CHAPTER VIII.
Railways of different ranks—Progressive improvements—Growing tendency for increased speeds, with corresponding increase in weight of permanent way and rolling-stock—Electricity as a motive-power.
Looking at railways in their present stage of development, they appear to be divided into three ranks, each one distinct from the other as regards its importance, capability, and prospects.
In the first rank are the great trunk lines, which, at home or abroad, pass through thickly populated districts, rich in manufactures, minerals, or shipping industries, with their enormous movement of materials and people, and consequently requiring the most ample works, equipment, and appliances for security.
In the second rank may be classed those railways which run through ranges of country where the population is moderate, or where the manufacturing industries are few in number and of minor importance. Although of the utmost value to the community of the long series of small towns and agricultural districts through which they pass, and forming the only great commercial highway, or connecting link, with some distant seaport, or leading business centre, the traffic returns upon such lines are too small to permit of the introduction of the more complete appliances and luxuries to be met with on the richer railways. In newly opened-out countries, and in distant colonies, such lines have often to struggle on for years against financial returns so small as to barely enable them to maintain a condition of efficiency; but where there are natural advantages in soil and climate, combined with a judicious development of all the available resources, the result will be the raising of the standard of the railway itself, and the enrichment of the entire district through which it passes. When laying out lines of this description, it may be necessary to curtail as much as possible the expenditure on works and equipment, but there should be no hesitation in obtaining liberal quantities of land for future
enlargement of stations, or for constructing additional stations on promising sites. The value of the land may be small in the outset, but will be enhanced enormously as the benefits of the undertaking become appreciated.
In the third rank may be grouped those branch lines which, starting from a main passenger or goods line, are laid down to some outlying town, seaport, or mining centre, which, although small, is considered of sufficient importance to be brought into railway communication. In general, these lines are laid to the same gauge as the line with which they connect, and the transfer of merchandise waggons is readily effected at the point of junction. Others, from motives of economy, have been laid down to a narrow gauge, involving the transhipment of all goods and cattle at the station where the break of gauge takes place. Most of these branch lines are laid out through the open country, like an ordinary standard railway, but with a minimum of works and appliances. Others are laid down partly on level public roads, and partly through the fields, and are in consequence subject to a statutory low rate of speed when travelling over those portions on the public roads.
In many cases the construction of second and third rank railways, both at home and abroad, has been largely assisted by state or provincial aid. Such assistance must always be valuable to poor or undeveloped districts, but judgment should be exercised so as not to encourage the introduction of any scheme which would interfere or become competitive with any existing undertaking constructed by public enterprise. So long as capitalists invest their money more from commercial motives than from feelings of philanthropy, it would, to say the least, be unjust and impolitic for any country to adopt a course of competition by national funds, and so check the flow of public money into public undertakings. Ordinary public commercial competition may be business, as each party can value and compare their own prospects; but the competition of a scheme enjoying national aid and free money grants is very apt to become one-sided.
There is every indication that even what may be termed a fourth-rank type of railway is destined to play a very important part in the industrial enterprises of many countries, and that in the form of little lines, made to any convenient gauge, and laid either along public roads or open country, or both, the produce from isolated manufactories, forests, quarries, and large farms will be
conveyed to the nearest railway stations with greater facility and at much less expense than by carting along the public highway. Such little lines are available in places where the most sanguine promoter would hesitate to suggest an ordinary railway, and may be found to supply what is felt to be the missing link in the economical transport of a long list of materials of everyday use. As they would be almost exclusively intended for merchandise purposes, the statutory requirements would be on the most moderate scale, and as they would be generally constructed at the cost of the parties who had to operate them, the outlay would be restricted to the actual works necessary for convenience and efficiency. Similar little lines have been in use for many years in the busy yards of large ironworks, shipbuilders, and many other localities, where weighty masses of materials have to be moved from place to place in the course of manufacture, and it would be merely carrying out the same idea to a more extended range. The principal inducement for their introduction is the great advantage, both in convenience and cost, that is obtained by hauling a ton of materials over a pair of rails as compared with carting the same weight along an ordinary road; and as the fact becomes more and more proved by experience, these little fourth-rank lines will become more general. Numbers of them are in use at the present time, and some of them, even of only 2-feet gauge, are doing good service, the little trucks conveying manufactured goods to the nearest railway station and returning loaded with coals and other materials. By making suitable arrangements for passing places and junctions, the system could be carried out to considerable distances in thinly populated districts, and be made available by means of local sidings, to several places along the route. With a narrow-gauge type there would, of course, always be the time and expense of transhipment to or from the ordinary railway trucks in the same way as with the road carts, but the time and expense may be lessened by so constructing the little narrow-gauge trucks that the bodies may be readily lifted off the frames and wheels, and be placed like packing-cases in the railway waggons.
