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MILITARY R A IL WAYS,
INCLUDING ALSO TXESCRIPTION AND ESTIMATES OF THE
“PIONEER’’ ‘STEAM CARAVAN.
BY
JOHN L, HADDAN, Esq.,
~
F.R.G.S., M.I.C.E., OFFICER of THE MEDJEDIE, &c., AND Ex-ENGINEER-IN-
CHIEF, OTToMAN Gover NMENT.
“When an ultra-civilized army, the pink of mechanical perfection ; is brought face
“to face with primitive conditions of Transport : —then comes the Tug of War.”
—Author.
Mechanical Transport supplies civilized warfare with its most merciful weapon.
The blow is delivered more rapidly, and war's cruel effects are more quickly
obliterated by its use. It performs the duty both of sword and ploughshare.
A LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION.
LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR GARNET J. WOLSELEY, G.C.M.G., in the
- Chair.
(Authors alone are responsible for the contents of their respective memoirs.)
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“When an ultra-civilized Army, the pink of mechanical perfection;
“is brought face to face with primitive conditions of Transport:—
“ then comes the Tug of War.”—AUTHOR.
Mechanical Transport supplies civilized warfare with its most
merciful weapon. The blow is delivered more rapidly, and war's
cruel effects are more quickly obliterated by its use. It performs the
duty both of sword and ploughshare.
[PLATE 1.
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For private circulation only.)
&btning #lecting. --
Monday, May 20th, 1878.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR GARNET J. WOLSELEY, G.C.M.G.,
- &c., &c., in the Chair.
For his opinion see page 38.
MILITARY RAILWAYS.
By John L. Happas, Esq., F.R.G.S., M.I.C.E., officer of the
Medjediè, &c., and Ex-Engineer-in-Chief, Ottoman Government.
THIS subject may be broadly divided into two distinct classes, viz.:
transport railways, as represented by existing lines; and field railways,
which must be entirely created. The first entirely under civil control,
and the latter purely military. -
A transport railway, sufficiently large to forward an army corps
complete, including artillery and cavalry; cannot, it is self-evident, be
constructed during the short duration of a modern campaign : since,
without the line was of considerable length, it would have no raison
d'étre, since marching would be more expeditious. All that can be done
in this direction is to adapt existing railways to suit military require-
ments at the minimum of inconvenience to commerce.
The first step is to divide up the whole of the rolling stock into
trains, each distinguished by a prominent mark; and each having its
terminal place for loading and unloading assigned to it, as also its own
special staff. These trains, once formed and classed, are never to be
disintegrated; since, by detaching the waggons, confusion is bred : the
value of which may be gathered from the inclosed official report on
French railways (see Table No. I, page 25). This Report shows that,
owing to the difficulty of sorting waggons as units, and making them
up into trains, in a crowded because concentrated terminus; the
average quantity of rolling stock available for use at one time is only
10 per cent. of the whole supply." The number of waggons which
should form a train will depend upon the worst grades of the line, the
length of the sidings, and the size of the army to be transported; but
a fair average would be about thirty waggons. t -
Thus, at one swoop, we reduce our working stock to a strictly
necessary active minimum, and moreover increase the unit thirtyfold in
size; while we offer the minimum of obstruction to the ordinary traffic.”
* The cost and trouble of sorting waggons is represented in France by the difference
of tariff charged for “grande et petite vitesse’’ goods, which is also 10 to 1.
Both goods however travel in the same trains; but one class are dispatched in a
hurry, and the others are delayed to be economically stowed.
* The existing system of relying upon the country itself for supplying military
transport, is economically wrong. . The damage done thereby is simply incalculable ;
when, as is too often the case, animals are destroyed wholesale, and trade currents
tturned for ever from their usual course.
- b 2
[PLATE 2.

MILITARY RAILWAYS. 5
The waggons and carriages used should be reduced as much as
possible to one type, the perfection of utility being a plain truck or
platform; it might be necessary therefore to remove the upper works
of many of the covered waggons or carriages, or what would be better,
construct the stock on all strategic lines, so that the under-frames were
independent of the rest of the vehicle.” -
Our trains having been made up, it becomes necessary to insure
rapid loading and discharging, that the freight should likewise be
converted into units and treated as it were like passengers; since it
is not advisable to attempt the usual unsatisfactory practice, and endea-
vour to extricate the required type of waggons and bring them piece-
meal to the heterogeneous mass of goods. A hide and seek lottery with
mostly blanks. **
These baggage units consist of boxes mounted on friction rollers,
their size being about 7 feet long, by 4 feet, by 5 feet, of a capacity of
about one ton average. Five of such boxes would go to a waggon,
and their contents might consist of as many different elements without .
causing the least confusion. They might with advantage be cylindrical.
Nothing of any sort should be sent loose, but packed in those
special freight boxes; so that, without breaking bulk, the most deli-
cate stores might be sent from Woolwich to the north-west Indian
frontier: although the sea be crossed, railways of two gauges used, and
perhaps river navigation and common road transport required, to boot.
The type of box to be used should be one of strong but simple con-
struction, of a size not only suitable to the general military require-
ments, but also available when emptied for as many extraneous pur-
poses as possible. The size before mentioned, which is rather larger
than a palanquin, should answer well; since it is available as a horse-
box, ambulance carriage, and general cart, when mounted with spare
artillery wheels: for which its sides should be prepared.
They should be air-tight, and contain enough air space to render
their debarkation or transport by flotation possible; or, when empty,
their being employed as pontoons, or filled with stones, &c., for tem-
porary quay blocks, &c. When taken to pieces, their sides form
building slabs of a very handy size for temporary structures of all kinds.
These cases should be made of a foundation of wire trellis work,
enfolded in a sort of papier maché composition. The strength of such
a construction is not readily credited; but I may mention that a fire-
proof dome has been made to St. Paul’s Cathedral on a similar plan,
which is only three-eighths of an inch thick, Portland cement being
used in lieu of papier maché. There is a small specimen on the table,
which though of cement no amount of hard usage would hurt. -
When the trucks are specially constructed for military purposes
then two lines of bars or light rails are fixed longitudinally on their
platforms, so that, by means of a rope and winding gear on the engine,
two whole trains of boxes may be pulled endways on to the train of
trucks, and thus the loading be very rapidly performed; but, for
ordinary purposes, the boxes would be rolled on sideways from the
* This system is gradually coming into use in England. Instance the Taylor
furniture vans, and the live fish tanks sent to Billingsgate Market. -
6 MILITARY. RAILWAYS.
usual goods platforms, or up temporary inclines made (say of spare
rails) for the purpose. -- I ‘’
These boxes, their working staff, and all forms, &c., used, should
each bear a colour (or uniform), or other forcible means of readily
distinguishing their class; so that every one in the Service should be
able to recognize at a glance, the different main classes of stores: red
for ammunition, white for rations, &c., &c.
The spots selected for loading and unloading should be echeloned as
much as possible, and the traffic should be by no means conducted to
one large depôt, as is the civil custom; the arrival and departure
points should also be as far apart as possible, even to the extent of
being on another line of railway, if available. -
The various descriptions or classes of stores would thus have their
own transport depôts and trains, and would be in a position to execute
any indent made upon them without clashing with each other. No
sheds would be required, since the stores are packed in the freight
boxes. The last few miles of the railway would thus form a detached
string of roadside depôts. -
Many of the Indian strategic lines are only single tracks, and to
these the box system might with advantage be applied, even for civil
purposes; sorting being very expeditious by these means, full waggons
always assured,” and the evils of break of gauge much modified. On
single lines, owing to the numerous passing, or, more correctly speaking,
waiting places, the management is anything but simple. Example:
On the Great Indian Peninsula, during the famine year, the coal
consumption alone was increased 10 per cent. (3-74 lbs. per train
mile), simply from the amount of waiting that had to be under-
gone at the passing-places (see Captain Oldham's, R.E., report). To
avoid this inconvenience, the line, if a short one, should be used as
an up and down line alternate days; or, if a long one, should be
divided administratively into 100 mile sections, and worked indepen-
dently, on the same system. A weak double line is for this reason far
preferable to even a broad gauge single line—the feeble but constant
action of the one, more than compensating for the gross but inter-
mittent efforts of the other, with a corresponding advantage in regu-
larity and celerity of dispatch. For military purposes it is, therefore,
a sine quá non that the line should have a double track. (See Discus-
sion, Mr. Shaw, page 35.)
The working models of this system, #3th full size, showing the
boxes working as carts, pontoons, or freight boxes, may be seen in
Paris; but the system is so simple that I think it can be clearly under-
stood without reference to them.
Field Railways.
No one, intimately acquainted with the ordinary railway construction
and management in all its details, could possibly expect such a system
to work in a campaign. i
* The Smyrna and Cassaba Railway, in Turkey, earns 7 per cent. by never dis-
patching a partially filled truck. They run about two goods trains a day, but
always wait to fill up. :
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 7
The sinking of the earthworks and the constant ballasting of the
road, which all new lines incessantly require; should be enough of
itself to condemn this system of construction.
In additions, the surveys and levels are very tedious; and to save
cube, the choice of route is so circumscribed as to modify in a great
measure the advantages of the railway." Captain Luard, an authority
on the subject, states that the Prussian field railway at Metz took
200,000 days’ work to execute twenty-two miles on very easy ground;
and yet the accidents from settlement were frequent, and the engine
could never draw more than four waggons and practically did no
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* Sir Garnet Wolseley says a military railway ought to be able to obey orders and
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MILITARY RAILWAYS. 9
work; although the line was in connection with the existing railway
system, and was in reality but a branch.
With earthwork railways their progress of construction is limited
by local conditions; but where the whole of the structure is produci-
ble in the workshops of the world, it would not be extravagant to say
that thousands of miles of “Pioneer” could be constructed in as many
weeks as ordinary railways would require years, and with a chance of
subsequent success in earning a dividend inversely proportionate to
the time occupied in their construction. -
Lieutenant Willan describes the difficulties met with in Abyssinia,
difficulties entirely inherent to the railway system, and certainly no fault
of his or the Administration. First, a natural grade of 1 in 40, which
a horse and cart would make nothing of, but work at a gallop; had to
be tortured into one of 1 in 60, to suit the weight (tractive power) of
the engines supplied; the rails arrived without the spikes, the curved
rails would not fit the curves of the earthworks, nor would the fish-
plates register on curves without cutting the rails; while the engines
strained as they were in transport, and by the roughness of the track,
gave endless trouble: details which I can thoroughly appreciate, since
in the Paris tramways we could not keep an engine three days in
proper working order, owing to the comparative roughness of the road.
Each mile took ten days to construct, and each train only weighed 40
tons gross, although the gauge was the Indian 5' 6".
In Ashantee, where, with an unhealthy littoral, a field railway would
doubtless have been a great boon, the railway turned out a white elephant;
and the great portion of the materials were never even landed. -
In the Crimea, a comparatively speaking surface line was made at
an apparent saving in time; but, with grades so steep, the limit of the
locomotive was soon reached, and then horses had to be called in ;
while a short piece of one-third of a mile on 1 in 15 had to be worked
by a stationary engine. Thus, as the strength of a chain of communi-
cation depends upon the value of its weakest link, it is not surprising
that with three distinct systems, each of different supplying speeds,” it
should have taken a staff of 1,000 men to supply 700 tons daily over a
line of a few miles in length. The atten pted Austro-Bosnian occupa-
tion railway records another failure of ordinary railway construction
for military purposes. The bulk and weight of the materials proved
fatal both in land and water transport.”
All these failures are due to the vicious principles adopted for rail-
way traction, which have been protested against from the earliest days
by Vignoles, Bridges Adams, and others; but financiers object to
reform, and mechanics positively enjoy showing their marvellous skill
in defying natural laws, even to the extent on railways, of supplying
* Speed is of no importance in military transport, since it only affects the first
delivery: while the all important regularity is more easily attainable at low speeds.
* In a paper read before the Society of Engineers, the author published elaborate
tables, showing that every road surface material, from a steel rail to loose gravel,
possessed a special incline of its own on which it was supreme. Thus a rail was
supreme on grades of 1 in 250, while gravel enjoyed 1 in 20; but with all the wheels
coupled, and the train self-propelled (see pages 20 and 22) the smooth rail reached
its zenith on 1 in 7.
10 - MILITARY RAILWAYS.
engines of such a weight, that the disintegration point of the rails used
has been positively exceeded; and yet their engine can on steep grades
be beaten as a tractive animal by a common ass. The ordinary loco-
motive represents a power with the bulk of an elephant, but only the
strength of a horse; a steep line in the Mauritius requiring three tons
of engine per horse-power developed. - - •
Now, perhaps, that the financier's day of railway pushing is over,
and that Indian railways have only paid the State one per cent.
interest on their capital," and that the colonies show similar financial
failures, and famines areraging all over the world; simply from want
of sensible means of communication and from the exhaustion of in-
digenous animal transport: it is to be hoped that the “weight is power”
incubus of our railway system will meet the discredit it deserves.
The proposed expeditionary railway, now in store at Woolwich;
consists simply of wooden sleepers and 35 lbs. Vignoles' rails, an
assortment of iron floor joists being supplied for bridges. The engine,
however, is a novelty; was invented by the late A. Handyside, and is
being perfected by Messrs. Fox, Walker, and Co., of Bristol. It con-
sists of an ordinary locomotive, weighing about 13 tons, fitted with
claws to grip the rails; and it is provided with 300 feet of wire rope,
by which it is enabled on a stiff incline to pull up the train after it
in successive stages of 300 feet each, the engine running ahead each
time for this purpose. This system would answer well enough if a
line of country could always be found conveniently composed of flats
and very steep inclines; but what would be done on moderately steep
inclines P. If this engine worked the average grades in the usual
manner, it could not take a paying load; and if it worked by the rope,
the operation would take so much time (especially if there were many
curves, as is generally the case on surface lines in rough countries);
that the former; by repeated trips could do the same duty in the same
time: so cui-bono. In addition no permanent way could be laid strong
enough to stand the concentrated pull for any length of time. This
system, like the Fell, the Righi, and so many others; is only at home
when working at extremes. -
The Handyside engine however proves one most remarkable fact,
viz.: that steam power in excess of a corresponding amount of
adhesion or weight, is of no possible use in a locomotive; for when
unlimited adhesion is obtained by anchoring the engine down (or by
any other means), any amount of steam power which can possibly be
crammed into the engine, is as decidedly utilizable as if the engine
were a stationary one. See Table No. II, where 40 horse-power is all
the steam which can be assimilated by an 8-ton locomotive or gravity
engine; while the Pioneer or grip engine of like weight per coupled
wheel, absorbs the whole of the horse-power supplied—in the case in
question, 480 horse-power. The arrangement by which this is effected
is described in detail on page 16.
We may therefore accept as a law, that in a gravity engine the tractive
power obtainable is not a question of steam power, but one of weight alone ;
* Mr. Fawcett, M.P., made this statement in the House of Commons, on the dis-
cussion of the Indian Budget for 1877. - -
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MILITARY RAILWAYS. 11
while in a grip engine the contrary is the case: steam being absolute, and
concentrated gravity an element which is positively permicious. -
The value of the substitution of steam for weight as a motive power
is immense; a glance at Table No. III, showing that a premium of
even 240 fold in tractive power is obtainable. In reality, the grip is
without limit. .
By enabling grades of 10 per cent. to be worked with similar loads
to those now available on 1 in 200 (a fair average English grade), we
bring mountainous countries within the pale of the steam-horse: and,
moreover, diminish to a minimum those colossal earthworks which,
especially when executed by hand, as a military railway would be;
would absorb, according to Captain Luard, at least one-tenth of the
fighting force. I myself judging from civil experience should feel
inclined to put it much higher, as rapidity of execution is so important
an element." - *
It is self-evident that a field railway must be a temporary structure,
the whole of which may have to be brought from a distance. Con-
sequently the weight and number of its parts must be studied with a
care certainly not inferior to any other military transport equipment,
since rapidity of construction depends entirely upon the amount of
work which has to be done on the ground, such work including also
the carriage of the materials. It must also be readily destroyable in
case of retreat.
A reduction of the weight of the engine to that of the standard
decided upon for the waggons, enables the freights of such trains to be
spread out over any desired length. This lightens the road to a
corresponding extent, without diminishing however its total carrying
OWer.
p Thus, miniature railway construction becomes feasible, which is not
the case with railways proper; where a reduction in gauge and first
cost, means a corresponding augmentation in working expenses, conse-
quent on a reduced train load.” In India, the broad gauge transports
300 tons for the same cost as the narrow gauge carries 170 tons. In
fact, in attempting miniature railways on gravity principles, the train
soon becomes all engine. Although expense is no object in a military
railway, yet it is useful to consider the working charges when cost means
weight—as it does with the ordinary railway. (See Table No. III.)
The Pioneer engine is however always constructed on the same scale
as its waggons, which govern its size. In this case it is 1% tons per axle,
the maximum weight economically workable on a light elevated road;
the practical minimum is about half a ton, representing 250 tons per
* Seeing that the Transvaal was as big as France, and yet had only 50,000 whites
to cultivate the whole of it, Sir Theophilus Shepstone showed himself a great states-
man in exempting the Boers from military service, because their services as culti-
vators were far more valuable. In India, and elsewhere, this should not be for-
gotten, since the remark applies with equal force to both railway and road earthwork
construction ; a case in point, Mr. Sandford Fleming, the Colonial Government
Engineer, states that, on the whole 3,000 miles of proposed Canadian Inter-oceanic
Railway, not more than 30,000 settlers are to be found.
* On the Paris Tramways, running one car with steam involved a loss of 7 per
cent. ; with two our dividend was 20 per cent.
12 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
diem,' on which scale the road can be executed in iron, in the best style
and including rolling stock for 750l., per mile, f. o. b. The gross
weight of the Pioneer attenuated train may be 100, 200, or even
400 tons, in fact, the same as the broad gauge : but the goods on this
system travel as it were Indian file instead of in “sections.”
Elevated or post and rail railways were first proposed by a Mr.
Palmer, in the year 1821, and have been erected in various parts of
the globe, more especially in America, but always only on compara-
tively level ground; since a gravity engine of sufficient weight for
&nclines was out of the question on such a structure. One was also put
to work at a copper mine near Buyukdéré, on the Bosphorus, and
a very fine example of a one rail railway, on posts 17 feet high, was
erected on the crowded quays of Lyons; it was, however, worked by a
stationary engine. Another was erected on the Black Sea coast the
carriages being propelled by men working cranks.
The last railway of this sort, also constructed on gravity principles,
was tried by Mr. Fell, at Aldershot, and was very ably described by
Captain Luard, in a paper read in 1873 before this Institution.
Its failure was certain, for on such a structure a gravity engine
would have to be four times as heavy to do the same work as on an
ordinary railway; because, from the fact of cuttings not being used
to compensate the banks in forming grades, inclines of say twice the
steepness would be required to grade the same line of country. See
Sheet of Diagrams, Figs. 3 and 4, where, in lieu of a 10-foot bank,
compensating a 10-foot cutting; a 20-foot viaduct is required to
obtain the same grade : or, if a 10-foot viaduct were substituted,
grades would have to be so steep that the engine would have to weigh
fourfold. Thus at Aldershot on easy ground, it was necessary to use
20-foot trestles to secure a grade of 1 in 50, and a paltry gross load of
only 22 tons or say 14 tons net: the weight per axle being the same
as the Pioneer. Now such lofty posts are not economical, since a
5-foot post will support about four times the amount which a 20-foot
post would do; consequently their habitual use is not practical. These
trestles have also the additional inconvenience in a ready-made
railway, of requiring a proportionately greater stock of type trestles
of various heights, whose component parts all differ both in size,
weight, and angle; and, therefore, cannot be used in common.
On this system there could be no universal standard trestle appli-
cable, or even readily convertible, to any section of country, even an easy
one ; and most elaborate levels, both longitudinal and transverse (as in
setting out side widths on a railway) would have to be performed on
the proposed site of each trestle, and guys and other tackle used for
the erection of all but the smallest sizes. On curves, more especially
if a 3ft. 6in, gauge were used, as suggested by Mr. Fell, not a piece
would fit; as the right and left beams and rails are either longer or
shorter, especially on a road where the curves throughout had a ten-
dency, say more right than left. The Sheet of Diagrams, flate 5, Fig. 1,
* The South Indian narrow gauge railway, 600 miles in length, only transported
162 tons per diem in the year 1877. It cost 6,500l. per mile.—See Mr. Juland
Danvers' admirable report. - - - - •) '
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 13
&
shows a “Fell” 20-foot trestle and waggon. It is a facsimile of the pub.
lished drawings accompanying Capt. Luard's paper, before referred to.
The objects sought to be attained by the advocates of elevated
railways are to avoid close contact with the surface soil, so as to eschew
its endless vagaries under climatic influence." To expose also only the
minimum of running surface (the reverse of a carriage road), and
render it independent of the effects of the weather, so fatal to that regu-
larity of delivery of supplies, removal of wounded, &c., &c., upon which
the efficiency of the whole military machine is entirely dependent.”
The support derived from the soil is therefore sought for in the Pioneer
system at a few feet under its surface—below weather mark as it were
—while the prohibitive cost which would naturally follow the use of
few supports and long spans, in lieu of the many supports afforded by
closely set sleepers, is avoided by the following economical expedient.
Just as a girder bridge may be rolled out entire over any number of
piers, so do I convert my train into a rolling girder by the use of
carriages of a length equal to about two spans of the permanent way;
the carriage being fitted with superfluous wheels to act as rollers, each
taking up the whole burden in turn and relieving the others. In the
sheet of Diagrams No. 5, Fig. 7, the wheels shaded black are entirely
supporting the load, and the rail under the other wheels may there-
fore theoretically (and even in some cases practically) be entirely cut
away, and thus allow of free cross traffic. In fact, in lieu of using a
fixed girder (in the shape of permanent way), miles upon miles in
length; I make use of a travelling girder but a few yards long (in the
form of a stiff-backed train). Q.E.D. -
Thus instead of the permanent way requiring to be constructed of
weighty and very substantial materials—the short perambulatory
girder which constitutes the train absolves the permanent way of its
interminable girder responsibilities; the Pioneer practically carrying
her bridges, all but the piers, along with her. -
\
The Pioneer, after thus reducing, on common sense principles, the
necessary strength of the road about 90 per cent., next attacks the
amount of work usually required on the ground ; this ordinarily consists
mainly of earthworks and bridges. Now, the great obstacle to military
success in constructing railways is indubitably earthworks, which
demand the most tedious studies, restrict the route chosen, interfere
with the water sheds and nature generally, has to be moved hundreds
of ton miles in the aggregate, is retarded or stopped by the weather;
and lastly, requires endless variety of treatment, and even then can
never be depended upon to stand, especially when green. The time
wasted moreover in their construction, is simply golden. Unlike how-
ever these ordinary roads or railways, which often afford facilities for
an invasive force, the Pioneer can be utterly destroyed in a few hours.
All post and rail railways claim the advantage of abolishing earth-
works; but the Aldershot railway employed cuttings, the earth from
1. At the Kilburn Agricultural Show, Mr. Fowler's miniature engine was rendered
useless by the country hinds scraping their clayey boots on the rails, and by one rail
sinking below the surface of the ground. -
2 An excess of stores collected at the front to allow for contingencies is not only-
a complication, but also risky in the event of retreat.
\
14 MILITARY RAILWAYS,
which was not utilized at all : and I, therefore, venture to think these
and other conditions are really only practically met by a one rail
structure like the Pioneer. It skims the ground without disturb-
ing it, and having no gauge, readily suits itself to the sharpest
curves, even on sidelong ground. The posts used for military rail-
ways have one constant height of 7 feet, three feet of which must
always be above ground; so that it leaves a 4-foot margin for
such minor inequalities in the soil as a grade of 1 in 10 cannot
eradicate, and those are but few indeed. These inequalities I found
from experiment, but rarely exceed 1 foot between any two posts;
but I prefer to use posts of one type, in lieu of bothering with three
types of posts, viz., 5, 6, and 7-feet ones, as would be done for economy
in civil cases. The stability of the structure is assured, partly by sinking
info the ground (440 holes in a mile) and partly by footings, buried
or superficial. The holes are of varying depth so as to save cutting
the posts. The structure may be either of wood or iron, or of both
combined; but certain authorities prefer wood for military purposes,
since omissions or damages are more easily repaired. The upper
rail is formed of two planks on edge breaking joint with each other
anywhere and bolted together sandwich fashion; but an iron deck
beam or rail may be used in lieu. The lower or grip rail, which
forms a continuous chain as it were for the grip engine to pull at,
is in oak, notched to hold firmly to the posts and struts. These
deep notches, occurring with regularity at every 4 feet, admit of
ready but not too facile bending on curves, the maximum being
fixed at 100 feet radius, or about 2 inches per bay. The saw cuts
at every 8 inches are for the same purpose. The breaking strength
of the structure is 20 tons, its weight about 80 tons per mile
complete. The cube capacity in round numbers is 4,500 cube feet
per mile; so that each 1,000 tons of shipping could transport readily
10 miles of it, including its proportion of rolling stock in working
order ready for use. Wedges are used to adapt the structure to
inclines, which may vary, ad libitum, between the horizontal and 1
in 10, without a hole being bored or a saw cut required on the ground,
or even the grade ascertained." .
The full size structure in the grounds of Fife House was tested to a
curve of 80 feet radius. The grip-rails, which are in two pieces lon-
gitudinally, are bent in pairs by cramps before bolting them together,
they consequently cannot return after bolting to the straight form
when released from the cramps, since one piece cannot slide over the
other by reason of the bolts. This sliding motion is, however, the effort
which must be exerted before the length of each piece can be varied,
and consequently the straight regained. •
Since iron has many advocates, and proper timber is not always
procurable; by reference to the drawings on the table, it will be seen
bow, even in this stubborn material, a portable railway can be laid over
the roughest country on any grade or curve, without a stroke of smith's
1 Lord Napier of Magdala has suggested an important modification, which has
since been incorporated in the design, while the grip rail has been dispensed with.
See page 22.
- MILITARY RAILWAYS. 15
work being done in situ. The drawing almost explains itself; but
attention should be perhaps directed to, 1st, the semi-circular saddle
wedges on which the upper rail rests, and by the use of which the
posts may always maintain the vertical when the rails are inclined.
2nd. The suspension chord-plate, which is shifted right or left on the
head of the post, according as the curve is right or left. The plate,
then, acts as a chord to maintain the curve.
The anchor footings also deserve notice, as in hard ground they are
calculated to stand a side strain of 50 tons; although I do not myself
consider the structure to have the least tendency to overturn, since all
posts over 7 feet in height are tied provisionally, and strutted per-
manently with ladders. For crossing ravines and such like, skeleton
piles of any required width of base may be used, since it is only the
upper part of the structure above the grip or guide railwhich must always
preserve uniformity of section. Single girders, of any depth or span, may
be used for a permanent structure, but lengths of 30 feet span are most
convenient, as they will work in anywhere with the rest of the road.
