Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., Past President of the Institute of Civil Engineers / Comprising the history of his professional life, together with reminiscences dating from the commencement of the century to the present time.

by Sir John Rennie

In company with my friend Mr. George Remington, I designed the direct London and Manchester Railway in the years 1844-45; this line would have reduced the distance between London and Manchester to 176 miles, besides affording railway communication to a number of the intermediate towns, such as Bradford, Burton, Leicester, Congleton, and other places that had not hitherto received the benefit of direct railway accommodation. This line was pronounced by the Board of Trade to be the most important and best laid down line that had been brought before Parliament, and was strongly recommended by them; and it would have been carried, but unfortunately there was another competing line by Mr. Rastrick, that was ultimately abandoned by its promoters, who, before doing so, united with us; but in doing this the reference books containing the names of the owners and occupiers along both lines became mixed, and the result was, that seven miles of the reference of the competing line was substituted for seven miles of our line, and vice versâ. This was fatal, and the Bill was consequently lost; and this valuable line, almost the best of any in England, could never be resuscitated. The North-Western Railway, thinking that they were safe from all competition, declined taking up the line, though their interest imperatively called upon them to do so, and further, would not unite with nor buy up the Midland from Leeds to Rugby. The Midland Company then determined to make an independent line to London, and took the identical course laid down by Remington and myself. They have become a very formidable rival to the North-Western, and this is precisely a similar case to that between the South-Eastern and the London, Chatham, and Dover Companies. If the South-Eastern Company had only adopted my Central Kent line, which was laid down in 1838, before they had commenced their present line—and they promised to do so—the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway would never have been made, and the county of Kent would have been better served, many millions would have been saved, and many thousand unfortunate shareholders would have avoided ruin.

I laid down lines for the kingdoms of Sweden and Portugal, which have been more or less adopted, and projected a line from Odessa to Moscow. Also the London, Brighton, and South Coast as far as Salisbury, and from thence to Warminster, which has since been adopted. A line from London to Birmingham, Leeds, and Carlisle; Leeds and Bradford; Dumfries and Port Patrick; Newry and Enniskillen, in Ireland; Bangor to Port Dyllaen, North Wales; Cannock Chase line, in Staffordshire, through an undeveloped coal district, another of my lines which has since been carried into effect. The East Lincoln, from Lynn to Great Grimsby; the direct London and Norwich, from Bishop’s Stortford to Thetford, which would have shortened the distance between London and Norwich and Yarmouth. All these lines were laid upon the direct principle, that is, taking the shortest distance that the nature of the intervening country would permit between the two termini; this principle is now proved to be the correct one, and if it had only been acted upon before, we may readily conceive the vast amount of capital which would have been saved, while the counties through which railways have been made would have received a much greater benefit; whereas, by the system which has hitherto been adopted, a great number of unnecessary lines have been constructed, and a constant competition and rivalry have taken place between the different companies, and now, with reduced dividends and increased charges, they find out their error, when it is too late to be remedied.

