The Swedish Government have exhibited great practical wisdom in the encouragement they have given to the formation of railways. The State guarantees to the projectors four per cent. for fifteen years; and the pecuniary loans given by Government are not to be repaid till after ten years, and then they are only to be exacted from one-half of the surplus profits above six per cent. If the State resolves to purchase the lines, they cannot do so till after twenty years, and they must -making about 1360 English miles in all then pay a bonus of 25 per cent. In place France. The lines in Belgium constructed by the State amount to 347 miles, and cost £5,945,148. They unite Brussels with Ostend, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Malines, Courtray, Lille, Tournay, Douay, Valenciennes, Mons, Charleroi, Namur, Marienbourg, Liège, and Aix-la-Chapelle. In Holland, there are railways joining Amsterdam with Rotterdam, 50 miles; and with Utrecht and Arnheim, 60 miles. In the north of Italy, a line partly finished passes from Venice to Turin and Alessandria, by Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Milan, and Novara; and one from Milan to Monza. There is also a line from Florence to Leghorn through Pisa, and to Pontedera; another from Pisa to Lucca and St. Salvatore, and another from Florence to Prato. In the south of Italy, there is a railway from Naples to Pompeii and Castellamare, and another from Naples to Caserta and Capua; but no line has been projected in the States of the Church. The Pope, indeed, is said to have objected to their introduction. There is a railway in Switzerland, twentyfive English miles in length, from Zurich to Dietiken and Baden; and even in Spain, a railway 17 English miles in length has been recently opened from Barcelona to Mataro. The most eastern railways in Europe terminate at Warsaw and Cracow. A line is in progress to Bochnia, east of Cracow, and another from Pesth to Debretzin, still farther east. London and North-Western, Great Western, of a tax being exacted by the State, as in British railways, and exorbitant local rates, the Government gives for nothing the portions of the crown-lands through which the lines may pass, and also the labor of soldiers, paupers, and convicts, at reduced wages. The Government has also agreed to erect electric telegraphs at their own expense. The liberal conduct of the Swedish and other Governments to Railway enterprise forms a singular contrast with that of Great Britain. When the early Railway Companies were receiving large dividends, it was not to be wondered at that Government, in its necessities, should impose some tax upon their exorbitant profits, and that the parochial authorities should imitate their example. In the present state of railway property, however, these burdens are intolerable, and cannot with any propriety be much longer imposed. The London and North-Western Company have paid during the last year the sum of £50,505 for government duty, and £58,650 for local rates and taxes. In the half-year just ended, the London and SouthWestern Company have paid for local rates alone £10,833, which is upward of 11 per cent. on their balance available for a dividend! This tax, consisting chiefly of poor's rate, is so unjust and oppressive that Parliament. ought instantly to redress the grievance. In this last case every adult employed by the Company is taxed £12, 10s. per annum, while the average impost on the male population of the country is only 30s. per head. The following table shows the taxes imposed upon railways for the year 1848:— Midland, Eastern Counties, London, Brighton, and South Coast, London and South-Western, South-Eastern, York and North Midland, 1849.] Government Duty. Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire, Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, Rates and Taxes. 6 2,134 6 5 £2,209 13 7 1,906 18 1 2,695 14 1 1,602 15 3 1,172 19 3 457 12 10 3,423 0 5 Railways have not made much progress | acts have also been passed, in 1847 and in our Colonies and dependencies. They Midland. 1848, for incorporating the Nova Scotia. In their latest Report, dated 1st May, Great Average. 184 134 146 89 150 109 118 85 95 84 July 1, 1848. 95 881 Dec. 30, 1848. April 20, 1849. After perusing these details, the reader will naturally ask, What are the future pects of railways as commercial speculations, as these prospects may be gathered from the facts now before us, and without any reference to the development of the whole traffic of the country, or the future measures Three writers, whose of Government? opinions are entitled to considerable weight, have taken different views of the future prospects of Railway Companies. After quoting the following passage from Sir Francis Head's interesting pamphlet, Mr. Scrivenor speaks with hope, and even assurance, respecting the probable success of the Railway system: "In Herapath's Railway Journal of the 30th September last, it appears that the capital expended on railways now open for traffic, amounting to £148,000,000 (one hundred and forty-eight millions), gives a profit of 1.81 per cent. for the halfDe year, or £3, 12s. 44d. per cent. per annum. ducting the non-paying dividend lines, the dividend on the remainder amounts to 2.09 per cent. for the half-year, or £4, 3s. 74d. per cent. per annum. "After ten years' competition with railways, the dividends received by the Canal Companies between London and Manchester were in 1846 Old Birmingham, "The dividends received by the Grand Junction ."