The posts when of cast metal are made to one standard length, and
are based with sockets which fit in the shoes, or into wrought-iron
tube posts of various heights, suitable for bridge-work. Screw piles
are also recommended, in certain cases. For a more or less rocky
soil—as in Afghanistan—wrought iron trestle posts, resting on short
wooden sleepers, are used. The posts are made of two J-shaped L.
irons, placed back to back, and so arranged as to work telescopically
and fit sidelong ground and various elevations, without cutting. It
cannot however be too distinctly understood that, as a rule, the rail
level follows the surface of the ground as near as may be 3 feet above the
soil, and that consequently no portion of it is out of the reach of a man.
The mode of erection is simple, and whether of wood or iron, the
system employed is almost the same, the difference being that the
wood footings should be buried, while the iron ones may be superficial.
After, by riding over the ground, the most desirable route (not
necessarily the easiest) has been selected; No. 1 proceeds to mark out
on the ground the precise line to be followed, in preference selecting
soil of moderate hardness, as the most suitable. The curves are put
in by eye or with fiddlesticks, and no particular attention need be
given to long straights. With a facility of using grades of 1 in 10,
sharp curves will seldom be called for, or bad (soft) ground rarely
obligatory. The marking is performed by pinning down lengths of
white tape, on which the 15-feet intervals for the posts are indicated
by consecutive numbers. - *
* No. 2 and staff proceed to range the grades by means of special
graduated T-shaped ranging rods. The top of the T slides up and
down, and is used to range the grades, and the scale shows the corres-
ponding depth of hole required to obtain the grade indicated by the top
of the T slide. There is one on the table. No. 2 also note the special re.
quirements, if any, of any particular number, and indent for it accord-
ingly. Thus, in positions where in civil cases the permanent way
would be raised, or low overbridges constructed to permit of cross
traffic; No. 2 squad will select suitable points (on straights), where
gaps may be left in the permanent way sufficiently wide for the
passage of artillery. (See Diagrams, sheet 5, Fig. 7.) No levels are
16 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
taken, but an inclinometer may be used when it is a question whether
a grade exceeds the maximum. *
No. 3 party, of about 100 men, dig the holes of the depth indicated
on the numbered pegs driven by their predecessors, and collect stones
to be used in packing and ramming around the posts."
No. 4, or the erecting squads, arrive with the materials; they place
the posts in the holes, and bolt up the rest of the structure. The posts
are then ranged by eye as accurately as possible, being shifted right
or left, or lifted and packed up a few inches, if necessary; the train
may then proceed with the materials. No. 5 squads, after the train
has passed, ram in stones and earth into the holes, punning carefully,
and with but little stuff at a time. In hard soil, Tonite blasting
charges may be used to make the holes; and, in soft soil, a conical-
shaped monkey may be used to force the soil aside sufficiently to admit
the posts, the ground being greatly hardened by the process.
One or more of the staff of No. 2 are daily sent back to the depôt
with a list of the requirements of the special pegs, if any ; and it is
their duty to accompany the erecting squads, and to see that these
special works are carried out, and not return to their staff until they
can report execution. This is the only point where care is required,
since the construction-train might, through carelessness, be delayed
for the want of a mere trifle, especially if the road were in iron. No
waggons are used in the construction of a single line, the materials
being forwarded in bundles slung across light temporary wheels
in the fashion of the timber lorries of this country, in which the load
is self-supporting. Hence there are no return empties to impede
progress. Stores may be transported in a similar manner in cases of
a semi-cylindrical form, hinged in pairs to straddle the Pioneer, and
roll easily when clasped together.
For the double line progress would be much more rapid, as the
materials would be dropped by train piecemeal all along the route, and
any amount of men could be employed in the erection; but in
the former case, their number is limited by the rate of delivery of
materials, which is, pari passu, with the rate of construction. The
second line may be erected 7 feet from the first, roughly to gauge, so
that the double road may be used as a gigantic single track, if re-
quired. The Sheet of Diagrams, Plate 5, Fig. 6, shows a 7-ton gun
slung between two roads, and supported by a special truck whose
wheels run on both the roads, while the engine and rest of the train
keep to the single track. -
The carrying capacity of the Pioneer is limited to 100 tons (gross) per
train, on 1 in 10 ; and with 16 departures it could transport 1,000
tons” (nett) daily, which authorities state is more than enough for
100,000 men. •
The crossing of tidal rivers may be performed on special posts,
footed with ballast-sacks, such footings not being liable to scour, even
1 The portion in Fife House grounds was erected by a scratch squad of Grenadiers,
in the pouring rain, in four hours. To fit the structure to the ground, naturally
something must be trimmed ; and digging small holes is certainly simpler than
cutting the posts. - .. -
* The tonnage of the oldest Indian railways is only 1440 tons daily.
MILITARY RAILways. 17
in the Danube. The posts of landing jetties may also be so footed.
Waters of unchanging level may be crossed with pontoons of the
usual pattern, or made of freight boxes. By using self-acting syphons
which automatically charge and discharge water ballast from the
pontoons, the level of the floating bridge can be maintained unaffected
by variations in a changing water level (See Diagrams, Fig. 5).
The machinery is guaranteed by the makers to take 100 tons over
grades not exceeding 1 in 10 at an average speed of 10 miles an hour.
The boiler can use salt water, and may burn wood, coal, or petroleum.
The novel features of the machine are: 1st, that the cylinders work
differentially, i.e., they always absorb a regular supply of steam, but
automatically convert it into either speed or work according to the
changes of gradient. Thus the locomotive, whether working slowly or
quickly, always works up to its full power, the piston speed being in-
variably maintained at the maximum velocity—an effect which has
hitherto been an unsolved problem in mechanics. 2nd, that its weight
per axle is reduced to that of the freight axles, in this case 30 cwt., so
that the road is built for the freight, and not for the engine. 3rd, that
the boiler or steam generators are distinct from the grip or driving en-
gines, and are not superposed, since no extraneous weight is required
to obtain adhesion; the whole being attenuated and made as light
as is strictly consistent with due strength in their parts. Thus any
amount of steam power required can be obtained by applying extra
boilers in the form of tenders, one engine being used in all cases. The
weight of one pair of twin boilers does not exceed 4 tons=120 horse-
power, which is sufficient for all practical purposes; but by merely adding
extra boiler tenders, the same engine will work to 480 horse-power,
without increasing the weight per wheel. 3rd. The vertical wheels are
not driven by the machinery, since the gravity value of the engine is
'nil compared with its grip, hence needless complication is avoided, by
the whole of the driving power in the engine and the break power
of the vans, being solely exerted horizontally by the grip system.
4th. The horizontal wheels on one side of the train only, are strictly
speaking driving wheels, i.e., , connected with the cylinders; their
opponents are merely loose running counter-wheels. These latter
alone are caused to advance and recede, to give the requisite grip.
They alone compensate for wear and take the spring of the road, the
driving machinery proper being perfectly rigid and springless, and its
mathematically exact action is thus never interfered with in the least,
even on the roughest road. Such an engine will last for months
without repair, its parts being as free from the effects of rough move-
ment as though it were a stationary engine. (See Plate 4.)
The horizontal driving machinery is in duplicate, one in each
tender; and each engine proper, that is to say, pair of cylinders and
two driving-wheels, is in one piece. Each weighs three-quarters of a
ton, and are detachable whole from the tenders of which they form a
part, I having found from experience that it is very undesirable to
place the motion within the dilatation range of the boiler shell. -
5th. The power of the grip is so enormous that, even under full
pressure, the train could be stopped without cutting off steam ; it cog-
&
18 - MILITARY RAILWAYS.
sequently becomes necessary, on an ever-varying surface-line, to control
the grip so that its action shall meet, but never exceed, the gravity
requirements of the train. By means of levers, in connection with the
draw-bar which attaches the engine to the train, the ever-varying
strain on the draw-bar is communicated to the horizontal wheels, and
the grip varied accordingly: thus— - --
On ascents, the grip is increased and the steam power augmented;
while, on descents, the grip is used as a brake and the steam turned
off, in proportion to either the pull or thrust on the draw-bar. Thus,
every minute change of grade is, so to speak, felt by the engine, and
its gripping effects automatically varied accordingly. Speed on descents
is thus perfectly safe, for a hill and dale line could not be worked
without a governor of some kind.
6th. The horizontal boilers are longitudinally divided by tube plates
into water sections of about three feet each, a smoke box between each
section. Thus, the water-level difficulty on inclines is removed, and the
evaporative power of the boiler greatly increased, the gases leaving .
the chimney at a comparatively low temperature (Lawrence's Patent).
The engine is provided with a water balance, by which the driver
can correct the equilibrium of the train when rendered necessary by
very unequal loading. §
The three general views are merely sketches taken from the Graphic ;
the working drawings, for obvious reasons, are not published.
Now mechanics know very well the value of working from a centre;
nothing can even be delineated, much less worked, without its use.
From the sidereal system down to the central fire breech-loader its
value is indisputable. Hence, we must not consider as at all out-
rageous the proposition of running on one rail, or feel surprise at
the numerous mechanical advantages its use presents.
By its use smooth running will be assured, for both the effort is
exerted, and the resistance offered, in the axis of the train; and conse-
quently in the same plane: while the centre of gravity is positively
below the level of the running surface, thus yielding the perfection of
stability. The V-shaped running wheels centre themselves on the
apex of the rail, and there is consequently always a perfect fit and no
lateral play, as on an ordinary railway. Derailment is also impossible
should the structure sink even a foot; while with two rails, let but one
sink imperceptibly an inch, and derailment would be certain, and the
narrower the gauge the greater the risk. The same objection is appli-
cable, but with greater force, to the Aldershot trestles, especially on side-
long ground. Moreover, the two rails of a railway never can be laid or
maintained alike; on curves one rail is always longer than the other,
and one wheel consequently endeavouring to outstrip the other to a
degree sufficient to force powerful engine-frames considerably out of
square; while every shock on the one rail is bandied backwards and
forwards to the other with destructive results, computed at over 70 per
cent. of the total wear and tear. The train on one rail, however, will
perform long sailing like lateral undulations, but oscillation and ham-
mering cannot possibly exist; for their causes, viz., a wide base (or
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 19.
rather two rails) and a high centre of gravity are absent. A wide base
is quite correct for statics, but singularly out of place in moving
bodies, the perfection of form of which is a sphere.
It may have been noticed what a violent wrench is given to an
omnibus when one wheel runs on the smooth tram-rail while the other
is unduly retarded by the macadamised road alongside; the vehicle
strikes out a considerable S curve which the horses must find very un-
pleasant. On riding in front, the movement of the pole can be noted,
even on an ordinary road; it is most extraordinary, jumping about a
foot or so from right to left according as the one side or other is the
most retarded by friction, which never can be alike under both wheels,
whose diameters also are rarely the same.
From a military point of view, the importance of abolition of weight
in the engine cannot be over-rated. It means not only rendering the
engine itself handy and light, but every portion of the temporary
structure also.
I think I need scarcely apologise for mentioning these details,
because unless they are fully studied and met, my experience of un-
hopeful countries suggests, that animal transport! used mechanically,
would be a much more reliable source of power for military purposes
than steam ; besides being far easier to organize.
In such cases the Pioneer would be used with a tow-rope, the
animals choosing the best ground they could find, say within a few
yards of the structure: while the structure itself might be roughly
knocked up of any suitable local materials, since the girders really
bear no weight, and do not require careful workmanship or any nicety
in the arrangement of the joints. The merits of such a tramway are
that, unlike tramways in general or roads, full advantage can be taken
of all descending gradients to work them by gravitation; while the
rail offers less resistance to mounting inclines than even the best
carriage road, a luxury mules and pack animals don't appreciate, and
which is moreover quite out of the question; since road construction
can neither be hurried to suit military requirements, nor properly
kept in repair under the abnormal wear. Rivers, ravines, and spots
unpromising for horse traction, would likewise be worked by natural
or artificially obtained gravitation. Even such a tramway would be
invaluable; since its constitution being unaffected by the elements,
due to the elevated rail: regularity of supply could be maintained in
all weathers. The ascents only would be worked by animals arranged
on the stage system.
No waggons are used, the cases themselves being attached to a yoke
and wheel on a system allalogous to the timber lorries of this country;
hence for a rapid military expedition there would be no return empties
and no necessity for either a double line or turn-outs. These cases
possess sufficient flotation for floating ashore when discharged over a
ship's side. The construction materials are also tied up into self-
supporting bundles fitted with temporary wheels; so that the laying
of the road is continuously forward.
* The Pack system is ruinous, because the poor animals never get a rest, even
during the long weary hours waiting about in camp preparatory to a start, &c.
- G
c 2
20. MILITARY RAILWAYS.
For local purposes, forming camps, fortifications, &c., where a move-
able tramway is required; I should imitate the wheelbarrow and plank
on a large scale, and use the one-rail tramway shown in Plate 2. It can
work either by men or horses, will enjoy easy traction, and can ford a
stream by the assistance of the pontoon collar. It can also pick its
way even on sidelong natural ground—-one wheel always finding its
own transverse level."
The Pioneer train is a continuous metal skeleton formed of waggons
of one type, which can be used either for troops and their baggage, or
for stores only; merely by turning up the seats. (See Plate 3, page 7.)
Each double carriage can carry either sixteen men and four boxes of 40
cubic feet each, or four boxes of 240 feet aggregate; and in addition,
bulk to the extent of two bundles 7 feet by 6 feet by 4 feet (say hay).
In iron they weigh nearly 2 tons each double waggon, but the con-
structors hope by the use of steel to reduce their weight nearly one-half.
They are formed into trains of about 30 waggons each, and are
never detached except for repairs.
They are coupled at the roof level by means of flexible or rather
hinge-like joints, f, which admit of no lateral play. Thus, although
the train is articulated, the natural tendency to overbalance of each
individual waggon is restrained by its neighbours fore and aft; and
consequently the average load of one side of the train is available as
compensation for the average load of the other: and hence unequal
loading of units has no palpable effect, and we shall not be required,
as in pack-loading, to add on huge stones to maintain equilibrium.
With reference to steam sappers for use on common roads very
little need be said. His Highness Mithad Pacha tried them in Meso-
potamia; their action as road rollers may be beneficial, but that is not
quite what is wanted. Their broad wheels won’t work on a sharp
cambred military road; their weight is destructive to bridges; they
want endless supplies of water; and even in Paris, where roads are
good, they have not proved a success.
They would be quite out of place in many countries where no roads
of any kind exist, like Syria and many parts of Asia Minor;” while
on the Danube the impalpable alluvial soil does not afford even the
minutest quantity of any road concreting materials; while even had we
facilities for road making, the chronic state of repairing of Whitehall
would prove beyond doubt that macadamised roads won't stand heavy
traffic, more especially in countries where the rainy and dry seasons
are distinctly marked. Road making and maintenance I have found a
most difficult operation, the more so as even Turks think it is so simple
a matter as to be left to itself.
Few persons, even engineers, have learnt the all-important lesson in
road making, that the foundation and the surface are two totally
distinct elements. That mother earth affords the best possible founda-
tion if left as time and nature has consolidated her; but affords the
most treacherous of surface material for resisting wear and weather.
* Captain Geddes suggests the use of such a cart for transporting entrenching
tools and spare ammunition—say one to a company.
* The missionaries have ordered one for Africa. I shall be curious to learn the result,
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 21
| Such a simple structure as the Pioneer could be certainly managed
from beginning to end by a military organization, which renders its
members more fit for working in large numbers with expedition than
civilians, who perhaps per se may be more expert in this special branch.
I know I found it so with Turkish soldiers, even although at first I
did not speak their language. -
What we want is not individual cleverness, but the general education
which army organization, like society, affords: viz., of knowing to a
certainty what is the right thing to do under all circumstances.
With the aid of a Naval repairing ship, Pioneer steam field lines
could be laid and worked at the rate of five miles a-day, counting
from the date of arrival at a port. -
I may mention that this form of railway was designed for the
Ottoman Empire, to eradicate the famines which are chronic theré,
and more or less so in all vast continents; and a model line of 100
miles or so of this kind of railway would I think afford a more
suitable present than any amount of money squandered away in famine
works. \
As a military weapon, too, such a steam road is a necessity in waging
war against semi-civilized peoples, since the bare conquest of their
homes does not carry with it their owners’ subjugation, as in Europe;
and therefore some permanent force of some sort becomes a necessity
concomitant of victory: and what better could be found than a military
railway, which renders the blow more sure and rapid, yet makes up for
the ravages of war by introducing wealth and commerce almost
simultaneously with much unavoidable ruin. '-
A glance at Stanford's map of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus shows
that, as suggested by Admiral Hobart Pasha, two short lines of rail-
way might be of infinite service in the event of these two guts being
stopped. - w
One within the lines of Boulair of about 10 miles long, from the
Gulf of Saros to the Sea of Marmora, to turn the Dardanelles; and one
from the Gulf of Ismid to the Black Sea, about 30 miles, should the
Bosphorus be closed. The Boulair line is rough, the cliffs being
precipitous, and only accessible by steep ravines; the highest point is
about 800 feet. -
On the Ismid line the summit is over 1,600 feet, and the line over
the pass from end to end would average about 1 in 15; so that in both
cases a railway proper would be a very tedious operation, and even the
surveys require some months: while the carrying powers would be
almost nil and the line very circuitous.
Although in this paper I advocate a modification of the grip system
as the best gravity traction antidote, I do so at the present critical
moment merely because it has stood the proof of mechanical ex-
perience, and all its weak points are known, and it can therefore be
relied upon for the present emergency. It was first patented by a
* In a letter on Indian Famines, in the Times of July 5th, and signed Robert H.
Elliot, the evil of employing men on earthworks as famine relief is as true as it is
wasteful. - ' ' - “... - - , ~. .
22 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
Mr. Eyre in 1843, but was worked out, essentially as employed on
the Mont Cenis, by Mr. Vignoles and Captain John Ericsson in the
year 1830. :
We must not, however, forget that the grip-rail, even if arranged to
do duty as a guide as well, is a source of considerable weight and
expense: and, though properly understood, the grip system is cer-
tainly master of any grade; yet it is at best but a substitution of
concentrated effort for concentrated weight. -
To avoid the use of concentration in any form, which cannot be
economical in the long run ; I have all but perfected a system of con-
tinuous driving, which is merely the antithesis of continuous braking,”
wherein the effort is distributed to the extreme since every wheel is a
motive one, and no opposing load has to be dragged. Hence grades of
1 in 7 can be surmounted with trains of any desired weight, com-
mensurate with the maximum power which it is possible to produce in
the generators.” The differential machinery is the same as for the
grip system described upon page 16. (See drawings on the table).
A road for the same would be simply the perfection of economy;
1, because the weight of the whole train is homogeneous; and 2, be-
cause the tractive effort is spread over the whole length of the train,
and concentration of both weight and wear on the rails and spans is
skilfully avoided. The weight of such a road would not exceed 40 tons
per mile complete.
For military motors, in conjunction with this continuous system, I
should advise the use of the Herreschoff torpedo launch boiler; since
20 horse-power only weighs 15 cwt.,” a magnificent result of secur-
ing the force of twenty horses in the weight of one, which is not
utilisable for machines of the “weight is power” principle; and
would in the ordinary way be utterly useless for locomotive pur-
poses, for which its special virtues, however, so admirably suit it.
The fact is, that public opinion, which has a powerful voice even
in engineering questions, is amply satisfied, provided whatever is
suggested has either been done before, or will at any rate make believe
to work by performing next to nothing, smoothly, and without a hitch;
quite forgetting that the most specious machines, like individuals, are
those who manage to get on with the least amount of principle.
I will now conclude with the hope that members joining the discus-
sion will not generalise, but endeavour to give examples within their
own experience of any fact which may controvert the common sense
principles upon which the Pioneer has been designed.
* Captain Douglas Galton by a course of most exhaustive experiments has proved
the soundness of these views (see “Nature,” August, 1879).
* Now with respect to gradient—Mr. Haddan's system contemplates connecting
the whole of the wheels of the train by means of an endless rope; theoretically
therefore he could work gradients from 1 in 4 to 1 in 6, say in practice 1 in 10.
With such a gradient he could go anywhere, and by the facility the rope also
affords of applying continuous brake power, he could descend that gradient success-
fully and safely. The same end may also be attained by transmitting the motive
power to each wheel, by hydraulic machinery, vacuum, compressed air, electricity,
&c.—Eatract from Mr. Grover's Report.
* This maker has now produced a 4 horse-power marine engine, boiler, screw,
and all, which only weighs 56*lbs. -
‘MILITARY RAILWAYS. 23
AXIOMS ON WHICH THE CONSTRUCTION of THE PIONEER IS BASED.
(1.) The Pioneer, or steam caravan; supplies a means of communication whereby
an exceptional economy, both in construction and working, will be attained : by
a perfect subservience of technical means to commercial wants.
(la.) All public works in uncivilised countries should be mutable, there not being
sufficient reliable data to work upon.
(2.) The raising of capital for the Pioneer to any amount, is feasible, since all the
materials used possess an intrinsic value; moreover, the outlay is, at the same time,
precisely proportionate to the nature and atmount of the existing traffic. About
25 per cent. only would therefore form the capital, the remaining three-quarters
being raised by debentures.
(3.) The construction entirely depends upon foreign or workshop labour, so that
the speed of production is unlimited and cheapness insured by competition. Work-
shop labour is work executed in the cheapest form, and its organization is perfect.
Navvy labour in deserted countries is the reverse. -
(4.) Earthworks, consequent on their great first cost in hand labour, disturb the
labour market. In addition, their slowness of achievement renders such works
quite unsuited to the regeneration of bankrupt, underpopulated, agricultural states,
(such as Turkey). -
(5.) In an agricultural empire, given a certain sum to expend on railways, the
expenditure, even if at a sacrifice of perfection, should be diluted to the fullest
extent, so as to operate over as large an area as possible.
(6.) In an agricultural empire, a return for capital expended in the soil is
immediate, and greater than from any mercantile or manufacturing pursuit, while
the time required for development is the shortest possible."
(7.) A fixed transport tariff is a sine qué non ; free trade in inland transport rates
is prohibitive of all large operations, especially with bulky agricultural produce.
(8.) Any luxury, either in the station or general accommodation, is quite uncalled
for ; the minimum of comfort consequent on the lowest possible tariff is what
undeveloped countries require, and can only afford. - v
(9.) The population should not be spoilt by the introduction of inordinate pas-
senger speed and rapid goods delivery—both costly items. Even the minimum
percentage of amelioration over existing transit speed, would be a mistake.
(10.) The tariff fixes the distance from which it will pay to transport produce.
Therefore, the lower the tariff the greater the area each mile of rail will bring under
cultivation; a high rate of inland freight is in favour of tile importer of foreign
goods, while a low rate encourages exports.
(11.) If a railway on an important line be constructed on so expensive a plan as
to require a high rate of charge to enable it to pay a good dividend, irreparable evil
will have been done, and the whole powers of an influential body—influential and
powerful just in proportion to the amount of capital expended—will be brought to
bear on that line; not in order to secure cheap transit, but to prevent cheap transit
on it. - -
(12.) Speed over rough country is only attainable by light, attenuated trains.
(13.) The holders of cheap means of communication, if secured by monopoly, are
masters of the commerce of the country in question.
(14.) Elasticity in the choice of route renders local land “rings” harmless.
(15.) Rapidity of construction means economy in its broadest sense.
(16.) A cheap system, unless its working expenses are proportionate, is not an
economical one.
(17.) In an agricultural State the general rules to be observed in setting out its
railways should be the reverse of those usually applied to manufacturing countries ;
for manufactures have fixed centres which have taken centuries to grow, while culti-
vation is ubiquitous, and reaches perfection in a season. The one the railway must
–-º"
* This discourages the investment of local capital in railways, since earthwork in
roads and railways is the worst possible form of labour investment, and judging
from Indian statistics would never pay. India has spent since 1860 over
114,000,000l. in railways, and the return has not yielded 1 per cent. all round.
24 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
go to, the other can follow it. Manufactures represent immense wealth orowded
into small areas, and require so be met by trains of enormous carrying powers: the
greater part of the traffic being through traffic. Agriculture, on the other hand, re-
presents considerable wealth spread over an enormous area, and requires to be met
by great length of line with numerous trains of but moderate carrying capacity, the
greater part of the traffic being picked up by the way side.
(18.) Main lines should run as direct as possible, and on no account make detours
to tap existing agricultural riches. For cultivated lands, having already a market
(or they would not exist), do not require a second outlet, at least till other less
favoured districts are supplied. Later on, these prosperous districts, ignored by the
main line, will clamour for branches, while an uncultivated neighbourhood would
never demand railway extension of any kind.
(19.) The perfection of land steam-transport is attained when concentrated
weight does not constitute tractive power, and when consequently the strain is
equally distributed throughout the whole train. -
(20.) The perfection of economy in construction is attained, when the running
load is of equal weight throughout.
(21.) The perfection of economy in wear and tear is attained by concentrating the
damage done into the rolling stock, instead of allowing the same to be diffused over
the whole line. It is effected by purposely constructing the permanent way of much
harder and more durable materials than the rolling stock; and by throwing all the
strains upon the latter. -
(22.) The perfection of safety is attained when passenger or quick trains are
divided from goods or slow trains, by the appropriation of distinct lines to each
class of traffic; and when the centre of gravity is below the level of the rails.
(23.) The theoretical capacity for a waggon is one unit of the merchandize to be
carried. Concentration should be avoided.
(24.) The capacity proper for a waggon is quite independent of the amount of
traffic. More frequent trains, and not larger carriages, are required to meet with
economy any increase of traffic. For light frequent trains utilize the capital expended
in the road to its utmost, at a minimum of wear and tear; while heavy occasional
trains let the line lie idle the greater part of the twenty-four hours, and then knock
the road to pieces.
(25.) When weight constitutes power, reduction of gauge does not produce a
proportionate reduction of weight in the locomotive. On the contrary, the disparity
of weight between the locomotive and carriage is still further exaggerated thereby;
consequently railways in miniature cannot be constructed, since the point is soon
reached wherein the locomotive cannot do more than pull itself, especially if the
inclines are at all steep.
(26.) A single-line narrow gauge railway requires on an average a width of at
least 20 feet of soil to be prepared for its reception, while the smooth running surface,
secured at so much expense, only equals the width of the two iron rails, viz., 5 inches.
The same anomaly, still further exaggerated, prevails in a carriage road whose whole
surface has to be kept in repair because the carriage wheels can wander laterally ad
libitum. -
(27.) On a wide gauge the dead weight increases, on a narrower one the capacity
diminishes (Fairlie).
. (28.) Every ton of dead weight saved goes toward securing the prosperity of the
line (Fairlie).
(29.) One and the same rail cannot suit both the locomotive wheels and those of
the train, nor can a grip engine and a gravity one assimilate, as was attempted on
Mont Cenis. -
(30.) Great economy in construction may be obtained by spreading out the load to
be carried, thereby reducing the weight to be borne per yard by the rails, bridges, &c.,
greatly diminishing the first cost without reducing the carrying capacity of the line.
(31.) A weak double line is infinitely superior and cheaper than a strong single one.
(32.) Running on one rail is preferable to two, the perfection of form of any
moving body for insuring steadiness being the sphere.
(33.) A system which disturbs neither nature, property, nor the labour market,
avoids three of the most expensive items of railway construction.
MILITARY RAILWAYS.
25.
