St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-04-20
English Railroads.
QUEER FEATURES OF AN ANTIQUATED
SYSTEM.

London Letter to the New York Tribune
1t was, and perhaps still is, in the
minds of the general American public
Il theory or accepted belief that the
English railroads are far superior to
ours in weight of iron, solidity of road
bed, capacity, power and safety at Il
high rate of speed. Such might have
been the case Il few years ago but
while the English have made no per-
ceptible progress or improvement we
have taken great stride toward per
fection. John Bull is proverbially Il
hard hearted, 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
ut times most absurdly.
Let us take, for instance, the under
ground railroad which now nearly cir
cles London and which is the greatest
convenience of modern days in the city
without being the nuisance which our
elevated roads necessarily are. The
project of building this road had many
great objections and more discOuraging
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 us
The land was ten times more valuable.
The soil was foul with the congregated
odors of all these elements. and the
OoZe from the Thames was a serious
matter. But what will not capital. en-
ergy and engineering do And now
the wonder is how London managed to
get along so many yeals without the
underground road.
An American cannot help smiling.
however. to see what sort of "A lob John
Bull made of ito look around and
note the solid masonry. the long an
proaches to the stations. ceiled with
enamelled surface tiles or bricks in col
ors, the great width of space, Just about
double what Il Yankee engineer would
have been content with, and the track,
the engines, cars or coaches precisely
the same as those III use on the surface
roads over the country. There was no
reason i'll the world why the rails, cars
and engines should not have been as
light as those on our elevated roads.
But no, Johnnie must have things un-
derground Just as he had them on top.
The consequence was an enormous cost
"a million pounds sterling per mile, OF
$4,000, 900. But the road pays q per
cent per annum, and the stock is con-
sidered 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 col4 is
burned there is little if any gas. The
coaches are pasSably well lighted, and
the ride is not as diSagreeable as you
would at first suppose on toggy day
1t Is an infinitely more desirable meth
od OF getting down to the city than cab
or omnibus. There Is "cellary,'
mouldy smell, but there Is no smell of
sewer or tainted atmosphere, and when
the great convenience OF rapid transit
is considered, very little objection is
left to the opponents of the under
ground system.
The effort to Introduce the Pullman
sleeping car has met with Indifferent
success. On the Midland between Liv-
erpool and London it is most patron
lzed, simply because so many Ameri-
cans 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
close and hot. The average English
man always imagines himself too warm.
He objects to a Pullman car because
1t Is comfortably warm and then he
will never let up on that ''modern in
stance" OF the burning OF the Pullman
and loss of the life of the man who set
1t on fire, and, as Is generally under
stood here, was i'll too cOnvivial a con-
dition to save himself.
If there Is any short trip that is more
uncomfortable than another in this
wide world, 1t Is the trip in cross sec
tion coach between Liverpool and Lon
don on one of these cold, raw, foggy
nights. There is an icy chilliness
about the cars that cannot be found
elsewhere. 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 Il freezing point in thir-
ty minutes, and you might as well be
ship-mates with an icicle for all the
comfort you get out of it. Let no
traveller COMING this WAY omit his lau