The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-20 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

DEVIZES AND THE GREAT WESTERN.

The inhabitants of Devizes, finding that the Hunger-
ford Extension of the Great Western from Hungerford
to Westbury would not place their town upon the main
line, but only accommodate it with a branch some
three miles off at Fullaway, a place that no one seems
to know or care about, resolved on meeting to me•
morialise the Company on the question. The Mayor
presided, and
Mr. ANSTIE, in opening the business, said that, in
consideration of. Devizes being an assize town, and the
principal market town in the county of Wilts, it was of
vital importance to the inhabitants of the town and its
vicinity that the projected line through Westbury and
westwards should pass through Devizes ; and proposed
that, in the presumption that such line could not be un-
unfavourable to the interests of the Great Western
Company, a communication to the directors be made
to that effect. It would be superfluous to take up
the time of the meeting by showing the many advan-
tages which must accrue to Devizes from a trunk rail-
way passing through the town, those advantages must
be obvious to all. The line would go through Marl-
borough and thence direct to Devizes, it also showed
branches to Bath and Bristol. Their object in call
ing, the meeting was to confer with the Great Western
Company, and to endeavour to induce them to alter
the course at present marked out, and to make the
point of junction at Devizes. He then alluded to the
grounds on which their opinions of the plan had been
formed. As the principal difficulty had been stated to
lie in the district between Lockridge Dean and Devizes,
he would state that Mr. Waylen, who was present, had
taken the trouble to ascertain the levels of that portion
of the line, and would exhibit a section of the ground
from the Wansdyke behind Walker's-hill to Devizes,
showing the practicability of a gradient of one in 160
from the Wansdyke to Coate. If he (Mr. Anatie) was
wrong in supposing that here lay the great difficulty to
the Great Western Company, he hoped some gentleman
would correct him ; but if it was as he represented it to
be, he could not see what there was to prevent them
from having the trunk line through Devizes and then on
to Westbury. He would not take up the time of the
meeting any longer, as doubtless Mr. Hayter would ex-
plain the Company's reasons for not coming through the
town.

Mr. J. WAYLEN said that in seconding the motion the
only observation necessary to add was one in explana-
tion of the section he had taken, viz., that though the
ground whence this section commenced (viz., at the
Wansdyke) exhibited undulations, yet that taking the
average of those undulations, they offered facilities for a
uniformly gradual descent of thirty-three feet in a mile,
over a space of six miles—equal to a gradient of one in
160. If this must be regarded as an impracticable
gradient he had no more to say. There being only a
height of 200 feet to descend (that being the highest
point necessary to attain between Devizes and Marl-
borough), there was no obstacle to its being dispersed
over the proposed distance of six miles.
Mr. HAYTER, M.P., one of the directors of the Great
Western, addressed the meeting on behalf of that com-
pany. The line sought to be obtained on the present
occasion was not in his opinion adapted to benefit the
public interest, but rather to injure it. The line by
which Devizes is to be approached has been called a
branch, as if it were a mere branch passing alone to
some other line in which none of them were interested.
Why, what has been the complaint of the town of De-
vizes hitherto ?—that its old accustomed traffic is inter-
rupted by the means of the railway, and they ask to
have this traffic restored They did restore it, and re-
stored it by a trunk and not by a branch.—(Cheers and
cries of " Hear, hear.") The line goes from Reading
to Hungerford, and thence through Devizes and Melks-
ham to Bath ; and thus restoring the communication
from London and Bath. It is true it omits the town of
Marlborough, but the communication between this town
and Marlborough is not surely of sufficient importance
to induce us to alter our plan. The truth was that
every one knew that the intercourse with Devizes mar-
ket is from the westward, where the consuming popula-
tion reside, and that corn is sent to Bath and Bristol and
not to Marlborough. By this line they gave a direct
communication in one direction to London, and in the
other to Bath, Bristol, Exeter, and the Lord only knows
where besides, probably to the Land's End, which
most likely they would reach before they had done.—
(Laughter.) As to the line proposed to pass through
the town, taking Marlborough in its route, it is said it
is a much better line, and that it is more advantageous
to pass through Devizes before diverging westward.
But it did not restore your old communication, for which
you have so devoutly wished. It did more, it was some-
thing different from the original communication, was in
fact entirely a new route. He ventured to say that the
gradients upon the line desired were much worse than
on the one the Great Western proposed. The desired
line would be objectionable by reason of the tunnel ;
one of the great objections against the Great Western
line was the Box-tunnel ; it was said, " Good gracious I
are you going to carry us through that hole? You must
make the line as desirable as you can, but you must
have no tunnel." Instead of the proposed line being an
easy comfortable line, it will have to pass through two
tunnels. The Great Western are called a set of tyrants
because of the Box-tunnel, but this one you will have us
to make is nearly as long—(No, no, and a voice, " It is
only three-quarters of a mile," to which Mr. Hayter
replied, "You've never measured it I'm sure.") Well,
that is not all, how do you get into Devizes, under or
over ? Why, through another tunnel.
Mr. GILBERT thought there were three things they
should consider. 1. The advantage of the line afforded
them. 2. Whether the Great Western can do otherwise
than they are disposed to do? 3. What will be the effect
of a hostile resolution being passed? Every gentleman
must know that whatever would tend to increase the
market must be of benefit to the town. It was well
known, too, that corn sells at a higher price at Devizes
than at Newbury ; and if they had this line, they would
get corn from Newbury, which they could not now do.
Mr. Gilbert having spoken of the advantages of the line,
as regarded the market, said—Suppose the Great Western
were disposed to take that line, as it was known they
were hard pressed by the South-Western, another com-
pany would run a line from Andover through Devizes,
and thus take off the traffic from London. Having re-
ferred to the time when he had in 1844 urged upon
them the claims of the South-Western Company,
when they refused a direct line, Mr. Gilbert said he
now pressed this point upon them, that the Great Western
was the only company which could offer them help.
They could not get the South-Western ; the Kennet
and Avon Company could do nothing for them. The
effect of a resolution being passed which was hostile to
the Great Western Company, would be, that they would
say, " We have gone out of our way to save them, and
we will now for the future merely consider our own in-
terests." The only disadvantage is this, if you want to
go to Exeter it would be at a loss of ls., or little less
than an hour. The much better way was to keep on good
terms with the Great Western.
After considerable discussion, a committee was ap-
pointed to confer with Mr. Brunel and the company on
the subject.