(34.) Though necessity is the mother of invention all the world over, yet Turkey
and England are not akin, and should not be expected to treat their offspring to the
same porridge.’ .
TABLE No. I.-French Railways.
Report on the percentages of Waggon Rolling Stock in circulation, and
out of circulation at any one time, averaged during seven years.
in repair not included.
Stock
- Percentage in
Name of Company Mean speeds circulation, includ-| Percentage out of
--~~~ º peeds. ing stoppages circulation.
at stations.
- Miles per hour.
Nord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-1 6 94.
Est . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 12; 87+5
Ouest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7 11-#5 88%;
Orleans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 10 90
Paris and Lyons. . . . . . . . . 9.7 13-#; 86#
Midi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 '4 9 91
Mean. . . . . . . . . . 12; 10% 89%

on the principles that “Weight is Power”:
TABLE No. II.
Comparison of effects obtained by the use of a Locomotive, which acts
of equal weight, viz., 8 tons.
with a Pioneer engine

Inclines. | Horse-power. Weight-power Engine. Pioneer Engine.
Rate of Amount of * - s
inclines |h.-p, required| Weight of Actual h.-p. Weight of Actual boiler
assumed to move 100 train includ- required for train includ- º for
in calcu- tons gross || ing engine foregoing ing engine *: toº
lations. load at 8 and tender. weights. and tender. 8, trai
miles an hour. I’8,101,
Tons Tons. Weight
h.-p. of boiler.
1 in. 10. . . . . . 480. . . . . tº gº 8. . . . . . . . . . 40... . . . . . . . 100. . . . . 480=8 tons.
1 ,, 20. . . . . . 240. . . . . 16. . . . . . . . . . 40. . . . . ... 100. . . . . 240 = 4 tons.
l, 40. . . . . . 120. . . . . . . . . 32. . . . . . . . . . 40. . . . . . . . . . 100. 120 = 3 tons.
1 , , 120. . . . 40. . . . . . . . . 100. . . . 40 40 = 2 tons.
\ Y. : J|\ Y _1
Here 40 h.-p. is all the Here the Pioneer assimi-
steam-power which an lates the whole of the h.-p.
8-ton gravity engine can supplied, viz., 480 h.p.
assimilate.

26. MILITARY RAILWAYS.
TABLE NO. III.
Comparison of amounts of Dead Weight, and paying load in the wo
systems.

Incline. Weight-power Engine. Pioneer Engine.
Proportion of dead weight to pay- Broportion of dead weight to
ing load in a 100 ton train. paying load in a 100 ton train.
Rate of
incline Engi Brak
assumed Engi Brakes and Paying ngine I’8,KëS Paying
s l- nglne. 8,970 Oſl load. and and load.
in ca Wagg O boilers. W8,0ſ ſº OElS. O
culations. gg
- Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. | Tons.
1 in 10 100 Nil. Nil. 8 32 60
1 ,, 20 50 16 34 4. 32 64
1 , 40 25 25 50 2 32 66
1 ,, 200 8 32 60 1. 32 67
This table shows that grip on 1 in 10, is equal to adhesion by
weight on 1 in 200, - 240 fold.
TABLE NO. IV.
Abstract Value of various types of Railway Construction over the same
line of country.
Gives or Gives or
1. Heavy earthworks'. ... = Good grades and tole- = Light rails and rolling
1st class railways. rably direct route. stock, and good pay-
ing load.
2. Inadequate earthworks = Bad grades and cir- = Heavy rolling stock,
Light cheap (?) rail- cuitous route. and serious amount
ways. of dead weight.
3 No earthworks........ = Wery bad grades, which = Extravagance in power,
Steam tramways on cannot be modified. and minimum of equi-
country roads. valent load.
4. Fell’s system” ........ = Wery lofty viaducts, bad = Unremunerative load,
Earth cuttings, but grades, and circuitous since being ariel must
timber viaducts in route. -- be used with excep-
lieu of banks. tionally light rolling
stock.
* George Stephenson, its inventor, fixed the limit of traction by gravity as 1 in
300 ; to obtain which an unreducible quantity of earthwork is obligatory: but if to
get rid of this expense we cut down the earthworks and use steeper grades, then we
must seek, as in the Pioneer, some other motor than concentrated gravity. With
the Pioneer, however, where all the wheels are coupled, the economical maximum
grade is 1 in 7. So it can always command a choice of route, which no other
system of railway possibly can do.
* At Aldershot Mr. Fell's locomotive could only take a nett load of 14 tons up
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 27
5. Pioneer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . = Surface line, i.e., very = Light rails and rolling
No earthworks.’ bad grades over rough stock, but good pay,
country. Route as ing load.
the crow flies. (Compare with No. 1.)
THE EUPEIRATES WALLEY RAILWAY.
The Pioneer, which supplies the missing link between the railway proper and the
telegraph, was specially designed for this strategic route, which, being at the present
moment a question of military interest, the following addenda has been supplied by
the author. -
As an avant courier of this great enterprise, the Pioneer would be constructed
entirely of iron (see estimate). The fixing thereof requires but eight simple
operations per 24 feet, viz., sinking or screwing two short piles into the ground,
and fixing six bolts; so that with only 200 trained men (soldiers would do), a daily
advance from each point of departure, of two miles, could be constantly maintained.
In proportion as the main line overtakes the Pioneer, the latter is at once broken up
into branches to feed the former and render it fully profitable at the earliest possible
moment; thus providing branches at a nominal cost. By this means the Euphrates.
Valley Railway might be an established provisional fact within a twelvemonth from
the driving of the first Pioneer pile, and almost immediately earn the proposed mail
subvention of 300,000l. annually ; which sum, pending the completion of the main
line (say ten years), would be more than sufficient to repay the outlay required of
1,000,000l., plus good interest for the use of the capital, to say nothing of its future
value in branches after it has assisted also the construction of the main line by
acting as contractor's plant. A very trifling capital would suffice for the first start
from the Mediterranean to Aleppo (see estimate). The Porte has offered to give a
belt of land gratis, so that nothing but Russian influence stands in the way of its
execution. -
The special requirements called for by the peculiar conditions inherent to the
Euphrates Valley route are met by the Pioneer, and by no other system of railway
construction. The conditions to be met are the following:—(1) A mechanical
means of economising manual and animal labour in situ, by performing nearly the
whole of the work in Europe, leaving next to nothing to be done locally." (2.)
Great rapidity of execution, so as to reduce the interest on capital during construc-
tion. (3.) The establishment of branches simultaneously with the main artery,
without undue cost. (4.) Through communication of small capacity as rapidly
effected as possible. -
Model Estimate.
TO ALEPPO, vić, AYAS AND KILIs.—LENGTH 104 MILES.
Transport capacity—400 tons daily in each direction.
104 miles of viaduct, in iron, at 960l. per mile . . . . . . £100,000
Erection and freight of same. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,000
10 locomotives at 800l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . 8,000
320 carriages and waggons at 25l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000
Incidental expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº t e s e º e º & C G s 's 4,000
£150,000
1 in 50, although the grades were improved to the utmost by a 5-foot cutting and a
20-foot viaduct. He admits that his system is, as regards grades, 50 per cent. worse
than one on the ground, so cui bono &
* Mr. Skene, the late Consul of Aleppo, in his evidence on the Euphrates Valley
Railway, dilates upon the danger of drawing men from the plough, and consequently
revenue from the State ; and with reason : for the construction of the railway
would abstract no less than 30,000,000 days' work from the soil, which cannot be
spared, since the existing agricultural labour supply was only 4th the lowest computed
requirements of the province, which war and famine have still further aggravated.
28 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
The land is provided gratis by the Porte, and stations, if required, will be built
by the communes.
The existing freights between the city of Aleppo and the port of Alexandretta,
on the Mediterranean, averages 50 tons daily, of a value of 60,000l. annually, paid
to camel and mule drivers (see Consular reports), without reckoning the commerce
of Kilis, which is at least one-third more. In 1873 the amount rose to 85,000l.
Taking the lower average of 60,000l., and deducting 50 per cent. for working
expenses, there remains 30,000l. as annual profit on an outlay of 150,000l. ; in other
words, 20 per cent. return from traffic already existing. Of this sum the subscribed
capital need not exceed 40,000l., the remainder being raised by debentures.
Table of Quantities.
FIRST CLASS IRON WIADUCT" (CoNTINUous DRIVING).
Tons.
440 iron posts, at 168 lb. (including shoes, &c.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1,760 yards top rail, at 20 lb. per yard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3,520 yards guide rails, including bolts, &c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Total.................. 66
Per mile.
Which, taken all round at 12l, per ton, f.o.b. at Liverpool, equals. . $800
TIMBER WIADUCT (GRIP).
- * cub. ft.
440 posts, 8 inches square by 7 feet long, including wedges . . . . . . 1,400
5,250 feet run of sawn planking for vertical rails, 8 inches by
4 inches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,170
800 struts, dressed on two sides, 4 inches by 4 inches, by 2 feet
4 inches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
210
5,250 feet run of hard wood grip rails, 4 inches by 12 inches . . . . 1,750
Total cubic contents per mile . . . . . . . . . . 4,530
Which, taken all round at 2s. 6d. per cubic foot equals . . . . . . . . . . . £560
Ironwork rail, 15 lb. per yard, including screws and spikes, = 15
tons at 15l. per ton. . . . . . . . . . . . . tº º O p q v, & e º C. tº e º e s e e s e º O e º C & © &
225
gºmºmºmº
Total per mile. . . . . . . . £785
THE PIONEER.
General Detailed lºstimate.
Viaduct, when in iron, per mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ſº&00
Viaduct, wooden posts, and iron rails, horse traction (Tramway) . .
Freight at 30s. per ton, Liverpool to Alexandretta . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Viaduct, when in wood, without iron rail (grip system) . . . . . . . . . .
Viaduct, when in wood, with iron rail do. e is a tº e' e º G & ©
Average cost per mile, excavating and filling in holes, 400 holes at
Average cost per mile, rolling stock . . . . . . . . . . . . • * * * * * * * * * tº ſº º ºs
Cost per mile, erection in wood, 200 men at 5s. º ºg e º e º & ©
Cost per mile, erection in iron, 100 men at 10s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cost per mile of staff, &c., say. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
400
120
560
785
50
200
50
50
40
For further particulars apply to Herbert and Co., 67, Strand, Sole Agents.
* The Landore Siemens Steel Company are endeavouring, by the use
celebrated steel, to bring the weight down to 40 tons per mile.
of their
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 29.
DISCUssroN.
Mr. FELL; Sir Garnet Wolseley and gentlemen : I am sure it is the feeling of this
meeting, and also of the public outside, that Mr. Haddan has done good public
service in calling attention to this very important subject of military railways,
especially at the present moment. Mr. Haddam has made some remarks on an ex-
perimental line that I carried out at Aldershot, to which I should like to reply; but,
before doing so, I wish to say I agree with Mr. Haddan, and I believe almost every-
body who thinks on the subject must agree entirely with Mr. Haddan that, for
military purposes, earthworks ought to be superseded by a structure of some kind—
it may be of wood, or of iron—it may be one rail, two rails, or three rails—but it
must be structure of some kind. Earthworks cannot be executed, that is, if they
exceed four or six feet in height or depth, within the time required for military
purposes, and, when executed, they would be so liable to get out of order; their
subsidence would be so frequent, from rains and other causes, that a railway made
with earthworks, exceeding six feet in depth, would be for a long time practically
useless; indeed, the railways constructed during the Franco-German War round
Metz, with the labour of 4,000 men, in about a month, was worked for about thirty
days only, and during that time was found to be almost useless. The question under
consideration is that, if a railway has to be made with great rapidity, and required
to be used immediately it is made, what kind of structure is best for the purpose 2
Mr. Haddan has attempted to demonstrate that a single rail is best. Now, I have
come to the conclusion, from seven years' experience, that a structure with a single
rail is the worst that can be used. I have tried both, and I have found two rails
answer very much better than the one rail. I began by making experiments in the
north of England with a single rail railway. , Captain (now Sir Henry) Tyler
did me the favour to look at it, and also to look at a very narrow gauge railway
erected near Barrow-in-Furness, with an 8-inch gauge ; the 8-inch gauge railway
worked very much better than a single rail. When I made proposals to the War
Office to put up an experimental line at Aldershot, I increased the 8-inch gauge to
18, and the 18-inch gauge worked better than the 8. I have now come to the con-
clusion that it would be better to have, at least, a 2 feet 6 inch or 3 feet gauge, and
I believe a 3-feet gauge railway will work better than an 18-inch gauge, and better
than a single rail. One considerable objection to a single rail, or to any very narrow
gauge, brought to my notice by the Royal Engineers’ Committee, was that it would
require a special kind of rolling-stock. You have all your rolling-stock to make
when required for use, unless it is kept in store, and no Government likes to go to
the expense of keeping many miles of a particular kind of railway in store for, is
may be, use within five or ten years, and the War Department made this objection
to the 18-inch gauge, and that was one reason why, in the plans which I afterwards
prepared, I proposed to use a 3 feet gauge. Another reason is this, that by using a
3-feet gauge you may altogether dispense with the guide wheels. If you have guide
wheels when the line is on the surface, you must necessarily raise your structure a
considerable height above the ground, being so much labour thrown away, and so much
carpentry work to keep in order, which is entirely unnecessary. Mr. Haddan has
claimed for his particular form of one rail railway great economy in construction.
Now, the structure has to be made of sufficient strength to carry the weight of the
engine and waggons, and whether you put the whole of that strength into one or two
posts I cannot see that it affects the supporting power; but if you put it into two
posts, and connect those posts together, while you have the same bearing power, you
have very considerable lateral strength, which you do not get when the vertical
support is all put into one centre post, without any lateral struts to steady it.
Therefore, at Aldershot, I adopted a form of this kind ; first of all, there was the
centre post and then two lateral posts; afterwards, I dispensed with the lateral
osts, and had the two outside posts only on a very light post in the middle, merely to
ind the whole structure together. I think it would be a very considerable advantage,
in any military railway where a structure is used, to be able to use it in connection
with an ordinary surface line. I think when the country permits of a line being
laid on the surface with a gauge of 3 feet, or a metre, which will be sufficient for this
purpose, the ordinary cross-sleeper form of permanent way is the very best that can:
30 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
be used, and has great advantages to the single rail system proposed by Mr. Haddan.
A railway of this kind, or of the kind we had at Aldershot, forms a barrier across the
whole length of the country through which it passes. If you want a level crossing,
you must make a movable bridge over the railway, or you must make a portion of
the railway to open. I imagine, from that drawing, where the line is on the surface,
the structure is 3 feet above the level of the ground, and, in that case, how are you
to cross it? You may want level crossings very frequently, in some countries. At
Aldershot, we found considerable inconvenience from this cause. You cannot use
the ordinary points and crossings, which is a great disadvantage. Therefore, if you
can use the ordinary surface line along with the structure, you gain the advantage
of the structure for going over uneven ground, and the advantage, also, of being
able to use the simplest and best form of railway where no structure is required.
Mr. Haddan observed that, at Aldershot, we put in a viaduct of unnecessary height.
As he has shown, by that diagram, there is a viaduct, to cross a valley, of 25 feet in
height. That is true, but Mr. Haddan was not quite aware of the circumstances
under which the line was made. It was purely as an experimental line, and not as
selecting the best line of country, and that viaduct was put in on purpose that we
might have a viaduct, and that we might find out what would be the action of a
train running at a high speed and with a load 25 feet above the level of the ground.
It was put in exactly for that, and no other purpose. What I should propose at the
present time would be, in such a case, to make a slight cutting. He has shown a
10 feet cutting and a 10 feet embankment. That, of course, is an exaggerated
section. You would not find a country like it. There would be longer cuttings and
longer embankments than those. Instead of filling up the whole 20 feet, I should
propose making a cutting of 2, 3, or 5 feet, and fill up the rest with a structure. In
that way you might execute just as much earthworks, and use just as much structure,
as circumstances rendered desirable. Then, with regard to rapidity of execution, I
do not know whether Mr. Haddan has made experiments, for any length of time,
with that form of structure, in order to prove what length could be put up, with a
certain number of men in a certain time, but at Aldershot we worked away from
March to June, 1873, in order to ascertain, for a structure of that kind, what
number of men would be required to execute a mile in a day. The programme
agreed upon was that we should be able to make one mile a day with 500 men over
similar country to that at Aldershot, and using military labour alone; a few sappers
were used, but the rest were men of the line. One half of the railway was taken
down and re-erected. Each set of men had about a week's practice, and when the
Royal Engineers' Committee came down to see the experiment, we were working at
the rate of two miles a day with 500 men, so that we performed double the amount
of work required by the programme. I think Mr. Haddan used the word “failure”
in connection with the railway at Aldershot. I have with me a copy of the Royal
IEngineer Committee's report, given me by the Secretary of State for War, in which
he does not call it a failure, but in which he certifies that the whole of the pro-
gramme, both as regards the loads to be carried, duty to be performed by the engine,
as regards speed and so on, and also as regards the power of constructing the rail-
way with great rapidity, has been satisfactorily fulfilled, and, therefore, I think it
would be doing me an injustice if it were to go abroad to this meeting and the
public that the work I undertook to do at Aldershot was a failure. I can show any
gentleman, who chooses to take the trouble to look at it, the report in which it is
stated that, instead of it being a failure, all the conditions of the programme were
satisfactorily fulfilled. Allow me to make one other remark on the subject of non-
gravitation traction, that is, traction by horizontal wheels. , My friend, Mr. Brun-
lees, here and I have had a great many years' experience of that method of obtaining
tractic power, perhaps, more than most other people, on the Mont Cenis, where
the trains were taken over principally by traction of this kind. The adhesion that
could be obtained from gravity was not sufficient to overcome the gradients, and the
engines were each supplied with two pair of horizontal wheels. I think Mr. Haddan
stated that such an engine as he proposes would take 100 tons, at 10 miles an hour,
up a gradient of 1 in 10. I can only tell Mr. Haddan, upon the Mont Cenis,
with an engine of 20 tons weight, the utmost we could take up 1 in 12, at 6 miles an
hour, was 50 per cent. more than the weight of the engine, that is, 30 tons in addi-
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 31
tion to its own weight. Consequently, he would require, in order to perform the
work he proposes, an engine of 100 tons weight to take a load of 100 tons up a
gradient of 1 in 10, at a speed of 10 miles an hour. These engines of the Mont Cenis
were made particularly with regard to economy of weight ; the boilers were made all
of steel plates, and the frames of steel. All the working parts were made of steel, and
every pound weight that could be saved was saved, and that was the result. There-
fore, looking to the experience we had on the Mont Cenis, I must entirely disagree
with Mr. Haddan in the statement he makes that it is possible for an engine, of the
description he proposes, to take 100 tons up a gradient of 1 in 10, at a speed of 10
miles an hour. Then, with regard to the plan he proposes of having driving wheels
on one side only, we had, on Mont Cenis, three or four engines in that way, and they
were an entire failure. I think he will find it is necessary to have spring pressure on
both sides, and to drive the wheels on both sides, or he will not be able to get the
full effective work out of the engine. I understood Mr. Haddan to say, in some
countries in which a railway of this kind might be used, you might go a long way
without seeing a stone. Now, according to the diagram, his post is fixed in with
stones, or some hard material, consequently, that plan could only be applicable in a
country where stones could be had, for he would never carry all the stones with him
to make a railway of this kind. Would not it be much better to have a sleeper which
can be laid on the surface, and would not require work of the sort P I should like to
know what kind of a structure he would employ where it was necessary to rise up 20,
30, or 40 feet above the level of the ground, for instance, for passing over gorges 2
I think Mr. Haddam proposes to employ anchor footings, but I fear they would not
be sufficiently rigid for the purpose. I do not think such a structure would work a
month; it would get out of the perpendicular. You never could keep it in its
proper position ; and then it is proposed to go round curves by cutting slightly
through the beams, which would take away the strength of the beams; to the
extent that you put saw-cuts in the beams, you diminish the strength, and that is
not a good plan. The single line, also, does not give you any great advantage in
going round curves. With two beams, the rails may be bent to the curves, but for
this purpose it is better still to use cross sleepers. Mr. Haddan was saying he
proposed to use a double line, 7 feet apart. He also said there was an objection to
two rails, even if they were kept in gauge, there was a certain loss of power in the
oscillation of the trains, and I think I understood he intended to use these two
separate lines as a railway, the two wheels of the same carriage running upon them.
It appears that they are about 3 feet above the ground, and there are no cross ties.
I should like to know how he will keep these two lines in gauge; it will be im-
possible; you could not keep them in gauge, and they could not be worked in that
way. I entirely agree, with Mr. Haddan in this one thing, that earthworks must be
dispensed with, but I certainly think a gauge of some kind, let it be 18 inches, 2
feet, or 3 feet, is very much better than a railway without any gauge at all.
M. BERGERON : When I was attending, three years ago, the meeting of the
British Association at Bristol, I heard, with interest and curiosity, Mr. Fell explain-
ing his system of a central rail and ā very narrow gauge as especially suited for
military railways. He described the trial of such railway made with a certain
amount of success at Aldershot Camp, and led me to suppose that the |Friglish
Army, perhaps, would use it on a very large scale. I could not agree with Mr. Fell.
His system involved the necessity of transporting an immense number of timber
beams and the use of rolling stock of very small size, unsuitable for moving heavy
ordnance and large quantities of ammunition, stores, provisions, &c, an exceptional
gauge of permanent way for military present serious disadvantages. An army in
campaign must receive all its stores and war materials over railways which are in
connection with the arsenals, dockyards, camps, and depôts of military engineers.
The locomotives, waggons, and carriages used on the railways of an invading country
should be able to run over the lines of that country. In the invasion of France by
the Germans, in 1870, if the lines of the two countries had not been of the
same gauge, the invaders would have found great difficulty in provisioning their
armies and keeping up their supplies. I have been told that, during the War of
Secession in America, the armies of the Northern States had a great deal of trouble
in transporting soldiers and ammunition into the Southern States, on account of a
32 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
difference in the gauge of the railways of the North and the South. It is for that
reason, and for fear of being too easily exposed to invasion by the French, that the
Spanish Government decided to have for its railways a gauge one foot larger than
the French ones. For those reasons, it is of the utmost importance that a military
railway should be of the ordinary gauge of English and Continental railways.
Actually in France, all the railways, in case of war with a neighbouring nation, are
to be ruled by military engineers. The Civil Service is entirely suppressed; the
rolling stock becomes temporarily the property of the Government, and the Minister
of War is the official general manager of all the railways in the country. The
goods waggons are already marked with figures indicating the number of soldiers
and horses which they will contain, to prevent confusion at the moment of loading.
These waggons and carriages can run over all European lines except in Spain and
Russia, who have adopted a broader gauge for their railways. I heard the other
day, at Paris, that the two Ministers of War and of Marine have requested from
the French railway companies the construction of special trucks, able to carry a gun
of 100 tons weight. In reality, I can say that all the French railways are military
railways. In the Staff of the Army there is a great number of military engineers
who are perfectly able to manage and work those lines. I shall now examine the
case in which new lines are to be constructed in countries for forwarding an in-
vading army, with all its stores, munitions, provisions, &c.; and, first, I maintain
that the materials of which a military railway of the ordinary gauge is composed
should be reduced in number and weight as much as possible, and every endeavour
practicable should be made to utilize such as can be found on the spot. The earth-
works must be reduced to their minimum of width necessary for laying the per-
manent way in a 'solid manner on the required thickness of ballast. For this
reason, instead of spreading the ballast as it is generally done on the surface of
formations, I propose to fill with it trenches of two feet depth, cut across and along
the way as represented in the diagram. And we may observe that :—1st. The
formation of the railway will have only ten feet in width instead of fifteen, which it
must have with the ballast spread on the surface. 2nd. The sleepers are only seven
feet long, and they are laid at seven feet distance from each other. 3rd. The ballast
is imbedded in the trenches cut along the way under the rails and across the way
under the sleepers; the ballast is composed at the bottom of the trenches of broken
stones, to facilitate the exit of water of filtration, and, at the top. of common sand
or gravel. 4th. The sleepers of usual section, say ten inches wide and five inches
thick, are laid on edgeways, and struck with force by a rammer, and brought like
piles on their proper depth into the ballast over the bed of broken stones. 5th.
Between two sleepers, which are seven feet distant, the rails are supported by four
or five blocks of wood of two feet long; they have the same section as the sleepers,
and are sunk down by the blows of a rammer to the level of the adjoining sleepers.
6th. After having brought the upper part of the blocks to the same level as the
sleepers, the rails are laid on the sleepers and blocks with their normal gauge, and
they are bolted with screw bolts penetrating deeply into every wooden support. The
advantage of this new mode of laying the permanent way, may be described in the
following manner:—1st. Instead of packing the ballast under the sleepers, the
sleepers and the blocks are packed, by blows of a very heavy rammer, into the
ballast. 2nd. When it is necessary to raise the permanent way, that can be done
easily, because the sleepers and the blocks are strongly tied to the rails, and they
offer very little resistance to being railed; it is sufficient for filling the hloes pro-
duced under the supports to hammer and strike the ballast with heavy blows
\between the supports and along the sleepers. 3rd. At a depth of ten inches the
ballast, well packed, will offer more resistance than when it is packed at only five
inches deep under the usual sleeper at its two ends. 4th. With this new system of
permanent way, the rails need not be so heavy as those now employed; a rail of
twenty feet long, and weighing only 60 lbs. per lineal yard, will have more resistance,
being laid upon sixteen supports, than a rail of 80 lbs. per yard, laying upon eight
sleepers, for the same length of twenty feet. , 5th. When the new permanent way
has settled, it is not necessary to keep gangs of platelayers to maintain it ; it is as
solid and as resisting as if it had been founded upon a range of piles. , 6th. Thé
sleepers and blocks laid down on their edge, all less exposed to their injuries of the
MILITARY RAILWAYS. 33
weather than the sleepers laying on their large flat surface; and being of smaller size,
they will be more easily submitted to the process of preservation by oils, coal tar,
or creosote. 7th. The sleepers of seven feet long will be procured more easily, and
at a less cost, than the usual sleepers of nine feet long. The blocks which are in-
tended to support the rails between the sleepers will be cut from trees unfit for pro-
ducing logs of wood of a certain size, and which are used for firewood only. They
will be obtained at a very low price, and an invading army in a wooded country will
find any amount of such blocks along the roads and hedges. A specimen of this
new system of permanent way, which I have submitted to the approbation of several
English engineers, is now exhibited in the Champ de Mars, in Paris, and I hope it
will be reported as the most simple, the most economical mode which can be pro-
duced, as well for ordinary, as well for military railways. But the reason for which
I consider it especially favourable for military purposes is, that it can be applied to
the side of any common road which may be traversed by armies in campaign. I do
not think an invading army will have to build bridges and make deep cuttings for
lines entirely new. It is more easy and more economical to use the common roads,
without taking into great account the heavy inclines and sharp curves which may be
met. We know that the Mont Cenis, between France and Italy, has been crossed
by a railway made on the side of the main road, very tortuous, and in which there
were inclines of more than Tº gradient. I have seen in the office of Mr. Longridge
a model of a locomotive, of his own invention, which would be perfectly capable of
drawing upon such an incline a heavy train at the speed of twenty miles per hour.
