Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/228



Mr. John Macneil. 6 September, 1831. the amount of injury; it was nothing more than that done by common Coaches.

Do you think it essential that the wheels of Steam Carriages should follow in the same track, provided they have a proper breadth of tire?—Not at all, as regards the injury to the road; it would require more power to work them if the wheels did not follow in the same track.

Supposing the Steam Carriages, either the propelling Carriage and the Carriage drawn, or the Engine Carriage carrying the passengers were generally to be four tons, what would you recommend to be the minimum breadth of tire to either of the Carriages?—In the present state of Steam Carriages, as applied to the working over turnpike roads, I should say you might limit them to not less than four inches for a few years.

Supposing their average weight never exceeded from six to eight tons, do you think four and a half would be a safe minimum?—I am inclined to think it would be rather too little.

Do you think it would be necessary to make any alteration in the form of the present line of turnpike road for the facility of working by steam?—I do not think it would be absolutely necessary; it would, however, be of great benefit to the country and every person in it, if the hills on the present lines of road were more reduced and the surface strengthened; no road should have a greater ascent than one in thirty or one in thirty-five; in almost every instance the expence would be saved in horse-labour in a few years: the following Table will show pretty nearly the increase of expence in transporting goods by stage coaches drawn by horses up planes of different rates of ascent. Roads in general have, in some parts, steep ascents; one in fifteen between this and Birmingham, for instance, is too much on a road of such traffic. The surfaces are not so good generally as they ought to be; the roads should be strengthened, either with a pitched bottoming of stone or a concrete mass, such as the Highgate Archway, or the new road near Coventry.