Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/131

72 we could have built a wall across the heading to prevent the water flowing westwards; and as this would have taken several days to do, the rushing in of the water might have done irretrievable damage.

When the men returned to work after the strike at the end of May, as many as could work in doing it were sent up the heading from Sudbrook to secure the slip which had taken place at the east end; but before commencing to drive the heading and complete the link between the east and west sides of the river, I found it necessary to make a better arrangement for getting out the skips than the expensive method which had been followed by the Company. The men were therefore started over a long length of the heading to slightly deepen the one side of it, and to put in, at a height of about 2 feet from the bottom, a decking of 3-inch planking where it was possible to do so. In other places to build a dry stone wall to raise the skip-road above the water-level. As the heading was only 7 feet high originally, it was necessary to blow down part of the top to increase the height, as I determined not to work on this long ‘lead’ till I could get ponies to do the hauling. It was necessary also to put in heavier rails than had been originally used. These had been bridge-pattern rails, about 18 lbs. to the yard, quite unsuitable for any heavy traffic.

They were replaced with rails 42 lbs. to the yard,