In time of war, the economy will not be the chief consideration in the working of a
military railway. In case of emergency, when one locomotive is insufficient to draw
the train, the staff engineer will order two ; if two are not enough, he will put
three, and so on. I recollect having seen, in 1842, an excursion train for passengers
from Leicester to Matlock. There were seven locomotives at the head of the train,
which was nearly one mile long, and going very slowly. Nothing would prevent a
General-in-Chief from organizing trains with a sufficient number of locomotives
working together, for ascending the inclines which may be met on the common roads
transformed into railways. Let us suppose a road of thirty feet wide, the permanent
way, described above may be prepared to occupy only one-third of the road space, or
ten feet. It was arranged so with the Mont Cenis road, which had still twenty feet
left for the ordinary carriage and cart traffic. If the ordinary transverse sleepers
above the formation should be employed, half of the road, or fifteen feet, would be
occupied for a military railway of the usual gauge. To the plan of Mr. Fell, who admits
that an army should carry all the materials necessary for building a railway through
the country, I would object that such a plan would be very expensive, and pro-
duce very little advantage. I am certain that the more simple process for having a
railway in an invaded country is to utilize the main carriage roads, where all the
earthworks, bridges, culverts, &c., are already built. The soldiers could be occupied
in as great numbers as might be necessary in digging the trenches into the road,
filling them with ballast, cutting the trees, and making sleepers and blocks. The
sleepers being shorter than those actually in use, will be lighter and more easy to be
carried on the shoulders of the men, and every soldier will be able to transport in
his arms a couple of wooden blocks a long distance to any place on the road where
they may be wanted. An invading army has nothing else to carry but the rails,
fish-plates, bolts, nuts, spikes in a sufficient quantity. If such conditions, with any
number of soldiers acting as navvies, workmen, carpenters, platelayers, it would be
possible by a convenient distribution of the gangs to lay down a permanent way of
ten miles a day. For these several reasons, I conclude that my system of per-
manent way could be very advantageously used for military railways. • *
Mr. FELL : It has been said the system of railway I proposed to the War Depart-
ment is very expensive. The War I)epartment has received a tender from very.
responsible contractors to construct the railway at 2,500l. a mile, which is a very
moderate price. I may just add that in some countries where there is no ballast at
all M. Bergeron's system would be rather difficult to carry out. Longitudinal
timbers might be used instead in places where ballast could not be readily pro-
cured. - . . .
• Admiral SELwyN : Having been instrumental in getting this paper read here, I
34 MILITARY RAILWAYS,
feel called upon to offer a few observations upon it. And I shall take occasion first
to regret that gentlemen should come here with an object not of discussing the paper
which is read, but of opposing some other paper to it. We shall always be happy
to listen to their own papers when they come to read them, but it is scarcely fair
treatment that a gentleman who comes here with a certain idea should not have it
fully and fairly discussed as it is. We always regret it, because the Institution
learns less than it would otherwise do upon the particular subject it is discussing.
I can only say, with regard to the single line of railway, that having been a very
long time in America among the mines in the Rocky Mountains, I have seen very
great reason there to value the single line of railway. First of all, it has the great
convenience of doing away with the weight of the engine as the cause of traction ;
it thus removes the principal objection to the sharp descents and inclines which we
have to deal with in mines. Secondly, we often find trees very well placed indeed
to serve such a railway where we could not find them placed so as to serve a double
track. I can quite understand that the instant you tie yourself to the traction by
weight, that instant you must leave the single line, if you have devised a single line,
and gradually recur to the gauge of double line generally adopted. But in doing
that you will abandon all the special advantages which the single line offers. You
certainly abandon the cheapness; you abandon a great portion of the simplicity, and
you increase enormously the number of pieces to be carried to the place where the
railway is to be established, you may say you double them. What we are dealing
with here is not the question of a set of military railways which are to be used there-
after for traffic for a long time, but that peculiar state of things in which you have
to traverse a difficult country in a very short time, where you cannot afford the time
for embankments or even the ordinary surveys, and where you yet must have some
means of conveying those enormous weights which modern science has imposed
upon military marches. If we will have guns of heavy calibre, if we will have
breech-loading arms, we must have greater weights than we have ever been accus-
tomed to carry before, and it is perfectly vain to expect that either by mule or cart
transport we can overcome difficult countries with the rapidity which it is desirable
to obtain on these occasions. Therefore, anything which promises to give us such a
railway as can be easily and with facility constructed, although it does not present
all the advantages of a future employment, is worth serious consideration, and it
seems to me if one or two points of difficulty are overcome there is a great deal in
the system which balances weights on a single rail instead of resorting to the broad
base to support them from below. If the centre of gravity is low down there is
much less tendency to oversetting on curves. We know also perfectly well that
wind is an important factor in some countries, as I can vouch for, having been on
the third occasion of my going to the Rocky Mountains stopped one whole night on
the line of the Union Pacific by wind. Therefore, you may imagine we do some-
times in elevated regions find something which is rather difficult to deal with in any
ordinary way. The question of the mode in which Mr. Haddan proposes to sup-
port his road seems to me to have been very ingeniously met. His strutting leaves
very little to be desired as regards the rigidity of the structure; and as for the
question of the bearing of the piles, I presume that is not more difficult to meet
than we find generally the case in any standard which are used for other purposes.
We generally find an engineer meets the particular conditions of a particular soil
with the greatest facility by adding struts, whatever it may be. But the question I
I should like particularly to ask is this, whether he has found in such experiments
as he has yet made any difficulty arising from the compressibility of the wood. In
- Canada they have successfully run ordinary engines on lines of wood with nothing
but a thin strip of sheet iron along the edge of the wood; but where heavy engines
were, used, and heavy loads were carried, there was a compression of the fibres of
the wood during the passage of the train, a compression which is to be noted in iron
rails, but which would be probably much more sensibly felt in a wooden rail, par-
ticularly when it was wet. Then there comes also a difficulty which occurs to me
with regard to the swelling from wetting to be expected even in seasoned timber,
and I do not think in such a case we can always rely on the whole of the rail being
made of seasoned timber. All these are questions which only experience can
answer. Meanwhile I think we may fairly say that he has brought down the cost,
f
MILITARY. RAILWAYS. 35
he has brought down the time of construction, and has increased the possibilities of
ascending and descending inclines. If this line were made, even if the rail did not
carry all we hoped to see it carry, if by dint of a double line you are not able to
devise a special carriage for heavy guns which would traverse, and by its very
traversing keep the rails in gauge, which is very easily conceived by an engineer, I
should imagine, for I speak with the greatest diffidence in the presence of Mr. Fell,
still I think there is something to be gained in a new view of the subject which this
seems to be—that Mr. Fell has done all that could be done with the ordinary loco-
motive I have no doubt—with the ordinary disposition of weights and the ordinary
means of acquiring a grip. But this is quite a new way of doing the same thing,
and it is worth while to consider how far it may be utilised, taking into considera-
tion also that we are now getting to understand the means of carrying power in a
much lighter form. In the course of this year we shall see boilers which do not
weigh one-fourth of the ordinary boilers for the same power. We are resorting to
higher pressures; we are ceasing to be afraid of what is called high pressure; but
I have never been able to learn yet what was high and what was low, since the very
man who would-remonstrate if you put him on a steam ship with 100 lbs. pressure
does not hesitate to go behind a locomotive with 120; in fact, I do not think he
would care if there were 300 lbs. per square inch on the safety valve. I recol-
lect the time when at sea we ran with the greatest contentment at 15 lbs. above the
atmosphere, and we thought we were doing wonders. Latterly we have learnt to
know that it is a very different thing, that there are enormous economies to be
gained in that way of which this railway may be one of the first examples. As long
as we stick to the old type of locomotive we cannot do better than have a broad
basis of support. As long as we stick to the old-fashioned form of laying rails on
sleepers—we have changed from iron and stone sleepers, and have gone to wood as
the best after all,—so long as we do so we cannot do much better than experience
has taught us to do. But the instant you adopt a new plan altogether all these
objections disappear, and when we consider that it is likely to give an enormous
power into the hands of any military commander which he certainly never could
have had before. I think it is worthy the serious and close attention of this Insti-
tution. - * -
Mr. RUSSELL SBAw: If no one else wishes to say anything on this subject I
shall be glad to say a few words, having been some time in charge of the railway in
the Crimea, and having had a good deal of experience in other countries, and also
with the movements of large bodies of people. When I look at these drawings, and
listen to the remarks that have been made—rather personal ones on their own par-
ticular hobbies—by some of the speakers, I cannot refrain from thinking of a thing
that occurred to me in South America, where I once bought a small machine for
peeling potatoes, like a small lathe, with a spring to it; you put the potato in, turn
it round, and the peel comes off beautifully. I gave it to the cook, and said,
“What do you think of that P’” She said, “Next to an old knife I think it is
“the best thing I have ever seen.” Mr. Haddan has brought before us a railway
for military purposes, which appears to me to play the part of the mechanical
potato peeler. Now, during the Crimean War we had a railway, but it was not
very successful; a railway was provided in the Ashanti War, but it was useless.
What you want is a railway as to which you can dispense almost entirely
with any skilled labour and engineering, where you can dispense with plans
and surveys beyond those which an ordinary corporal of sappers can give, and
where you can take the whole of your permanent way from the deck of the
vessel to the end of the point you are attacking. Mr. Haddan pointed to one thing
in which I must say I agree with him entirely—that is, that no military railway
should be complete unless it is with a double line of rail. If you are to have a
single line of rail, with sidings, you had better leave the thing at home, save your-
selves the money, and trust to donkeys and carts, for such a railway is of no earthly
use. But I must say I do not agree with him in the least as regards the whole of
his scheme. It is no good attempting to praise it when you do not think you can
praise it deservedly. That ingenious contrivance is very well suited for countries
such as Chili. I cannot concelve a better; but that line would be equally ridiculous
in Pera, because there are no trees, and it would cost a very large sum of money.
36 MILITARY RAILWAYS.
* \
Mr. HADDAN : Make it in iron. - - . . . . . . . . . *
Mr. RUSSELL SHAw: In taking an army into the field you have to take a number
of men. A certain number of men require a certain number of tons of supplies.
This number of tons has to be moved a certain number of miles, and on that you
base your rolling-stock; on that depends that whole question. Heavy rolling-stock
must have heavy permanent way and heavy engines; therefore, the principal point
is to diminish the weight of the permanent way within proper limits, so that you
can make available first your cavalry horses, secondly your infantry men, and when
these fail you, your camp followers, because at a price the British public can always
pay somebody to push. The question of gradients of course is a very important one.
Up the Balaclava incline, 1 in 14, the engine used to take up its own weight and
one empty truck. With horses, and without locomotives, you can get up any gra-
dient, I do not care what it is, 1 in 2, even up the side of a railway cutting. I
understood this was to be a discussion on military railways, not a discussion on Mr.
Haddan's paper alone, but suggestions to be thrown out by other people. Mr. Fell
has given us the benefit of his experience; M. Bergeron has told us what would do
very well in France, where you have any quantity of roads, but I presume the atten-
tion of the public, and of this meeting, is devoted more especially to the events in
the East, where there are no railways in existence, and where probably, or perhaps,
some events may take place which will necessitate the construction of some kind of
railway, whether it be on Mr. Haddam's or anybody else's system, That is a matter
which of course is not left to this meeting to decide or to give an opinion upon.
That decision rests with those who think they know a great deal better than any one
here present ; whether they do, or do not, will probably be found after the event, as
was the case in the Crimean War. One of the most difficult things for a person who
is not accustomed to speak is to wind up his subject, and that is precisely the diffi-
culty I find myself in. I have criticised Mr. Haddan's very valuable efforts. I have
made some perhaps not very polite remarks about other gentlemen who have gone
away, and I have nothing to offer you in exchange, because without plans, without
designs, without samples, and without figures, it is impossible to bring anything
before you. If this meeting is adjourned, and the chairman and others take any
interest in the matter, I shall be able to bring forward plans and designs of railway,
which have been proposed, and then probably a further discussion may take place.
In the meantime let us hope that war will be over, and that nothing will be required,
and then we can discuss the subject on a more peaceful footing. -
Mr. PERRETT : Mr. Haddan told us at the beginning of his paper that he had
abandoned the principle of adhesion by gravity, and had adopted adhesion by
grip. Subsequently he said he had abandoned adhesion by grip, and had reverted to
adhesion by gravity, the only difference being that in the latter case he proposes to
utilize the entire weight of the train. But he did not give us any particulars by
which the entire weight of the train is to be utilized. As the value of the arrange-
ment depends entirely upon the particular mechanical means employed, if he would
give us some indication of the manner in which he intends to effect the desired
object, it would add greatly to the value of his paper. * f
Mr. HADDAN, in reply, said : First in the order of my reply is Mr. Fell, Mr.
Fell in his former paper declared most positively that his line did not interfere in the
least with vehicles crossing, and now he says that it does interfere with them. I
have explained in my paper how I make my structure so that it shall not do so;
consequently his observation does not apply to the Pioneer. His remark that the
Pioneer requires special rolling-stock is perfectly just. It seems to me an army
cănnot properly use makeshifts, but requires special guns, special bayonets, and
special everything, and endless training in their use. And this applies to a special
railway like mine, which, though only to be used in war, should be kept in stock just
the same as we have thousands of tons of shell, that might never be fired ; for it is
in the highest degree uncommercial for a military organization to rely upon the
civil transport supply of the country it is operating in-especially if a friendly
one—since it must seriously, sometimes fatally, interfere with trade. . The 60,000
camels lost in the Afghan campaign are estimated at one-third of the trans-
port power of the Punjab ; equivalent in England, to 200,000,000l., or one-third
of our railway capital. ... The same rule applies to cutting local timber for fuel,
instead of transporting it. Egypt is a striking example in point. Mr. Fell
MILITARY. RAILWAYS. 37
advocates points and crossings; now my experience is, and I have no doubt most of
you are of the same opinion, that the generality of the accidents that occur on rail-
ways are due to points and crossings, and the facilities they afford for one train
crossing another's path in an opposite direction on the same level, a danger expe-
rienced at all junctions. An instance in point is the double junction curve on the
South Eastern Railway at the Surrey side of the Cannon Street bridge; where no
down train can enter or leave the station without crossing all the up lines, and vice
versd. Shunting across the main line is also a no less fatal facility afforded by
points and crossings in ordinary railways; but the Pioneer devotes a separate line
to each class of traffic, and consequently eliminates all the well-known dangers
and delays caused by working varying speeds, &c., on one system of rails—even
with a highly trained staff. I glory in the fact that I do not want them,
though I can use them if required, as should never be the case; military transport
being regular, and not a combination of fast and slow, express and goods trains, &c.
Mr. Fell has a very ingenious way of getting over the strength of the argument
shown in the section in the diagram (Plate 5, figs. 3 and 4) by saying the scale is
“exaggerated.” All engineers in drawing their sections exaggerate, the scale being
ten times vertical scale to one horizontal, and both are treated alike. By half
measures he proposes to get over that pertinent remark of mine of the 20-foot
viaduct by saying, “We won't make a 10-foot cutting, we will make it 5.”
But he cannot reduce his cuttings without increasing the grades, which at
Aldershot were already positively prohibitive. An elevated railway should do
away with earthworks altogether, or it is of no use whatever. By stating that
the height of the viaduct at Aldershot could have been reduced, by choosing an
easier path ; he proves beyond question that his system is not suited for military
purposes, since a military railway should know how to obey orders and go any-
where, and not as it were make excuses." Mr. Fell’s structure weighs 250 tons per mile
in lieu of 50 tons, which is the average weight of the Pioneer, and as my structure is
much simpler, the chances are that if he managed to erect two miles a day, I ought
to do six. The word “failure’” I applied to his system, not as a mechanical failure,
but if you refer to my lecture, you will see I explained that mechanical triumphs often
prove the most pernicious of successes. The work done was certainly a failure, for it
was no great success to take 14 tons of stores up an incline of 1 in 50. I would
ask Mr. Fell what weight it is possible to take up with a grip engine, and why he
drives his vertical wheels at all when grip is a power so much superior? and also,
with the view of proving its commercial non-success, would I inquire how much
money the late Mr. Brassey lost on the Mont Cenis Railway ? I believe over
100,000l. I would also remark in reply to his question about driving in stones to
support the uprights; that when in an argument people discuss a drawing done by a
scenic artist, and say, “That is not strong enough,” or “That man does not look to
“me in military costume,” or “Because stones are painted in the picture, you must
“use stones,” I think, when you come to arguments of that kind, they certainly show
that more valuable criticism is not forthcoming, especially when the various weak, or
I may say fatal points in Mr. Fell’s system, are not even defended or explained by
him. Mr. Fell has also said that “beams lose their power when they have cross-cuts
“made in them.” I may reply that if his 20-foot posts are cut down to 5 feet for use
* The eminent railway engineer, Mr. J. W. Grover, says —“My first reason in
“advocating Mr. Haddan's system is founded on the great difficulties which cuttings
“ and embankments offer to even the simplest form of narrow gauge railway construc-
“tion, difficulties only known to those who have to deal with them in practice. So
“great are they in foreign lands where labour is difficult to get, and contractors with
“sufficient plant are wanting; that the fashion now obtains amongst engineers of
“making the line meander round the hills in very serpentine courses—thereby
“enormously increasing the length of the line, and involving sharpness of curve, which
“would have shocked the original inventor of railways. The constant tendency to
“sharpen the curve and increase the gradient—shows the false direction to which
“the wants of civilization are urging engineers from year to year.” , -
A
38 - - MILITARY RAILWAYS.
with the Pioneer they become four times as strong, so that such a general observation
is incorrect, as you can judge for yourselves. When cross-cuts are put as I have
put them, and the beam is merely compressed, and carries no weight, it would
certainly not weaken the beam. Mr. Fell has put arguments into my mouth which
I did not use, for fault of others I presume, and then naturally enough he can
destroy them. With reference to his statement that he had tried all that I had,
and found that it did not work; such statements require serious support, nothing
of the sort being found in Mr. Fell's numerous publications which I have care-
fully studied so as to avoid the rocks he has split upon. I can only tell him that
if he had done so, he would never have tried on the Mont Cenis Railway to
combine gravity with grip—oil and vinegar—a solecism I should be very sorry to
acknowledge, and which marks most undeniably the difference between his system
and mine; nor would he continue to harp on the weight of my locomotives if he under-
stood my principles in which weight does not form an element for calculation. It
was consequent on this erroneous combination, and on the grip being applied by
hand grossly in excess, that his engine would only draw 30 tons on 1 in 12,
although the steam-power used was theoretically capable of performing four times as
much ; showing beyond a doubt that Mr. Feli did not understand that since grip
adhesion merges into a brake, too much adhesion was as bad as too little. With
reference to the supposition expressed by Mr. Fell and also by many non-technical
observers, that the Pioneer road might turn over, practice has not manifested
the least tendency in this direction; although in the American oil fields,
double banked cars 28 feet long, and weighing over 10 tons, have been used. Nor
was any such effect to be anticipated, since theory shows that the weight is
under every condition exerted strictly vertically, and that any unequilibrated
lateral thrust such as could be offered only by the cars, when rounding a sharp
curve, is entirely borne by the lower part of the structure near the ground.
Hence no leverage or motion of any sort can exist at the apex, performing as
that part of the structure does, the function of the pivot or fulcrum of the
lever ; which every one knows is a neutral point. The opposing grip wheels of
the engine, the only points where anything like serious lateral power is exerted,
neutralise each other to perfection; so whence then can come the force, which is
estimated at 50 tons, required to turn over the sturdy structure, whose proportions
I have so carefully elaborated. Fences and gate posts, with which many are apt
to compare the Pioneer, very rarely preserve the vertical; because they lack the
constant weight on top which ensures its stability.
With reference to M. Bergeron and his remarks, he comes from Switzerland, the
country par eacellence of good roads. I do not say it is an unfair prejudice, but it
shows there is nothing like leather; he has been so accustomed to good roads that he
thinks nothing can be done without them; though how he would carry a fair load,
with a locomotive, over even the first class road grade of 1 in 20, I am at a loss to
discern. If he had been in the countries I have, where there are no roads at all, he
would see that his plan of permanent way would in such countries be utterly useless.
I have to thank Admiral Selwyn for his sailor-like straightforward remarks. He has
hit the nail on the head when he says, “I can quite understand that the instant you
“ tie yourself to the traction by concentrated weight, that instant you must leave the
“single line, and gradually recur to the gauge of double line generally adopted;" in
fact, Mr. Fell found this truth out by experiment, but did not profit by it, as I have
done in fitting a non-gravity engine to a single rail. Wood is certainly not likely
to give such a splendid level road as steel, yet when you have only one rail, in-
equalities are not felt as they are with two. I said that where wood did not exist
I would use iron, and where they could not afford one or the other I should use
concrete, and concreting can be done in Syria at 400l. a mile. The only objection I
have to Mr. Shaw's remarks is that he calls my system “little.” I would like to
know what system can do as much. Can the broad gauge on 1 in 10, and can it be
beaten like the broad gauge by horses P Mr. Perrett wishes to know the details of
the continuous driving which I referred to, but I must decline to explain them
further for the present. - -
The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, I am sure you will all agree with me that the lecture
and discussion have been extremely interesting, and I dare say you all regret, as I do,
MILITARY RAILWAYS. - 39
that in the course of the discussion there has been a little acrimony introduced,
which I think is to be regretted, because we are all entitled to our opinions, and in
discussing these various systems of railways we have only one object in view, that is,
the good of the service. I have not many remarks to make. I am not an engineer,
but I wish to remind my hearers that the English was the first nation that ever used
a railway in war, and I am very glad to see here a gentleman who took such a pro-
minent part in it, a gentleman I had the pleasure of knowing in the Crimea in con-
nection with the railway there, and although financially it was not a very great success,
it was of great use in many ways. With regard to the construction of military rail-
ways, it is not the question of money, of expense, that is of the first importance,
because when a nation like England goes to war, it really is prepared to expend any
amount of money as long as it is believed that such expenditure tends towards success.
But the great question in all military structures like railways is time—time and mate-
rial. Whenever we goto war, our base of operations must naturally be on the sea, and
operating inland, it will always be of the first consequence to us to have a good line
of communication from our base to the furthest point we reach. In order to secure
that, if no railways already exist in the country that becomes the theatre of war
any system that will solve that great difficulty of rapidly providing us with a good
line of communication is one well deserving of consideration. I think, therefore, the
lecturer, who has brought forward a very clever invention, whether entirely his own
or adapted from the inventions of others, deserves very great credit for having done
so, and for having explained it so clearly this evening. There may be some very
small difficulties in the way of constructing this railway, but I have no doubt under
his superintendence those difficulties would be overcome. As far as I can judge of
other systems that have been proposed, I do not think it would be possible in a mili-
tary sense, that is, during a campaign, to make the great cuttings which are required
in all other systems of railway. I do not believe the construction of great cuttings
and earthworks would be possible during any ordinary war. If you are to settle
down before a town and besiege it for years, like the siege of Sebastopol or of Troy,
of course that would be a different thing; but if you are to make a campaign, and
we all know campaigns of the present day are rapid and must be carried out very
quickly, a railway of a temporary nature, that can be sent almost complete from
lºngland, and that can be laid down in a country where there are none or few roads,
is what we want for military purposes. If you have good roads in a country, you
can lay down an ordinary system of railway or of tramway, and my friend Mr.
Russell Shaw has, I know, a plan for rapidly laying down a temporary railway under
those conditions, and an admirable system it is ; but, with all due respect to his
invention, I think that, in order to lay down a railway after his pattern, it would be
absolutely necessary you should have good roads to operate on. For in a country
where there are no roads, a system such as the lecturer has proposed this evening
seems to be very fairly adapted. I have nothing more to do except to thank the
lecturer and those gentlemen who have taken part in the discussion for the valuable
information they have afforded us. -
HARBIson AND sons, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY to HER MAJESTY, Sr. MARTIN's LANI.
N E W E DITION.

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
T H E P I O N E E R
STEAM cuavºs. t
WHEREIN CONCENTRATED WEIGHT IS SHOWN NOT TO BE --
EITHER NECESSARY OR SUITABLE FOR OBTAINING
- TRACTIVE POWER. -
By J. L. HADDAN, M.I.C.E., F.R.G.S., F.S.A.,
orºgen OF THE MEDJIDIE, FRANCIS JOSEPH, ETC. -
EMBRACING ALso a scIENTIric Report on The system
By J. W. GROVER, M. INST. C.E.
WITH
THE OBINION OF SIR GARNET WOLSELEY, ETC.
- See page 55. * , y -
In countries where statistics are not procurable: Pioneer or semi-portable
Railways, alone admit of the ready correction of errors in judgment which
are inseparable from that vigorous prosecution of public works,—which the
age demands. It courts success by observing a perfect subservience of
technical means to commercial wants, in lieu of the usual apposite; combined
with non-interference with nature, property, or the labour market, the three
costliest items of ordinary Railway construction: while its moderate price,
enables personal management to take the place of joint stock administration.
It is designed also to form in its entirety a staple article of home export: and
to eradicate the famines chronic in large continents, due to deficient inter-
communication.
Re “AFRICA our SEcond INDIA.” Mr. Bradshaw's Project; see page 56.
Entered at Stationers' Hall,
w LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
- STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
- 1879. -
Price Two Shillings and Sixpence,

T H E P I O N E E R
STEAM CARAVAN;
WHEREIN CONCENTRATED WEIGHT IS SHOWN NOT TO BE
EITHER NECESSARY OR SUITABLE FOR OBTAINING
TRACTIVE POWER. -
By J. L. HADDAN, M.I.C.E., F.R.G.S., F.S.A.,
oRFICER OF THE MEDJIDIE, FRANCIS JOSEPH, ETC.
JEMB RACING ALSO A SCIENTIFIC REPORT ON THE SYSTEM
By J. W. GROVER, M. INST. C.E.
WITH
THE OPINION OF SIR GARNET WOLSELEY, ETC.
See page 55. -
ln countries where statistics are not procurable: Pioneer or semi-portable
Railways, alone admit of the ready correction of errors in judgment which
are inseparable from that vigorous prosecution of public works,—which the
age demands. It courts success by observing a perfect subservience of
technical means to commercial wants, in lieu of the usual apposite; combined
with non-interference with nature, property, or the labour market, the three
costliest items of ordinary Railway construction: while its moderate price,
enables personal management to take the place of joint stock administration.
It is designed also to form in its entirety a staple article of home export: and
to eradicate the famines chronic in large continents, due to deficient inter-
communication. t
Re “AFRICA oUR SECOND INDIA,” Mr. Bradshaw's Project; see page 56.
Entered at Stationers' Hall.
L O N DO N :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS,
1879.
Price 2s. 6d.
IPAGES
9 to 22 ..
23 to 24 ..
25 to 27 . .
28 to 30 ..
31 to 35 ..
36 to 41
42 to 48 ..
49 to 50 ..
50 to 52 ..
52 to 53 .. -
. Letter on Military Railways from Mr. Haddan to the ‘Times.’
54 to 55 ..
. Letter from Mr. Haddan to the ‘Manchester Courier,’ on Africa, our
54
56
57
58
59
60
61 to 62 ..