ELY AND PETERBOROI7OH.—It is understood that
there is no prospect of the opening of this line at pre-
sent, in consequence of the difficulty of forming a solid
foundation over
the Wash. Hundreds of loads of timber
disappeared, as though they had floated
vraeyE3euinrntLidrix
tR
under
entirely
heANDsurf
NENAGH.—Owing to the difficulty
of procuring payment of calls on Irish lines, the directors
have come to the resolution not to proceed with the works
of this line until the Great Southern and Western is open
to Templemore.
SOUTH WALEs.—The progress made in the opera-
tions excites a lively interest throughout the South
Wales counties. That portion of the line in the vicinity
of Maindee and Cardiff is in a forward state. The river
Usk is crossed by a bridge, constructed of wood, sup-
ported by stone piers on each side, and is intended to
be 65 feet above low water mark. The tunnel at Hill
Field, near Newport, has been commenced. It passes
under the depth of 200 feet, through hard rock. Four
shafts have already been sunk.. The inhabitants in the
district are seriously affected by the operations, the
sunken
osfha thefts hgarveinagt
depthdra belowwnoffallatllhethweatwere,llsin conse-
quenceinthetown, particularly in Newport. The baths attached to
spring
he Bryn
wells
y af
tr i
Hill-field
are
arerendered
quiteuseless,
dry.
The
e estimated famous
time for the completion of the whole line, is three years.
TELEGRAPH AND TRAVELLER'S LUGGAGE.—A gen-
tleman belonging to Falkirk was lately booked at Leeds
for Newcastle, by the York and North Midland Rail-
way. His luggage was given in charge to one of the
Company's servants, and ere the train started the gen-
tleman was told that "all was right." On arriving at
the York station inquiry was made for the luggage,
which contained valuable documents, but which could
not be found. Application was made to the superin-
tendent of the railway telegraph—the alarm bell was
touched—the vibrations reached Leeds—from which, in
the course of three minutes the following colloquy was
finished between the superintendent at York and his
correspondent at Leeds :—" Is a carpet bag and hat
box with you, addressed Mr. " Yes."—" For-
ward it by first down trap." "Yes "—" Did you not say
of the luggage All's right ? "Yes."—" Then for-
ward it to the Falkirk station at your own expense."
"Yes." In due course the luggage reached Falkirk sta-
tion, " all right," and free of charge.
THE MADRID AND VALENCIA.—The Spanish share-
holders have, it is understood, taken the whole of their
portion of the shares, amounting to 27,000, on which
the deposits of 21. 2s. per share will be paid into the
National
,Bank of Madrid by the, end of this month.
For this a guarantee has been given to the English
directors by the Spanish directors, consisting of the
most influential and wealthy men of Madrid. Special
reference will be made to a very important concession,
which the chairman of the company has obtained from
the Spanish Government, namely, permission to make
the line in sections, so that instead of contracting for
the entire line (nearly 200 miles
in length) at once, the
directors will confine their attention in the first instance
to the construction of twenty-seven miles, begin-
ning at Valencia, and ending at a town of consider-
able importance. As this portion of the line is a dead
level, the directors calculate on being able to have it
ready for working in little more than a year, and as the
construction will be singularly cheap, and the district
through which it passes is rich and populous, the direc-
tors express their perfect confidence in its yielding a re-
venue which will enable directorsthe to divide from
twelve to fifteen per cent. immediately upon its opening.
No call will be made for twelvemonths to come, in other
words, not until the first section of the lineis on the eve
of completion, and very possibly not until it is in actual
working order. It is not the intention of the directorsto make any allotment at the present time of the unap-
propriated shares of the company, but these shares will
shareholders,
hereafterewhen h
rateablyte directors apportioned
confidently am o
among the
anticipate,original
froth an improved position of the stock in the market,
they will be deemed a boon by the shareholders.