To a very large extent the automobile will be rather a feeder to the railway than a rival to it; and all sorts of by-roads and country lanes will be improved and adapted so as to admit of residents running into their stations by their own motor-cars and then completing their journeys by rail. But when this point has been reached, and when fairly smooth tracks adapted for automobile and cycling traffic have been laid down all over the country, a very interesting question will crop up having reference to the practicability of converting these tracks into highways combining the capabilities both of roads and of railways.
In an ordinary railroad the functions of the iron or steel rails are twofold, first to carry the weight of the load, and second to guide the engine, carriage or truck in the right direction. Now the latter purpose—in the case of a rail-track never used for high speeds, especially in going round curves—might be served by the adoption of a very much lighter weight of rail, if only the carrying of the load could be otherwise provided for. In fact, if pneumatic-tyre wheels, running on a fairly smooth asphalt track, were employed to bear the weight of a vehicle, there would then be no need for more than one guide-rail, which might readily be fixed in the middle of the track; but this should preferably be made to resemble the rail of a tram rather than that of a railroad.
"Every man his own engine-driver" will be a rule which will undoubtedly require some little social and mechanical adjustment to carry out within the limits of the public safety. But the automobile, even in its existing form, makes the task of completing this adjustment practically a certainty of the near future; and as soon as it is seen that motor tracks with guide lines render traffic safer than it is on ordinary roads, the main objections to the innovation will be rapidly overcome. The rule of the road for such guide-line tracks will probably be based very closely on that which at present exists for ordinary thoroughfares. On those roads where two tracks have been laid down each motor will be required to keep to the left, and when a traveller coming up behind is impatient at the slow rate of speed adopted by his precursor he will be compelled to make the necessary détour himself, passing into the middle of the thoroughfare and there outstripping the party in front, without the assistance of the guide-rail, and rejoining the track.
To execute this movement, of course, the motor wheels for the guide-tracks must be mounted on entirely different principles from those adapted for railroad traffic. The broad and soft tyred wheels which bear upon the asphalt track will be entrusted with the duty of carrying the machine without extraneous aid; but there will be two extra wheels, one in front and one at the rear, capable of being lifted at any time by means of a lever controlled by the driver. These guiding wheels will fit into the groove of the tram line in the centre, being made of a shape suitable for enabling the driver to pick up the groove quickly whenever he pleases. The carrying wheels of the vehicle in this system are enabled to pass over the guide-rail readily, because the latter does not stand up from the track like the line in a railroad.
A simpler plan, particularly adapted for roads which are to have only a single guide-rail, is to place the rail at the off-side of the track, and to raise it a few inches from the ground. The wheels for the rail are attached to arms which can be raised and lifted off the rail by the driver operating a lever. Guiding irons, forming an inverted Y, are placed below the bearings of the wheels to facilitate the picking up of the rail, their effect being that, if the driver places his vehicle in approximately the position for engaging the side wheels with the rail and then goes slowly ahead, he will very quickly be drawn into the correct alignment. Of course the rails for this kind of track can be very light and inexpensive in comparison with those required for railroads on which the whole weight of each vehicle, as well as the lateral strain caused by its guidance, must fall upon the rail itself.
The asphalt track and its equivalent will be the means of bringing much nearer to fulfilment the dream of having "a railway to every man's door". Many such tracks will be equipped with electric cables as well as guiding-rails, so that cars with electric motors will be available for running on them, and the power will be supplied from a publicly-maintained station. Some difficulty may at first be experienced in adjusting the rates and modes of payment for the facilities thus offered; but a convenient precedent is present to hand in the class of enactment under which tramway companies are at present protected from having their permanent ways used by vehicles owned by other persons. Practically the possession of a vehicle having a flanged wheel and a gauge exactly the same as that of the tram lines in the vicinity may be taken to indicate an intention to use the lines. Similarly a certain relation between the positions of guiding wheels and those of the connections with cables may be held to furnish evidence of liability to contribute towards the maintenance of motor-tracks.
Roads and railways will be much more closely inter-related in the future than they have been in the past. The competition of the automobile would in itself be practically sufficient to force the owners of railways into a more adaptive mood in regard to the true relations between the world's great highways. The way in which the course of evolution will work the problem out may be indicated thus:—First, the owners of automobiles will find it convenient in many instances to run by road to the nearest railway station which suits their purposes, leaving their machines in charge of the stationmaster and going on by train. In course of time the owners of "omnibus automobiles" will desire to secure the same advantage for their customers, and on this account the road cars will await the arrival and departure of every train just as horse vehicles do at present. The next step will be taken by the railway companies, or by the local authorities, when it becomes obvious that there is much more profit in motor traffic than there ever was in catering for the public by means of vehicles drawn by horses. Each important railway station will have its diverging lines of motor-traffic for the convenience of passengers, some of them owned and managed by the same authority as the railway line itself.
Rivalry will shortly enforce an improvement upon this system, because in the keen competition between railway lines those stations will attract the best parts of the trade at which the passengers are put to the smallest amount of inconvenience. The necessity for changing trains, with its attendant bustle of looking after luggage, perhaps during very inclement weather, always acts as a hindrance to the popularity of a line. When "motor-omnibuses" are running by road all the way into the city, setting people down almost at their doors and making wide circuits by road, the proprietors of these vehicles will make the most of their advantages in offering to travellers a cosy and comfortable retreat during the whole of their journey.
Road-motors, comfortably furnished, will therefore be mounted upon low railway trucks of special construction, designed to permit of their being run on and off the trucks from the level of the ground. The plan of mounting a road vehicle upon a truck suited to receive it has already been adopted for some purposes, notably for the removal of furniture and similar goods; and it is capable of immense extension. An express train will run through on the leading routes from which roads branch out in all directions, and as it approaches each station it will uncouple the truck and "motor-omnibus" intended for that destination. The latter will be shunted on to a loopline. The road-motor will be set free from its truck and will then proceed on its journey by road.
When a similar system has been fully adapted for the conveyance of goods by rail and road experiments will then be commenced, on a systematic basis, with the object of rendering possible the picking up of packages, and even of vehicles, without stopping the train. The most pressing problem which now awaits solution in the railway world is how to serve roadside stations by express trains. "Through" passengers demand a rapid service; while the roadside traffic goes largely to the line that offers the most frequent trains. In the violent strain and effort to combine these two desiderata the most successful means yet adopted have been those which rely upon the destruction of enormous quantities of costly engine-power by means of quick-acting brakes. The amount of power daily converted into the mischievous heat of friction by the brakes on some lines of railway would suffice to work the whole of the traffic several times over; but the sacrifice has been enforced by the public demand for a train that shall run fast and shall yet stop as frequently as possible.