62 to 63 ..
64 to 65 ..
66
I N D E X.
-->e-
Paper read at the Royal Geographical Society (revised).
Ready Reckoner. &
Discussion on “Indian Famine Prevention ” at the Society of Arts.
Discussion on “Canada and its Vast Undeveloped Interior,” at the
Colonial Institute.
Discussion on “Communications with British India under possible
Contingencies;” by Major-General Sir F. J. Goldsmid, C.B., K.C.S.I.
... Turkish Reforms: The Development of “Asia Minor” by the
“Etappen” system.
Railway Political Economy. A Paper read at the Social Science
Congress, Manchester.
Extract from the ‘Levant Herald.’
Leading article in the ‘Times.”
Letter to the ‘Times,’ from General Vaughan.
Articles in the ‘Times.’
second India.
. Letter on Indian Break of Guage, from Mr. Haddan to the ‘Times.’
57 to 58 ..
. Letter from Mr. Haddan to the ‘Daily Telegraph,' on Elephants for
The King of the Belgians and the Pioneer Railway.
Africa.
. Extract from “Society of Arts Journal.'
. Letter from Mr. Haddan to the ‘Manchester Courier,’ on Railways
and Free Trade.
Letter on “Military Railways” to the ‘Globe.”
Letter on the “Indo-Mediterranean Railway’ to the ‘Times.’
Extracts from a Report on the Pioneer System by J. W. Grover,
M. Inst. C.E.
. Notice to Correspondents.
IILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece. View in the Transvaal, showing “Pioneer” Military train.
Page 5..
, 6..
, 7.
. The “Cameron” Cart, or one-rail explorers' tramway.
. General sketch of Engine, tenders, and waggons.
. Cross-section of Pioneer Military Waggons.
Left half shows waggon
as arranged for men and freight. Right half shows same waggon
as used for cattle or freight only, the train being at any time
available for one or both purposes.
. The “Täktiravan,” The origin of the Pioneer.
8 ..
*
NoTE.—The views are merely artists’ sketches: the working drawings, for
obvious reasons, are not published. -
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CROSS SECTION.—MILITARY RAILWAY.
This half shows the skeleton
carriage as arranged for both
passengers and boxes of goods.
The box is mounted on wheels;
it is shown partially withdrawn.
This half shows the same car-
riage arranged to carry cattle-
boxes: the passenger flooring
being simply turned up.
(From ‘The Graphic.')


































(
8 )
“THE TAKTIRAVAN.”
The Origin of the PIONEER.

( 9 )
ON OVERCOMING GEOGRAPHICAL OBSTACLES
TO AFRICAN TRADE; BY ECONOMICAL
ANIMAL AND MECHANICAL -
EXPEDIENTS.
By J. L. HADDAN, M.I.C.E., F.R.G.S., F.S.A.,
Officer of the Medjidić, &c.
EMBRACING ALSO A SCIENTIFIC REPORT ON THE SYSTEM,
By J. W. GROVER, M. INST. C. E.,
WITH
The OPINION of SIR GARNET WOLSELEY, ETC.
(See Page 55.)
[A. Paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, Session 1878.
SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, K.C.B., in the Chair.]
(30th Edition, revised November 1st, 1879.)
WHEN we consider that the area of Africa is about one hundredfold
that of Great Britain, even without entering into the question of
the comparative wealth and density of population of the two
countries, the disparity is so great ; that it is self-evident the usual
stereotyping of European railways is quite out of the question,
when considering the suitable means for opening up Africa.”
Her Majesty's Ministers offered our profession some very valuable
suggestions on this head, at the Anniversary Dinner of the Institu-
tion (see Extract, p. 59; and Grover's Report, "ſ f. page 64).
In addition, the modest 5 per cent. interest tardily achieved by
some English lines, may satisfy the stay-at-homes; but the risk
in Africa both to life and purse, warrants a return of at least
50 per cent. on any capital ventured under existing circumstances.
It is the purpose of this Paper to point out that this may be done
expeditiously and surely, simply by making the mechanical means
employed, thoroughly 8wb8ervient to the special commercial wants of
the case in question; instead of adopting the usual plan which is
\
* Short-sighted persons have hastily condemned steam in toto for this reason,
although the one is 300 fold more economical (in England) than the other.
( 10 )
diametrically opposite, viz. of imposing English railways en bloc,
without any regard to the requirements of the country treated.*
1. A railway or other means of transport, to pay its shareholders
an ultra dividend; should, upon the accepted principle of supply
and demand, never be constructed on a scale one tittle in excess of
the traffic existing.
Remunerative railways proper cannot, however, unfortunately be
constructed in miniature except on the flat; since, whatever the
scale may be, a heavy locomotive is obligatory: moreover, when
the grades are steep, the dead weight is so great and the paying
load so reduced, that the rates become prohibitive, since the
train becomes practically all engine.f The first giant stride in
economy the Pioneer performs, is abolishing all necessity for extra-
neous weight in the locomotive or brakes. Hence the train is
light and of equal weight throughout, and the permanent way can
be constructed of a strength sufficient only to carry the traffic unit,
whatever it be; in lieu of being called upon to support the arbi-
trary weight of a locomotive: which over difficult country may
increase the calibre, and therefore the cost of the whole line, at
least tenfold the freight requirements. A Pioneer train will not
weigh per yard one tithe as much as a Fairlie mountain-engine
and its brake vans, although the freight carried by the Pioneer
train would be superior. -
Ex: In the mountains of the Mauritius a single line of railway
cost 22,000l. per mile, yet in bad weather the speed did not
exceed four miles an hour on a grade of 1 in 45. The gross load
of the train was 131 tons, of which only 23 tons, or ºth, was
freight: while a Pioneer train of like weight would carry three
times the nett quantity, or 70 tons (see Grover's Report," b. p. 64).
With a maximum goods tariff of 5%d. Í per ton per mile, the
dividend was only 1 per cent. -
* Instance : In Natal the summer or working season is very rainy, necessitating
an extensive system of ultra good roads; while in Canada roads are but a secondary
consideration, since the winter snows provide gratis the best possible road surface,
viz. frozen snow : a mild winter being a positive calamity. The Zulu campaign
has also shown us how little the vast superiority of our ultra-perfectioned war
matériel avails us, when used in combination with primitive transport, which leaves
a general at the mercy of the weather. It has also shown us the folly of increasing
the area of our nominal rule at a greater speed than we can open it up, and points
to the use of railways in warfare, as a means not only of immediately Securing what
we take; but of literally converting our swords into ploughshares by allying
commerce and war, instead of ruining the trade both of ourselves and the enemy
by exterminating the only commercial means of transport available, viz. animal :
one which money cannot replace.
“But to all present seeming, the transport problem closely approaches the inso-
luble; and it would occasion me no surprise should the transport difficulty involve
us in the necessity of a second campaign.”— Daily News’ African Correspondent.
f Twice the grade means a reduction of four times the load. (See Grover's
Report, "" b. and c. page 64.)
† The average Indian tariff is less than 13.
( 11 )
The Pioneer is a one-rail railway, the permanent way consisting
of one elevated rail supported upon dwarf posts. The rolling
stock is arranged donkey and pannier fashion, the load hanging
down on either side of the rail to the extent of about 2 feet
6 inches. The nominal height of the rail above the soil rarely
exceeds 3 feet. . *
The Pioneer alone can use such a light elevated structure by which
all physical difficulties are ignored, simply because it attenuates the
load and effort, instead of concentrating them. Mr. Palmer,
Mr. Fell, and other eminent engineers who have attempted to
render practical the tempting advantages to be derived from such
semi-aērial railways; have simply failed because their engines, like
locomotives in general, required concentrated weight.”
2. To construct railways in uncivilised countries, cheaply, ex-
peditiously, and to an unlimited extent if desired; the maa'imum
of the labour should be performed in the European workshop, and as
little as possible undertaken on the ground. In Africa is this the
more imperative owing to the sloth of the natives. *
Earthworks and masonry must therefore be eschewed, and their
cost which is excessive, while they are of no intrinsic value, is far
better spent at home, than in upsetting the labour market and the
revenue abroad; as all large enterprises have been found to do,
especially in agricultural empires. With earthwork railways,
unless “there were seven Stanleys in the field,” sufficient men
could not be kept together at any price, to make 300 miles of rail-
way in three years, much less keep it in order; ; while the European
* On the Discussion of the Pioneer system at the United Service Institution,
Admiral Selwyn said, “I can quite understand that the instant you tie yourself
down to traction by concentrated weight, that instant you must leave the single
rail, and gradually recur to the gauge of double rails generally adopted.” -
t Average railway works require 30,000 days’ labour per mile. Permanent way
and stations not included. (See Grover's Report, "I g. page 64.)
# The preservation of earthworks. or even the ballast, against tropical rains, is
costly in the extreme; often all but impossible in fact, and quite so commercially:
the annual outlay for their maintenance against the weather alone may be capitalized
at £1000 per mile in normal cases, and as much as £4000 and £5000 in those
tortuous ravines which so often afford the only feasible ingress to continents. The
Pioneer therefore starts with a negative guarantee of this amount, since it dispenses
with earthworks. In the Parliamentary discussions on the Indian Budget, Mr.
Onslow drew attention to the Pioneer's principles in the following words: “He
hoped, therefore, that in future no works would be entered upon unless there was
an assurance that they would be reproductive. It should not be forgotten, he
might add, that large sums had to be spent on repairs; for hon, members generally
could scarcely be aware how soon such works became deteriorated in the climate
of India.” In making comparisons between various systems, the actuary’s cal-
culations should therefore supplement the Engineer’s prime cost estimate.’
Ex.: Although macadam costs less than one-half the price of stone pavement, its
maintenance is nearly five times greater, and to compare only their first cost as
a criterion of respective value would be manifestly absurd. -
( 12 )
and American markets could cover the whole of the “dark continent”
with an iron Pioneer road in that space of time. It is moreover
a positive sin to degrade men to the treadmill of earthworks, when
agriculture and trade demand all the hands that can be got.
When machinery (tip-waggons, rock drills, &c.) is employed for
the construction of earthworks, the cuttings are purposely made
of the same cube as the banks: but when earthworks are made
(literally) by hand as in India, cuttings (being harder to work)
are all but tabooed : the rule being 3 bank to 1 cutting.
To grade similar country it therefore requires nearly threefold
the amount of earthwork in the one case that it does in the other.
The number of labourers is still further enhanced by their indi-
vidual feebleness, which experience shows does not warrant even
the expense of supplying them with any but the most primitive
tools—such as baskets and hoes.
Sir Theophilus Shepstone, when annexing the Transvaal, acknow-
ledged this. He exempted the Boers from military service, because
their labour as agriculturists could not be spared. General
Cunynghame has also shown what complications may arise, in
employing large masses of native labour. He says the Kafirs had
to be bribed by the contractors with rifles, as an inducement to
work. He states that 400,000 stand of arms are now in their
hands, and liable at any moment to be turned against Ourselves.
Mr. Consul Skene, referring to the Euphrates Valley Railway,
emphatically declares that the country will be ruined agriculturally;
if the railway is undertaken with local labour.
3. In uncivilised countries, where Ordnance maps and statistics
do not abound, every public work should be provisional, especially if
we would act with vigour; since we leap in the dark, and cannot
foretell what direction trade may take in the future. This rule is
especially applicable to harbours” and railways. Every line
drawn upon the map of Africa at the present date should be as
it were “a faint dotted one.” -
Ordinary railways, however, do not fulfil this great economical
requirement, for even the narrowest gauge earthwork railway is a
permanency, a line indelibly scored on the map ; nor can it be
either enlarged to a broad gauge, or removed elsewhere, if its
original direction be found unsuitable in a sanitary or commercial
sense. Hence it is absurd to suggest making roads with a view
to their after-conversion into railways,f or of narrow-gauge lines
* Exposed ports should be sheltered by means of floating-surface breakwaters,
made of any local materials suitable to produce a similitude in structure and
effect to the sea-weed reefs of the Pacific. Manilla fibre would do.
t Mr. Large, C.E., tells me that a line recently surveyed by him in Columbia,
( 13 )
to be converted into broad-gauge when required; for in both
cases the curves and grades and even the route suitable for the
former, would not be available for the latter. They are both
deeds done for ever; for better for worse, as luck will have it.*
The Pioneer is readily transportable; it follows the natural undu-
lations of the ground without disturbing the soil; it requires neither
banks nor cuttings (see Grover's Report, "I g. p. 64), and does not
interfere with the watersheds, a most important element in the
tropics. The rolling-stock is handy and can be shipped in
running order, the generator weighing only 4 tons. The telegraph
wires are snugly stowed under the lower rail out of harm’s way.
If it is urged the Pioneer is destroyed, it is as readily repaired.
On crossing a tidal river, the line may be temporarily laid in the
river-bed itself, the construction materials being able to keep the
track even when entirely submerged. - -
The Pioneer train is a continuous metal skeleton formed of
waggons of one type, which can be used either for passengers
and merchandise, or for goods only and for animals by merely
turning up the seats. Each double carriage can carry either
sixteen men and four boxes of 40 cubic feet each, or four boxes of
240 feet aggregate; and in addition, bulk to the extent of two
bundles 7 feet by 6 feet by 4 feet (say hay). They weigh 30 cwt.
each double waggon. (See page 7.)
They are formed into trains of about 30 waggons each, and are
never detached except for repairs. .
They are coupled at the roof level by means of flexible or rather
hinge-like joints, which admit of no lateral play. Consequently,
although the train is articulated, the natural tendency to over-
balance of each individual waggon, is restrained by its neighbours
fore and aft; and consequently the average load of one side of the
train is available as compensation for the average load of the other:
and thus unequal loading of units has no palpable effect, and we
shall not be required, as in pack-loading, to add on huge stones to
maintain equilibrium. The length of each articulation of the
though only 70 miles by the mule track, required a railway over 300 kilometres
in length. (See Grover's Report, "I g. p. 64.)
* The confusion of the, gauges in Australia would not have occurred had the
railways been provisional in the first instance; nor would protective duties be
necessary, if remunerative railways had existed, to offer a sufficiently attractive
inducement to local investors. The colonial capitalists have been forced by English
railway loan facilities to compete with our manufacturers instead of confining
themselves to producing raw materials. (See Railways and Free Trade, page 60.)
# Even in Portugal the winter rains of 1878 have caused so much damage as to
necessitate the reconstruction of many of the Railways.- Times' Oporto Corre-
spondent.
( 14 )
train is about double that of the intervals between the posts; and
the wheels are so arranged that the train in running over the per-
manent way, only bears upon the posts and not upon the span.
The train really forms a short perambulating beam, and therefore
absolves the permanent way from the necessity of providing inter-
minable quantities of this expensive element, the girder. In fact,
instead of erecting costly bridges to be used perhaps but a few
minutes in the twenty-four hours, the Pioneer practically carries
her bridges (all but the piers) along with her.
4. It is necessary in Africa and such places; to spin attenuated
lines of communication, and avoid concentration and centralisation :
for the amount of the tariff (and dividend) obtainable, depends
entirely upon the difference of market-value of the goods at the two
eactremities of the line ; an amount which increases out of all pro-
portion as the distance is longer. This vital advantage will not
only be nullified, but positively rendered antagonistic, if the carrying
capacity of the line exceeds easisting demands for transport.
Commander Cameron informed me that the value of cotton goods
at Unyanyembé was about fourfold Zanzibar (coast) prices, although
the distance was only 250 miles. There is therefore ample margin
for a magnificent dividend, provided the market is not swamped by
a big railway, of the old type. (See foot-note f on page 21.)
I am indebted to Mr. Prince, a merchant of South Africa, an
ex-member of the local Parliament, and to Mr. Reginald Statham
of Maritzburg, for statistics from which I find that the first narrow-
gauge single-line railways at the Cape have cost 8000l. per mile :
but that by reason of their short length and serpentine nature *
they cannot earn a dividend or even compete with the ox-waggons
which trade to the Diamond Fields, some 500 miles into the
interior; although the railway charges average 18.7 per ton per
mile for freight. (See Grover's Report, "I e. page 64.)
This fact alone proves that the Cape lines are twelvgfold too
large; for 1d. per ton per mile should pay well for transport, if
you can only get enough.
28. 6d. per ton per mile is the ordinary tariff for ox-waggons; the
* Here for the first time the Durban Maritzburg railway strikes the road, in
the vicinity of which it remains with more or less tortuousness during the rest
of its career. The engineering troubles of planning even a narrow-gauge line
through such a country must have been serious, and the curves and gradients
must be seen to be believed.—Daily News. -
f Neither high rates nor a dividend are admissible on a State railway. The
necessary return being more readily obtainable, indirectly, in the form of aug-
mented revenue due to increased production resultant from cheap transport.
The East Indian State Railway, however, offers the working Company a share in
excess profits—a premium on high rates. *
f
( 15 )
supply of which being less than the demand, enables them to obtain
this very high rate; which, however, owing to loss of live stock
from drought,” &c., hardly pays them; but would yield the Pioneer
a dividend of about 70 per cent.: these rates have now risen to
8s. or 98., so that a Pioneer railway to the front would repay its
outlay in a few months, especially as it must traverse the splendid
Dundee coal-fields.
5. The working expenses of a line are more important than even
their first cost; for even an overgrown line, economically worked,
will pay at some remote period; while so-called cheap and light
lines (as lately constructed in Turkey, Australia, and elsewhere)
can never pay at all, owing to excessive meandering about to
avoid trifling physical difficulties; to endless repairs consequent on
scamped construction: and to high through transport rates, due
to the exaggerated length of the lines in question. In ordinary
railways, where weight is power, the working eaſpenses increase, as the
scale decreases; so that the use of light railways is the reverse of
economical. (See Table on next page; and Grover's Report, "I d.
p. 64, and * g.g. p. 65.) .
The Pioneer is not cheap in the light railway sense, for all its
materials are of the most solid and durable description; while its
working expenses are low, owing to the abolition of dead weight,
and to the fact that the road will take care of itself. Its route also
is always direct. Though temporary in structure, unlike make-
shifts in general, its working is ultra-perfectioned. The Pioneer
pushes its way to even the village door, the value of which may
be conceived when the cost of collecting and delivering goods for
transit between Manchester and London (180 miles) costs 8s., or
§rd of the total charge per ton for carriage between the two cities,
equivalent to a railway carriage of 60 miles additional.f
I may mention for the benefit of my non-technical hearers, who
may maturally think that, on plains at any rate, it is possible to lay
* THE BISHop of PRETORIA.—The “track” journey of 400 miles from the
coast was a very trying one, an excess of drought depriving the oxen of food en
route, and the outbreak of war occasioning such difficulties of transport that for
two months the whole party had to live in tents. Of the oxen, half had died.
from lack of food and disease on the road. The health of the party was good.
Since leaving Maritzburg they had been quite cut off from civilisation. “Three
months’ dust,” says the Bishop, “sun, dirt, cold, drought, barrenness, thunder
and lightning, hail like eggs, and yet only halfway.”—Daily Telegraph.
See also the Daily Press for Lord Chelmsford's remarks on the difficulty of
transport, a burden which no general of a civilised (?) army ought to be called
upon to support. In Afghanistan the ‘Times’ correspondent refers to the
deplorable loss of British animals and its consequent effect on our outlying pro-
vinces. Of 103 laden bullocks, performing easy 10-mile stages, only 57 reached
their destination. • ' - - º
i Commercial Geography does not measure distances by the mile.
( 16 )
down portable railways on the unprepared ground; that in tropical
countries the plains are generally converted into Swamps in the
rainy season, so that engineers usually construct a bank of at least
5 feet high in such situations, plentifully sprinkled with culverts;
but even then the line is not secure. A remarkable instance of
this was afforded at the Kilburn Agricultural Show, 1879, where
the engine was nonplussed by the rails sinking below the ground
surface, and such a trifle as persons scraping their clayed boots
on the rails and making them slippery. (See Mr. Grover's Report,
*I i. page 65.)
Abstract Value of various types of Railway Construction over the same
line of country.
Cost per mile no criterion of value. See “Indian Break of Gauge,” page 57.
Gives or Gives or -
I. First-class railways... = Good grades, and tole- = Light rails and rolling
A fixed quantum of rably direct route. stock, and fair pay-
earthworks.” . ing load.
2. Light, cheap (?) rail-
Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... = Bad grades, and cir- = Heavy rolling stock,
Inadequate earthworks. cuitous route. and serious, amount
3. Steam Tramways on of dead weight.
country roads ........ = Very bad grades, which = Extravagance in power
No earthworks. cannot be modified. and minimum of equi-
. - valent load.
f4. Fell’s system.... .... = Very lofty viaducts, bad = Unremunerative load,
Earth cuttings, but grades, and circuitous since being on a con-
timber viaducts in route. tinuous viaduct, must
lieu of banks. be used with excep-
tionally light rolling
stock.
5. Pioneer ....Y....... = Surface line, i.e., bad = Light rails and rolling
No earthworks. grades, over rough stock, but very good
country. Route, as the paying load.
crow flies. (Compare with No. 1).
The ground too, in such situations, is soft, so that settlement
would constantly occur; and with any two-railed system of railway,
derailment is certain, if one rail should sink barely an inch lower
* George Stephenson, its inventor, fixed the limit of traction by gravity at 1 in
300 for an iron rail; to obtain which an unreducible quantity of earthwork is
obligatory : but if to get rid of this expense we cut down the earthworks and
use steeper grades, then we must seek, as in the Pioneer, some other motor than
concentrated gravity. With the Pioneer, however, where all the wheels are
coupled, the economical maximum grade is 1 in 7. So it can always command
a choice of route, which no other system of railway possibly can do. (See
Mr. Grover's Report, T. h. page 65.)
f At Aldershot Mr. Fell's locomotive could only take a nett load of 14 tons up
1 in 50, although the grades were improved to the utmost by a 5-foot cutting
and a 20-foot viaduct. He admits that his system is, as regards grades, 50 per
cent. worse than one on the ground, so cut bono –See ‘Society of Arts Journal.”
May 3rd, 1879.
( 17 )
than the other: and the narrower the gauge the greater the danger:*
so that it is only where one rail is used that the road may be left to
take care of itself, for a foot of settlement even would not endanger
the safety of the train. Such two-rail portable railways cannot more-
over be laid down upon curves without endless fitting, cutting the
rails, &c. &c., as was found to our cost in the Abyssinian campaign.
Ballasting in tropical countries becomes quite a science, and forms
one of the most costly items of maintenance. The Pioneer eschews it.
The Pioneer system of driving is antagonistic to impetus. It
may be described as continuous; since every wheel of the train is
as it were coupled, and the load is self-propelled and offers no
resistance as in a load drawn up an incline. In fact vitality is
introduced into each articulation, as an antidote to the usual dead
load. Hence a Pioneer train may also with safety run fast down
inclines which an ordinary railway could not face (see Grover's
Report, "I h, page 65): consequently over rough country the
Pioneer could carry mails, &c., quicker than a first-class railway.f
The brakes, which are merely the motor reversed, are continuous
also, and so arranged as to lock all the wheels in the event of
accident. The main feature is that the brakes are always on, and
require a constant but trifling application of extraneous force, to
free the wheels: thus even the absence or neglect of the driver,
is instantly revealed by the blocking of the whole train, consequent
upon the brakes returning to their normal state—fixed. A small
boiler is also made to do the duty of a large one, by employing a
differential arrangement somewhat similar in effect to the Bramah
press; while any minor inequalities of loading throughout the
train, are corrected by a water balance on the engine, under the
control of the driver. g
6. A Pioneer (weak) double line can carry considerably more
than a (strong) single line of the 4.8% gauge. Collisions and
derailments are impossible, and no necessity exists for the use of
any of the 60,000 signals which a director of one of our main
railways lately stated his Company daily used. While as traffic
* AccIDENT TO THE FLYING SCOTchMAN.—The Flying Scotchman ran off the
line between Ranskell and Bawtry, on the Great Northern Railway, about 4 P.M.
on February 14, 1879. The rails and sleepers on the down line were torn up, and
traffic delayed for some time. Several passengers are reported severely maimed
or bruised, but none are known to be fatally injured. Breakdown gangs from
' Doncaster and Retford were promptly on the spot, and, under the superintendence
of the district engineer, quickly cleared the line and replaced the metals. The
accident was owing to the subsidence of the permanent way, caused by the recent
thaw.—Daily Telegraph.
t. On the basis, of the value of rapid transmission of news. The Pioneer would,
in the Euphrates valley, form the missing link between the Railway and the
Telegraph; and charge accordingly.
C
( . 18 )
increased, a third and fourth line could be laid; so that the quick
traffic might be separated from the slow, goods from passengers,
&c.; and the railway worked to the full extent without any
augmentation of risk: one line would be, however, reserved as an
endless siding, on which the train might stop anywhere to pick
up the freight boxes, a necessity in agricultural countries where
produce is bulky, stations few and far between, and feeding roads
not in existence. Thus the latest English principles can be adopted
at the very outset, since we have, engineeringly speaking, virgin
soil to work upon; but the method employed for carrying them
out must be utterly different.
6A. The Pioneer skeleton train is never disintegrated ; for the
freight being in boxes, is treated like passengers: hence full trains
can always be assured, and the usual confusion and waste (over
80 per cent.) due to the waggons and goods playing hide and seek
with each other in the crowded depôts, is entirely avoided. (See
pages 44 and 45.) -
The introduction of continuous brakes on ordinary railways, will
ere long necessitate also the employment of connected or continuous
goods trains; for passenger safety demands the use of continuous
brakes quite as much on goods trains as on passenger; since as
they both use the same track, they can run into each other with
equal impartiality. s
With such a margin of dead weight in its favour, the Pioneer
eschews the bother and cost of weighing goods, the cubical capacity
of the boxes being sufficiently approximate. (Shipping system.)
Dike the coal waggons in this country, the boxes would often be
owned by private individuals; but the endless worry experienced
by companies repairing leased waggons of all sorts of types would
be avoided; since all the working parts are the Pioneer Company's
own property, and under their control.
7. Ordinary railway construction is tedious in the extreme; but
the Pioneer capital can be turned over in a few months, and the line
be opened and remunerative before the manufacturers’ bills become
due. Hence a small working capital will go a long way.
On the Suez Canal, where over 90 per cent. of the outlay was for
earthworks; actually one-half of the capital was spent in paying
interest during construction.
8. The rate of progress of erection of the Pioneer is at least
one mile per diem per 100 trained men.” The train brings up the
whole of the materials, which as they arrive, are seriatim laid and
fixed in, complete working order at one operation. On the grand
* The portion erected by the Grenadier Guards at Whitehall in the presence
of Sir Garnet Wolseley gave even better results.
( 19 )
principle adopted by the Pioneer of disturbing nothing local,
either natural or human ; the assistants necessary would not be
drawn from local sources:* so that the railway would appear almost
as if by enchantment, and without allowing time for intrigues, or
exciting that suspicion of conquest and possession, which walls-of-
China-like masonry and earthworks would be certain to engender.
In the frontispiece the Pioneer road is shown made of timber.
