In this point of view the experiment at Dalkey has entirely succeeded. A system of machinery which even at the first attempt works without interruption and constantly for many months, may be considered practically to be free from any mechanical objection.
No locomotive line that I have been connected with has been equally free from accidents.
That which is true for one railway of two miles in length is equally true for a second or third, although they may be placed the one at the end of the other; the chances of an accident are only in the proportion of the number, or in other words, the length, a proportion which holds equally good with locomotives, except that a locomotive may be affected by the distance it has previously run, while a stationary engine and its pipes cannot in like manner be affected by the previous working of the neighbouring engine and pipes.
In my opinion the Atmospheric System is, so far as any stationary power can be, as applicable to a great length of line as it is to a short one.
Upon all these points I could advance many arguments and many proofs, but I shall content myself with saying that, as a professional man, I express a decided opinion that, as a mechanical contrivance, the Atmospheric apparatus has succeeded perfectly as an effective means of working trains by stationary power, whether on long or short lines, at higher velocity and with less chance of interruption than is now effected by locomotives.
I will now proceed to consider the question of the advantage of its application to the South Devon Railway.
It will simplify the discussion of the question very much if it is considered as a comparison between a double line worked by locomotives in the usual manner, and a single line of railway worked by stationary power, the only peculiarity of the present case being that upon four separate portions of the whole 52 miles stationary assistant power would under any circumstances have been used, these four inclines forming together one-fifth of the whole distance.
It is necessary to consider it as a question of a single line on account of the expense, the cost of the pipe for each line being about 3,500l. per mile.
An addition of 7,000l. per mile, or of about 330,000l., in the first construction could not be counterbalanced by any adequate advantage in the saving in the works on the South Devon Railway, and probably not by any subsequent economy or advantage in the working; but the system admits of the working with a single line, without danger of collision, certainly with less than upon a double locomotive line. And I believe also that, considering the absence of most of the causes of accidents, there will even be less liability of interruption and less delay in the average resulting from accidents than in the ordinary double locomotive railway.
By the modification of the gradients and by reducing the curves to 1,000 feet radius where any great advantage can be gained by so doing, and by constructing the cuttings, embankments, tunnels, and viaducts for a single line, a considerable saving may be effected in the first cost.