The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-17 00:00:00

WHY WAS THE BROAD GAUGE
LAID ON THE GREAT WESTERN ?

(From the Railway Chronicle.)

We have already explained the leading principles on
which the adopti, n of the broad gauge was recommended
on the Great Western Railway. That principle, as
stated in the quotation we gave from Mr. Brunei's re-
port of Dec. 27, 1835, was—that different circumstances,
such as gradients, curves, and amount of traffic, called for
different gauges ; that therefore the curves and gra-
dients of the Great Western Railway, being superior to
those of any other railway at that time projected, re-
quired a different gauge from any other railway. We
demonstrated that this principle, leading directly as it
does to endless diversity of gauge, is utterly untenable,
and indeed ridiculous in practice ; and that no further
proof of this was required than the fact that the Great
Western Railway Company themselves had not applied
their own principle in practice on their own line, but
had actuary, in order to prevent a break of gauge, intro-
duced the gauee which was expressly stated by them to
be only adapted to gradients and curves of the best class,
and to lines of great traffic, upon lines with very inferior
gradients, curves, and traffic, much inferior, indeed, ix.
these respects, to those very lines which had been cited
by them as adapted to the narrow gauge, and not to the
broad.

This tacit acknowledgment, ley the advocates, in
theory, of diversity of gaur, of the necessity of uni-
formity of gauge, in practice we consider to be conclusive
on the question of the necessity of uniformity of gauge
throughout, England. If the Great Western
Company itself does not, from motives ofself-in_terest,
carry out its own principle of the necessity of adapting
the gauge to the character of the line, but is compelled
to adopt uniformity
g its own branches, in
what may be calledof the Great reat Western Railway
system, when that gauge, on
~their own admission, is
unfit for lines of the character of their branch lines, and
unnecessarily expensive as applied to such lines ; for the
very same reasons the country cannot, consistently with
its interests, admit of diversity of gauge in the national
railway system.
Without, then, going into the question whether the
broad gunge has in any measure succeeded on its own
line, the Great Western—expressly, we are told, made
for it and adapted to it—it is enough for us to know,
and that from the statement of the advocate of the broad
guage, that the broad guage is only adapted to such a
line as the Great Western (which, in point of the expense
which has been incurred in procuring first-class gra-
dients and curves, has fortunately no equal), in order
to prevent it from being extended into the branch lines
and extensions of the Great Western Railway, which
have far inferior curves and gradients to the main line.
In such lines it is, by the principles of its own advocate,
unfit : it is admittedly more expensive, and it directly
leads to a number of breaks of guage—nuisances so
great, demonstrated by the practice of the Great
Western Railway Company themselves, as most mate-
rially to detract from the value of any line of railway
communication on which they occur.
All the lines of last year obtained by the Great West-
ern Railway, whose construction is just now commenced,
come under this category—the Oxford, Worcester, and
Wolverhampton ; the Oxford and Rugby ; the Berks
and Hantz ; the Wilts and Somerset ; the South Wales
Railways—all bring the broad and narrow gauge systems
together at many points, and introduce many breaks of
gauge.
In this argument, which we believe to be unanswerable,
we do not moot the question of whether the introduc-
tion of the peculiarities of the broad gauge on the Great
Western Railway itself has been attended with suc-
cess or not. We will glance at this for a moment
in one point of view, and that we think the true point.
We grant :that the Great Western Railway is a
line of peculiar character ; its gradients (with the ex-
ception of two short inclines of 1 in 100) are all flatter
than 1 in 600 ; it is, in fact, for 120 miles, almost a dead
level. It has no curves sharper than one mile radius--
very few, we believe, so sharp. To obtain these peculiar
advantages, a peculiar amount of expense was required;
the experiment of such curves and gradients never has
been, and is not likely to be repeated. On such a line
it was plausible enough, in 1838, to hold that a peculiar
gauge might be advantageously introduced; so perhaps
it might have been, if lines of railway were like rows of
houses, having no necessary connexion with each other.
But the facility of intercommunication is the very pur-
pose and meaning of railways ' • it is the source of that
vastly increased traffic which alone can support them,
and which is the proof and reason of their being benefi-
cial to the countries into which they are introduced.
Throw an impediment in the way of this facility of in-
tercourse, obstruct the circulation of traffic, and you cut
off the heart's blood of the system ; an arrangement
which isolates a railway from its neighbours cannot be
good.

To return to our argument, or rather the argument of
the advocates of the broad guage—to what does it lead ?
In the first place, it settles the question of its being de-
sirable, if it were practicable, which it is not, to intro-
duce the broad guage on the present narrow gauge rail-
ways ; for, as the advocates of the broad gauge state, it
is only suited to a I.ne of peculiarly excellent curves and
gradients ; if you introduce it therefore on a line of or-
dinary curves and gradients, such as every line in the
country is compared to the Great Western line, you are
applying it to circumstances to which it is utterly un-
suited ; the consequence will be that you get a much
worse railway than the narrow gauge now affords—a
railway less safe, slower, less convenient, and much more
expensive. The huge weight of the engine and train of
the broad gauge causes them to be unsuited to ascend
the steeper gradients of the present narrow gauge lines,
the long axles unfit them for the safe passage round its
sharp curves, and the enormous vehicles are ill adapted
to the requirements of the traffic in goods and pas-
sengers.