Such a road in South Russia was contracted for at 400l. per verst, or
650l. per mile, in oak, fixed complete. I would invite particular atten-
tion to the scale of the structure; it is only one yard high, which it
rarely exceeds, and the train partakes more of the nature and size
of a donkey and panniers, or a camel-caravan, than of a Pullman car.
The rail used may be of iron; but owing to a special arrange-
ment of the running load by which the weight is entirely sup-
ported by the posts, and never bears upon the span; bamboos, poles,
or planks, answer the purpose equally well. The train becomes
in fact a short travelling girder, and thus eliminates this prohibi-
tively costly element (the girder) from the endless viaduct which
constitutes the Pioneer permanent way.
Old rails will serve admirably for the Pioneer. If of the Vignoles
pattern, they should be turned upside down and used T fashion:
when double-headed, they should be employed on their sides, as a
grooved rail. \
Old rails do not pay to re-import; so are practically valueless
in the interior of continents, although intrinsically they have
suffered very little deterioration.
In Central Africa we should, however, use iron in lieu of wood,
owing to the white ant; and also for commercial reasons: since iron
is an English staple, and deferred payments over seven years can be
obtained for a road entirely of this material.f The carrying-
value of the line (second-class type) would not be less than 400
tons daily; for which an eminent Glasgow firm tender at 750l. per
mile fo.b. This is the smallest practical size made, and this even
is too big for the occasion: but for horse traction the same may
be obtained complete for 400l. per mile.
The makers guarantee the Pioneer Engines to take a nett load
of 100 tons over grades of 1 in 10, at an average speed throughout
of 10 miles an hour;f which would constitute a highly satisfactory
train-load in respect to economical working expenses. The Pioneer,
* Common Kaffir labourers have been paid as much as £1 per diem, in the
interior.
f It would be more in accordance with sound commercial principles if we ex-
ported ready-made railways instead of the money to make them with.
† An ordinary engine of like weight, as used by Mr. Fell at Aldershot, would
only draw 4 tons under similar conditions. -
o 2
( 20 )
therefore, can travel as the crow flies, and not being affected in
price by ordinary physical difficulties, no surveys are required.
As land feeders to the Pioneer system, for no line of railway in
large continents is worth anything without feeders; I suggest
the single-rail tramway shown on page 5. This is worked by
animals, where the “fly.” permits, but by men in other districts.
The cart is of wicker, covered with hide, and is waterproof, so as
to take the water at river crossings; the pontoon collar affording
sufficient flotation for men and cargo. Four men could transport
easily on such a rough tram-road one ton, or about fiftyfold their
present burdens; while by the introduction of the Indian native
“tapaul’’ or post system, all the graphically drawn miseries entailed
by deserting pagazi, &c. &c. (see Cameron), could easily be avoided.
The cost would be about 50l. per mile under favourable circum-
stances. It may be also used without a rail or any preparation,
on ground impracticable to two-wheeled vehicles; and if made of
a size readily handled by two men, would be of invaluable service
for active military operations, for carrying intrenching tools, ammu-
nition, &c., acting as laagers, and forming a magazine for company
squares to rally round—as suggested by Captain Geddes.
Ordinary carriage-roads are quite out of place in Africa. 1. Their
maintenance in the dry season is impossible, since the materials
will not cohere, and the vegetation breaks up the road-surface;
while the wooden wheels of the vehicles are constantly coming to
pieces. 2. It is against common sense also for a private company
to level a wide track, unless the road is for common use with wheeled
vehicles like a street, where hundreds of different interests have to
be accommodated; but for vehicles under one organisation, a pre-
pared surface of a few inches in width, offering easy traction, is far
cheaper to make and keep in repair, than a very indifferent road
necessarily many yards wide, offering a large target to the attacks
of the elements. It possesses besides the advantage of allowing all
the falling gradients to be worked by gravitation, the rises alone
being worked by power, either animal or mechanical; be it wind,
water, or steam. The up-line would follow one line of country,
and the down-line another, so as to make the maximum use of
gravitation in both directions. For military purposes no waggons
are used, the cases themselves being attached to a yoke and wheel
on a system analogous to the timber lorries of this country; hence
for a rapid expedition where time necessitated the employment
of only a single line, there need be no return empties or neces-
sity for either a double line or turn-outs. The cases possess suffi-
cient flotation for crossing streams or for floating ashore when
discharged over a ship's side. The construction materials are also
( 21 )
tied up into self-supporting bundles fitted with temporary wheels;
so that the laying of the road is continuously forward.
Captain Burton assured me that in his opinion the origin of the
slave-trade was due to the absence of beasts of burden or other
means of transport. Since, however, animals do not thrive; me-
chanical means afford the only chance we have of extirpating the
slave-trade. But neither the construction of roads with a view to
steam-traction, nor of earthwork railways, are admissible; since in
addition to other objections, they would but afford a pretext for
forced labour, the greater portion of the work being local.” Ele-
phants are commercially out of the question except for exploring
purposes; their keep being prohibitively costly. (See “Elephants
for Africa,” p. 58.) * *
On the Congo side of the continent, about 150 miles of Pioneer
road, erected at the Yellala rapids, to ply in conjunction with steam-
launches above and below the cataracts; would open up say 50,000
square miles of country at the least. The cost would not exceed
180,000l. ; and if the trade were properly conducted, i.e. as a trans-
port monopoly, and the goods only of the Company were transported to
the exclusion of everybody else's ; judging from Asiatic experience, I
fancy the earnings would not stop at cent. per cent.f But such a
* H.M. the King of the Belgians thought the only difficulty Mr. Haddan had
not met was the financial one—of a subsidy to induce capital into an unknown
country. Mr. Haddan replied he had done even that.—See “The King of the
Belgians,” p. 57.
Captain Burton writes, with reference to the Pioneer: “That by its means the
mineral wealth of the land of Midian might be rendered immediately profitable.”
Commander Cameron thought that with special steamers and the Pioneer rail-
road, communication might be opened up through the Nile, the Congo, and the
Zambesi, into the very heart of Africa.
Mr. Stanley suggested that Mr. Haddan should get a number of English
capitalists to form an East African Company similar to the old East Indian
Company.
Mr. William Ridley, the chief engineer for Natal, strongly recommends the
Pioneer for feeders ; while General the Hon. H. Clifford has recommended it for
the Cape War.
Gordon Pacha hopes “ere long to use it.” Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir
Garnet Wolseley, see Military Railways, p. 54, Sir Samuel Baker, Sir Henry
Green, General Vaughan, &c. &c., see p. 52, warmly sympathise with the
author's aims. -
For a detailed description of the system, see the ‘Times,’ January 6th, 1875;
the ‘Society of Arts’ Journal, April 6th, 1877; ‘Iron, March 17th, 1877;
the ‘Engineer’ of January, 1870; the ‘United Service Institution's Journal,”
1878; the ‘Graphic,’ August 3rd, 1878; the ‘European Mail;’ the ‘African
Times;’ the ‘Calcutta Englishman;’ the ‘Bombay Gazette;' the ‘Mossul Bay,
Advertiser, July 1879;’ the ‘Standard,” September 17th, 1879, &c., &c.
f Calculating 9d. per lb. as the average value of barter merchandise at
Zanzibar, and 3s. per lb. at Unyanyembé (Cameron's estimate), we have 2s. 3d.
per lb. margin for freight and profit, which amounts on this basis to 15s. per ton
per mile = a dividend of 165 per cent. On a Pioneer and trading capital of 2000l.
( 22 )
private railway must be a dwarf to revel in excess, since if a giant it
must either starve or share a miserable pittance with others. This I con-
sider to be the key to the whole question, and English mechanical
pride must stoop so as to conquer it, and give up all grand ideas
of 50-ton locomotives and spacious saloon-carriages, for many a year
in Central Africa; since the present traffic is under 20 tons per
diem upon the most frequented line of route : a quantity insufficient
to nourish any road or railway worked simply as a transport agency,
as in England. (See Ready Reckoner, p. 23.) -
On the east side the area of country opened per mile of railway
would not be so great; but as trade arteries already exist, they
warrant the greater outlay which a longer railway would require.*
Of the comparative suitability of the various routes to railway
purposes, it is not necessary to give any opinion, since the Pioneer
is independent of physical details; but there seems to be ample
traffic on them all, from the southermost Zambesi route to the
northern Dana one. º sº
At the Cape—a Pioneer line from Maritzburg to Pretoria would
in the opinion of local authorities, not only effectually end the
war and compensate in kind for the enormous losses of transport
animals; but worked in combination with a lease of the Govern-
ment coal-fields, would prove a most profitable speculation.
I will conclude this Paper with the hope that, ere more valuable
lives are lost in pushing explorations further, the base of operations
may be by means of such a railway as the Pioneer, so far advanced
into the interior, that explorers may not be worn out before they
can reach new ground.
per mile. The existing annual traffic is estimated at 6000 tons (of a value of
500,000l.), or in round numbers 20 tons per working day. This would entail
running only one train each way every alternate day, at a cost of 18, per ton per
mile, reducible to 16. when the line is worked to its full capacity of 100 tons
daily in each direction. Mr. Hutchinson estimates the bare freight at 70 per
cent. of the value of the goods transported = to 48, per ton per mile for carriers'
charges, while the merchants’ profits amount to nearly three times as much,
viz., to 118. per ton per mile. The advantages therefore of using the Pioneer
as a trade weapon, and not simply as a carrier, may be valued at 130 per cent.
These calculations are for a line from the coast near Zanzibar to Unyanyembé, at
which place the line would bifurcate to Lakes Tanganika and Nyanza, a total
length of 700 miles. The trading and railway capital required to make the
line piecemeal would not exceed 200,000l., including all necessary block-houses,
stores, &c.; but if a large capital were available, the whole country could be
simultaneously treated, with more than correspondingly inceased results.
* The Sultan of Zanzibar, it is said, offers a subsidy of £100,000 towards the
construction of the first railway in Central Africa.
READY RECKONER.
For ascertaining the Amount of Traffic required to earn 5 per cent. on
any required Capital, at a charge of less than 13. per ton per mile.
Divide the estimated cost per mile by 13, which will give the
required tonnage (up + down). - * * * -
Ex.: -
£ - e
Narrow Gauge 13) 8000 = cost per mile.
*mº
620 tons of traffic.
Bºmaº,
- £
| Pioneer (1st class) 13) 1300 = cost per mile.
tºmmº
100 tons, or # the average carrying
T power of the system (single line).
£
Pioneer (2nd class) 13) 750 = cost per mile.
g
O
$– *
T { 58 tons per diem.
|-- - J
£
Pioneer animal 13) 390 = cost per mile.
/ traction -
| - 30 tons per diem.
The basis on which the above rule was established was ascertained from
Mr. Juland Danvers’ admirable statistics on the nine principal Indian railways
(1877, 1878). -
These lines have a mileage of 6500, and cost £15,000 per mile. The average
tonnage of goods carried was 1440 tons daily both ways.
The capital therefore expended was £13 per ton transported (the divisor used
in the formula). -
The tonnage above mentioned includes passengers, calculated at 2% to the ton,
the transport of 2% passengers costing the same as 1 ton of goods. -
The average tariff charged per ton for passengers and goods="88d.
The average cost of transport per ton for passengers and goods==356.
( 24 )
The chief merit of Mr. Juland Danvers' returns are their straightforwardness.
He is alone in publishing the cost of the real work done, i.e. the cost per ton
(carried one) mile : while the European companies without exception, affect com-
parisons on the positively misleading basis of the cost per train mile, irrespective
of the amount of freight each train carries.
Thus badly filled trains show a cheap train mileage cost, indicative in reality
of anything but economy. Ex.:
On the Paris Steam Tramways of which I was manager; our horse opponents
by running four times the requisite accommodation, obtained a complete victory
on the train mile basis, but were ignominiously defeated on the ton mile system.
Working expenses Nett freight per Cost per
per train mile. train mile. ton mile.
Steam ... .. 7:43d. ... .. 3-5 ... .. 2' 126.
Horses ... .. 6'40d. ... ... 0-9 ... .. 7' 10d.
Mr. Price Williams and Mr. Condor have done good service in support of the
“ton mile.” :
NoTE.—Indian rates are low as compared (in money) with those of Europe: but
prohibitively high as regards their percentage on the intrinsic value of the articles
transported in the two cases. The tariff, and on a sliding scale, is of great political
importance; transport being a tax (either export or import at will) in all but the
name, and average through rates in many cases prohibitive. Bismarck has noted
this, in the Prusso-Austrian treaty of 1879. -
| ( 25 )
THE PIONEER RAILWAY v. IRRIGATION AS A
PREVENTIVE FOR INDIAN FAMINES.
AT the Society of Arts, in the discussion of an exhaustive paper on
Indian Famines, by W. T. THORNTON, Esq., C.B., Mr. Haddan con-
tributed the following:—
Mr. HADDAN said he wished to point out that the question of
famine was entirely one of intercommunication, for he had seen in
Turkey famine rampant within 100 miles of a spot where the crops
were rotting on the ground.” Irrigation had been spoken of as
, a preventive of famine, but in the district to which he referred the
irrigation was simply perfect. The country had suffered for two
or three years from drought, and the subsequent year produced a
magnificent crop; but it could not be exported, and the conse-
quence was that many persons were ruined, because, owing to the
former bad years, they had had to borrow grain for sowing pur-
poses at such an exorbitant interest that they could not repay the
debt, owing to the Small margin of profit derived from glut
prices. Had there been a market, a good crop would have been
a blessing instead of being, as it was, a curse. Therefore he thought
that proved that irrigation had nothing whatever to do with the
question. Nor could he see how an element so irregular in supply
as rain-water, could possibly offer itself as a guarantee against
famine. A money insurance is equally inadmissible, as a means of
prevention. With a teeming population of 210 persons to the square
mile, the food supply should not be expected to be producible
locally ; but must be partially derived from extraneous sources.
The old system of State grain stores answered well, it has how-
\.
* “The drought before which these sons of the Desert are fleeing, has
naturally produced a great rise in the price of grain and nearly all articles of
food throughout the southern and eastern part of the Pashalic; prices even in
Aintab are double what they were a year ago, and nearly treble what they were
three years ago; to the south and east of us the difference is much greater.
“On the other hand we hear that 100 miles to the north of us the harvests
have been abundant and grain is cheap. The expense of transport, however, is
so great that one part of the country may be suffering from famine while another
part can with difficulty dispose of its surplus yield.
“Without a better system of roads in Turkey there can be no permanent
prosperity.”—Aintab Correspondent to the ‘Times,’ October 11th, 1879. v
The population of this part of Turkey is only 23 to the square mile.
( 26 )
ever been abandoned in India as uncommercial, and nothing
substituted.
When the natural divisions of countries are overcome by a com-
plete system of means of communication, then, but not till then,
can the varying fortunes inherent to agriculture be equalised. A
scarcity in one province would, in lieu of disaster, positively con-
tribute wealth to its neighbour; and Western principle, as to
supply and demand, would then enjoy full swing, and famines might
safely be left to take care of themselves. -
Now, irrigation is almost always so purely a local matter, that
its use or abuse cannot fairly be considered an imperial question
affecting the condition of the Empire : while intercommunication,
which water may it is true contribute to, but cannot completely
afford, is both commercially and strategically a State necessity.
Moreover, in isolated provinces where export is impossible, a
good harvest, after a series of bad ones, is I have found from expe-
rience, a curse to the country in question; since prices fall, and the
ryot cannot pay either his money taxes, or the high rate of interest
due to the shroff or native banker for borrowed capital. To such
an one irrigation charges would be a mockery.
In Turkey, notwithstanding all the irrigation works (which
have mostly been preserved), famine may be said to be chronic
The prices of produce vary in different provinces as much as 1000
per cent, and crops may be seen rotting within a paltry hundred
miles or so of patiently endured semi-starvation. The introduction
of fragmentary railways has drawn the caravan beasts to the coasts,
and so increased the evil; and in the interior, except during the
short pasture-season, animal transport of bulky agricultural produce
is for long distances out of the question, since the animal must
carry his own food-supply also.” The roads, too, are frequently im-
passable just after harvest time, more especially in the black soil
districts. A means of getting to market is really what is wanted.
Under present circumstances irrigation would but increase the evil
by augmenting the cost of production, while in but rare cases
could it yield a quid pro quo in the shape of providing an outlet
for export, owing to the nature of the country being unsuitable
to the construction of canals. - *
Now railways, as we understand them, are too costly; and, what
is more, require too much animal labour for their construction;
labour, moreover, expended in a form only indirectly and tardily
* The preparations for the Afghan campaign have shown the difficulty of
obtaining animal transport to order. The permanent injury done to local trade
by the temporary withdrawal of 60,000 animals from circulation, may be better
imagined than described. A famine might result.
*. ( 27 )
profitable, and therefore not to be compared, from an economist
point of view, to the same labour spent in tilling the ground or in
the arts. Their construction is slow, invariably deranges the
labour market, and the working and administration far too com-
plicated and costly for general transport purposes in out-of-the-
way districts. Their influence is also too concentrated for an
agricultural country; for, owing to the small value but great bulk
and weight of its products, it does not pay to cart any great dis-
tance to a railway: nor is animal transport even practicable at all
seasons, especially just after harvest, when the monsoon cuts off
whole provinces from trade communication with the outer world.
Thus the supply of traffic is not regular, and one of the first
principles of transport economy are wanting.
In countries like India, where interest on capital is so high, and
every native is more or less a pawnbroker, not satisfied with less
than 20 per cent. ; the rapid means of realisation of capital offered
by the Pioneer is the only way to promote native investments.
We have the proof of this in the fact that our colossal 5 per cent.
guaranteed railways have been made almost exclusively with
British capital; want of native confidence has nothing to do with
the question, the inducements were simply not sufficient.
Now, for ten years past, I have studied the question of supply-
ing vast continents with remunerative railways (in the Eastern
20 per cent. sense), and I am at last able to offer a system resem-
bling the spider's web, whose fine yet strong lines can be rapidly
spun at small expense all over the largest areas, and with mar-
vellous rapidity; simply because, 1st, there are no earthworks, and
2nd, because almost the whole of the work can be performed in
the workshops of the world, while but a fraction need be executed
in sità.
A full description of this Pioneer railway system was given lately
in this hall, so I need not give details; but the cost in iron, on a
scale suitable to Madras, is 1000l. per mile in working order, the
carrying power 200 tons per diem each way, the progress of con-
struction at the rate of one mile per diem from each starting-place,
and the tariff #d. per mile to pay 20 per cent. dividend.
These lines would, doubtless, in a few years be too small for their
purpose; but therein lies the certainty of a good and immediate
dividend, and the non-requirement of Government guarantees or
subsidies. Extension is possible at few months' notice; but double
lines need not necessarily be laid side by side, but many a mile
apart, and only touch at the termini, so as to make their influence
as wide spread as possible.
( 28 )
THE PIONEER AS A SOLUTION OF THE CANADIAN
PACIFIC RAILWAY QUESTION.
IN the discussion following the reading of the paper, “Canada and
and its vast Undeveloped Interior,” by SANDFORD FLEMING, C.M.G.,
chief Canadian Government Engineer:- -
Mr. HADDAN said: I believe a railway across from the Pacific
to the Atlantic Ocean is contemplated because its construction
forms one of the conditions by which British Columbia was
induced to join the Canadian Confederation. To keep faith a
railway of some sort must consequently be made, whether it will
pay or not. Both the author and Captain French have told you
that as yet all the districts to be traversed by the proposed railway
are not even surveyed, and that the country is of the roughest
description, and in many districts quite barren. The climate also
is so inhospitable that over eighty of the explorers have died from
exposure. I fancy therefore it will be difficult to induce capitalists
to invest in such a speculation, especially as not a week since
Mr. Fawcett, M.P., demonstrated that even Indian State Railways
had not returned 1 per cent. interest on the capital expended.
The picture on the wall represents a view of the Pioneer, a struc-
ture made entirely of timber, and employing no earthworks or
masonry of any description. Its construction requires 4500 cubic
feet of rough hewn timber per mile, and its cost in Canada would
not exceed 600l. per mile; while in twenty months the whole line
from ocean to ocean could be erected; as it can readily be put up
at the rate of two miles daily, with a force of only 200 trained
men. Railways as we understand them in England are permanent
structures, and therefore not suited for a tentative line like the
Interoceanic Railway which is projected across a district whose
trade centres, are yet unformed: for an earthwork railway once made
cannot be altered.
Moreover, a narrow-gauge line cannot be turned into a broad
gauge; nor, as suggested by the author, can “territorial” roads be
constructed with the view to their conversion later on into rail-
\
( 29 )
ways, since carriage-roads take a much more direct route than
railways can possibly follow, and were they circuitously traced
like railways are, would simply never be used.* The Pioneer or
steam caravan has but one rail, elevated on stout posts at about
3 feet above the ground; the carriages or panniers ride astride the
structure and do not touch the ground, which is therefore left
intact; thus, the inequalities of the soil are quietly ignored, in-
stead of being overcome at great cost. Nature resents the radical
interference with its features which earthworks cause; therefore
as a first step in natural economy the Pioneer avoids them alto
gether—no small advantage in a country where labour is wanted
for better things. People laugh at the appearance of the steam
caravan, because they are not accustomed to it, but what can be
more calculated to provoke derision than the abstract principles
of our European system of railways; where to obtain a few
inches of smooth road to run upon (in all about 10 inches for a
double line), engineers deem it a sine quá non that a width of 40
or 50 feet of ground should be levelled? The Pioneer, by using one
rail to run upon, need not level the ground at all, either trans-
versely or longitudinally; which therefore is the most sensible?
Again, ordinary locomotives demand weight as a means of
obtaining pulling power, and the steeper the line the heavier the
machine, our engineers say they require. The principle involved
being only correct on the level, and therefore not applicable to
railways. Ex-On the Crystal Palace Line of the Chatham and
Dover Railway, a purely passenger line, the engines actually
weigh 50 tons; and the rails and bridges throughout have of
course to be made to support this leviathan. The unit to be
carried is one passenger, but the scale adopted demands a unit of
60 passengers, so that it is impossible to cut one's coat according
to one's cloth. The Pioneer, however, supplies a mechanical or
traction unit, equal to, but never in excess of, the commercial
or traffic unit of the country catered for. The Pioneer engine
abolishes the necessity of using concentrated weight for obtaining
pulling power. Thus it can climb a mountain side and go as the
crow flies, taking behind it moreover a train of 60 tons nett
freight; while over such country an ordinary train would have
become all engine and brake van. Mr. Fleming insists very pro-
perly on cheap working expenses as meaning more in the long run
than low first cost; and it is precisely by abolishing weight as
* Ex-Pack horses never traverse a carriage road throughout, but cut off all
the bends, &c., its grades being too easy for their climbing powers.
|
( 30 )
tractive power that the Pioneer, although it is cheap, can carry
goods at about half the cost of the ordinary railway.
While resident in Turkey (some ten years) I had almost daily
the problem to solve—of how to make a railway in no time, without
any money to speak of; and yet everything to be strong and sub-
stantial and nothing scamped; and it was this training which has
enabled me to come down from our high estate of saloon carriages
and Pullman cars, to devise a system of steam caravan suited to
the pockets and requirements of poor or vast continents, which in
the usual course of events might otherwise never see a railway at
all. Surely in such countries, especially after a war or famine, it
is not at all profitable to waste the energies of men in cutting off
the tops of mountains and filling the valleys with them; especially
as the more rugged the country is, the fewer the population locally
available for the work. It is surely also unwise to advocate
“earthwork railways” in Canada, where navvies are rare but
timber a drug, or to employ cattle for dragging carts over roads,
which if ever made cannot even be kept in order for want of
hands; since Mr. Fleming states there are but 30,000 settlers
along the whole line of 1500 miles. Machines by the score have
been invented to save some detail of labour; but the Pioneer saves
both man and beast the drudgery of digging and porterage, and .
sets them free to do their duty as colonists, and so develope Canada
into “the granary for the mother country,” its proper mission.
Huge earthwork railways, moreover, concentrate the animal power
of the country during their construction, and the mercantile com-
munity is also attracted afterwards; in defiance of the fact that
successful colonisation requires diametrically opposite treatment,
and must consequently be retarded instead of advanced by such
injudicious action. -
I will conclude with the following hint to Colonial Railway
Shareholders: English railway management is confined to carrying
merchandise, there being nearly always sufficient quantity to con-
stitute a specialité ; but in the colonies this is not the case: and
consequently extraneous means of making a dividend may be legi-
timately employed. In other words, a manager should combine
both a merchant's and a carrier's trade, like many a ship-owner does.
( 31 )
ON COMMUNICATIONS WITH BRITISH INDIA
UNDER POSSIBLE CONTINGENCIES.
By MAJOR-GEN. SIR F. J. GOLDSMID, C.B., K.C.S.I.
IN the discussion on a Paper, read at the United Service Institu-
tion, on ‘Communications with British India under possible Con-
tingencies,” Mr. HADDAN said:— -
I was late Engineer-in-Chief to the Turkish Government. The
province which I had under my charge for eight years was bounded
on the north by Aleppo and on the south by Jerusalem; and I
think I can therefore give you a little information on the subject
of the Overland Railway to Jndia. I am sure you all will agree
with me that Sir F. Goldsmid's suggestion of the Island of Cyprus,
as an outpost, is a golden one, for you will see that it is quite as
easy to get to it by water as it is to Constantinople, the proposed
terminus of the Austrian State Railway; or rather I should say, it
is quite as near, and decidedly much easier. The line from Vienna
to Constantinople would have to pass through Bosnia, in which
country there is not a flat ten-acre field to be found ; so that I
think the question of a through European line may for some ten
or twelve years be decidedly thrown on one side, and Constanti-
nople be ignored. The only chance, therefore, we have in our time
of getting to India by rail is decidedly from the Mediterranean.
From Smyrna, vià Cassaba, if intended to open up Asia Minor:
and from Iskenderun, if India alone is our object. With all due
deference to Mr. Palgrave, I may mention that the Beilan Pass is
so close to Alexandretta that you cannot climb it by an ordinary
railway. It is 2200 feet above the sea-level, and situated at a
distance of only 14 miles from the coast, consequently the gra-
dients, for a railway would be 1 in 12, so that it would be another
financial failure like the Mont Cenis, and without the ready-made
road either. The question of the insalubrity of Alexandretta has
been much exaggerated. During my period of office there I was
instructed to drain the marshes. The whole thing could be done
, for 3000l., which is a mere bagatelle. The plans were published in
s
( 32 )
the Blue Book on the Euphrates Valley Railway. In fact, it is not
a marsh at all, the bottom being sand; but the sea, beating into
the bay, has formed a sand ridge all along the littoral, which
prevents the fresh water escaping into the sea; moss and all sorts
of vegetation has sprung up, and the fresh water not being allowed
to run off, a very undesirable smell arises from putrefaction. All
along the coast from Alexandretta to Suez, there is no port or
harbour at all, except Alexandretta. The apology for a quay is
situated close to the town, and on the east side of Alexandretta
Bay; but there is a fine natural harbour on the west side of
the bay, at Ayas.” Starting from Ayas, after the Plain of Issus
is traversed, you can commence to rise many miles sooner than
when starting from Alexandretta itself; you may thus get over
the Beilan Pass, and you also turn the question of insalubrity.
