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. Brunel'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 Railivay, 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 tact that the Great
Western Railway Company themselves had not applied
their own principle in practice on their own line, but
had actually, in order to prevent a break of gauge, intro-
duced the gauge which was expressly stated by them to
be only adapted to gradients and curves of the test class,
and to lines of great traffic, upon lines with very inferior
gradients, curves, and t; atfie, much inferior, irdeecl, in
these respects, to those very lines which Ii d been cited
by them as adapted to the narrow gauge, and not to the
broad.

This tacit acknowledgment, by theadvocaotresu,nii.
in
theory, of diversity of gang,. of the necessity
fortuity of gauge, in practice we consider to be conclusive
on the question of the necessity of uniformity of gauge
throughout. Ergland. If the Great West,rn Railway
Company itself does not, from motives of self-interest,
carry out its own principle of the necessity of adapting
the gauge to the character of the line, but is compelled
to adopt uniformity of gauge on its own branches, in
what may be called the Great Western Railway
system, when that gauge, on their own admission, is
-unfit f'or 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 guage 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 statemt,nt of the advocate of the broad
guwi
line
egahes,
ht
the
osaGt
breteehanet b.%
vi rnoceaus dtrerrgenud gwiE
lei i
pieshr oci nnu lrypi
:agi dn atfipor
strettdtetl oa
se
xss
pu
eg
rc
expense.
clients 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-
Railway,
ht
coas et
ecgoonr
ei ono ixsitjursdi, n
lovwo cr :ems
re,n cea
ndd,
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-
cel Lion 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
Kluge 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 facilityof inter communication 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-
terc.,urse, 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
g: )od.

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, it 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 affurds—a
railway has safe, slower, less convenient, and much more
expensive. The huge weight of the engine and train or
the broad gauge causes them to be unsuited to ascend
the steeper gradients of the present narrow gauge lines,
its
sharp long axles unfit them for the safe passage round
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 resew,
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
muc 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 guage, and one
which, at the same time, separates you from tho ge,
neral railway system of the country.

It is for you, proprietors of the Great Western Titaii.
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 lies from
which the trunk must hereafter look for sup:port, and to
which, as its own advocates have argued, the broad gauge
is utterly unsuited.
The recommendation of the Cominissiouers to prevent
the broad gauge from being introduced on the extensions
4,f 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.
A_

1 —,----- ,
CIVIL WAR IN THE CITY.-It was expected Cud the
indictments preferred by the Watermen's Steam-packetulib;.
Com-
pany against the corporation pier at Blackfriars, and toohenyinei
dictment of the St. Paul's-wharf floating pnivere,neneteheofCtit: e
not be prosecuted, and
wthcoaelbwair.t
andthe cl44land.
sent of the Corporation, the Watermen'a Company
iaetr they
st.pahualla-twhhrtaisren,
as
soatw
well
lr the
u
allowed to retain undisturbed possession of the very
Solicitor, would
cniiteinzetnsp
passengers at the Blackfriars-pit,' Th
ever, are determined not to give way, and
Corporation, how-
listed their whole legal force •Y 9 and have not only en-
ag
Com-
pany, but have al:o removed
thea against the \Vatermen's
indictment of the Black-
friars-pier, which is erected close
bridge, by writ of certiorari, to the abutments of the
into the Court of Queen's
Bench. The Watermen's Company applied to the City au-
thorities to remove the indictment
against the St. Paul's.
wharf floating pier into the same
Court, which they de-
clined doing, and wished to have it tried in their own Court,
where the Recorder would preside. The directors of the
Waterme ' n 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 BRONPTON.—At
two o'clock op Tuesday afternoon, J. Blade, Esq., coroner,
held an inquest at the Golden Lion Inn, High 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 mid 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 rain
resentded to
opposite to the Dockyard. The deceased was rep O n _ t .n.
be a well-conducted industrious woman. the i
e nl
hln
question, the husband was out drlnkingiaante l.) p
, at whose
public- house. The deceased and Jane
el Cl
ve
en3' o'clock at
house they lodged, about half-Nst
the
husband home„
night, went to the Dolphin, to _fetch
but they returned together wit_ebri,t,w t
him, and in a few
out alone to fetch
minutes the deceased again y,
d she was covered with dirt
her husband. When she returned . _ h
and blood was running from er face,
and could not speak.
d next morning was found to be so ill that MN
=rsllgreon, was sent fir 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;
and 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 !vs
peated the same tale a few hours before her death, which
took place on Monday evening last. Mr. Weeks ' _ said that
Leath was caused by the blows received, as upon a post
azortem examination nothing was discovered to cause death,
the inside being perfectly healthy. The injuries had so
worked on the nervous system that they caused death. The
Coroner, after consulting with some of the jury, cleared the
court. On its being opened, the Coroner ordered the husband
of the deceased into custody, and adjourned the inquest until
Friday. The pi isoner was taken to the lockup-house.
The offlee of Cl,rencieux King of Arms, in the
ilerald's College, is vacant by the decease of Joseph Hawker,.
E•q., F.S.A. who expired on the 10th instant, at the ad...
i Tamed age Of 81,