--Stokers and Upon this statement Mr. Scrivenor makes the following observations: Now that "I hail these results of traffic as proving beObserve the yond question the future prosperity of the railways of the United Kingdom. result of traffic on canals, what rich dividends they have yielded to their proprietors; this, too, without the aid of passenger traffic. we have evidently entered upon a new epoch in the world's history, when the multitudes require to be provided with swift transit-when those who in no other epoch ever dreamt of traveling, now move about in masses-there is legitimate reason for concluding that that grand system by which the many are enabled to run to and fro with facility and ease, must in the end prosper beyond all former precedent. The railways have infused throughout the dense ranks of our population a quickening impulse for locomotion; they have kindled a taste in the public mind that will increase more and more ;--who shall tell its bounds,? But this we know, that this disposition to travel about on the part of the public must be productive of excessive prosperity to those who are possessed of railway property: it cannot be indulged without benefiting them; and according to the measure of its increase, so may be measured the railway dividends in years to come."-The Railways of the United Kingdom, &c., Introduction, pp. 22, 23. These views are doubtless very sanguine. We trust they will be realized, though under existing arrangements we do not perceive that they rest on any solid foundation. railway may be made with only a single line, With all the aid that can be derived from Having thus attempted to give our readers some account of the history and statisties of railway enterprise, and of the present deep cuttings and embankments, the engiand future prospects of railway proprietors, neer can seldom obtain a line as level as he we shall now proceed to make them accould desire. When the railway, as it often quainted with the nature and construction of necessarily does, runs from estuary to estua railway, considered as a grand mechanical ary, or from sea to sea, it must rise over invention; with the public works and ma-high elevations or mountain ridges, availing chinery which it requires, and with the im- itself of gorges or passes in the mountains, provements which are yet necessary to pre-level as low as possible. In such cases the so as to have its highest point or summit vent those dangerous collisions which were engineer divides his line into different porso frequent in its early history. tions called gradients. One gradient may be so inclined to the horizon as to rise one foot in a hundred, which is very steep, another, A railway is, properly speaking, and in its original and most simple form, a pair of rails or lines made of stone, wood, or iron, lying as level as possible, for the purpose of alone foot in five hundred, another, one foot in lowing carriages to convey goods or passen- a thousand, while some are nearly level. In lowing carriages to convey goods or passen gers along it without being retarded by fric- the Edinburgh and Glasgow line, for examtion. We have seen narrow paths of granite ple, there are ten gradients, varying from 1 which perform the functions of a railroad; level at the summit of nearly seven miles, in 880 to 1 in 5426, there being a perfect and wooden rails were very common in America when the invention was first intro- and one gradient of nearly eleven miles, duced. The rails of railways, however, are rising 1 in 1159. When the gradient is now almost universally made of cast-iron, very steep, of which we have examples both and rest upon what are called wooden sleep-at Edinburgh and Glasgow, the train is dragers, lying across the line, or sometimes upon long beams of wood, which support the rails in every part of their length. The gauge of a railway is the distance between the two rails, or between the rims of the opposite wheels which rest upon it. It is called the narrow gauge when the distance of the rails from centre to centre is from 4 to 5 feet; and the broad gauge, when they are 7 feet 2 inches wide, as in the Great Western.* A *In almost all the railways previous to the Great Western, the breadth of gauge was 4 feet 8 inches. In several of the Scottish lines the gauge is 5 feet 6 inches. The virtual combination of the two gauges on the same railway, for example, on the Oxford and Rugby line, as proposed by Mr. Brunel, is to be effected by "the introduction of a single additional rail to each line of rails, or separate railway, the outer rail of each railway being common to the two gauges." This arrangement "admits of the running of all the trains of both gauges into the same sidings, and up to the same passenger platforms." Captain Simmons, after a mature consideration of ged up by a fixed engine by means of iron ropes or chains, and it descends by gravity, regulated by brakes. At Glasgow, this gradient, one mile and 15 chains long, is inclined 1 in 43, and at Edinburgh 1 in 27. this plan, reports favorably upon it, and concludes with these words: "By avoiding all meeting points, by a separation of the gauges in the sidings and stations, and by most stringent regulations, preventing, under any circumstances, the connecting, in one train, of carriages of different gauges, I think the safety of the public will be guaranteed with ordinary care and supervision, and that the line may, by a strict compliance with these conditions, be rendered practi cally safe." Captain