Supposing the possibility of the Liverpool and Manchester railway proving a failure, that company would have scarcely any more saleable value in their possession, in exchange for the million and a quarter which it has already cost, and the million and a half which it will cost them, than the (about) 5000 tons of iron which is in their rails. Their long, narrow, slip of ground, dear as it has been to them, would be worth nothing; while the labour of taking up the between two and three hundred thousand stone blocks (or bases) they have laid down to carry the rails, would be more than those blocks are worth. Also would the 450,000l. expended in levelling the line and forming the road, be utterly lost. [52] Whereas, had a tunnel been laid down, not only would the whole of the hundreds of thousands expended in levelling have been saved, but as not one-tenth of the labour would have been required to lay a tunnel down, compared with what the railway required, a large sum would have been saved for that also; while what was laid out, being for metal, instead of labour, there would have been from ten to twenty times more saleable value in their hands, than they now have.
And as the same circumstances would, in a similar case, apply to the Birmingham, and Bristol (and indeed to all) Railways, as well as to your line, it would, comparatively, be almost as much better, in this particular, to have a tunnel instead of a rail-road or canal, as it would be to hold specie instead of paper, during a run on the bank: though this advantage would be greatest in relation to a canal; the greater proportion of the expense of which, is for that irrecoverable outlay, labour.
In point of the friction of the wheels would the carriages that moved in the tunnel be importantly superior to railway carriages.
Owing to circumstances which it is not necessary to discuss, the height of the wheels of the coaches and waggons on railways is confined to about three feet. Wheels of twice that diameter have been tried, but thrown aside in consequence of their liability to cause accidents by running off the rails: the only thing by which the wheels of all vehicles running on edge railways are kept on them, being a rim, which, projecting one inch beyond the bearing part of the tire of the wheels, keeps them on the rails; as the brim of a hat will keep the body of it from rising on a table, over the edge of which said brim hangs.
In consequence of this, all carriages running on open railways are liable to accidents, such as those mentioned in the notes below, many of which have occurred; though, owing to their having happened either in the excavations, on the levels, or on the low embankments, the dashings-to-pieces which will take place when they occur on the high embankments have, hitherto, been avoided. [53a]
But as the carriages inside the tunnel cannot get off the railway in it, as they do on common railways, while, owing to the constantly vertical position in which the wheels can be kept, they may be twice, or three times, as high as on common railways, so great a diminution in the power required to move any load will take place, as to admit of any weight being moved in the tunnel with less than half the power required to move it on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
In point of repairs, too, would the tunnel be importantly cheaper than a railway. Supposing you were to have a railway, there would be, in every mile of it, above seven thousand stone blocks, or bases, to carry the rails; every one of which bases would be liable to sink, and disarrange the level of the line, as they are so constantly doing (vide page [11]); while the rails themselves would be liable to bend, and break, between these bases. Sinkings of the bases, and bendings and breakings of the rails, &c. &c. being (like fractures of the harness and apparatus of stage-coaches, or the ropes of ships) matters of constant occurrence, there are, in the whole, and including every liability to disarrangement and repair, above eighty thousand parts or places, in every mile of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, where adjustment or repair may daily be required; while, were that railway to be made a quadruple one, by having two more lines of road (four more lines of rails, i.e.) laid down, these liabilities would increase to above one hundred and sixty thousand per mile; though, for the present, I refer only to fractures and loosenings of the chairs, &c. bendings and breakings of the rails, and sinkings, &c. of the bases, which are now possible to the amount of above 40,000 per mile; whereas, in a tunnel, the corresponding disarrangements would be possible to the amount of only 1056 per mile: an advantage which time will prove to be of much greater importance than it may at first be considered; owing to the small expense of repair it will occasion. Supposing the London and Birmingham Railway were to have the “quadruple line” adverted to when the capital was raised to three millions, there would, in its whole length, be nearly twenty millions of parts or places where repair, or adjustment, might, daily, be necessary: a number which might well double the 488l. per mile, per annum, charged under the item “Maintainance of way,” in the half-yearly accounts of the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad.
But neither is this the last circumstance with respect to which a tunnel would be superior to a railway.
From the statements laid before Parliament, it appears that in the half-year ending the 31st December, 1831, “the number of trips of 30 miles” made on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was 5392. Now as the whole weight carried during this half-year was under 91,000 tons, it appears that the average profitable weight (passengers, or merchandise) carried each trip, was less than 17 tons.
The average weight of an engine and its tender, with fuel and water, being, I believe, not less than 12 tons, while there is the weight of the coaches and waggons additional to this, it would appear that for every ton which pays any thing, that is carried on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, they also carry a ton which pays nothing.