The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-30 00:00:00

- finally,
e very traveller who is detained long upon
the road mu at resort to taverns for refreshment. If
he be 13 ho ors on the road he will at least take one
meal, many •will take two. A traveller, however, who
is detained only three or four hours on the road will
take none. Let us put down the cost thus incurred
at 6d. per 1.00 miles for each passenger—a very low
estimate, wi s shall then have the following account of
the amount flayed to the public in the two years end-
ing June 3A, 1848, by the railways in passenger
traffic as compared with stage coaches, supposing
that such a a amount of traffic by such means was

practicable :--
Fare saved iby 354,083,534 first-class pas-
sengers, c trried one mile, at 31d. per head £5,163,718
Ditto by 1,• 357,936,966 second and third-
class passim igers, carried one mile, at 2d.
per head 11,316,14
Value of time saved by 1,712,020 passen-
gers traveE'ing 100 miles, at 4s. Bd. per
head ••• •• ••• ••• ..•
Tavern ext. cnses on 1,712,020 passengers
travelling :100 miles, at 6d. a head

399,•417

42;800

Total saving in the two years ending June
30, 1848 .£16,922,076
It would be an interesting point in railway sta-
tistics to detu ;mine the amount of locomotive power
actually em ployed on the English railways and the
fuel consumed in working it. By a calculation, the
details of IN•hich are given in the work already
quoted, it appears that in the 12 months ending
June 30, 1E4.49, when there were 5,000 miles of rail-
way under traffic, the number of locomotive engines
in operation was 1,965. The total distance run by
these within the year was 32,388,569 miles, giving
a daily aver age of 88,736 miles. By the returns of
the consum pion of fuel made by the Great Western
and the North-Western and other principal lines it
was found that the average consumption of coke per
mile at that epoch was 351 b., from which it would
follow that the total amount of coke consumed within
the year was. 506,071 tons. But 10 tons of coal are
required to retake seven tons of coke, consequently the
quantity of (x)al consumed in locomotives on railways
in the 12 moaths ending June 30, 1849, was about
three-quartet's of a million.
The Great Western Railway Company now affirms
that the average consumption of fuel in the practical
working of such an engine as " the Lord of the
Isles," exhibited by them, would, with an average load
of 90 tons and an average speed of 29 miles an hour,
including stoppages, be only 20.81 b. per mile.
We cannot, however, reconcile this estimate either
with our own observations or with the published re-
ports of the Great Western Railway Company them-
selves. We have not before us, it is true, any reports
of that company more recent than those for the year
1848, but it appears by these that in the four years
ending 1848 the total consumption of coke on their
lines, compared with the mileage of their engines, was
as follows :

Mileage of Coke consumed
Coke consumed. engines. per eitfilene per

Tons. lb.
1845 ... 21,919 1,240,412 39i
1846 ••• 19,731 1,346,341 33
1847 ... 21,454 1,454,610 33
1848 ..• 25,346 1,582,672 35 810
These results are further confirmed by the official
returns of the North-Western Railway Company, by
which it appears that in the 12 months ending the
30th of June, 1849, their total consumption of coke
was 116,396 tons, while the total mileage of their
engines was 7,535,230, which gives an average con-
sumption of 34.61 b.
It must be understood, however, that in this esti-
mate was included all the fuel consumed, not only
while the engines are actually in motion, but all they
consumed in getting up the steam and when they are
standing lighted without working.
Unless, therefore, in the two years which have
elapsed since the date of the above reports, a reduction
has taken place in the consumption of fuel by the
Great Western Company to the almost incredible
amount of 43 per cent., it would appear that there
must be some error in the present estimate.
Assuming, as we may do with sufficient accuracy,
that the amount of locomotive power and the con-
sumption of fuel employed on the railways is in direct
ratio of their gross receipts, we shall obtain a toler-
ably accurate estimate of the present locomotive power
and consumption of fuel by comparing the receipts of
the past years with those of 1848.
In the last six months of 1848 the gross receipts
upon the railways amounted to 5,744,9651., while in
the last six months of 1850 their amount was
7,147,378/. If we assume that the increase of loco-
motive power and the consumption of fuel have
been iu the proportion of these numbers, we shall ob-
tain the following estimate of the total number of
locomotive engines now working on the railways of
the United 'Kingdom and their consumption of

fuel :
Number of engines working on the railways
in 1850 ... 2,436
Quantity of coke consumed by them within.
the year
... (tons)
Quantity of coal consumed ... 627,528
... (tons)
896,466
Total distance run within the year ... (miles) 40' 161 850
Average distance run per day ... ...(miles) 110,333
It must be admitted that these results are somewhat
stupendous. It appears that in the performance of
the work of inland communication in these islands
the locomotive engine travels daily over a space
nearly four and a half times the circumference of the
globe, and that within the year it travels over a space
nearly one-half the distance between the earth and
the sun.
It appears, further, that in executing this traffic a
quantity of coal is used which, if formed into a pillar
having the base a square yard, would reach a height
of 757 miles.
It would be extremely interesting if correct data
could be obtained for the purpose, to ascertain the
proportion in which goods and passengers contribute
to the revenue of railways.
.Until the year 1847 the
Railway Commissioners published, annually, reports
of traffic, containing some useful data of this kind, but
since that year these reports have been limited to a
general summary of the traffic, which for statistical
purposes is nearly useless.
The following table has been calculated from rose
returns of 1847, showing the proportion of the gro.s
revenue of the railways which
ferent objects of traffic : proceeded from the dif

Per Cent,
Receipts• of Total
Receipts

Passengers, ht class
1) 2d class
3d class

£1,725,759 20.3
o 098 OSO 24.6
1,324,163 15 5
2,606,393 30.8
71,482 C.B
53,091 0.6
23,718 0.3
78,549 0,9
52,521. 0.6
377,290 4.4
99,840 1.2

Merchandise •.• ..•
Cattle ••• •.• •••
Sheep ••• •.• •••
Pigs ..• ... •••
...
Horses •.• ..•
Private carriages ..• ...
Baggage, parcils, and coals „„
1 Sundries not classed ... SOS

Grand total ... £8,510,886 100.0
It appears, therefore, that at this epoch the pas-
senger traffic supplied sixty per cent. of the gross re-
venue, and the goods traffic thirty-one per cent., the
remainder arising from baggage parcels and sunries.

Miles
opened,