It is natural to look to the railways of the first rank for the latest advances in construction, appliances, and equipment, and it is generally there they are found. Great trunk lines, crowded with traffic of all kinds, have not only the opportunity and means, but all the strong inducements to try or adopt any
arrangement which promises greater facilities for dealing with the ever-increasing demands made on their carrying powers.
Passenger and goods traffic are so dissimilar in their requirements that when both of them are steadily increasing it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to work the two classes over an ordinary double line. In some cases much assistance has been obtained by shortening the lengths of the working sections and introducing intermediate electric telegraph block stations between the ordinary stations. Long refuge-sidings have also been introduced at many of the signal-cabins or stations, into which goods trains can be shunted out of the way to allow fast passenger trains to pass through without stopping. Up to a certain extent this arrangement works fairly well, but where there is a very frequent service of fast and slow passenger trains, combined with a heavy and constant service of goods and mineral trains, the two lines of way are practically incapable of accommodating such a number of mixed trains without causing serious detentions. The goods trains must shunt out of the way some time before a passenger train is due, and this frequent shunting into sidings results in hours of delay in the transit of the goods and cattle traffic; and when one of such trains is allowed to proceed again on its way up to another station, dove-tailed as it may be between two fast passenger trains, there is always the tendency to run at a much higher rate of speed than is prudent for the class of rolling-stock of which the goods train is composed. To overcome this difficulty some railways have introduced additional UP and DOWN lines on the busiest part of their system, making four lines of way in all, two of these being reserved for the fast passenger and through trains, and the other two for slow trains, goods, and mineral trains. This arrangement of the four lines has afforded great relief to the traffic of all kinds, and has enabled the service to be worked with much greater facility and punctuality. The goods trains being restricted to their own separate lines, can proceed regularly in their order, at their uniform working speed, without having to resort to the spasmodic fast running too often expected from them when passing over some parts of an ordinary double line. Doubtless this four-line system, or rather the principle of laying down two additional lines of way, will go on extending, and will be accelerated in its accomplishment by the growing demand for still higher speed of our fast passenger trains, and still longer distances to be traversed
without stopping. High-speed long-distance through trains can only perform their journeys with punctuality, when the route is kept clear of all other trains or obstructions which might interfere with their free running. Any check or stoppage in their course would cause loss of time and prestige.
It is to be regretted that in so many of the cases where two additional lines of way have been laid down, more space was not left between the sets of rails for the fast traffic and those for the slow. In many instances the dividing space is not more than 7 or 8 feet. It would have been better and safer if it could have been made 20 feet. An ordinary goods train is made up of several kinds of trucks, some empty, some loaded, many of them unequally loaded, all of them subject to heavy work and rough handling, and more likely to give trouble than the higher class vehicle, the passenger carriage. The breaking down or derailment of one or two goods trucks on a line of rails close alongside the fast passenger rails, would in all probability so foul and obstruct the passenger line as to cause a very serious accident to an express train which could not be stopped in time. The greater width would not only provide more clearance in case of breakdowns, but would afford increased safety to the platelayers and other workmen engaged on the line. The permanent-way men have to be very watchful to keep out of danger on an ordinary busy double line, but they must be very much more on the alert where there are four lines of way close together side by side.
