Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-10-14

Il
traffic, roads of wider gauge endin-
fnitely more costly construction.
The gauge Of the Festiniog Railroad
is but two feet or. 10 speak with ex-
treme accuracy, only one foot and eleven
and a half inches. "The locomotives
FUSED on the road weigh about ten tons,
" codled and qcaered, and the tenders a
+" little over ton. The passenger car
riages are, for the most part, seated
" longitudinally. the passengers sitting
back to back. This arrangement, OF
4" course, brings the centre of gravity i'm
mediately over the rails, and renders the
" wide projection of the carriages over the
Sc line on each side of comparatively little
=" consequence. The carriages are about
Z" six feet wide and six feet six inches high
!" in the centre, and each is seated for
fourteen passengers. Diminutive though
these vehicles are, they afford as ample
and comfortable accommodation as the
enormous carriages upon ordinary lines,
and are in strong contrast with them in
the much higher proportion they afford
"of paying to dead weight-the dead
weight hauled on the Festiniog Railway
:" is, indeed, reduced to the utmost mini
mum. x X x
The carriage wheels are Is inches in di-
ameter, and the floors of the vehicle
only about inches above the roadway.
The trains have truly comical appear
ance, from the lowness of the floors and
the invisibility of the wheels they are
much more like boxes upon short rollers
than ordinary railway or other wheeled
" carriages"
So much for the road and it's carriages.
1t might, however, be supposed that such
road, SO equipped, would not be capable
of carrying on a heavy traffic, and that it
must be locked upon rather as curious
toy than as adapted to really useful, prac.
teal, every day purposes. Nothing can be
further from the fact. It is road which
has been for some years past in active ope.
ration. It carries daily considerable
number OF passengers to aud from Port
Madoc. and a large amount of heavy
freight-the latter consisting principally
of valuable slate and building stone from
the FestiniCg quarries. The cheapness
with which this road was built, the pecu-
liar ightness of its equipment. and the
handsome profits it has paid to it's stock
holders-not less than fifty per cent. an
nually-have led to the construction of
similar roads in other parts of Wales
The attention Of large numbers of capital
lists and civil engineers has also been
afk to1 To
weeks ago party of distinguished pro-
fessional gentlemen left London for Port
A1adoc, to be present at q series OF expert
ments which ives instituted for the pur-
pose of testing the relative powers of the
engines in use on the Festiniog Road with
a new locomotive which had been built for
the same road by Mr.. Fairlie. The COM
petition was to be between the "Welsh
Pony"-that being the name of the best
locomotive a. work on the road-and Mr..
Fairlie's Little Wonder" The latter is
de cribed as "a double 'bogie,'" being
composed of two engines on one
frame. both exercising tractive power
The little ten-ton locomotive "Welsh
Pony" was first put to work, and after
various tests it was found, as the max
imum of its powers to be capable of draw
ing easily thirty-one slate trucks, weigh
ing seventy seven tons, up grade of one
foot in eighty-fve. The I" Little Won
DER" weighing nineteen and half tons,
was next tried. Il was yoked to q train of
one hundred and twenty-five trucks. seven
passenger carriages and boat carriage.
The weight of the train was one hundred
and fourteen tons. fourteen hundred
weight. Its length was three hundred and
eighty yards. It d" might have been fear
ed" says correspondent of the London
Telegraph, 90" that snoh diminutive affair
"as the Little Wonder would have been
beaten by such a load and such a road.
IS but it was not" It glided with perfect
smoothness round the constantly recurring
the gradients with perfect ease, and made
the entire journey from Port Madoc to
Festiniog fourteen miles, within less than
one hour. Among those who witnessed
this remarkable feat were English officers
connected with the Public Works Depart
ment of India, Royal Engineers from Bonn
bay, Civil Engineers representing the Ma
dras and the Northern Puniaub Railways,
and other Civil Engineers from Brazil and
Canada. The final test was the relative
consumption of Coal. In this respect also,
the Fairlie engine demonstrated its supe-
riority by showing saving over all other
engines of fifty per cent on the weight
hauled.
Here, then, we have the assurance of a
railway, in a mountainous country, costing
less than an ordinary plank road, doing
practically all the service of the heavy and
costly railroads. 1t equipment is mere
trife, and from the lightness of its rolling
stock it is subject to very little wear and
tear. If this can be done successfully in
Wales, how much more SO can it be done
in Eastern North Carolina, where we have