The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-05 00:00:00

Completion of the Metropolitan Railway.

It is now finally decided that the Metropolitan
Railway will be opened on Saturday next. Every-
thing that care and caution could suggest for the
safe and efficient working of the line has been adopted,
and tried and tested repeatedly, and the result is
that the Board of Trade is fully satisfied with the
report of their officer. The directors, though much
avnoyed at the repeated postponements of the open-
ing, are still glad that the preliminary examina-
tions have been so complete and searching in their
character, and the public at large will have addi-
tional confidence in the merits and safety of the
railway. On Saturday, Mr. Wilkinson, the chair-
man of the company, several of the directors; Mr.
Fenton, the manager of the line; the Great Western
directors, and Mr. Tanner, their superintendent,
met at the Farringdon-street station to make the
final arrangements for conducting the traffic of the
line, and for the banquet which is to be held to cele-
brate the completion of this great metropolitan im-
provement. The directors of the Great Western
Railway Company travelled over the line from Pad-
dington, and the working of all the signals and
points was minutely explained to them. The delay
which Las occurred in the opening of the line is due
entirely to the mechanical arrangements provided
for working these signals, and the Great Western
Company, who have undertaken to work the line,
natually felt some anxiety on this subject. Their
engineer is perfectly satisfied with the arrangements,
and every practical engineer who has examined the
signals has stated that they are well adapted for
the work which they have to perform. Mr. D. W.
Harvey, the Commissioner of the City Police, has
given his consent to the attendance of the police
band at the dinner OA Friday next as instrumen-
talists, About 600 persons will be invited to din-
ner, and the chair will be occupied by Mr. A. W.
Wilkinson, chairman of the company. A number
of trial trains will run upon the line to-morrow, at
intervals of a quarter of an hour, stopping at each
of the stations in the same manner as though the
line were in actual operation.
No railway of the same length yet constructed in
this country has had so many difficulties to en-
counter as this Metropolitan line. For years the
scheme languished, its Act of Parliament had all
tut expired, and by common consent the whole pro-
ject appeared to have been abandoned as imprac-
ticable. It was to Mr. Charles Pearson, the late
City Solicitor, that the public owe the revival of
the scheme. With an energy and perseverance
which no difficulties could subdue, he set himself
to the task of creating a public feeling in its
favour. He even succeeded in inducing the im-
movable Corporation of London to become share-
holders in the undertaking to the extent of some
£200,000. Almost every resident in the City was
canvassed and asked to take a small number of
shares; the Great Western Railway, seeing that
the directors were really in earnest, subscribed
£160,000, and contractors were found in Messrs.
Jay and Messrs. Smith to undertake the responsibi-
lity of making the line, taking a large part of the
payment in shares, and being debited regularly with
the amount of calls upon them as they became due.
Finally, all the capital was subscribed. Then came
no end of troubles of a legal and parochial charac-
ter. Vestries very properly looked with suspicion
on a scheme which for months would obstruct the
thoroughfares and inflict serious injury upon the
householders and ratepayers ; commissioners of
sewers saw long vistas of trouble which would arise
from the disturbance of the sewers; and gas com-
panies and water companies were apprehensive of
the damage which would be done to their mains and
service pipes during the progress of the works.
When at length all these obstacles were duly con-
sidered, objections removed, and security given
against damage, then came the mechanical and en-
gineering difficulties. These were of no inconside-
rable character. As a general rule, great sewers
existed in the exact line proposed to be taken by
the railway. These had to be removed, and new ones
built on one or other side of the railway tunnel, and
in some cases so limited was the space that a por-
tion of the sewer had actually to be built in the
brickwork of the tunnel: In another case, the sewer
lay at right angles across, and just at the level of,
the railway; here the sewer had to dip under the
tunnel. Sewers ran above, below, and around the
great tunnel. The same re-arrangement, though not
attended with the same difficulty, existed in the
cases of the gas and water mains. The most formi-
dable works was, however, near that famous Fleet
Ditch, now the sewer which drains the high
ground of Hampstead and Highgate, and pours its
tributary stream into the Thames, at Blackfriars.
Twice in its short courec from King's-cross to
Farringdon-street does the railway pass under this