The port of Seleucia or Suedia has been suggested, because there is
no pass to get over; but there is no harbour, and the river has to
be crossed seventeen times in running up the valley. Moreover,
between Seleucia and Alexandrétta there is a famous point which
is called Ras-el-Hanzir or the “Pig's Head,” which is quite im-
passable even for foot passengers; so that it would be impossible
to join this line to Europe. This is one of the main arguments in
favour of Alexandretta as against Suedia, Tripoli, Tyre, and all
the southern ports, and is the reason why the preference is given
to Alexandretta in a commercial point of view. But I fancy Sir F.
Goldsmid was not proposing the Palmyrene route as a commercial
speculation but merely as a military line, and there is no objection
to his route, provided arrangements be made to join the European
main line route at Aleppo, or some point even further inland,
say Mardin. If we study all the Lebanon passes from Alex-
andretta south, you will find (1) Suedia, the outlet of the Orontes;
(2) Tripoli, which is only 700 feet high; (3) Tyre, which is the
natural outlet of the country, there being no pass, the Leontes
debouching there. Beyrout is out of the question, as the road to
Damascus passes the Lebanon range at over 3000 feet elevation: it
might have been turned, however, viá Sidon. The learned lecturer
referred to Baron Reuter's expedition to Teheran. The Shah of
Persia was most anxious to have the work done under his own eye,
and as he would not trouble to go to the Caspian end of the line,
he insisted on the work being commenced at Teheran. The cost of
the rails, owing to transport difficulties, I was informed by the
engineer in charge of the line, reached such a point that they
might have been made in silver on the spot. With reference to
* See Map, page 35.
( 33 )
the Suez Canal, I saw a letter in the ‘Times’ a week ago, signed
MacKillop Pasha, in which he states that he has provided such
powerful dredging machines in the event of a steamer or vessel'
being sunk in the Canal, that he could cut a fresh channel in a
week. There is one very bad place I may mention, mear Ismaila,
where such an operation would be out of the question: it is a rock
cutting—the Suez Canal is not all sand, by any means. This
cutting is something like 70 feet deep, and it is, in addition,
situated on a very sharp curve. Now, if any political accident
happened to a vessel in the Suez Canal, it is quite certain that
it would occur at this point; so that the route to India by the
Suez Canal might be perfectly blocked at any moment and in the
simplest manner possible. The Egyptian Railway would not mend
the matter, for there would be no reserve shipping at Suez. The
Canal being situated, say roughly, half way to India, an equal
amount of shipping facilities would on an emergency be required
on either side of the Canal. That this necessary equilibrium is far
from being a fact, the obligatory use of a sailing vessel to transport
a portion of the Indian Contingent to Malta affords sufficient proof.
The value of the Euphrates Valley Railway is to be measured
by the additional distance it moves the final point of tranship-
ment nearer to India; since from Grain to Kurachee the few ships
available in Indian seas can by repeated short journeys do as
much duty as the larger supply in the Mediterranean. Speed is
not important in a military sense, as it only anticipates the first
delivery. A regular supply, however slow, is what is required.
This is the only solid argument which can be used in favour of
an overland line to India, but I have never heard it advanced by
any one before. -
You may wonder why one could not make a line from Alex-
andretta to Meskineh, a town near Aleppo on the Euphrates,
and thence adopt river transport. It is only about ten hours from
Aleppo to Meskineh, or 180 miles from Alexandretta; but the
Euphrates, as also the Tigris, is very tortuous and sluggish, and
full of shoals. The height of the river at Meskineh is only 600 feet
above the Persian Gulf, so the fall is not enough to cut a straight
channel, and the consequent detours are so overwhelming that after
hours you will come back almost to the spot where you started from.
There are also weirs erected all along the river for irrigation pur-
poses, the cost of buying up which precludes all idea of making the
river navigable. Midhat Pasha cut openings through the weirs
and made them into rapids. It nevertheless took nineteen days to
D
( 34 )
get from Baghdad to Meskineh. They had to stop at night and also
frequently in the day to cut fuel, &c., and in bad places ran into
"sandbanks every five minutes. These seem trifles now when you
are not in their midst, but on such an important route, such tedious
and irksome delays would be fatal. The city of Aleppo is about
1100 feet above the level of the sea, and the line from Alexandretta,
viá Aleppo to the Euphrates, has nothing more to recommend it
over the Palmyrene line except that most important point Mr.
Palgrave mentioned to you, viz., the question of water, which is
a most important one; but for a strategical line I believe Captain
Burton's proposed line from Tyre is the best, as it runs at right
angles to the Persian frontier and not parallel to it.” It has been
surveyed by the Turkish Government, and water borings were
attended in every case with success. The importance of this matter
with reference to the road to India has not, I may mention, been
overlooked by Russia. Seven years ago they appointed a Consul
to Aleppo, whom . I knew intimately; and without breaking con-
fidence in any way, I may mention that this gentleman's whole
business was to find out all he could about the Euphrates Walley
Railway, and to place every possible obstacle in the way of its
realisation. The English Consul at Aleppo mentions an obstacle
to railway construction in those countries which, until I designed
the Pioneer Railway some ten years ago, I found an insuperable
one, and that is the question of labour. If you are going to make
a railway of something like a thousand miles long, where are you
to find the arms and the legs to make it with ? In an agricultural
country, especially after a war or famine, every man is better
employed tilling the ground than in making unprofitable earth-
works. In addition, a country like Turkey, where nearly the whole
of the revenue is derived from agriculture, would certainly—the
Consul thinks—be ruined during the six or seven years the bone
and sinew of the Empire were doing the English Government's
work instead of their own. I have studied this difficulty as an
engineer, and have succeeded in devising a system of railway which
has no earthworks. Its nature may be said to be a cross between
the telegraph and the railway proper. It was described in extenso
in this hall some ten days since, and can be executed at the rate
of six miles a day with only 100 workmen per mile (foreigners).
Being constructed entire in the workshop, its progress is unlimited,
* A line running parallel to a frontier can be so easily cut anywhere, that its
defence is impracticable.
Gº-
C-
Cº-
E-----y
C-->
[---S
Cº-
C-
E---→
C-
H-->
* *ººs
tº a º
gº ºgs=&sº
C-X-
C-T-
E-R-E------—
E
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tº ºmºmºraº-º-º-
E-E-X-------------->
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so that it could be laid
down, not only from
Alexandretta to the
Persian Gulf, but, if
you like, all the way
to India in less than
two years' time; and
not require some ten or
twenty years before a
steam communication
could be accomplished
in the usual manner.
The Peninsular and
Oriental mail subven-
tion would suffice to
guarantee a 10 per
cent. dividend for the
“Pioneer,” which, after
º in the Construc- 7O 5 ? MO 2O
ion of its successor, Hiſ; - f_j - f
and supplying reliable Scala:
statistics of traffic, &c.,
would then be broken
up into branches to feed
the main line.
G ULF
ISKENDERUN,
SHOWING
RELATIVE POSITION |
OF
AYAS BAY AND CYPRUS.
łcyphus


( 36 )
TU R KIS H R E FOR M S :
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ASIA MINOR BY THE
. “ ETAPPEN ?” SYSTEM.
“Decentralisation and the complete severance of Finance from the State; are
Turkey's only chance of administrative reform.”
(See also a Paper by the author on Turkish Resources, published in the Society
of Arts ‘Journal,” June 1879.) -
IN the discussion on a paper read by Mr. HYDE CLARKE at the
Society of Arts, December 11, 1878–
Mr. HADDAN, ex-Ottoman Chief Engineer, said: Every one dis-
, cussing this grand subject seems to forget that, since the signing
of the Anglo-Turkish Convention, the Euphrates Valley Railway
question has completely changed. It is no longer a vital point
to connect England or Europe with India; but the question re-
solves itself into the establishment of a triangulatoral: of which
Cyprus is the base, and Bayazid a town on the Russo-Turco-Perso
frontier, and Grain a port on the Persian Gulf, would form the two
apexes. Y.
Any point south of the gulf of Iskenderun (the Syrian port for
Cyprus) is shut out of this combination owing to the impractability
of the Amanus Range spurs; so the question of the port becomes
confined to Ayas. (See Map, p. 35.) -
The real alternative value of the Euphrates Valley Railway in
the event of the Canal sbeing blocked, is to be measured by the
additional distance it moves the final point of transhipment nearer
to India; since from Grain to Kurachee the few ships available on
the Indian side can by repeated short journeys do as much duty as
the many and larger supply in the Mediterranean, and thus assure
that evenness of supply which constitutes the first requirement of
any transport service, military or civil. Speed is not important in
a military sense, as it only anticipates the first delivery. This is
one of the most solid arguments which can be used in favour of an
overland line to India, though I have never heard it advanced by
its promoters. •
The lecturer has referred to the Pioneer system, which purposes,
( 37 )
for the same outlay as he contemplates and in far less time, to
cover the country with a network of steam caravans in lieu of one
trunk line. The Pioneer is in form and attributes a kind of cross
between a railway proper and the telegraph: and being portable, it
does not hamper the future with a makeshift but indelible gauge;
a fatal mistake the lecturer, I am glad to see, has foreseen. My
system requires no local labour for its construction, the whole being
producible, and to any extent, in the iron foundries of the world :
whereas the far greater portion of the Grand Trunk Railway in
question must of course be performed locally, a work which would
require no less than 50,000,000 days’ labour to execute under un-
favourable conditions; labour far better employed in tilling the
land and creating produce for the iron Pioneer horse to carry to the
European market to pay the bondholder with.*
In addition, no continental trunk line ever yet paid without
branches. -
Consul Skene gives his opinion that the construction of such a
work would practically ruin the country by attraction of labour:
the rural population being only about seven able-bodied men per
square mile. Besides, where is the money to come from ? The
lecturer himself acknowledges that the long innings of the Railway
Einancier are over, as is also the vague notion that much local
good is done by the mere spending of money in a foreign country.
The money must be earned l—the starting capital being iron, in our
control, and not gold, in theirs. What the Pioneer offers is an
immediate 5 per cent. dividend : and in addition facilities of
deferred payment, since the railway itself is available as security,
the whole structure being of intrinsic value. The system moreover
can be introduced to any desired extent without interference with
the agricultural labour market.
India has given us ample warning of the evil attending the stereo-
typing of English Railways all over the world, in defiance of the
well-known proverb to cut the coat according to the cloth (see .
page 62). Its Government refuses to guarantee any further lines even
within its own limits; and with reason. The South Indian Railway,
by no means a second-rate undertaking, for it is 600 miles in length,
and cost £6500 a mile, carried last year (the famine year) only 162
tons of freight daily, or about one-tenth its full capacity. All
chance of a dividend with such a limited traffic was impossible. ,
Why, each ton carried one mile had to satisfy a capital equal to
* Mr. MacCoan in the December number of ‘Fraser' has illustrated the diffi-
culty of organising labour, Turkey having made only 600 miles of so-called
carriage roads in twenty years, . .
f
( 38 )
£40. £13 being the amount of capital which one ton can earn a
dividend of 5 per cent upon (see Ready Reckoner, page 23).
The South Indian, therefore, if it had been dependent upon goods
alone, would have earned no dividend, but the number of passengers
was so great as to add 300 tons to the daily total, and thus produce a
dividend of 44 per cent. India has, however, a population of 210
to the square mile and Turkey in Asia only 23; and therefore we
cannot hope in this case to count upon passengers for a dividend.
From statistics taken upon the most frequented route in Syria—
viz. from Aleppo to Alexandretta—the existing traffic does not
average 100 tons daily.” Whereas, to pay 5 per cent on a capital
of £13,000 a mile (Telford Macneil's estimate), a daily traffic of
1000 tons is required (see Ready Reckoner, page 23).
Of course better figures may be produced by calculating on a
higher tariff than the Indian; but a high tariff is indefensible, for
it contracts the area of country available for export, while imports
are handicapped thereby. .
A low transport tariff, by promoting trade, raises very rapidly
the local value of money, and enables larger import purchases to be
made. A high tariff simply kills the goose which lays the golden eggs.
The Pioneer is intended to carry 400 tons daily, and was
designed for this very route, and to meet all its special require-
ments: it is therefore ample for the present.
In Mr. Brassey's opinion, it would even do good service in
saving time, and at least 30 per cent of the first cost, if it was
employed as a forerunner of the great undertaking.
The local obstacles to railway enterprise in such countries are
so serious, that no one intimate with their details would ever dare
hope to see the work promptly carried out in the ordinary way,
even with unlimited credit to support it.
Turkey wants a trade revolution to give it life—a rapid and
striking one ! Driblets of 30 miles of road a year will neither
satisfy their political position nor their creditors. Its commu-
nications must progress by thousands of miles annually, and be
constructed entirely by eatraneous effort : for all its men, muscle
and energy are wanted to remove the effects of the war, and to
cultivate the soil. While we, simultaneously, can relieve trade
depression at home by filling our workshops and foundries with
work in supplying the iron roads so urgently required for carrying
the Ottoman produce to market, and rendering their labour remu-
nerative to both parties (see foot-note to page 25). Agriculture
affords the most rapid known means of producing wealth with
* Mr. MacCoan's figures yield only fifty tons, at 2s. per ton per mile.
( 39 )
limited means, if it has a market. It has the merit, moreover,
of not being in any way a novelty or a reform. -
The further introduction of railways of any sort in Asia Minor
or Syria, are, however, premature; until proper means have been
taken to organise and make the most of the existing animal trans-
port: since the Turkish lines already open have attracted an undue
portion of the carrying-power of the Empire, to the detriment and
ruin of some of the remote districts.
Animal transport is not a thing which may be left to take care
of itself; it requires the most intimate fostering care, in the shape
of an organisation capable of distributing the supply where it is
most in demand ; but above all, in establishing fodder dépôts, and
taking certain precautions against famine and murrain, and in
favour of rapid procreation. At present, in places where fodder is
plentiful, an excess of animals can be obtained, while other districts
are utterly denuded not only of means of transport, but even of
animal power sufficient for cultivation. Caravans of camels and
mules may be daily seen performing long journeys hither and
thither, in useless search of freights, when the telegraph might
have saved them the trouble and the nation the waste. -
A semi-official company might with great advantage both to the
bondholders and the State take over on requisition (not purchase) the
whole of the animal transport. It would merely undertake as an
intermediary the equilibrium of the supply and demand, but in an
intelligent in lieu of the present haphazard style, and act as it
were as transit-brokers, or like the “ Mukadums ” of India, who do
the head work for their clans of porters, mule and camel drivers,
&c., &c.
On the well-known principle adopted at a fire, by which the
chain is formed—where the buckets are passed from hand to hand,
and no fetching and carrying goes on—the animals would be con-
fined to short beats, and the goods passed on from beat to beat. No
inconvenience would arise from breaking bulk, because the animals
are, of necessity, unladen every night. The “beats” would be care-
fully allotted, either to mules, camels, or carts, &c., as the nature
of the country dictated. Each driver and animal would soon,
therefore, be “well up" to the pleasures or otherwise of his own
route; and would not be required to leave his home or run the
gauntlet of variation of climate, risks of an unknown road, &c, &c.,
as the through transport trains are now doing in the Afghan cam-
paign. The mortality from this cause is certain to be great; and,
as fresh supplies cannot be made to order, famines of more or less
gravity may result from this denudation of whole districts of their
( 40 )
only means of transport. It is reported that 60,000 camels have
been already requisitioned for the use of the army in Afghanistan;
while similar fears for the commercial future are rife at the
Cape. -
The Company would possess, however, the monopoly, so that no
one but themselves could fetch or carry on the public highways.”
They would introduce a fixed tariff from place to place, not neces-
sarily established on mileage considerations alone; and thus give
merchants the means of going largely into export operations, an
impossibility now, since transport rates fluctuate 100 per cent
during a season. -
Their staff would be also available for improving means of com-
munication generally, or establishing police control, or even for
levying taxes in the form of transit-dues in lieu of in situ;f the
system also would be available for our Government for supervising
the internal economy of the country, since the organisation in
question exerts its influence to the uttermost corners of the empire.
They might freely do so in this sort of fashion, so well suited to
the Turkish official mind, who will certainly resent and render
abortive all open attempt at reform, or any direct interference on
our part. We must not forget that Turkey cannot afford specialists.
Men must be jack of all trades, traffic manager, banker, merchant,
engineer, police magistrate, &c., all in one. The cost of such an
administration would be more than covered, even if the rates were
reduced (say one-half), a measure of the first necessity. All our
more pretentious efforts are unfortunately looked upon by nearly
all classes as the first attempts at foreclosure on the part of the
sordid usurer, the English giaour; which unenviable character
is all we have gained by lending, I might say giving, a few
hundred millions or so to the Turks.
The grinding down of the peasantry by the Pachas, for their
own purposes, f was all along sedulously imputed by them to the
avarice of the European money-lender, whose Armenian prototype
hardly a peasant has not a lamentable experience of, and whom
* Already given to the Damascus company on the road they constructed between
Beyrout and that city, which though open sixteen years has never paid its share-
holders. -
f Thus getting rid of the tax-collecting curse and also its expense. The vicious
system of tithe collecting is very graphically described in the ‘Times’ of October
18, 1879. .
† The corvée or forced labour was one of the greatest sources of abuse; though
even when properly conducted the result attained cost more for surveillance and
tools than the work was worth. The loss to individuals was simply atrocious. I
have known in my own district men travel from 10 days' distance to do their
quantum of 8 days’ road-making; these 28 days produced about 4 cubic metres
of bank, value 28. g
\
( 41 )
they, naturally enough, class with us—as fellow Christians. Any
innovations coming from us will be received with suspicion, if
nothing worse, consequently a brilliant policy cannot be followed;
but if the game is worth the candle, we must do the work in a
semi-Turkish fashion. Leave the Padishah the honour and glory,
but secure the solid advantages as a means of repaying our bond-
holders by self-conducted trade, and not by financial hocus-pocus,
or loans entrusted to others to spend. We should also have the
merit of introducing order at the same time. Any organisation
possessing the monopoly of transport, in an Empire like Turkey; is more
than financially speaking master of the situation.
I will conclude with an extract from the ‘Times” of January 6th,
1875:—“The doctrine that the only way to develope the resources
of a country is to build railways, cannot be said to have died out
yet; but it is scarcely so rampant now as it was a few years ago.
Except for the support of the Government, even a richly productive,
thickly-peopled country like India would have got no good from
railways, but much harm.”
( 42 )
RAILWAY POLITICAL ECONOMY.
A Paper read at the Social Science Congress, Manchester, 1879,
IORD REAY IN THE CHAIR,
By J. L. HADDAN, M. INST. C.E., F.R.G.S.
“The train of wheels within wheels, called Trade, when untrammelled by
physical or fiscal friction, constitutes a real perpetual motive machine : upon
which high freights and protection act as brakes, and cheap transit and free
trade do duty as lubricants.
“Worldly wealth resembles the kaleidoscope, whose elements are primarily
meaningless, because inert; but producing with each turn over, a fresh com-
bination.” •
THE false impression which unfortunately prevails, that the mere
construction of stereotyped railways ad libitum, indicates progress
and prosperity; has led to such a drain upon the floating capital of
the country, as to be mainly responsible for the present trade
depression: which must continue until the enormous capital sunk
during the past decade, in this form of investment, begins to yield
a return. (See ‘Times' leading article, page 50.)
The average number of years required to make a Stephenson
railway pay, corresponds so nearly with the financier's prosperity
cycle; as, supported by the following facts, to preclude all doubt
that the extended credit system upon which they have of late years
been exclusively constructed: produces the recurring spots upon
the commercial Sun. - 2.
Under the system of “guarantees,” the financier has used the
railway as a stalking horse, to an extent resulting in surfeiting
undeveloped countries with luxurious modes of travelling infinitely
beyond their means. Even such defaulting States as have prac-
tically obtained their railways for nothing; being saddled with a
Nemesis in the shape of an eternally high tariff, due to prohibitive
working expenses. For a leading authority lays it down that, “If
a railway on an important line be constructed on so expensive a
plan as to require a high rate of charge to enable it to pay a good
dividend; irreparable evil will have been done: and the whole
powers of an influential body—influential and powerful, just in
proportion to the amount of capital expended—will be brought to
bear on that line : not in order to secure cheap transit, but to pre-
vent cheap transit ever being obtained on it.”
To Mr. Juland Danvers is mainly due the honour of exposing, by
his exquisite Indian railway statistics, the errors of the guarantee
system; which has during nearly thirty years been endeavouring
to engraft upon Indian soil the English type of means of communi-
( 43 )
cation, which, prima facie, is utterly unsuited for a country whose
wealth and area are the inverse of each other.
Indian railways started in 1846; but since 1858, they have
expended £79,000,000, and have absorbed in unearned guaranteed
interest £22,000,000—in other words, a 5 per cent. guarantee not
only saddled the future with the interest, but increased the cost
price 30 per cent, equal to a direct money subvention or bonus of
£4000 per mile. The guaranteed interest and capital expended
during India's railway existence has been £166,000,000, upon which
ºnly £40,000.000 has been earned. The balance of £120,000,000
has therefore been sunk, i.e. withdrawn from that active circula-
tion of capital upon which business, and especially workshop trade
(England's specialité) depends. Thus, although India has paid the
interest regularly ; yet for a cycle, England, as far as the imme-
diate present is concerned, is as much poorer by this £120,000,000
as though the investment were Bolivian, Spanish, or Turkish, and
the money irretrievably lost. In addition, the total railway capital
of the globe is about £3,000,000,000, representing 200,000 miles of
railway, of which more than one-third has been invested since the
last commercial crisis, none of which latter yet pays a commercial
dividend: the non-paying railway capital even in England amount-
ing to £50,000,000. -
The railway tariff, both at home and abroad, is of the utmost
importance to our manufacturing and agricultural interests; since,
firstly, it is the only item in the grand total which constitutes the
selling price of our products, which does not vary with the supply
and demand : and secondly, in amount it is manyfold in excess of
the cost of operatives and labourers' wages, upon the partial reduc-
tion of which such unfortunate stress has been laid as to jeopardise
our trade in toto, by inciting strikes, &c.” While the real offender,
the railway tariff, escapes unnoticed; because the man of business in
this country has so narrow a view that he never traces his business
to its source, but confines himself to the portion in direct contact
with his own person. .
At Home.—It is now too late to do more than deplore the exces-
sive first cost of our railways; and, therefore, the necessary reduction
in inland freights by which England can alone hope to maintain her
supremacy, can only be attained by reforms in the system of
working; since even after all these years, the profits (which are
gradually diminishing) are by no means so satisfactory as to have
provided a margin available for reduction.
* The cost of growing American corn is about 8s. per quarter; while, it is
selling in this city at the present moment for 40s. : the carriage from London to
Manchester alone costing 3s. 8d. . . .
( 44 )
That the attack should be made in this direction is apparent,
when we find that the London and North-Western Railway, with
a capital of £90,000,000, only enjoys an annual trade of £10,000,000,
a paltry turn over of only a ninth; sufficient evidence in itself of
the want of business capacity of the present system of working, and
the necessity for its revision; especially when we consider that the
working expenses amount to 50 per cent. of the receipts, of which
only 10 per cent. represents real value, i.e. actual transport cost.
. A dividend earned under such circumstances must of necessity be
onerous in the extreme on the trade furnishing it.
Since, on our railway system, the same rails have to accom-
modate both goods and possengers, in itself a great mistake and
to be avoided in the future (see 6 page 17); economy abso-
lutely depends upon each receiving most religiously, only its
own share of accommodation. Whereas the fact is, that the more
than questionably valuable facilities exacted by passengers, who,
moreover, do not pay for these privileges; interferes in such a degree
with goods traffic, as to force it to run at a like speed—at prohi-
bitive cost—while completely destroying all chance of proper ad-
ministration in that branch of the service : for while it has been
found necessary in the one case to resort to the formidable mar-
shalling, time-tabling, and organisation, with which we are all
familiar, and which invariably breaks down under excursion
pressure; goods, on the other hand, which require it far more,
since they can do nothing for themselves and employ ten classes
of waggons instead of three, are received any how and at any
hour at the concentrated goods depôts; and consequently become
inextricably mixed up at the very ottset. The result is, that
goods are habitually treated to the luxurious elbow room of a
Pullman car, and charged accordingly; for consequent upon the
feverish haste necessary to prevent a block in the depôts, goods are
hurriedly thrown into the first waggon which comes to hand.
General sorting is impossible, though partially attempted in
France, under the grande et petite vitesse system, where eight times
the price is charged for quick despatch and no sorting, which is
demanded for slow because methodical delivery ; although the two
classes of goods actually travel in the same train: one enjoying
a waggon all to itself, and the other closely packed. §
The eight-fold charge (which we habitually use) is made there-
fore entirely for the margin of space incidental to hurry in the
one case; which so greatly outweighs all other considerations of
expense, including the sorting and packing into full waggons only
attempted abroad with the low tariffed petite vitesse goods.
( 45 )
Examples in proof. The Midland, by abolishing the second
class, have earned a profit by diminishing the passenger waste-seat
margin. On the London and North-Western Railway previous to
the quadrupling of the line, the average freight of a 10-ton waggon
was not more than one ton, from one year's end to the other, so that
the line was not working to more than Tºoth its real capacity and
did not call for the cost of extension; while on the Northern of
France, it has been found that not more than 6 per cent. of the
waggons are available for active service at any given moment, the
remainder doing costly duty as temporary goods sheds, or shut up
inextricably in inaccessible corners, &c., playing hide and seek
with the merchandise. -
This is the cause why railways do not prosper in proportion to
the business done; for, when the tonnage passes certain limits,
organisation fails; and we find that mediocrity pays better than
fame: since many a line with a tithe the business earns even a
better dividend. Thus the Metropolitan, an over-crowded line,
obtains an increase in receipts of only 2:19 per cent., by an aug-
mentation in tonnage of 13:38 per cent. ; while the Caledonian,
with only one-sixth the trade total, obtains an increase of 3.61 per
cent. in receipts, by an augmentation of tonnage of only 1:18
per cent.: and the Smyrna and Cassaba Railway earns 7 per cent.
though running only two full trains daily.*
As illustrative of the cost involved in meeting (mostly fallacious)
passenger requirements, due to competition, the following will
serve. It is erroneously supposed that working through branch
trains is a great public convenience; even were it so, it is decidedly
the curse of all main lines, every junction being a source of danger
and delay, and consequent loss to the main line. .
First, as regards the public, it is a mistake, as instanced on the
short connecting line between the Chatham and Dover at Wands-
worth Road and the South-Western, &c., at Clapham Junction;
which is served by a through train once an hour during the week,
and by none at all on Sundays: while an engine and carriage oscil-
lating constantly between these two points would put passengers in
correspondence with every train, on either main line, without any
branch organisation whatever. Instance also the Cannon Street
branch of the South-Eastern Railway, where, in addition to the
delays constantly incurred, every up train crosses the down-line,
and vice versá a far more dangerous system of level crossings than
the old road crossings abolished by the Legislature.
Second, as regards the companies, the cost is well illustrated on
* The manager is a Frenchman, M. Redeuil.
( 46 ) &
the Underground Railway, where four or five companies have each
supplied themselves with special complicated rolling stock to per-
form an amount of traffic which a few extra Metropolitan trains
could equally serve, the through trains being at too uncertain
intervals to be of any use to the general public, and the luggage
difficulty too great to insure their object.