Another most important error has been committed by a too narrow gauge having been adopted. My brother and myself, when we carried the Bill for the Manchester and Liverpool through Parliament, in the year 1826—and this may be considered almost the very commencement of the railway system—after investigating the width between all the various carriage wheels, whether for goods or passengers, we decided that the width of gauge from centre to centre of the rails should be 5 feet 6 inches or 6 feet. When Mr. George Stephenson became the engineer for executing the line, he decided that the gauge should be only 4 feet 8½ inches from centre to centre of the railway, for no other reason than that the gauge between the old colliery rails was 4 feet 8½ inches; hence arose all the subsequent difficulties. It was quite clear that 4 feet 8½ inches was too narrow. Brunel, seizing on this mistake, proposed at once to make the gauge 7 feet from centre to centre of the rails for the Great Western Railway. This was as evidently too much as Stephenson’s was too little. The power of a locomotive engine is in proportion to its weight, and the greater the weight the greater the power, acting as it does by its adhesion to the rails; and to increase the power of an engine upon the narrow gauge could only be done with safety by increasing its length; for if it be done by increasing the height, the centre of gravity would be raised also, and the motion of the engine would be rendered unsteady; and by increasing the length the engine would be less adapted for going round sharp curves. Now in the ordinary traffic of goods, such as coals, &c., extraordinary velocity was not required, and therefore the width of the gauge was not of so much consequence, but when it came to carrying passengers the case was wholly altered. Latterly the coaches and mails had travelled at the rate of 10 and 12 miles an hour, whereas goods were seldom carried at the rate of more than 3 miles an hour. If passengers were to travel by railway it would not be less than 12 miles an hour, and therefore it was at length necessary to provide for this velocity, and more; otherwise, as there was a certain prejudice on the outset against railway travelling, the latter could not expect to have the preference. But when it was ascertained, as it was at the trial of engines upon the Rainhill plane of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, that the imperfect locomotives of that day could go at the rate of 30 miles an hour, the whole case was changed; the carriage of goods, which at first was most important, gave way to that of carrying passengers, and it was evident that the whole system of locomotion, whether of goods or passengers, must be absorbed by railways. It was therefore more especially necessary that the question of the gauge should be most carefully considered. I may be answered, certainly, that the improved locomotive engines upon the narrow gauge realize a speed of 50 to 60 miles an hour, and this is fast enough for anything; but then this cannot be done without incurring greater risk than upon a broader gauge. The Great Western realize a speed of 45 miles an hour without the least risk, i.e. including stoppages, whereas the narrow gauge does not do more than 35 to 37 miles an hour, and that probably with a greater wear and tear of the rails. A medium therefore between the two gauges, that is 5 feet 6 inches or 6 feet, instead of 4 feet 8½ inches or 7 feet, appeared to my brother and self the proper gauge; and if such had been adopted we should never have heard of the 7-feet gauge, and the 5 feet 6 inches or 6-feet gauge would have been universally adopted, to the great advantage of all.

Before leaving railways, it may be proper to say something about the atmospheric system. When an experiment was made on a large scale and succeeded very well, it was subsequently reduced to practice upon the Dublin and Bray Railway, between Kingstown and Dalkey, a length of about 3 miles. Here it succeeded perfectly; the steepest incline was completely mastered, and the smoothness and luxury of travelling were unequalled. Brunel afterwards took it up, and employed it upon the South Devon Railway. There it succeeded also perfectly as far as speed and luxury of travelling were concerned. The difficulty however of making the valve in the exhausting tube was so great that it was ultimately abandoned, after having incurred great expense, and the locomotive system was again resorted to. The Croydon Railway also adopted it, but gave it up for the same reason as the South Devon. My brother and myself were much taken with this system, and made several of the steam engines for it, that answered their purpose perfectly, and we thought that by a little more perseverance in it, the difficulties complained of might have been overcome, but the proprietors would not listen either to Brunel or ourselves. The Stephensons made a dead set against it, and, taking the facts at the time, perhaps they were right; but it is very rarely that a new invention succeeds at the first or second trial: it requires time to ascertain the defects, and to study more minutely the remedy, and, after a little while, the cure for the evil is found out. I should not be surprised if ultimately the atmospheric system comes to life again: indeed, the very strongest opponents of it have already adopted it in London, with certain modifications, for conveying the mail bags in London from the General Post Office to some of the railway stations, with considerable success, and Mr. Rammell made an experimental line of this kind at the Crystal Palace. The defects in the original lines were principally those of workmanship, and can be remedied by degrees, as is always the case whenever a principle is sound, for it only requires perseverance to achieve ultimate success.