Whatever, then, you may think of the broad gauge on
its own line, the Great Western Railway, it is certain
that to the very extent to which it is superior to the
narrow gauge (if it is so) on a line of the character of
the Great Western Railway, to that extent will it be in-
ferior to the narrow gauge on the existing lines now laid
to the narrow guage. For precisely the same reasons is
the broad gauge unsuited to the branches and extensions
of the Great Western Railway itself, these lines resem-
bling, as they do in curves and gradients, the existing
narrow gauge lines, and not the Great Western trunk
line.

By adopting the broad gauge, then, on your extension
lines, shareholders of the Great Western Company, you
are actually getting a worse railway than the narrow
gauge would give you on those lines, and that at a
much greater cost; you are adopting a form of railway
more expensive in its first construction, more expensive
in its working (see Reports of Commissioners), and
less convenient than the narrow gauge, a form under
which the traffic can never flourish so well as under the
more convenient form of the narrow gauge, and one
which, at the same time, separates you from the ge•
neral railway system of the country.

It is for you, proprietors of the Great Western Rail-
way Company, now to determine if it is wise to attempt
to keep up your exceptional gauge upon one isolated
line—a gauge which, while it confers doubtful and dis-
puted advantages on the traffic of the particular trunk
line to which it is said to be united, brings with it many
indubitable disadvantages to the extension lines from
which the trunk must hereafter look for support, and to
which, as its own advocates have argued, the broad gauge
is utterly unsuited.

The recommendation of the Commissioners to prevent
the broad gauge from being introduced on the extensions
of the Great Western Railway, is consistent not only-
with common sense and national policy, but with the
principle on which the introduction of the broad gauge
was justified in 1838, and with the real interests of the
proprietors of the Great- Western Railway.

CIVIL WAR IN THE CITY.—It was expected that the
indictments preferred by the Watermen's Steam-packet Com-
pany against the corporation pier at Blackfriars, and the in-
dictment of the St. Paul's-wharf floating pier, by the City
Solicitor, would not be prosecuted, and that. with the con
sent of the Corporation, the Watermen's Company would be
allowed to retain undisturbed possession of the very conve-
nient pier they had thrown out for the convenience of the
C
ven
itizens at St. Paul's-wharf, as well as to embark and land
Passengers at the Blackfriars-pier. The Corporation, how-
ever, are determined not to give
way, and have not only en-
listed their whole legal force against the Watermen's Com-
pany, of the Black-
pry, but have alto removed
friars-pier, which is erected close abutments of the
bridge, by writ of certiorari, into the Court
Bench. The Watermen's Company applied utorttlUief Cityf4ueen's
au-
thorities to remove the indictment against the St. I' '
wharf floating pier into the same Court, which theyaul
de-
clined doing, and wished to have it tried in' their own Court,
where the Recorder would preside. The directors of the
Watermen'a Company, on learning this determination, im-
mediately applied for and obtained a writ of certiorari for
removing the indictment into the Court of Queen's Bench.
Both indictments will, therefore, be tried in the same Court,
and will decide the alleged right of the Corporation to erect
piers, wharfs, embankments, and bridges on the river without
the authority of the Legislature.
AN ALLEGED CASE OF MURDER AT BROMPTON.—At
two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, J. Hinde, Esq., coroner,
held an inquest at the Golden Lion Inn, H. igh street,
Brompton, near Chatham, on the body of a married woman,
named Ann Allpresse, whose death, it was alleged, was caused
by her husband beating and kicking her on the night of the
4th inst. The evidence, which was very voluminous and
contradictory, occupied the court for nearly five hours. It
appeared that the husband and wife lived in lodgings in
Broad-alley, Brompton, and that he is an excavator, em-
ployed under Mr. Kitt, the contractor for forming the drain
opposite to the Dockyard. The deceased was represented to
be a well-conducted industrious woman. On the night in
question, the husband was out drinking at the Dolphin
public- house. The deceased and Jane Chaney, at whose
house they lodged, about half-past eleven o'clock at
night, went to the Dolphin, to fetch the husband home,
but they returned together without him, and in a few
minutes the deceased agaia went out alone to fetch
her husband. When she returned she was covered with dirt
and could not speak, and blood was running from her face.
The deceased next morning was found to be so ill that Mr. ,
Weeks, surgeon, was dent for by a neighbour, who found the
deceased in bed, and she complained of being very sore all
over her, with violent pains in her stomach and back, and
also her head; her left eye was much swollen and blackened ;
snd she had a severe contusion on the lower part of her
back, which she said were the effect of blows from her hus-
band given at the Dolphin public-house. The deceased re-
peated the same tale a few hours
tbefie her death,. which
took place on Monday evening last, Mr. Weeks eeks said that
death was caused by the blows received, as upon a post
mortem examination nothing was discoveredT to. cause. death,
the inside being perfectly healthy.
caused
einjuries had so
worked on the nervous system that they death. The
Coroner, after consulting with some of the jury, cleared
court. On its being opened, the Coroner ordered the husbandthe
of the deceased into custody-, and adjourned the inquest until
Friday. The prisoner was taken to the lockup-house,

The office of Clarencieux King of Arms, in the
- Herald's College, is vacant by the decease of Joseph Hawker,
F•B.A., who expired on the 10th instant, at the ad-
4/ranced age of $l.