The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-20 00:00:00

2dly, To ordinary or mixed trains ;
idly, To vied' trains ; and
4ttily, To the conveyance of your Majesty's forces.
1. Fast or express trains.

We believe that the inconvenience produced by a break of gauge
will, in some respects, be less felt in these thau in other trains, be-
cause the passengers travelling by fast trains are usually of a class
who readily submit to many inconveniences for the sake of increased
speed on the journey, and who are, -perhaps, generally lees encum-
bered with luggage than persons travelling by the slower trains ; and
as It is understood to be the general practice that no private carriages
or horses are conveyed by these trains, the inconveniences of a break
or gauge are reduced in this instance to the removal of the passengers
and a moderate quantity of luggage ; and although such removal
must create delay and some confusion, as well as personal discom-
fort, especially at night and in the winter season, besides the risk of
a loss of luggage, yet we do not consider the break of gauge in this
instance as being an inconvenience of so grave a nature as to call for
. _ .

any legislative measures, either for its removal or for its mitigation.
2. Ordinary or mixed trains.
In these trains the passengers considerably exceed in number those
who travel by the fast trains, and they have generally a much
greater quantity of luggage. To such travellers a change of carriage
is really a serious inconvenience, and it is a well-known fact that

person; travelling by railways in communication with each other,
but under different managements, endeavour to make such arrange-

merits as to admit of their travelling by those train; which afford
them the accommodation of occupying the same carriage froth the
beginning to tht end of the journey.
The managers and directors of railways are well aware of this
feeling, and In some instances where they do not allow their car-
riages to run through, yet with a view of diminishing the incon-
venience to which this exposes their passengers, they send a luggage
van from terminus to terminus, to prevent the evil of a removal of
the passengers' luggage; and some railway companies incur con-
. . .

sidorable expense in running trains of return empty carriages, in
order to accommodate the public by enabling travellers to avoid a
change of carriage on the journey.
It is by the ordinary or mixed trains that private carriages and
horses are conveyed, and the removal of either from one truck or
horse-box to another, at any part of the journey, would be attended
with inconvenience and delay ; and with regard to the horses, it
would involve considerable risk.

We arrive, therefore, at the conclusion, that the break of gauge
would inflict considerable inconvenience on travellers by the trains

novi under consaisration, and that this inconvenience would be usuch
increased at points of convergence of more than two lines.
The change of carriages, horse-boxes. and trucks, and the trans-
ference of luggage of an entire train of much extent, must, even in
the day-time, be an inconvenience of a very serious nature ; but at
night, it would be an intolerable evil; and we think legislative inter-
ference is called for to remove or mitigate such an evil.

3. Goods trains.
From the statements made to us by carriers on railways, and from
our own observation, we are induced to believe that not only a con-
siderable degree of care, judgment, and experience are necessary in
the stowage of merchandise in railway waggons, but also that it is
desirable that, when properly packed, the articles should, generally
speaking, not be disturbed until the journey is completed. We find
that in the arrangement of merchandise the heavier goods are placed
at the bottom, and the lighter at the top of the load, and so secured
as to prevent friction, as far as practicable, from the jolting of the
waggons : and it is considered very desirable, with a view to prevent
loss by pilfering, that the sheeting which is placed over the load
should not be removed till the completon of the journey. Indeed,
acting upon this principl,-, carriers find It profitable to send their
waggons partially filled from various stations on the line, thereby in-
creasing their toll to the railway company, rather than incur the risk
of loss by theft, to which they would be exposed by uncovering the
waggons on the journey, to fill up with intermediate local goods
wogg ns that may have started with light loads from one of the
termini. _ _ _ _