XIV. Drainage of lowlands upon a large scale I have carried into effect in several instances already described. The completion of the Eau Brink Cut, the designing and making the Norfolk Estuary Cut below Lynn, and the Marshland works, by means of which from 350,000 to 400,000 acres of land are drained; the Nene Estuary Cut, by which about 150,000 acres of land are drained; the improvement of the Witham between Boston and the sea, by which the drainage of about 250,000 acres has been materially improved; the Ancholme drainage, by which 50,000 acres of lowlands have been well drained; altogether amounting to between 800,000 and 900,000 acres.

XV. I may also say that I have embanked from the estuaries of the Ouse, the Nene, and the Witham, about 6000 acres of fen land, which is now more or less under cultivation. I have also laid down a plan, at present being carried into effect, by which 32,000 additional acres will be embanked from the estuaries of the Ouse and Nene; and another plan for embanking 45,000 acres from the estuaries of the Welland and Witham; indeed, my original plan of 1837 was for embanking from 150,000 to 200,000 acres of land from the estuaries of the Ouse, Nene, Welland, and Witham, and the Great Wash; and I have no doubt that in time this will be effected, and another large and most valuable county—all rich agricultural land—will be added to the kingdom. I also obtained an Act for embanking 32,000 acres from the north side of the estuary of the Thames, near Shoeburyness. I believe that, in addition to this, three times the amount may be taken from this and other parts of the Thames estuary. Let to these be added the lands which may be saved from the estuaries of the Humber, the Forth, the Tay, the Clyde, the Solway, Morecambe Bay, and the Mersey, altogether from 500,000 to 600,000 acres of land may be reclaimed, or three large new counties may be added to the kingdom, capable of producing annually an additional supply of 3,500,000 quarters of corn, which, at 3l. per quarter, would, after deducting 20s. per quarter for the cost of production, add a revenue of about 6,000,000l. a year to the country. A great deal may be done in this way also in Ireland. We should, however, deduct a million a year for the first fifteen years to cover the cost of embankment. The clear annual gain would be 5,000,000l. a year to the country; or, putting it in another light, the land so acquired would maintain an additional number of inhabitants. Besides this, large tracts of lowlands adjacent to these estuaries might be greatly improved in their drainage, in connection with the reclamation works, which would add considerably to their produce.

The execution of all these works, besides draining the quantity of land I have stated, and more than doubling its value, has also very greatly improved the navigation.

I also extended the Newry Ship Canal nearly two miles, which has a depth of 16 to 18 feet, and is 130 feet wide, with an entrance lock 50 feet wide. I deepened the old canal to Newry, so that large vessels, drawing nearly 16 to 17 feet, can come up to the town.

XVI. Soon after my father’s death, in 1821, when I may be said to have entered my professional career upon my own account, I began to consider the water question; that is to say, the best mode of economizing water, so that those districts where it might be most required could be supplied, as far as the physical geography of those places would render it practicable. Generally speaking, there falls a certain quantity of rain in every district during the year, and this, with more or less regularity, at particular seasons and times. In some places the rain is periodical, and falls in the course of three or four consecutive months; in other countries it falls at different times, principally, however, in the winter and autumn months. Now after the periodical rain is over, the whole country is deprived of water throughout the remainder, or about three-fourths, of the year. The remedy for this is to construct reservoirs in the most convenient places, upon such a scale as the wants of the country may require; in these reservoirs the surplus waters should be stored during the periodical rains, to serve as a supply in the dry season, not only for domestic purposes, but for irrigation, navigation, &c.; the reservoirs should, in some cases, be covered, and in others open, even to the extent of making them large lakes. They should be provided with proper sluices and culverts, open or covered, as may be required, and best adapted for distributing the water in the most beneficial manner.

Having obtained a sufficient supply, the next point to be attended to is, to take care that the water shall not be polluted: in order to effect this, in all thickly-peopled districts the sewage should not be discharged into the river or watercourses, but into separate, isolated, and well-ventilated tanks, and then be deodorized by mixing it with earth, or subjecting it to any well-known process for this purpose, and the refuse should be distributed for manure; thus the sewage, instead of being a nuisance, will become valuable for agricultural purposes.