Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/229

140 we had encountered, £100,000 out of pocket. It was, however, of no use being overcome by the difficulties, and with as cheerful a face as possible we set ourselves to overcome them instead.

The four pumps which were to be fixed, and one of the 60-inch engines, had to be made at Hayle, in Cornwall. The other three engines, which were standing in various parts of the country—one at Llanelly, and two others at Cornwall—had to be taken down and forwarded by rail as quickly as possible. A new gang under a Cornish foreman was formed for erecting these engines.

By altering the old engine-house, where the 41-inch engine had originally stood, and strengthening the ‘bob-wall,’ which carried the beam, a house was provided for one of the 70-inch engines. A house for one 60-inch engine at 5 miles 4 chains was built of brickwork, and for the other 60-inch and 70-inch engines two new houses were built of stone and brick. The accompanying drawing will show that the erection of the houses required considerable time, so that but little progress was made before the year 1883 came to a close.

In spite, however, of these difficulties the progress of the other works was continually increasing, and at the end of the year we found that, with the arrangements that we had made, we could take out more lengths of tunnel than we were able to obtain bricks to line it with.

We were at that time receiving from the