Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1883-06-02
English Railroads.

1t was, and perhaps still is in the minds
of the general American public, theory or
accepted belief that the English railroads are
far superior to ours in weight of iron, solid
ity of road bed, capacity, power and safety
at a high rate of speed Such might have
been the case few years ago; but while the
English have made no perceptlble progress
or Improvement we have taken great stride
toward greater perfection. John Bull is
proyerbialIy hard headed, stubborn old
fellow, and when he gets things arranged
about to his liking he says: There now;
that will do ~ and he doesn't want to see or
hear of anything better for the next dozen
years. He has Just one way of doing things
and applies that principle at times most alb
surdly.
Let us take, for instance the underground
railroad which now nearly enclrcles London
and which is the greatest convenience of
modern days in the city, without being the
nuisance which our elevated roads necessari
" are. The project of building this road
had many greater objections and more dis
couraging features than such an enterprise
could by any possibility present with us
There were ten water, gas and sewer pipes
to where there is one with u.s. The land was
ten times more valuable. The soil was foul
with the congregated cdorS of all these ele-z
ments, and the ooze from the Thames was
serious matter. But what will not capital,
energy and engineering do? And now the
along SO many years without the underground
road An American cannot help smiling,
however, to see what sort of job John Bull
made of ito look around and note the sol
id masonry the long approaches to the sta
tiens. ceiled with enameled surface tiles Or
bricks in colers, the great width of the space,
Just about double what Yankee engineer
would have been content with, and the track,
the engines, cars or coaches precisely the
same as those in use on the surface roads
over the country. There was no reason in
the world why the rails, cars and engines
should not have been light as those on
our elevated roads. But no, Johnny must
have things underground just as he had
them on top. The consequence was an enor
NOUS costa million pounds sterling per
mile, or So 900, 600. But the road pays six
per cent per annum and the stock is con-
siderei good thing for investment and is
rarely for sale. The many openings to the
upper air and the open spaces relieve the
tunnel from much of the smoke. and as coke
is burned there is little if any gas. The
coaches are passably well lighted, and tbs
ride is not as disagreeable as you would at
first suppose foggy day it Is an lnh-
nitely more desirable method of getting
down to the city than cab or omnibus. There
is ''cellary," moldy SMELL such as a boy
detects when sent in the evening with the
cider pitcher to fill and with the last ghost
story fresh in his mind But there is no
when the great convenience of rapid transit
is considered very little objection IS left to
| the opponents of the underground system
The effort to introduce the Pullman
sleeping car has met with Indifferent success
On the Midland between Liverpool and
London it is mostly patronized, simply
because so many Americans travel over
| that route; but you will hear on all sides
| the most absurd objections offered to it,
always winding up with the assertion that
| they are too close and hot. The average
Englishman always imagines himself too
warm. He is perforce obliged to live
without fire, because he has set up theory
| that a comfortably warmed room is un-
| healthy, and when there is fire there is
not enough of it to warm anyone. So he
| hardens himself by a daily ice water tub
bath in his room, and after it does days
| work with pair of dumb-belis to keep
from solidifying He objects to Pullman
car because it is comfortably warmed ) and
then he will never let up on that 'fnnodern
instance of the burning of the Pullman
and loss of the life of the man who set it
on fire, and. as is generally understood here,
was in too convivial condition to save him
self.
IF there is any short trip that is more un-
comfortable than another in this wide world
il is the trip in a cross section coach between
Liverpool and London on one of these cold,
raw, fOggy nights. There is an icy chilliness
about the cars that cannot be found else
where. Of course there Is no FIRE, the only
concession to comfort being a can of hot
water for your feet, put in on starting and
changed once on the trip. 1t gets to freez
ing point in thirty minutes, and you might
as well be shipmates with an icicle for all the
comfort you get out of it. Let no traveller
coming this way omit his lap rugs. The
current of cold air about his legs and feet
renders one or even two Indispensable.
believe the foundation for more colds and
sickness is laid on the trip in these cars from
Liverpool to London for the American trav-
eler Just landed from the steamer than else
where in all England. And it is no better all
over the country the cars are equally com
FORTRESS and cold. 1t is no season to travel
in England On one or two roads an attempt
has been made to establish a few convenien-
ces Git must be borne in mind that the car in
general use has none at all) and in little
pamphlet distributed to the incoming pas
sengers most felicitous mention is made no
less than six times of the fact that the new
cars have 'lavatory." The fact is not par
ticularly astonishing to us, but they evident
ly expect US to be amazed, as if lavatory in |
a car was a concession to bring the public to |
its knees in gratitude and admiration.
Then as to the riding of the English car, !
or coach, as they call it, and very properly,
for it still resembles the old stage coach, 1t
is SO close coupled and the trucks are SO near
together that there is s'ehug chug' mo-
tion far from pleasant. 1t does not roll as
ours do, smoothly and easily, but gives an
unpleasant idea that there is a mechanical |
antagonism between wheels and rails.
Then as for speed, the average is not high
er than our own and when the road bed, |
weight of rail, solidity and smoethness are
compared, there is no perceptible advantage
over us. In fact, if it did not look like boast
ing, would say that there is no road in all |
England to be compared to the Pennsylvania |
and many other roads ont of New York To |
see an English train pull out with its enclosed /
locomotive with a smoke stack about twelve
inches in diameter, hear its thin, puny whis- |