(b) Means to be provided for placing the whole train on sidings clear of the main line before any shunting operations are commenced.
17. Engine-turntables of sufficient diameter to enable the longest engines and tenders in use on the line to be turned without being uncoupled to be erected at terminal stations and at junctions and other places at which the engines require to be turned, except in cases of short lines not exceeding 15 miles in length, where the stations are not at a greater distance than 3 miles apart, and the railway company gives an undertaking (see No. 35) to stop all trains at all stations. Care to be taken to keep all turntables at safe distances from the adjacent lines of rails, so that engines, waggons, or carriages, when being turned, may not foul other lines or endanger the traffic upon them.
18. Cast-iron must not be used for railway under-bridges, except in the form of arched-ribbed girders, where the material is in compression.
In a cast-iron arched bridge, or in the cast-iron girders of an over-bridge, the breaking weight of the girders not to be less than three times the permanent load due to the weight of the superstructure, added to six times the greatest moving load that can be brought upon it.
In a wrought-iron or steel bridge, the greatest load which can be brought upon it, added to the weight of the superstructure, not to produce a greater strain per square inch on any part of the material than five tons where wrought-iron is used, or six tons and a half where steel is used.
The engineer responsible for any steel structure to forward to the Board of Trade a certificate to the effect that the steel employed is either cast-steel, or steel made by some process of fusion, subsequently rolled or hammered, and of a quality possessing considerable toughness and ductility, together with a statement of all the tests to which it has been subjected.
19. In cases where bridges or viaducts are constructed wholly or partially of timber, a sufficient factor of safety, depending on the nature and quality of the timber, to be provided for.
N.B.—The heaviest engines, boiler trucks, or travelling cranes in use on railways afford a measure of the greatest moving loads to which a bridge can be subjected. The above rules apply equally to the main transverse girders and rail-bearers.
20. It is desirable that viaducts should, as far as possible, be wholly constructed of brick or stone, and in such cases they must have parapet walls on each side, not under 4 feet 6 inches in height above the rail level, and not less than 18 inches thick.
Where it is not practicable to construct the viaducts of brick or stone, and iron or steel girders are made use of, it is considered best that in important viaducts the permanent way should be laid between the main girders. In all cases substantial parapets, with a height of not less than 4 feet 6 inches above rail-level must be provided by an addition to the girders, unless the girders themselves are sufficiently high. On important viaducts where the superstructure is of iron, steel, or timber, substantial outside wheel-guards to be fixed above the level of, and as close to the outer rails as possible, but not so as to be liable to be struck by any part of an engine or train running on the rails.