In the neighbourhood of large cities and important manufacturing centres, railways have created a distinct traffic for themselves by providing means for a large portion of the population to reside in convenient suburbs. Local trains running at suitable business hours have induced people of all classes to select homes a few miles away from town, and the gradual growth of this suburban traffic has produced its own advantages and requirements. At the large terminal stations platform after platform has been added to accommodate the increased number of trains which arrive in the busy parts of the morning or depart in the evening. Every facility has to be provided to permit of the expeditious ingress and egress of the large crowds forming the respective trains—ample platforms, over-line foot-bridges, subways, convenient booking-offices, waiting-rooms, and left-luggage rooms.
The enormous train service on some of these first-rank lines demands the highest efficiency in the signalling and interlocking arrangements, and the use of any devices which will ensure increased facility and safety in the working of the traffic. With a crowd of trains passing a signal-cabin in both directions, and often over four lines of way, it is quite possible for a signalman to make a mistake which cannot be rectified in time to prevent an accident. To obtain increased security many railways have adopted the lock and block system previously described, or some adaptation of the same principle, and this method of working will go on extending as the traffic increases. These additional appliances entail additional care and inspection, for although automatical machinery may be exempt from the human frailty of preoccupation of mind or forgetfulness, it is somewhat delicate in its organization, and requires constant supervision to maintain its efficiency.
On many of the large lines, much has been done to give improved carriage accommodation. Carriages have been made longer, easier on the road, loftier, better furnished, and better lighted; but there is still a very great deficiency in those conveniences so essentially necessary, especially on trains running long distances without stopping. Drawing-room cars and dining-room cars are no doubt attractive, and may contribute considerably to the popularity of certain routes; but it is questionable whether many of the lines at home and abroad which have adopted such luxuries, have not in doing so commenced at the wrong end, and whether it would not have been more to the public satisfaction to have begun by first providing those conveniences which are found in every carriage on every line in the United States. It is satisfactory to find that there is a steadily growing tendency to so construct passenger carriages that their occupants may, by passages or corridors, communicate with all parts of the same carriage or with the adjoining carriages; and there is every reason to assume that the carriage of the future, either by legislation or consent, will combine both the items of conveniences and intercommunication, and will confer not only greater comfort to the passengers, but also increased protection against those outrages which, unfortunately, too frequently occur under the system of isolated compartments.
It will be instructive to watch the results of the passenger
receipts on those lines where only first and third-class carriages are used. The elimination of the second class may at first sight appear an innovation; but if there is not any pecuniary loss sustained, there must be a gain in the reduction of unoccupied seats to be hauled. It is customary to provide in every train a liberal number of spare seats of each class to meet contingencies; and the omission of one class may mean the saving of two or three carriages—a very important item in locomotive power.
On important through lines high-speed running has become a leading feature, and compels a very efficient standard of perfection in works and rolling-stock to effect its attainment. There is no indication of remaining contented with what has been already accomplished; on the contrary, the spirit of restlessness is always urging to do something more. The travelling public speak as calmly now of a speed of seventy miles an hour as they did of thirty-five a few years ago; they thoroughly recognize the value of railways, and they merely desire to travel still faster. The incentives of emulation and competition are ever present to encourage further and further reduction of the running time, and the railway that offers a special fast through service for some of its passenger and mail trains, reasonably expects its popularity and patronage to be in the ascendant. Much has been done in permanent way and equipment to make the present high speeds possible, but more will be required if the speeds are to go on increasing. The passenger carriages for such work must be very substantial, and naturally heavy. The locomotives to haul a long train must have increased power and weight, and will necessitate stronger rails to carry the greater rolling loads. With the present system of motive-power, the heaviest item is the locomotive, and its weight must always determine and regulate the character of the works and permanent way. Rails weighing 90 pounds per yard are becoming common, and there is clear indication that before very long sections weighing from 100 to 120 pounds, or more, per yard will be brought into use on many lines. There will be no difficulty in making a permanent way strong enough for rolling loads very far in excess of anything in the present practice; but it will be costly, and the extra expense per mile, extended over a few hundred miles, will represent a sum so large as to raise the question in many cases whether the probable advantages and additional remuneration to be obtained will warrant the outlay.
