The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-06 00:00:00

MIDLAND COUNTIES RAILWAY.

( From the Leicester Chronicle.)
The engineers of the Midland Counties Railway have now
marked out the whole of the line of this important undertaking,
between the three great towns of Leicester, Nottingham, and
Derby ; and we are enabled to give our readers a description
of the route, which, ere many years have passed away, will be
one of the great highways of England. . Commencing about
two miles south of Leicester. at Knighton Spinney, it passes
this town in a curving line, through the Freeman's Piece,
(where a short tunael is guaranteed to the Freemen, in order
to preserve the mitiretv of the common as a grazing pasture.)
Crossing beneath the Welford-road at the commencement of
the acclivity, and passing beneath the New-walk and London-
road, the levels of which, we believe, will not be disturbed, it
runs off from the latter place in a straight line towards Barkby;
pa ssine to the east of Thurrnaston Lodge, the residence of Mr.
Hayrick ; from whence, with a great curve, it sweeps to the
west of. SYston, ciossing the Melton-road at the wiudmill, and
piercing the high banks of the Wreak near Syston mill. From
the latter point, a straight line runs to Sileby, through which
village it passes by the old manor house. From thence, an in-
sensible curve sweeps by the Bute kilns, 'end through the village
of Barrow ; and then alone side of the cliffs which over-
hang the Soar. At E.. a angle of the river, near the Navigation-
house, it crosses auto the flat grounds surrounding Lough-
boeough, touching the letter place at the 1* houses on
the Nottingham-rood. Coutinuing in the satire direction,
and. 4iaking a steel cut across the Loughborough urea-
dews, it again crosses the river, and enters the slightly
elevateel groo-ad on the east of Normanton. With gentle
carves, and inconsiderable elevations, it next reaches Sutton
Buiinirigton, and passes close to the 01,1 dilapidated church of
Saint Anne's, where consecrated ground has not deterred the
engineer from taunt;his " boatline* beneath the very walls of
the sanctuary. Emerging front the cutting through the rising
ground on the east of Satton,, with a low embankment, it tra-
vf•rses Mr. Strutt's rnead'ows at Kingston, on the west side of
Mr. Stokes's house; and th+u, pas ,ing to the east of Ra.tcliff,
it plunges into the heart of Red Hill, a singular escarpment of,
red marl and gypsum. which, with pictuiesette boldness; looks
down upon the Trent. Here, the river being crossed by a
bridge of considerable dimensions, the lines diverge, on the one
hand to Derby, on the other to Nottingliuni ; these diverging
lines Lang- egain connected, so as to make the line between these
important termini complete in itself. This portion of the line will
be nearly horizontal, and the gradients of the whole highly favour-
able for the use of locomotive engines: more so, we are informed,
than those of any line of similar extent in England.• The dis-
tance between Leicester, Nottirighame-aed Derby, by the rail-
way, will be nearly the same as by the present road: that is to
say, the distance in space travelled over in point of time, which
roust henceforth be an essential element in the computation of
distancesee-the difference will be as three to one, and the transit
between the remotest of these places will rarely occupy more
than three quarters of an
.hour. The rate of travelling on .the
Manchester Railway, is, upon an average, 26 miles an hour;
but the seeed unoa a railway with such considerable inclinations
as one foot in 96 feet affords no criterion for estimating the rate
of travelling attainable upon a inure perfect line, such as the
Midland Counties, where the greatest inclination will be about
one foot in 500. According to an arrangement made in Parlia-
ment,..the exeeution of the works upon the line from Leicester
to Rugby, is deferred until after next Midsummer : in the mean
One, exerficiesarebeing made by another Company, to effect a
shorter route to Loridon, by way of Northampton and Herb°.
rough. The Midland Counties Company, also, are preparing to
extend their line nortbwardly through the mining cnstrict of
Nottineliamshire and Derbyshire, to fall in with the North
Midland- Railway about flair miles south of Chesterfield. This
will materially abridge the distances between Sheffield and the
great towns of Yorkshire and London, and will secure to Lei-
Tester the decided advantage of the direct road from the Neal)
of England to the Metropolis,—an advantage which, if nature
had not marked out for it, its commercial importance, its popu-
lation, and its rapidly-extending manufactures, would have en-
titled it to claim. It will secure to Leicester, also, an advan-
tageous competition in the supply of coals, (which, to a certain
extent, we already possess,) and be a guarantee that this essene
tial article of consumption will never again become a mono-
pole, either in Leicestershire or Derbyshire. In every point of
view, we .hope the parties will be successful in their application
to Parliament for an extension of the line; and we shall watch
with particular interest in the proceedirws there. We are not
of those alarmists who see in railway projects nothing but bub-
bles and chimerical, speculations, which will end in ruin and
disappointment to the subscribers. Railways are not bub-
ble schemes, but solid and tangible objects for the investment
of capital: they are an invention which completely distances
Lrompetition,- and which, under proper auspices, and with pru-
dent arrangement, must afford a profitable revenue.