Simmons here admits that the combination of the gauges is theoretically unsafe. The elements of danger are already too numerous in the best formed and best managed railways to render advisable any changes of a doubtful character, and not loudly demanded either by the interests of shareholders, or for the accommodation of the public. The cautious and hesitating language used by Captain Simmons will, we trust, prevent that complication of lines which the proposed combination must produce. When a railway is executed between two towns, the line would be the best possible if it could, as in some highly favored localities, be perfectly straight and level; but in general this is impossible. If the country should be level, which is seldom the case, the interposition of gentlemen's country houses and grounds prevents the line of the railway from being straight; and though, in some cases, a certain degree of encroachment is permitted upon this kind of property, the railway proprietors must pay dearly for the privilege. When the surface of the country is undulating, the engineer, keeping as much as he can to a straight line, guides it in such a manner that the cuttings of earth from the elevation may as nearly as possible fill up the adjacent hollows; and when the elevation is lofty, he is obliged to cut a tunnel through the soil, or the rock, of which it consists. If there is a hollow occupied by a moss or a morass, he must bring earth from the nearest elevation to form an embankment, along which the rails may be laid. When the line of railway passes over well-frequented roads, or over rivers, a bridge must be built, along which the rails are laid; and when a broad valley, either with or without a stream, has to be crossed, a viaduct is constructed for the purpose. quented, the railway passes over it, and it is closed with gates when trains are about to pass, and again opened for the passage of carriages, the gate on each side closing the ends of the railway. This is called a level crossing, a contrivance which the public often successfully opposes on account of the obstruction it presents to carriages, and the danger to travelers. The cheapness of it, however, recommends it to the railway company, and many thousand pounds have often been spent in obtaining a decision favorable to one of the contending parties. When a road is not much fre The magnificent structures which the railway system has called into existence exhibit, in a striking degree, the wealth and enterprise of the nation, and some of them may even be ranked among the wonders of the world. The splendid edifices* which form the termini of railways at populous cities particularly, with the iron roofs which unite them, and protect the trains and the passengers from the weather, and the refreshment stations, such as those at Wolverton on the London and Birmingham, and Swindon on *The Euston Station in London cost £81,582. The great Dépôt at Camden, covering 27 acres, cost £114,385, and the Locomotive Engine Dépôt at Wolverton, £109,454. the Great Western, are too well known to passengers to require any description. The traveler who enjoys the luxuries they supply has generally time enough to admire and even to examine them; while he passes through tunnels and over bridges and viaducts, without knowing, except in the case of tunnels, that he is traveling over them. We shall, therefore, describe some of the more remarkable of these public works, in the conception and construction of which the genius and the talent of the engineer have been signally displayed. Some of the most interesting of these works are the tunnels, which it is necessary often to cut through hills or elevations of clay, gravel, or rock. At an early period in railway history the public took alarm at the idea of being carried through long tunnels excluded from the light of heaven, and breathing an atmosphere unventilated and polluted with subterraneous effluvia, and the artificial combinations of smoke and steam. In February, 1837, a committee of physicians, surgeons, and chemists inspected the tunnel at Primrose Hill, then in progress, 3750 feet long, 22 feet high, and 23 feet wide, with five shafts, about seven feet in diameter, for ventilation: They reported that the apprehension which had been expressed that tunnels would be detrimental to the health, or inconvenient to the feelings of passengers, "were perfectly futile and groundless," and experience has fully confirmed this decision. The tunnel near Kilsby, on the London and Birmingham railway, though 7270 feet long, is traversed without the slightest inconvenience or sensation of cold or damp, the change experienced being merely that from sunshine to shade, and from daylight to lamplight." This tunnel is one of the most remarkable, not merely for its size, but from the singular difficulties which were encountered in its construction. Its depth beneath the surface required to be about 160 feet, and it was to have two shafts or openings to the sky 60 feet in diameter, not merely to ventilate it, but to give sufficient light to allow the rails to be seen along its whole length. The strata beneath were found, by numerous borings, to be the shale of the lower oolite, and the work was contracted for for the sum of £99,000. Owing to its great length, it was necessary to have eighteen working shafts or earth or rock from the tunnel was to be reopenings to the surface, through which the moved. During the progress of the work it was discovered, to the astonishment both of |