.....
The stations for re-arranging the goods trains are therefore as few
as possible • .thus, between Leeds and London, the points for un-
sheeting die 'goods ivag,g ns are only' Derby and Leicester, and be-
tween Liverpool and London, the re-arrangement is confined to
Birmingham and Rugby, and even at those stations the proportion of
waggons which are uncovered is very small ; indeed it Is stated that
at the Important town of Birmingham five-sixths of the waggons
pass without arrangeme-,t.
In the conveyance of machinery and articles of a shnllar class,
which are both heavy and delicate, it is of the utmost consequence
that the.load should not be disturbed between the beginning and the
ea of the journey ; a change of carriage, such as would result in
all probability from a break of the gauge, would altogether prevent
the transport of such articles by this mode of conveyance.
We believe that the traffic upon the line of railway between fir-
miugham and Bristol has been greatly restricted by the interruption
of the gauge at Gloucester.
In respect to the conveyance of minerals, the inconvenience of a
break of gauge would be very serious ; the transfer being attended
with an expense which would be sensibly felt in consequence of the
low rate of tolls charged on such articles; moreover, many descrip-
,lons of coal, such as a considerable proportion of that of the midland
counties, are subject to great deterioration by breakage.
In regard to various articles of agricultural produce, the loss by re-
moval would be less than on other classes of goods ; much incon-
venience, however, would be tOund in the transfer of timber ; and the
difficulty in shilling cattle would be so great as to present an insur-
mountable obstacle to such an arrangement, from the excited state
of the animals alto travelling by railway, and the resistance they in
consequence offer when it is attempted to force them a second time
into a railway waggon.

4. Conveyance of troops.
There is another use of railways which we have deemed it neces-
sary to consider; we allude to the transport of your Majesty's troops,
with their military stores, &c., either in the ordinary movements of
corps through the country, in the time of peace, or in the more
pressing and urgent cage of their movements for the defence of the
coast, or of the interior of the country.
We have carefully weighed the important Information given to us
by the Quarter-Master-General of your Majesty's Forces, as well as
by the Inspector-General of Fortifications, both officers of great ex•
perience ; and we deduce from their opinions, that although a break
of gauge, on the line of route, would produce both delay and con-
fusion, yet, that as in time of peace it is usually practicable to give
notice of the intended movements of a body of troops, the inconve-
nience of the break of gangs might be so reduced as not to be an evil
of great importance ; but in the event of operations for defensive
objects against an enemy, the inconvenience would assume a serious
character.
It would appear, that for the defence of the coast, the proper
course would be to retain the great mass of troops in the interior of
the country to wait until the point selected by the enemy for his
attack should be ascertained with certainty, and then to move upon
that point such an overwhelusing force as should be adequate to the
emergency.
It is obvious that the success of such a system of defence mutt
depend upon the means of conveying the troops with great dispatch,
and without interruption on the journey.
The troops should be carried with their equipments complete in
all their details, and with their artillery and ammunition ; and it
therefore appears indispensably necessary, in order to insure the re •
quisite supply of carriages, where perhaps little or no notice can be
given, that the whole should be conveyed in the same vehicles from
the beginning to the end of the journey.
The effect of a break of gauge might, in this view of the case, ex-
pose the country to serious danger.
To all classes of merchandise, as well as to all military operations
connected with railways, one general remark will apply—that, in
starting from any one point, it is usually practicable to obtain a suf-
ficient number of waggons for whatever may be required to leave
that point, however irregular the traffic may be ; but the conver-
gence of several lines, where the greater number might be of a gauge
not corresponding to the gauge of the other lines, if it happened that
all were unusually loaded at the same time, it would probably be
impossible to provide ou the latter an adequate number of waggons
once, , ;on
o allr, o inlic the
to carry off all the loads thus brought ; the alternative would be, on
convergingotter itand, lines
o m the one hai,d, to submit to great confusion, delay, and inconveni- 1
ehavingaitai
non then
the
lmajoritye
beingon the
in ei
same
gthe
minority a very extensive stock of carriages, which in general would
be totally use.ess.
There is one point which forcibly presses on our attention, and the
truth of which must be readily acknowledged, but of which
the importance is not at first equally
part 01. the inconvenience.
to obvious; it is, that the greater
we have alluded, are not incon-
veniences of rare occurrence, and which
number of persons, but, on the contrarytlT Cn
a*tiil i,l affect only a small
Occur several times in the course of every day, tlo'alY fgreear Le m' would
Occur
persons, at each point at which r, break of gauge 'night exist. The
cumulative amount c t such inconvenience would of necessity be very
considerable, and we feel bound to sum up our conclusions, by stating
that we co; sider a break of gauge to be a very serious evil.
11. We ate now brought to the second stage of our inquiry, which
is to discover themeans of obviating or mitigating the evil that we
find to result from the break of gauge.
The methods which have been laid before us, as eslculated for this
purpose, are as follow
1. What may be termed telescopit: nailer;arrangement of the
an
wheels and axles of carriages, permitting the wheels to slide on the
axle, so as to contract or extend the interval between them in such
a manner, that they may be adapted to either of the gauges.
2. A form of truck adapted to the broad gauge, but carrying upon
its upper surface pieces of rail 4 feet EN inches asunder, so that a
narrow gauge carriage may be run upon these rails without any dis.

