The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-26


engineers, locomotive manufacturers, managers,
SECRETARIES, and carriers. Four employees OF the
Great Western were in favor Of the broad guage,
four were opposed to break OF guage, but gave
no opinion about width of guage; three were for
intermediate guage with no opinion as to uni
formity; five were for intermediate Ruage theo-
retically against broad guage and was iavora-
BILE to uniformity; and thirty for uniformity and
q narrow guage. They considered the improve
ments already made had Obviated all the diff
culiies which the narrow guage formerly pre-
sented. The Commission recommended that
the guage of four feet eight inches and half be
declared by the Legislature to be the guage to
be used In all public railways now under con-
s,ruction, or hereafter TO be constructed in
Parliament did not make 1t compulsory, but
established by the act of and 10 Vtct C8
August, 1S46) with certain eXceptons), the
guage of four feet eight inches and halt an inch
IN Great Britain, and five feet three inches IN
ireland, and prohibited fhe alteration of the
guage OF any railway tor the conveyance of pas
sengers. Certain railways, including the Great
Western, using the guage OF seven feet, and GER
tain others using q mixed guage, were among
the exceptions. The mixed guage OF that day
consisted OF adding to the narrow guage single
outside rail, or introducing single rail between
the rails of the brgad guage. (16 Jurist 443.)
The great convenience of entire uniformity of
guage in the course of few years became 80
obvious that Parliament finally determined, in
1864, that the narrow guage of 664 inches should
be the standard and only guage in England and
Scotland, with the exceptional broad guage of "a
1nCDeS ana pernltCeQ mixture OF DOtn.
The 33d section of the Railways Constitution
Facilities act OF q and % Victoria, c. 12l (29th
July, l864), enacted that Every railway made
under this act in England or Scotland shall be
made on the gauge of four feet eight inches and
half an inch, unless in any case the certificate
provides the making of the railway ON the gauge
of seven feet, or on both those gauges"
Every railway made under this act in Ire
land shall be made on the gauge OF five feet three
inches.n
The experience of Great Britain, with all its
lines OF railway leading to one great central
point, London, has settled into an approval of
one uniform narrow gauge, with permitted
deviation to avoid destruction of existing pro-
perty to Que broad gauge of seven feet, with
mixture Of gauges intended to remedy the evil
occasioned by the unwise, short-sighted, aggres-
sive, and expensive policy of Mr.. Brunei and his
associates and followers.
The continent has profted by the dear bought
knowledge and experience of England, and
France Belgium, the Germanic States and
Italy have adopted the uniform narrow gauge of
565 inches.
The mixed gauge in England proves clearly
that the narrow gauge cannot be inferior in real
railway power to the broad gauge for passenger
goods and mineral traffic, ard in all but passen-
ger traffic it is acknowledged by the latest
authorities to be superior tor the carriage OF
freight of all kinds.
1t is much less expensive in construction, and
OF course in keeping in repair, and the introduc-
ton of another line of rails on the broad gauge
system, to enable them to use the narrow gauge
carriages upon 1t, increases the cost of the road
and the iron used fer that purpose on a double
track broad gauge road would lay a third track
for the road, which, on some roads, must soon
| be done in that country, 10 accommodate the
constantly increasing railway business for it is
now becoming question whether there shall
not be separate tracks for passengers and for
goods and mineral traffic, classed by us as
freight
Whenever this becomes necessary then the
superior advantages of the uniform narrow
gauge will be selEevident in the diminished
width of roadway, oil bridges, embankments,
| deep cuttings and tunnels and the decreased
cost of the foundation and superstructure, and
| of the rolling stock the railway.
More than twenty years ago an exceptional
| gauge of five feet had been introduced on one
! road, but when it reached a narrow gauge road
! the Inconvenience of break of gauge was found,
! and its engineer changed it to the uniform mar
! row gauge OF 563 inches, saying, "The locomo-
| tive of this day is not the locomotive
of 1886; for all the purposes for which
| railways can be wanted there is addi-
| tional space to crowd in as much power,
and more than can ever be commercially
! beneficial. A boy may now with facility
! clean an engine In an hour, which would formerly
take man day.n Another eminent engineer
said, II think the absolute necessity of extend
ing railways, now that every road is to have a
railway, rather goes to show that 1t is not wise
to make these railways of very large dimen-
sions," and particularly with reference to ex-
| tension by branches to every town and every
| village.
pr Unfortunately for the Great Western these
|
upon Mr.. Brunei, man Of magnificent ideas,
carried out not only on that road, but in the
steamship Great Eastern, and on the Atmos
pheric Railway, the two last of which were
entire failures at a vast cost to the unfortunate
| proprietors, who were led away by his engineer
ing eloquence. His examinations before CON-
mittees OF the House of Commons evinced great
readiness, ability, and tact and excellent temper.
| The stockholders, or, to use the English
| phraze, the shareholders of the Great Western,
according to their published reports have SUIT
feIed greatly, in a pecuniary point of view, for
| their persistent determination to retain possess
sion OF the coast OF England by their exceptional
gauge, and to separate themselves from the
| general railway system of the country. They
| have, ,thewever, been forced at last, by the i'm .
possibility of sustaining this contest without
an entire cessation of dividends, to become
the virtual proprietors OF narrow gauge
roads, and introduce the mixed gauge upon large
portions OF their line. 'The Great Western
Essays leading Railway journal, sis now as much
narrow as a broad gauge railway. The Great
Western own at present not only considerable
| lengths OF purely narrow gauge railway, but
they have laid the narrow inside the broad
forming mixed gauge on large portion of
their system.n They have nearly as many narrow
gauge as bread engines, and they are adding to
the narrow GAUGE engines in proportion of three
| to one OF the broad. The narrow gauge carriages
and wagons far outnumber the broad gauge, and
the narrow gauge carriages and wagons were in
reased in 1854 in the proportion OF 624 to IL of
broad gauge; and the advice rendered to them
by the same journal was gradually to change
the railway into a narrow gauge road by the
introduction of the third rail. and not renewing
the outer rail or the broad gauge, but let them
gradually wear out. The narrow gauge Is greatly
\ preferable for goods and mineral traffic, and
nearly, If not equal for passenger traffic.
The Journalist also advised suspension of
dividends for three or four half years. as an
economical method of providing money and at
| ha VIII holE in nhar