The ballast and drainage of American railroads have often been very defective, with the view to effecting a large saving in first cost. Improvements in this as in other respects have taken place in recent years, and many thousand miles are now maintained at a high standard of excellence. Right of way, usually in a continuous strip 100 feet wide (wider where necessary, but never narrower), has been largely given, or purchased at very low rates. The widths of road-bed (almost always first graded for a single track) are usually 1 8 to 20 feet in excavation and 14 feet on embankments, with 1^ to 1 slopes. Side slopes of 1 to 1 have been largely used in regions not exposed to frost. Parallel tracks are placed 13 feet between centres. Railway development in the United States has had to adapt Develop- itself to the needs of a new and rapidly growing country, a large ment. part of which was first made available for settlement by railways. Three locomotives were imported from England in 1829, and the first trial in America took place on 8th August 1829 at Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The first railway constructed to be worked by loco- motives was the South Carolina Railroad (1828-30), though trials of an experimental locomotive had been made before on the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad, which continued to be worked by horse power until 1832. The mileage of railway construction about kept pace with that of the United Kingdom until 1850 ; at the beginning of 1885 it amounted to 125,379 miles. The mileage completed amounted to 40 miles at the end of 1830, to 3361 miles in 1841, and to 5206 miles in 1847, of which 1340 miles had been opened within six years. Then there was a sudden and great increase, the yearly additions for seven years being 1056 miles in 1848, 1048 in 1849, 1261 in 1850, 1274 in 1851, 2288 in 1852, 2170 in 1853, 3442 miles in 1854. The Civil War checked railway construction, only 3257 miles being opened during the five years ending with 1865, when the aggregate amounted to 32,996 miles. But during the seven years ending with 1872 the mileage of the country was nearly doubled, the yearly additions being 1403 miles in 1866, 2541 in 1867, 2468 in 1868, 4103 in 1869, 5658 in 1870, 6660 in 1871, 7439 in 1872, a total of 30,272 miles in seven years. At the close of this period of construction there was a mile of railway to every 666 inhabitants. It was followed by great financial disasters and in- dustrial stagnation, and by a period of comparative inactivity in railway extension, only 5217 miles being opened in 1873, and only 14,057 in the five years ending with 1878 (2428 in the last-named year). During the five years ending with 1883 40,000 miles were opened, of which 11,568 fell to 1882. At the end of 1884 the population per mile of railway was 458. There was no railway west of the Mississippi until 1853, and then only 38 miles ; in 1860 there were 1930 miles (24,990 on the east), and in 1865 3007 miles. (29,988 on the east). Since 1865 46,600 miles have been built west of the Mississippi. About one-half of the population of the United States is in the territory lying north of the Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi, including sixteen States witk an aggregate area of 418,495 square miles, 29,000,000 inhabitants, and 55,725 miles of railway. France and Germany together have nearly the same area (416,205 square miles), 83,000,000 inhabitants, and 40,682 miles of railway. The United States has one mile of railway to 7 "5 square miles of territory and 520 inhabitants, and. Europe 1 mile of railway to 10 '2 square miles and 2040 inhabit- ants. The two States of New York and Pennsylvania, whose area is about equal to that of Great Britain, have one mile of railway to 6 '2 square miles, against one to 5'9 in Great Britain ; and Massa- chusetts and New Jersey, with one-third more area than Belgium (which has more railway in proportion to area than any other European country), have 4 square miles of area per mile of railway, while Belgium has 4'2. In the Southern States the railways are much less numerous and have lighter traffic and earnings. The prevailing course of traffic in America is east and west, or rather
 * li In South Australia a gauge of 5 feet 3 inches was at first adopted.