turbance of its wheels.
platform
3. A method of shifting the bodies of carriages from a
and set of wheels, adapted ror one gauge, to a different platform and
set of wheels, adapted to the otker gauge.
4. A proposal to carry merchandise and minerals in loose boxes,
which may be shifted from one truck to another, and of which one
only would p, obably be carried upon a narrow gauge truck, while two
Would be conveyed on a broad gauge truck.
1. Of these various methods, the first, if it admitted of being used
safely and extensively; would be, in its application, the easiest of
all. By the operations of detaching the wheels from one limiting
hold, of pushing the carriage along converging or diverging rails,
until its wheels were brought to the required width, and of then eon-
necting them by another limiting hold, the transformation of the
narrow gauge carriage to the broad gauge carriage, or rice versa,
' would be completed. But this construction is liable to grave ob-
jections. It is stated to us as a matter of experience (and we believe
it admits of satisfactory explanation), that a very small unsteadiness
of the wheels of a railway carriage upon the axle renders the carriage
liable to run off the rails. A far more serious objection, however, is,
that the safety of a carriage, and tke whole train with which it is
connected, would depend upon tbie care of the attendant, whe has to
make the adjustments of the axle-slide.
It is true that there are other eases, as in the attendance on the
switches and signals, which depend upon the care of the pens, n who
is stationed to work them ; but the circumstances differ very
In these cases, the attendant has a single act to perform (or at the
utmost, two acts only), he is not hurried, and his whole attention is
concentrated on very simple ditties.
In respect to time shifting axles, the attendant would have to adjust
a great many carriages In succession (as there are sometimes a hun-
dred waggons in a goods train), the adjustment must be made hur-
riedly, and often in the night ; and the atteudant'e thoughts would
probably have been partly occupied with the loading of goods, anti
ether station arrangements.
On this peore of danger, therefore, we think that this construction
must be at rose ebandoned. But we think it proper to add, that if
even there were no each eagentiel ground of objection, a construction
of this nature could not he adoquata:y nseftd, unless it were ex-
tended to every carriage which is like'y to pesa the statiori where the
break of gauge occurs Under the existing system of interchange
pf ceniage7, which is adopted by all the railway companies whose
lines communicate, and of which the advantages are recognised in
special clewed of the Acts of Parliament applying to several rail-
ways, carriages belonging to distant railways will frequently be
found at the place of jimetiiip of the twp gaugee, Tliis construction,
therefore, will lose Much of its utility make every railway carriage
were made in conforteity to it, that is, unless a Test expeaditpre of
capital, and a corresponding annual expense in replacing worn out
carriages, &e., were incurred even on railways very distant from the
break of gauge.
- 2. The plan of placing a narrow gauge carriage upon the top of a
broad gaug/i truck has, on the face of it, this obvious difficulty, that
a broad gene Palaiage cannot be placed in the same manner upon
a•narrow gauge trunk, and - therefpre, unless not only the broad
gauge railway, but also all others comuultilepaing yel.th it, be fur-
-1 nished with trucks proper for carrying narrow gaily; Waggons,
and with narrow guage waggons also, and unless the loads
travelling towards the narrow gang' be placed Only In those narrow