To some extent the increased speed may be attained by dividing the present long trains into two shorter trains, with a fair interval of time between them. There are many splendid locomotives now running, which on a fairly level line can reach a speed of considerably over seventy miles an hour with a short train, but would be quite incapable of doing so with a long train. At the same time it is possible that if passengers increase in the same proportion as the inducements provided, the short train might not be sufficient for the numbers presented, and there would be no other alternative but to resort to still greater rolling loads and stronger hauling power.
Perhaps electricity, which has already achieved so many marvels, is destined to take a still more prominent part as a motive-power in the working of ordinary railways, and may help out of the difficulty by inaugurating still higher speeds without the necessity of incurring stronger works or heavier permanent way. In addition to its success in the telegraph, in the telephone, and in its brilliant light, electricity is every day coming more and more to the front as a motive-power. At present many tramways and short lines, some of them in tunnel, some above ground, and many of them with very steep gradients, are successfully worked by electricity; but these, being of modern construction, were specially designed and equipped for that method of working, and none of them as yet resort to high speeds. Such rapid strides have, however, been already made in the progress of this system of haulage, as to promise that both increased power and speed will be forthcoming when the demand for them is made manifest. Various modes of application are being tried: overhead wires, underground wires, conductors on the level with the rails, storage batteries or accumulators, and self-contained electric motors, each and all of them being carefully tested to ascertain the comparative cost and efficiency. Much will depend upon the localities and advantages to be obtained for the respective generating stations. In places where a large, constant, and unutilized water supply is available, a great saving may be effected in the most expensive item of electric working, but in the greater number of cases steam-power will have to be adopted for driving the generating machinery. The main question will be whether electricity in its most approved form of application can haul a ton of paying load for one mile at a less average cost, and at as great or greater speed
than the ordinary locomotive. Until there is very clear evidence that electricity is cheaper, there will not be any great inducement for its general use as a motive-power on ordinary railways.
Experiments have been made on some existing railways to ascertain how far this new motive-power can be made serviceable under special circumstances. In one case, a powerful electric motor-car has been introduced for working frequent and heavy trains through a long tunnel, where the atmosphere with ordinary steam locomotives became foul almost to suffocation, and the result has shown that the traffic can be hauled efficiently by electricity, and the air in the tunnel maintained pure and clear. In this instance, the question of cost was of secondary importance, the primary object being to avoid the asphyxiating gases emitted from the ordinary locomotives.
In other cases, specially designed electric motor-cars have been constructed with a view to obtain a higher speed for passenger trains than is at present attained with the locomotives, and the trials made have proved that these cars could reach a high speed, but so far only with limited loads. Experiments are still going on with larger and improved machines, from which it is expected to obtain both high speed and much increased hauling power.
It is more than probable that amongst the earliest practical applications of electric motive-power on existing railways will be its introduction as an auxiliary on the steep gradients of some of the mountain railways abroad. In many of these regions there are millions of gallons of water running to waste down the ravines, a portion of which could be utilized in working powerful generating plant, to drive strong electric motor-cars for assisting the ordinary locomotives up the steep inclines. In such localities, with free water-power, the cost of the electricity would be at a minimum, while the cost of the ordinary locomotive would be at a maximum.
In whatever form the electric motor-car may be designed, we are brought face to face with the old axiom, that there must be a certain amount of weight to obtain a certain amount of adhesion; but there will be one important point in favour of the motor-car, that whereas in the ordinary locomotive the weight for traction can only be distributed over a few working wheels, the electric arrangement may distribute it over a much greater number, and so diminish the insistent weight of each wheel upon
the rails. There would also be the saving of the dead weight of the tender, the fuel, water, and other minor accessories, as well as the advantage that the active power would be applied in a rotary form instead of reciprocating.
There are important interests at stake in the perfecting of this new system of haulage, and day by day new developments are being made to add to its efficiency and reduce its cost. Existing railways will, however, naturally require some very convincing proof of the all-round superiority of electricity before adopting that power generally in place of their present locomotives. The latter, with their corresponding workshops and appliances, represent so large an amount of invested capital, as to demand most thorough trials and investigation of the new power before they are superseded; nevertheless, if further experience proves that electrical power is better and cheaper than the ordinary steam locomotives, then the change will undoubtedly be made.
