The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-23 00:00:00

Metropolitar• Subterranean Railway.

. • with which this new tine is wurking,
as id, vet be judged by its great and in-
creasing train .'arns, has up to the present in
finitely surpassed the expectations of its promoters.
Even when allowing a most liberal margin for the
numbers of merely curious visitors anxious to see
the line for the first time, the present daily re-
turns are still nearly one-third greater than were
anticipated. In fact, though the numbers are by
no means too large to please the company, or
even as large as they no doubt 'Will be when
the whole working arrangements are complete

—when extra trains are running, and, above all,
when the public get used to the speed and conveni-
ence of this main artery of communication—yet
for the present the rush of passengers eager to be
conveyed overtaxes the resources of a line so new
and so exceptional in character as to require the
most vigilant superintendence till all is in full work-
ing order. Just now plant, engines, and officials are
overworked ; and in the case of the engines this has
resulted sometimes in the annoyance of steam in the
tunnel, sometimes in the sulphureous gas being
drawn from the fires and let into the tunnel in suffi-
cient quantities to make it most unpleasent to the
officials, and even, though of course in a less degree,
to the passengers themselves. This inconvenience
is not so much due to the condensers of the engines
being too small as to the fact of the trains being
too large. The engines were built to work well
and condense all their steam with ordinary trains
of three or four carriages. Now the trains have
more carriages than these, and all of them are
absolutely crammed ; so that much more steam
is used to draw them than the condensers',
can possibly condense, and the driver is
obliged to exhaust the funnel—a process which
draws the gas from the furnace and sets it loose in
the covered way, to the annoyance of every one.
New engines with very large condensers have
already been ordered, and till these are ready the
passengers will have to put up with whatever in.
convenience the use of the present engines entail.
It is impossible, while the passenger traffic cot-
tinues as high as it is now, that any of the engines
can be spared from the line to bare their condensers
enlarged, for they are under steam nearly 18 hours
out of the 24, and in spite of every arrangement pas-
sengers have often to be left behind at the interme-
diate stations in the morning, the train being filled
at starting. The unexpected popularity of tile line
has, as we have said, been almost too much for its
resources. On last Sunday there were 38,000 pas-
,:en gers—about the maximum number the Crystal
Palace line ever takes down to Norwood and beck
even on the most crowded days. Ot course, with
the reduced boars of working on Sundays, it would
have been quite impossible to get this great num-
ber up and down the line had the quarter-hour inter-
vals between the trains been adhered to. The first
concession made on this day was to run the trains
at seven and a half minute intervals, but even this
was found insufficient, and it was eventually neees•
sary to start them, both east and west, at four mi-
nute intervals between each. We venture to think
that there is no valid reason whatever why the re-
gular five minute intervals should not be resorted
to during certain hours of the weekdays when the
passengers are most numerous and most eager to be
off. The whole line, it should be remembered,
was constructed for five minute trains, and
the stations purposely so placed that with
trains running at this interval apart there would
always be two clear stations between each, a
distance that would render collision acci•
dents almost impossible. In the same way the sys-
tem of mechanical signals was devised at a consi-
derable outlay of trouble and ingenuity. These
signals are about the best and most efficacious of this
kind that have ever been invented. They are so
arranged that while any signalman can put them
on to " danger" they cannot possibly be taken off
but at the station to which the train is going. Thus,
with a train starting at the Paddington terminus,
the signalman puts on the danger signal to prevent
of hers following, and in the act of putting it on the
" points" which give entrance to the line are shut
and locked, so that it becomes mechanically impos-
sible for another train to enter the line till the one
that has started has passed the station ahead, from
which point only can the danger signal behind
be removed. These signals are not used
now the line is being worked by the Great
Western Company by telegraph, but they must come
into use as soon as the number of trains is increased,
arrangements for which are already being made.
The first improvements in this respect will be by
the introduction of express trains, to run through
without stopping, in the morning to the city. and in
the afternoon from it. Increased facilities are also
about to be given for the issue of tickets. It was
thought that ample provision had been made in this
respect. but the great excess of traffic has in this, as
in other matters, rather deranged all the calcula-
tions which were made before the opening.
There appears to be not the least doubt but that
before long the whole line will have to be worked
night and day by a double staff, the late hours of
the night being devoted to goods traffic which the
number of passenger trains will make it necis-
sary to exclude from the line during the day.
Up to the present it has been found impossible
to make any arrangements for the transit of goods,
though the great lines with which the Subterra-
nean is in connection are most anxiously wishing
for it. A parcels train for small packages, once or
twice a day, will soon be attempted, but the great
bulk of the goods traffic must, we should think, be
taken in the night, after the passenger trains have
ceased running. This will necessitate an increasei
of staff, but the receipts from such extra hourslle
plan
of of course, far outweigh the expendituure.to
the
of lighting the carriages by gas a
pre-
sent, been found to work adriirahblays'bopth as regards
economy and power of illumination. The gas re-
servoirsinut filled
and
a
from
on the roof of eachi carriage
t om
can be
minutes
the stand .PiPes Al w
lasts nearly three hours.
As might half, and one filling
be expected from the success which
I
has 80 far attended the opening of the
first part of the line, it is intended to lose no
time in pushing its main length into the very
heart of the city near Moorgate-street. is Th• • •
pot tion
from the terminus at Farringdon-street is a little
over three-quarters of a mile, and will be made in
two br tnehes; one intersects Holborn-hill, or rather
Skinner-street, and continues its course due south
under the site of the old Fleet Prison to effect tajunc-
tion with the Chatham and Dover line, which is to
cross the Thames at Blackfriars. The other, and
the more important branch,—in fact, the main line,
is to be continued in a cutting through the ground
north of Smithfield and south of Charterhouse-square,
beneath the Barbican, into Finsbury, terminating
in an ample station, nearly an acre in extent, at the
back of Moorgate-street, on the west side. The
whole of this latter branch is to be an open cutting
varying from 20 to 25 or 30 feet deep and (Jf great

been ma-To-take this part of the line t
,dug
leastvaluahle Properties in the neighbourhooo, yet
the expense of completing this three-quarters of a
inilito Finsbury will be very great—nearly half as
-much as the whole of
_the rest of the workhas cost.
By its passing,.through the north side of Smithfield
it destroys a hideous nest of knackers' yards and
slaughter houses, blood refiners and glue and gut
makers, who now combine to poison the air in this
part of the city. As it also in this neighbourhood
dispossesses a number of poor people, and pulls down
their houses, a clause in the act compels the railway
to run two
_cheap trains each way, morning and
evening-,--for---tho poor people, at a uniform fare of
id. for the whole length of the line, or to any inter-
mediate stations. This clause, however, does Pot
come into force till the liue is finished to the City.
From Farringdon-street there will only be a slight
rise in the line to the north of Smithfield,and thence
to Finsbury it will be, taken at almost a dead level.
At 'all the- intersecti9ns cf streets along the cutting
—ttohetae allowantl
freeholds
of
theseech occur constantly—the bridges that will
continuo the roadway over the lines are intended to
be made nearly three-times the usual width, in order
atili.deier,theceticoonmpof
company shops and wtaorehous
es
rcimbdrseon
either 'side of the' road, and by renting or selling
themselves for a considerable share- of their outlay
In the cmt.ruction of the iihet I is intended to
insiie smuts; Blight improvement Vii t.l 101, 0i
two of the underground stations, though till more
has been seen of the working of the, line it is diffi-
cult to say how this may be effi.cted.

Naval and Military Intelligence.