stream. In one part this sewer, carried across the
_ -

railway in an iron aqueduct, forms part of the tun-
nel. The work of diverting this body of water,
swollen in wet weather to a rapid stream, was,
however, accomplished with success. Many novel-
ties were required in the construction of the under-
ground railway 1 of these not the least important
were the formation of Junctions with two branch
lines leading up to the Midland Railway at
King's-cress, and the formation of a box for the
men to work the points at the junctions. At la= t
when the great work seemed to have approached
its completion, the Fleet sewer broke in upon the
line in the open cutting at Farringdon-street,
as though vindictive at having been successfully
mastered at other parts in its course, It was, how-
ever, to the wretched character of the decaying
brickwork of the Fleet sewer at this point that the
rushing stream owed its temporary advantage over
the railway. The scene of desolation which for a
few weeks prevailed has all been changed, the Fleet
Ditch passes on by a new and substantially built
cloaca to the Thames. At least half of its water will
be cut off by the high-level sewer, and another large
portion will be intercepted by the middle-level
sewer of the great main-drainage scheme, and the
Metropolitan Railway will in future occupy, in
perfect security, the watercourse which for centu••
ries has poured its polluting waters into the river.
The construction of the stations involved many
points which required very careful consideration,
for there was no experience of working stations in

a railway tunnel NN hich could assist those responsible

for the work. The signals, again, have proved, as
our readers are aware, an unfailing source of trouble.
Actuated by a desire to make these essentials of a
railway as efficient as possible, the engineers made

their mechanism tou complex and too difficult to
work with the required ease. A very important
alteration in the engines and carriages was also con-
sidered necessary. It was obvious that passengers
for short distances would not, and could not, travel

in a tunnel which was continually filled with the
sulphurous smoke and steam from the engines
which would run so frequently. The engines were
required, therefore, to consume their own smoke,
and to condense their steam. Engines may be
made to do this for short distances as between
the termini of this railway. The water carried

in the tender of an engine is necessarily
limited, and the steam discharged into the condenser
quickly raises it to a high temperature, when
of course it ceases to be available for condensing
purposes. On the arrival of a train at either
terminus the heated water has to be discharged,
and cold applied in its place. This arrangement
involved a considerable amount of detail for con-
veying the water to suitable reservoirs. But we

might greatly extend the long catalogue of
difficulties with which the undertaking has suc-
cessfully struggled, and from which it has now
finally extricated itself.
The scale of fares which have been fixed by the
directors are not so low as the public might have

expected ; but in settling them the board was
actuated by a desire to test the working of the
line fully before they sought to attract crowds of
passengers by very low rates. For the whole dis
t
Paddington to Farringdon-street, the
fare c e
will be ,
:—First-class, 6d. ; second, 4d.; third,
an
3d.—return tickets, 9d., 6d,, and 5d., according to
class. For intermediate stations, or to or from
Portland-road station to Farringdon•street o:
Paddington, 4d., 3d., and 2d.—return tickets being

respectively 6d., 4d., and 3d. Parliamentary trains
will run at the stipulated rate of ld. per mile; but
the fare by them will, in reality, be no lower for

the third-class than by ordinary trOns, as the dis-
tance is 31 miles, and the ordinary third cis ss tare
3d. The company are not bound by the .slet to run
what are called " working-men's trains," a.ld which
are required by all acts passed during the fast two
years, in cases where the railway has destroyed any
dwellings of the poorer classes. The Metropolitan
Railway has not touched any property of this de-
scription. It will do so, however, in the course of its
extension to Finsbury, and by the act authorising
that portion the company are bound to run a train
night and morning at N ery reduced rates. It was a
part of the project of the late Mr. Pearson to have a
number of workmen's dwellings erected at Worm-
wood Scrubs, to which the working classes would
be conveyed cheaply by the railway; but as no
colony of this sort has yet been founded, no neces-
sity has arisen for running the cheap artisan trains.