Under whatever system of haulage the acceleration of trains be obtained, the increased speed will call for increased precautions in the selection and proving of the materials to be used in such service. Rails must be made more uniform in quality, and must be free from the imputation of fracture under regular wear. Notwithstanding the great improvements made in the preparation of the steel, and in the rolling, there are still far too many steel rails which break under traffic to allow rail-makers to rest satisfied with their work. Something is still wanting in the manufacture to effectually remove this disposition to fracture. The safe rail, the rail of the future, must be one that may bend and may wear, but will never break under ordinary use in the road. Axles must be stronger and tougher, as they will have to bear greater torsional strains than are now imposed upon them; and the wheels, of whatever type they are made, must be incapable of collapsing or falling to pieces upon the sudden and severe application of the brake-blocks. A train, rushing along at a speed of 70 or 80 miles an hour, may on an emergency have to be brought to a stand in the shortest distance possible, and the failure of either axles or wheels in the endeavour to avert one form of accident would inevitably initiate another.
To permit of unchecked high-speed running, many sharp curves will have to be flattened, bridges will have to be built at busy level crossings; and points, crossings, and junctions on the
main lines will have to be reduced to the smallest possible number.
It would be difficult to form an opinion as to how far passenger traffic will go on expanding, but if it continues to increase at the same rate as at present, some railways may find it expedient, and even absolutely necessary, to construct new lines altogether separate and apart from the existing routes, and for the sole use of their fast through traffic. As roadside or intermediate traffic would not form any part of the scheme, such lines could be laid out so as to keep away from the populous districts, where property would be costly, and pass instead through those parts of the open country where the most direct course and easiest gradients could be obtained. Stations would only be required at the very large and important places, and at long distances from each other. Lines of this description, reserved for through traffic only, taken alone, might not pay, but taken in conjunction with the existing lines, of which they would form a part, they might prove to be the best solution of the problem of dealing with a crowded train service, the remunerative earnings of which, placed together, might yield a rich return over the entire system. A project for a separate through line might at first appear a little startling, but we have well-known precedents in the vast expenditure already incurred in the constructing of enormous viaducts and connecting lines to avoid long detours on certain through routes. The widening out of an ordinary double line into a four-line road was at first considered as a rather venturesome departure; and it must always be costly because, in addition to the earthworks and permanent way, there is the doubling of all the over and under bridges and waterways, besides the great and expensive alterations at stations. Practically it is almost like making a second railway, and yet the constant extension of the principle is an admission that the working results have proved satisfactory, in spite of the large outlay. A little later the question will force itself more prominently into notice, whether the four-line track or the separate fast through traffic lines, will best answer the purpose. The former possesses certain advantages, but the latter would give more freedom for high-speed running.
Engineers have brought railways to their present stage of perfection, and the public will expect them to devise and carry out still further improvements as the march of development
moves onward. It is a simple matter to arrange the traffic on a railway when all the works and appliances are appropriate for the service to be performed; but the advances which are made follow one another so rapidly as to necessitate constant study and organization to effect the structural alterations and additions requisite to maintain an up-to-date standard of efficiency. The traffic manager on a railway receives his instructions from the directors or controllers of the company as to the working out of the train service, rates, charges, and other items of his department, but the engineer has to stand alone, and his technical knowledge and professional skill must enable him not only to design and construct works suitable in character, extent, and strength to the duty for which they are intended, but also to decide when structures are no longer capable of properly sustaining the increasing loads brought upon them, and must be taken down and replaced with others of a stronger description. For this reason the engineer must carefully consider every circumstance and local feature which may influence the design to be prepared; he must thoroughly investigate the nature of the ground for foundations, as the description when ascertained will frequently determine the class of work to be erected, whether in viaducts, bridges, or buildings; and in his selection of materials and calculations for strength, he must allow ample margin to meet further increased weights, as well as for natural deterioration.
He should, indeed, go a little further, and as his perceptive ability and training will always enable him the more readily to foreshadow the direction in which improvements or changes are tending, he should study out and be prepared with his schemes to meet the new departures as the requirements gradually arise.
Strength and efficiency are the leading points which must be always kept in view, and the engineer must never forget that he is solely responsible for the safety of the line and works, and of the public passing over the same.