The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-11 00:00:00

MK MIDLAND RAILWAY WORKS.

. the public improvements that are now
being e ected in London by means of nets of par-
liatoeitOmmeuse. capital, and engineering skill,
not the least conspicuous are the works ineonnezion
with the Midland Itailway, &tin:nee-craw Regarded
either as an addition to metropolitan conveni-
ences, or as another step in the direction of our
national railway the Midland Ratansion
from Bedford to on is an exceedingly impor-
tant undertaking. It would not, perhaps, be too
much to say that outside of the railway world there
is no great public work so little known as this. Now
that the new Midland terminus, opposite the Great
Northern Hotel, has begun to lift up its crown
high over the rest of that quarter, the attention
of the passer-by cannot fail to be per-
petually challenged by what is going on.
Crowds linger every day to note the imposing ep-
ee of the magnificent arch of iron anu the
FeevairaatTian structure of timber upon which the
,builders are performing their lofty avocations ; but
judging from overheard remarks, the admiring and
wondering looker on, tired perhaps of never ending
scaffoldings and stopped thoroughfares all over the
town, has seldom informed himself of the character
of the building. Before the summer upon which
we are entering is at an end this new sta-
tion, we are led to hope, will be opened
and in full operation. When the project was first
made known, the pcblic were informed that the
station would be one of the most splendid kind,
and worthy of the architectural skill of Mr. Gilbert
&oft, to whom the designs were entrusted ; and
by and bye, when the ornamental details of the
building are finished, the promise will no doubt be
fully verified, and London will possess another
railway station of which it need not be ashamed.
But of late months there have been such things as
railway difliculties in the country, and share-
holders meetings and consultation committees in
divers places, and hence it has come about that
this hotel scheme in connexion with the station,
and possibly some other features not absolutely
essential to the every-day working of goods and
passenger , traffic, are allowed to stand over " fur
the present. When, therefore, it is stated that
the now railway works will be finished during
the summer, the remark must be held to apply
solely to the sterner details necessary to the ac-
tual running of trains. Without, however, the
grand architectural embellishments, without the
Duthie clock tower at the north-eastern corner,
nearly 250 feet high, and without the mammoth
hotel, there is more than sufficient in the work the
Midland Company have in hand to justify their
enterprise.

In consequence of the difficulty experienced in
deviating from the levels of the Old dt. Pancras-
road, a portion of which skirts the southern edge
of the line, the new station occupies a considerable
eminence, its average level liqing as much as four
yards Above the neighbouring thoroughfares. On this
account it will open some 16 feet above the level of
the Euston-road, and opposite the block of build-
ings oae of the holm.s of which is surmounted by a
grimy lion, and devoted to the manufacture of Mor-
riaon s pills. When the houses now being de-
molished are gone it will be seen that there will be
a fine frontage of about 100 yards, and there are
to be ample cab approaches, not only here but from
every otherpussibledirceti,n. 'fhestatiou, the course
of which may now be plainly traced amidst the
confusion, will be 700 feet long, with side and cen-
tre platforms, with offices and rooms of the most
ample and complete kind, and with adjuncts that
will make it one of the best appointed, as well as
the finest in the country. As for the roof there is
nothing to compare with it in the world. Gigantic
as is its span—for it measure. 240 feet
across, and rises to a height of 100 feet above
the rail level—and constructed as it will
be of hundreds of tons of iron framing,
it looks so light and pretty from below that the
first impression is that it cannot possibly bear even
the glass and slate with which it is to be covered.
It is only when the pieces of framework are exa-
mined separately before being lifted into their
places, and the elaborate system of interlacing is
seen under which each section is made to bind the
other until the whole is girdered and " tied"
together in almost indissoluble bonds, that all fears
vanish, and the sceptic has the ground fairly taken
from beneath him.

AJBefore we can fully estimate the service that will
be rendered by this extension of the Midland
system, it is necessary to remember what that
system was, and what it is. Considerably leas than
half a century ago there was no Midland Railway
Company at all : at the present moment it possesses
about 700 miles of good line, and is adding to the
mileage every year. When the Midland Counties'
hue from Rugby to Derby and Nottingham, the
North Midland from Derby to Leeds and Sheffield,
and the Derby and Birmingham amalgamated into
the present concern, and even after the line was ex-
tended to Bristol in the west and Lincoln in the
east, it was regarded strictly as a mid-England
scheme, and no definite intention was entertained
of having a terminus in London. The natural
growth of the line at last compelled the step, and
if there had been no other remon, the opening
of the direct route to Manchester last year
would have been a sufficient excuse. The Midland
Railway runs by way of Leicester and Leeds to
Barrow, on the eastern coast of Lancashire (by
which direct communication is had with Belfast) ;
it branches off to Peterborough and Lincoln on the'
right • and throws out more auxiliary lines to the
left than it would be easy to enumerate, the main
Point, however, being that there is, as it were, a
second main line from London, Bristol, rid Birm-
ingham, Burton, Derby, Buxton, and Stockport, to
Manchester. All this is good, sterling, trading
country ; and in addition the line does not lack
those picturesque features which give some charac-
ter to a railway even in a practical country like
this. The run through Derbyshire, for example,
PI-tees before the traveller a perfect wealth of ro-
mantic scenery, multiplied in a variety of shapes.
The excavations from Derby to Buxton were of
the severest kind, presenting hard rock and
treacherous soil at every turn, one tunnel, not of
great length, taking more than tour years to work
out. Then the company has powers for other under-
takings. The Settle and Carlisle Extension
would have almost enabled them to build
a station at Gretna-green, but that pro-
ject, though not abandoned, has been some-
what checked by the unkindly turn of re-
cent railway events. From this brief sketch
of the general system, and remembering how great
is the mineral traffic that comes out of the Mid-
land Counties, the paramount importance of a
London terminus proclaims itself.

Hitherto, however, the Midland Company has
only got to London by the aid of the Great
Northern system from Hitchin. The extension, of
which the works we are describing are the finish,
is from Bedford to London, and it coven the
district between the Great Northern and London
and North Western lines. It is over 50 miles long,
was opened for roods traffic last September, and
but for the unfinished state of the London
terminus would be ready for passenger ser-
vice at once. It will open up some new
and pleasant ground for townsfolk who can spare
time and expense for short trips into the fresh
country, and will give travelling facilities to locali-
ties that have suffered long enough from their lack.
There are to be, or already are, stations in Camden-
road, Kentish-town, Haverstock-hill, Finohley-
road, Hendon, Mill-hill, Metres,
Aldenham, St. Alban's, Harpenden, Luton, Sea-
grave, Harlington, Ampthill, and Bedford. After
getting clear of the environs of London, which we
may safely limit at the Welsh Harp at Hendon
(over against which tho line crosses the upper por-
tion of the fishery), the country is spread out, rich
in agricultural produce, and charming in its diver-
sified phases of rural hearty. •
The first five or six miles out of London have,
as may be expected, been mastered with much
labour. Down to the river Brent, which is about
six and a half miles distant, and where there will
be a large depot for sorting goods, there are four
lines of rails laid, two to be used exclusively for
, and two exclusively for goods traffic.
passe
prospectnger this affords of few delays and few