Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-02-14 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES MONDAY, FEBRUARY 'l4, 1859

and others of only 4 1-10 years; while of some rails
of the Montour (American iron purchased in the
early part of 1851), about 1,000 tons have proved
to be of a very superior quality, and exhibit a
durability of 12 65-100 years. There are many
things, it is admitted, to affect the wear of iron,
which are not apparent to a casual observer. The
same quality of iron on a dry and well-ballasted
road-bed, with adequate drainage at all times, and
with good and abundant- cross-ties and joint
fastenings, always kept in adjustment, will show
a durability at least twice as great as when laid
on a road-bed of common earth or clay, with
ordinary cross-ties and joint fastenings, and in-
adequate drainage. But then they say, that
while, with respect to their own line, " as there
is no road in this country equally well ballasted
and drained in all its parts, and none having
everywhere the same character of cross-ties and
jOint fastenings, so the• wear of iron will riot be the
same on its different sections ;" and that therefore
this' variation in road-bed may account for the
various degrees of durability of the iron to some
extent. " Nevertheless, in our case," they declare,
" there is a sufficient margin to enable us to decide
upon the preferable iron with tolerable accuracy."
And their decision is of course against the general
quality of English iron.

This has very natural led to their adoptiOn, of
late years, of their own native material. " For two
or three years past," they state, " we have laid
down wholly American iron, either from the
Montour Works, or from the establishment of
REEVES, BUCK and Co., weighing fifty pounds per
lineal yard, instead of iron of sixty and sixty-five
pounds per yard, as formerly. We save in the
material, and consequently in first cost, twenty or
thirty per cent. The quality and the manUfac-
lure of the light iron is superior to the heavy iron,
and thus a more uniform rail is secured. This iron
has not been laid sufficiently long to enable us to
estimate, with entire- accuracy, its durability.
Light iron of this kind requires a more careful
preparation of the road-bed, more perfect drainage
and adjustment of the joint fastenings, and about
twenty-five per cent. more cross-ties. Laid in this
way, it will probably be found as durable, or more
so, than a rail of sixty or sixty-five pounds per
yard. A fair estimate of the average dura-
bility of the iron, based upon the experience
of this road, is ten years, or in other words,
we must lay ten miles of new track annually
to keep the road up in a state of entirely reliable
efficiency." This is likely, then, it is evident,
to lead to a large diminution in the demand for Eng-
lish iron,—the more especially as there is .plenty
of iron in the very State through which their line
runs. It shews, we think, the impolicy, in the
long run, of the spirit of competition which, by
beating down the price of an article, necessitates
a deterioration of the quality. Had our English
Railway iron continued to be, as it is admitted it
was " in the early days of Railroads," so good
that the rails are still pronounced " the best that
have ever been laid down," it is more than
probable that England would have continued to
furnish their principal supply. But a different, a
deteriorated system of doing business is having
the effect of taking that trade away from us,—a
trade, be it remembered, of at least some three
millions sterling a-year.