Through branch goods, both Messrs. Oakley and Allport stated
before the Lords Committee on Steam Tramways (Session 1878–9),
to be not worth while, transhipment being preferable. Break of
gauge is not, therefore, of any moment : at any rate on this
usually deemed fatal account. Engineers have freely acknow-
ledged that a branch line must be absolutely something different
from the parent stem; and traffic managers, for different reasons,
hold the same opinion. (Grover.)
Abroad.—The main duty of railways abroad, seeing that they
are mostly built with English capital, is to provide us a constant
increase of trade area, at any rate commensurate with the mar-
vellous productive powers of our manufacturing centres; due to
their more judicious employment of steam.
Although ample funds have been provided to engineers for this
purpose, they have slain the goose which laid the golden eggs;
by stereotyping the English form of railway all over the world, in
spite of the fact that in most cases not a tithe of the expense was
warranted. Hence, in Australia, where the population is about one
person to the square mile, £800 per mile is the average outlay
warranted on the trunk lines; £40,000 being the average cost of
railways at home. While, in India, the average cost has been £15,000
per mile, instead of at the outside of as many hundreds of pounds.
The fact is, our judgment being biassed by first-class passenger
civility, we have been apt to consider the florid mechanical triumphs
of the railway as naturally indicating an equally remarkable
commercial success; while the late experience of engineers that the
Stephenson Railway cannot be reduced either in gauge or first cost,
without incurring a certain Nemesis in the shape of increased
working expenses; has led the public to believe that it is impossible
for railway engineers to cut their clients’ coats according to their
cloth, and provide ready-money-earning railways capable of pro-
creating themselves regularly, and ad infinitum, out of their own
earnings; instead of by fits and starts, and invariably with ex-
traneous capital. Had engineers done their duty, and made as
much out of steam on the road, as Manchester men have done in
the shop; over-production would have been an impossibility,
instead of the most incongruous of taunts.
( 47 )
While the telegraph has increased the administrative facilities of
trade, we engineers have not kept our inheritance, steam, up to
the mark; but have contented ourselves under the financier's aegis,
of slothfully trading as Mr. Lowe says, upon the reputation of our
fathers. (See page 59.) -
We have lately had just a taste in England of the political effect
of railway monopolies. In spite of the most carefully devised in-
ternational customs' treaties, protective duties are either enhanced
or nullified by low or high railway rates; and any particular in-
dustry may be favoured or dammed by introducing the sliding
scale of charges, as exemplified in America; where they carry a
quarter of grain 1000 miles for 3s., or about ºth the fair English
rate. Moreover, some of the colonies, thanks to the financier,
positively borrow our money to do their own commercial dirty
work, i.e. to construct unremunerate railways with ; thereby
releasing their own capital (under protective duties) to start
competing manufactures. Instead of confining themselves of
their own accord to developing their own country, and opening
their ports as they would do; if engineers would give them
proper export facilities, by condescending to supply them with
railways suited to their requirements. Of necessity the profes-
sion would have done this ere now, had not loan-mongers'
money been hitherto so readily forthcoming for stereotyping the
railway proper; as to conceal that publicly recognised necessity
which nowadays can alone afford to invention—both the necessary
incentive and its subsequent development. The first principles of
colonisation are outraged by the ordinary railway... which con-
centrates instead of disseminating the resources of the country.
Nor will either they or ourselves get into our respective grooves,
until English investors learn that guaranteed interest cannot really
prove remunerative, unless the object does not require long credit
for its development. The Governor-General of Canada has just
opened the Credit Valley Railway. It doubtless merits its name,
since it must lead to the same goal as Canadian railways in general.
To render international trade-statistics of any value, money
should be included in our articles of export.
I am prepared to show on a more fitting occasion, how full
waggons can always be assured in conjunction with rapid delivery,
and, consequently, a general reduction—say, of 75 per cent.—in the
transit rates obtained, with the most signal results upon our trade.”
* A full description of the method proposed will be found in a paper entitled
“Military Railways,” read at the United Service Institution, on the 20th May,
1878 : and a brief summary at 6A, page 18 of this volume.
()
( 48 )
We could then safely leave the operatives a little cream on their
milk; and, perhaps, sugar with their porridge: without upsetting
the overstrained labour market.
Although many of the grave errors incidental to making and
working English railways—of which the above are but a few speci-
mens—cannot be remedied; they should be frankly acknowledged, if
only to prevent our colonies from falling into like errors; con-
sequent upon their stereotyping the Stephenson railway, in blind
confidence as to its general efficiency even under totally different
conditions, to which, however, other engineers have misapplied the
great inventor's rules.” It would be out of place here, however, to
show how, with the gigantic strides mechanical productions have
made since Stephenson's time; it is quite possible to make a different
type of railway, in which earthwork and masonry being abolished,
and metal exclusively employed: the whole capital could be made
use of at home in producing export railways cut and dried ready
for use, at a cost not exceeding £1000 per mile, and therefore
capable of earning their own living from the outset, and rapidly
procreating themselves out of their earnings—under even the most
unpromising conditions—instead as of, in India, after an expendi-
ture of £114,000,000, being still unable either to start or run
alone. Its punctuality in paying guarantees not proving itself in
this case the soul of business our proverbs state this virtue in
general to be.
I would in conclusion, draw public attention to one of the main
causes why railways, in conjunction with so many other overgrown
enterprises, are so wastefully managed. The financier's recom-
mendation to investors, not to risk all their eggs in one basket,
has so split up the capital, as to make it worth no one's while to
look after the administration—save the mark I
* RUSSIAN RAILWAYS.–Not only were the necessary ideas, but the necessary
money, says the ‘Molva, borrowed from other countries in Europe for the con-
struction of Russian railroads; and what, it asks, are the results? On an average,
the gross receipts from the 20,000 versts (15,000 miles) of all Russian lines amount
to about 10,700 roubles (£1500) a year; while in Western Europe the net revenue
of such an enormous network of railroads would not be less than 50,000,000
roubles (£7,000,000), after paying the necessary interest and for the regular amor-
tization of bonds. “Our Sagacious engineers and railway administrators, how-
ever,” concludes the ‘Molva,” “ have so succeeded in working the lines under their
charge that, the Treasury, on the credit of which all the railways were built, has
a yearly deficit in this respect alone of from 35 to 40 millions (£5,000,000).
Such is the result of the knowledge and experience of our skilled railroad
builders, who, after all, have become very rich men.” That such persons, evi-
dently thinks the ‘Molva, from the whole tone of its article, should assemble and
toast the memory of George Stephenson is as easy of explanation as that grateful
devotees should kiss the relics of their patron Saint.—‘Times,’ October 13, 1879.
( 49 )
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
ASIA MINOR AND THE EUPHRATES VALLEY.
(From the ‘LEvan'ſ HERALD, Nov. 12th, 1874.)
On Wednesday last, Mr. Brassey, M.P., Mr. Foster, C.B., director-general of
the Imperial Ottoman Bank, and a number of other gentlemen; were invited to
examine a working model of the “Pioneer” Railway, by Mr. John L. Haddan.
After explaining the mechanism of this economical mode of transport, the inventor
read the following short paper, pointing out the peculiar merits possessed by this
system as an awailiary, both in the construction and in the nourishment of the
contemplated Asia Minor railways:—
Turkey being eminently an agricultural empire, but sparsely populated, and
whose revenue is mainly derivable from the soil; it becomes a necessity of primary
importance in the construction of the public works of the empire, if of any exteni,
to arrange so as to interfere as little as possible with the labour market.
At first sight, it seems that the means of avoiding this serious and costly evil,
is only to undertake works of small amount and to extend these operations very
gradually; but, taking into consideration the vast extent of the empire, as also
the fact that its existing means of communication are quite inadequate even
(as at Angora) for local purposes,” it is only too evident that far too much time
would be required for commercially opening up the country in such a dilatory
fashion. Yet, as labour in any large quantity, even at high prices, is not pro-
curable; we must perforce seek some other means of energeticully extending the
railway system, so as to meet the well-known wishes of H.I.M., the Sultan and
the Grand Vizier in this respect. This duty the “Pioneer” performs, without
undue interference with the agricultural pursuits of the population.
In addition to the quite exceptional roughness of the country, which forms
another retarding element; we have other difficulties to surmount, and which the
“Pioneer” either remedies or palliates. As, for instance, owing to the non-
existence of means of communication, the commencement of operations at
numerous points is impossible ; also, consequent on the high rate of interest
prevalent in the empire, local shareholders cannot be obtained for any public
Works requiring long periods for their construction. Moreover, the Government
guarantee, granted also during construction, falls heavily on the State, yet as
European capitalists exact this guarantee it must be accorded; still, it may mani-
festly be diminished with advantage by the employment of all legitimate means of
increasing the extinction of the guarantee by feeding the main arteries so that
they shall pay. These means the “Pioneer” affords; during construction it lends
valuable aid as a labour economiser, and subsequently, when converted into
branches, as a feeder.
In a country where no cross roads exist, and where the supply of animal trans-
port is naturally limited, branch lines become a strict necessity; for on main lines
of great length, it is now universally acknowledged “through "goods traffic
does not pay, so that the only source of nourishment available is then local. -
To summarise:–We require for the economical yet rapid construction of rail-
ways in Turkey:—
1. A mechanical means of economising manual and animal labour.
2. Great rapidity of construction, so as to reduce the interest on capital during
construction.
3. The construction of branch lines simultaneously with their main arteries.
4. Through communication, though of small capacity, in preference to fragments
of line on a large scale. *
* The freights on grain from Angora to the coast cost 5 piastres per oke, the value of the grain
being 13 piastres per oke. There is not a single cart road in the whole province. - -
E
( 50 )
The “Pioneer’’ fulfils all these conditions, and that in the following way:—
As an avant-coureur of a great enterprise, the “Pioneer” would be constructed
entirely of iron. The fixing thereof requires but eight simple operations per 24
feet, viz., driving two short piles into the ground, and fixing six bolts; so that
with only a hundred “trained men” (soldiers would do), a daily advance from
each point de départ of two or even three miles could be constantly maintained.
Its own materials are carried forward step by step by the line itself, the road
being laid ready for use at one operation. The “Pioneer” would be pushed
forward to the terminus as rapidly as possible, following at a guess, but not to
the letter, the future trace, purposely however deviating where required to open
up forests for sleepers, coal-mines for fuel, quarries for stone, gravel-pits for
ballast, &c., &c., acting, so to speak, as contractors' plant, and, when established,
permitting the future works to be carried on at an infinity of points, yet under
perfect surveillance and control, without the use of an inordinate staff of employés.
While, however, performing contractors’ duty, the “Pioneer” would likewise be
used for the transport of passengers, mails, and goods, for which its scale would be
amply sufficient for the time being; producing a profit probably sufficient to pay
the Government guarantee during the construction of the trunk Railway;
affording, moreover, reliable statistics for the enterprise proper; and lastly, but
not leastly, so assisting its successor as to reduce the cost of the main line perhaps
as much as 30 per cent. In proportion as the main line overtakes the “Pioneer,”
the latter is at once broken up into branches to feed the former, and render it
profitable at the earliest possible moment.
Taking the Euphrates Valley Railway as an example, the “Pioneer” could be
so rapidly constructed that the mail route to India might be established in about
a year, and thus immediately earn the proposed mail subvention of £300,000
annually, which pending the completion of the main line (say seven years),
would be more than sufficient to repay the outlay required of £1,000,000, plus the
12 per cent. interest for the use of the capital, to say nothing of its future value
in branches.
The tariff chargeable would be a mean between the present telegraph and postal
rates, established on the basis of the Saving of time in the transmission of news.
An enterprise of this nature may be rather likened to a military expedition
than a railway one, the “Pioneer” forming the base from which the men and
materials employed would be supplied.
A favourable impression was created by the inspection, and the conviction was
expressed that the “Pioneer,” if it prove mechanically a success, is adapted in all
other respects to the wants of Turkey.
Mr. Haddan also mentioned incidentally that the introduction of agricultural
machinery would necessarily follow the opening up of the country by the
“Pioneer; ” the use of such labour-saving implements affording the only means
by which the limited population of the empire can possibly extend its operations.
At present the introduction of such machinery is impossible, owing to the non-
existence of repairing shops. This want, however, the “Pioneer” would likewise
Supply.
RAILWAY ECONOMICS. *
From the ‘TIMEs,’ January 6, 1875.
THE “PIONEER” RAILWAY. —The doctrine that the only way to develope the
resources of a country is to build railways cannot be said to have died out yet,
but it is scarcely so rampant now as it was a few years ago. Except for the
support of the Government, even a richly-productive, thickly-peopled country like
India would have got no good from railways, but much harm. The conditions
which go towards causing railways to pay are difficult to indicate, but it is at any
rate clear that much more is wanted than richness of Soil or of minerals, or even
density of population. Unless between towns, which are centres of trade, railways
to do any good must be supplemented by good roads, and those do not exist as a
rule either in new countries or among populations in decay, or where the centres
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of industry are far scattered. To the mass of the rural population in any country
where civilisation is either dying or has hardly come into being, a railway means
a costly mode of drawing the people away from their valleys, of denuding one
part of the land that the other may be thickly peopled; it is a burden grievous to
be borne, laid upon a population too poor to pay remunerative charges, too far
scattered to become great travellers.
In no country has this description of the outcome of railway building a truer
application than in Turkey. From beginning to end the story of railway enter-
prise there has been one of disaster. To no small extent this is due to the incom-
petence of the Government, but far more largely it lies in the nature of things.
Turkey has vast natural resources, no doubt, but they are utterly wasted ; there
is no internal order, no effort at production such as characterises a civilised or
progressive community; there are no roads which can act as feeders, or but very
few, so that a railway when made only ties city to city, or taps a thin line of terri-
tory on each side of its route. So Turkish railways do not pay, and have only
helped to pile the load upon the back of the poor misgoverned country, till it is
all but broken.
Yet, in a very different sense, means of intercourse between district and district,
province and province, city and city, is beyond measure essential to Turkey if the
country is to be saved from sudden collapse. If one could keep the tax-farmer
away or in check, the people would be stimulated to expend energy in raising
surplus crops of wheat, in reviving manufactures (now dying out, if not already
dead), could they only get rid of their works or their produce at a fair profit.
That is not possible while bridle-paths form the sole arteries along which what
life and movement is in the country painfully flows. Turkey wants roads, there-
fore ; but at the same time, railways as now made are too costly for so poor a
country, and would remain so, it is to be feared, after the development of many
years. They ought to follow the growth of the country in several ways instead of
preceding it by so long, and are too rigid a means of intercommunication in a half-
peopled agricultural territory, where the centre of business at one time may not be
the centre when new outgrowths of cultivation or new settlements of the people
have been created. A railway laid down in a country like Turkey, in the mode
we are accustomed to lay railways down in England, is a deed done in a measure
for ever, but the actual condition of the population which determines the route
now, may by no means be those that will be in existence a quarter of a century
hence. For poor countries to benefit by such a great help to intercommunication,
lighter, cheaper, more movable forms of railways should be made. There has
been a stereotyped idea regarding railways, which has led to the reproduction of
the same thing all the world over—in Japan as in England, in Egypt as in
America—without much regard to surrounding conditions. This has helped not
a little to make the result so often disaster, instead of progress.
It appears to have been from a perception of such truths as these that a well-
known English engineer in Constantinople has occupied himself in designing a
new form of railway, which will be of this lighter kind. He calls his invention
the “Pioneer,” and means it to precede rather than to supersede other railroads;
to be, at all events, the first form of railway which poor, agricultural, and thinly-
peopled countries should possess, so securing to them all they need in the way of
cheap and rapid carrying power, without burdening them with either the original
cost or the permanent outlay involved in making ordinary railways and keeping
them efficient. The construction of this “Pioneer” railway is simple and inge-
nious. Instead of requiring the ground to be elaborately prepared for the rails,
and gradients carefully adjusted, it may be made almost anywhere, and involves
little outlay. The carriages and engine are in shape much like a couple of
panniers, and the railway on which they run answers to the donkey's back, it
being a single central rail laid along an elevated narrow platform, which may be
supported on tressels or merely on posts suuk well in the ground, as desired. In
addition to this centre rail, on which the carriages are hung and where the friction
of the running wheels is, there are two side rails which jut out on cross bars so as
to catch a wheel running on each side of the carriages below. These latter rails
answering to the sides of the donkey or pack-horse, serve to steady the train, and
also supply a means of applying the tractive gripping power whereby the train
can be pulled up very steep inclines. The mode of construction necessarily causes
E 2
( 52 )
all the carriages and the engine to be divided into two equal halves, and thus
cuts down the stowage room, but enough seems to be left to afford ample accom-
modation for passengers where they are not likely to be numerous, and to afford
room for a great deal of comparatively heavy traffic. When erected, this railway
presents at a distance the appearance of a strong fence, it being so far above the
ground, and this form of construction makes it an easy matter to get over diffi-
culties in the configuration of the country. Where advisable, the top rail is laid
on posts stuck in the ground, and should these not be procurable, or should the
soil present obstacles to their being securely rooted, then tressels may be used, or
a dwarf wall 2' 6" high may be built of masonry or concrete. For crossing streams
the-expedients are essentially the same, only the posts are longer. The sides of a
mountain may be climbed by this railway with ease, and its inventor, Mr. Haddan,
claims for it these various advantages in other respects:–Rapidity and low cost
of construction. Employment of marketable materials only, earthworks being
entirely dispensed with ; capacity, therefore, of constructing a railway at a fixed
factory, and of making it instantly transport itself. Ilow working expenses.
Portability, it being easy to remove the whole apparatus from one locality to
another: hence, also its value in aiding the construction of a solid railway of
the ordinary kind, and its subsequent transfer into branches for feeding the same.
Whether this railway has been practically tried or not we cannot say, but
there is a good deal about the aims and conceptions of its inventor with which
we must sympathise. It would be a great help to Turkey and to many a country
besides, if a means of transport such as this affords could be readily organised, for
these would then have a help to the development of trade and agriculture, and,
consequently, of population, which costly railways and their attendant loans and
heavy taxes can never supply. Mr. Haddan is sanguine enough to hope that the
speedy adoption of lis system would do much to regenerate Turkey even yet.
There certainly can be no reason why his railway should not be tried where it
may be likely to do good in that or any other country, for if at all as practicable
as the models of it look, it should prove useful in many ways and places where it
would be vain to hope for an ordinary railway this many a day.
MILITARY RAILWAYS.
From the ‘TIMEs,” June 15th, 1878.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘TIMES.”
SIR,-However abhorrent war may be to our feelings of humanity in general,
and however much we may deprecate it in the interests of our own country
in particular, I think no one will refuse assent to the proposition that if we are
obliged, now or hereafter, to put an army in the field, it should be furnished
with every requisite for success that the advance of science places at our dis-
posal. I understand that in the prospect—happily now less imminent—of an
expeditionary force being despatched from these shores, some miles of field
railway have been prepared at Woolwich, with a locomotive of novel pattern
which has been judged likely to render more useful service, under the probable
requirements of a campaign, than one of the ordinary description. I need hardly
remind you that ever since the Crimean war a campaign has never been under-
taken by this, or, perhaps, by any other European country, without the attempt
being made to facilitate operations by the aid of the railway. In no one instance,
however, that I can recall has the attempt been a striking success. The Balaclava
railway was notoriously unsatisfactory; that constructed for the Abyssinian
campaign was scarcely less disappointing. The field railway undertaken by the
Germans in 1870 to preserve the continuity of their railway communication while
Metz was still unreduced, is now known to have been of little practical use,
owing chiefly to the sinking of the earthworks. In the Ashantee war, though
some miles of railway accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley's force, it was never,
I believe, even disembarked, Will the railway to which I have referred as being
now in readiness at Woolwich prove more useful than those which have preceded
it, should it be put to the practical test ?
( 53 )
º -
This question of field railways formed the subject of a paper which was read
last month at the Royal United Service Institution by Mr. J. L. Haddan, an
eminent railway engineer, upon which you published some favourable comments
at the time. Mr. Haddan contended that we have proceeded hitherto upon a
totally wrong system in assimilating the construction of field railways to that of
ordinary railways, and proposed in substitution a one-rail surface railway sup-
ported upon dwarf trestles or posts, and entirely independent of earthworks,
either banks or cuttings. The locomotive proposed for such a railway is of
peculiar and very light construction, deriving its tractive power, not from the
combination of steam-power and gravity, like an ordinary locomotive; but from
steam-power, and the “grip ’’ it is made to give upon the rail. The reduction in
the weight of the locomotive, and the corresponding reduction in the size and
weight of the carriages, lighten also the necessary weight and strength of the
road, without, however, diminishing the carrying powers of the latter; the freight,
by Mr. Haddan's invention, being merely lengthened out and made to travel in
Indian file, so to say, instead of in “sections.”
Mr. Haddan claimed for his field railway the following advantages, among
others, which, if they can be substantiated, it is impossible to overrate:—That it
is more simple, more quickly and easily constructed, than any existing type of
railway ; that it is practically almost independent of gradient and other local
considerations, the locomotive employed being able to take a train weighing 100
tons up a gradient of one in ten; that it requires neither embankments nor
cuttings; that it may be made beforehand to an unlimited extent in our national
workshops, either of wood or iron, at a very moderate cost per mile, and conveyed,
ready for use, and only requiring to be put together by the troops, to the place.
where it is intended to be laid down; and lastly, that it can be laid down at the
rate of one mile per diem for each 100 men employed. ... I can well imagine that
Mr. Haddan's views will not find favour at the hands of rival inventors, and that
professional jealousy will be roused at proposals which cast a doubt upon the
inventive resources of those who have preceded him in the same field. But what
have the Government or the public to do with that ? If Mr. Haddan's theories
can be shown to be sound, and susceptible of ready conversion into practice, by all
means let him have the credit he deserves, and let the country, in its next war,
benefit by the adoption of them. , Sir Garnet Wolseley, who presided when
Mr. Haddan's paper was discussed, and than whom there can be no higher non-
technical authority, expressed himself very favourably in regard to it, and such I
feel sure will be the feeling of all military men who heard or may read it. Your
own comments also in the ‘Times' of the 30th of May adopt Mr. Haddan's
tenets;–
“But, alas ! those heavy waggons, long pontoon-boats, telegraph waggons, and
photographic carts all mean roads; no provision seems to be made for transport
over uncivilised countries such as we now wage war in. It is much to be feared
that the present system, advanced as it is compared with the old, which left every-
thing to be arranged after the outbreak of war, is scarcely adapted for the Bul-
garian or Armenian roads, admirable though they are on our macadamised high-
ways in Great Britain.”
Surely the Secretary of State for War could not do wrong to obtain the opinions
of Colonel Yolland and his colleagues as to the technical merits of Mr. Haddan's
field railway, and so clear the way for its early adoption as the field railway of
the British service, if it is shown on competent authority to deserve that distinc-
tion ?
Your obedient Servant,
J. L. WAUGHAN, Lieutenant-General.
Junior United Service Club, June 12.
( 54 )
MILITARY RAILWAYS.
From the TIMEs,” June 17th, 1878.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘TIMES.”
SIR,-To General Vaughan's comprehensive letter which appears in the ‘Times'
of the 15th inst., there is but one single word therein to which I can take excep-
tion, and that is to the term “inventor” which he applies to me. My “Pioneer”
railway, so often noticed in your columns, comprises no startling novelties; it is
merely a combination of various thoroughly proven and accepted mechanical and
natural laws. Inventions, properly so called, must be left to philosophers; but,
although it is now the fashion in our profession to stereotype, a small minority
will always maintain that it is the civil engineer's proper and only province to
ring all the changes of natural combinations, which are quite as numerous and
infallible as chemical ones, in applying his art to meet all possible requirements,
especially so varying as those of transport. Mechanics of late years turn out
such marvellous giants, great in body, but, like ironclads, very weak in the ribs,
that they have insensibly smothered their professional civil brethren, and the
stereotyping of railways all over the world, which has led to such disastrous com-
mercial results, is mainly due to their unbending mechanical pride, which will not
stoop to meet any other requirements but those of their own shops or prejudices.
The same incubus has hitherto borne fatally upon military railways. All the
pomp and circumstance of 60-ton locomotives, Pullman cars, 80-lb. rails, gigantic
earthworks, and colossal masonry, matters of pride and congratulation in the civil
engineering world (?), must perforce be carefully eschewed in designing a military
field railway, and may, with advantage, be pursued ad absurdum in those countries
where travelling at present is a necessary evil and by no means a luxury.
To the English Army, where men are inordinately valuable as their numbers are
few, and for agricultural empires where every man's labour is in a short season pro-
ductive many hundredfold, and where the State revenue is dependent on his labour,
there can be no greater mistake in political economy than to employ animal labour
in making earthworks, the most unproductive of investments, even when con-
verted into a railway. After a war or famine this argument has still greater
force. Far better, therefore, than inventing steam sappers to make earthworks,
and so adding another complication to military duties, the “Pioneer" glories in
abolishing earthworks altogether; and, moreover, supplies another article of
export to our home list, since it can be manufactured complete in working order
in the workshops of Great Britain, and sent out in any quantity to its destination.
Turkey, so incapable of helping herself, may be thus developed with English iron,
a far safer investment than English gold; and India, a prey to famines and
unequal exchanges, may benefit in like manner by the use of a means of communi-
cation especially designed to meet her wants.
- J. L. HADDAN.
25, Great George Street, W., June 15.
PIONEER AND MILITARY RAILWAYS.—A section of a novel military or pioneer
railway was built on Monday, on the ground lying waste at the rear of Whitehall-
place, in four hours; and to show the simplicity of the work, its constructors were
ten soldiers, sent as a fatigue party from the Grenadier Guards, and one or two
ordinary unskilled labourers. This railway is the invention of Mr. J. L. Haddan.
ex-engineer in chief of the Ottoman Government; and the railway was primarily
designed to meet the need in the East of having a speedily-constructed, cheap,
and effective means of fransport for men and stores over a wild country without
the necessity of surveying, levelling, and passing through the preliminary stages
of ordinary railway making. The new railway built on Monday in the grounds
of Whitehall is a “one-rail” structure, and the line it represented requires
neither sleepers nor foundations, the line running upon dwarf posts, 440 to a mile,
the rolling-stock upon it being shaped like an inverted V, designed upon the
( 55 )
“camel-saddle" principle. The carriages and engines fall on each side like
panniers on an animal’s back, the safety wheels of the engines, trucks, and carriages
being horizontal. The material of the new railway is wholly of timbers, which
were brought on the ground ready cut for use, and the plans having been
explained to the sergeant of the fatigue party, the piles were sunk in the ground,
the cross timbers were readily fixed and bolted, and by a series of ingeniously
designed wedges an 80-feet or 100-feet section of the line, running over very
uneven ground, was made secure and apparently quite solid. In the evening
the inventor read a paper on the subject at the Royal United Service Institution,
GENERAL SIR GARNET Wol,SELEY, K.C.B., presiding.
During the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, Sir Garnet
Wolseley, speaking of the railway in the Crimea, said “that, though that was
not a great success, it was very useful, and by making it the English nation
was the first to use railways in war. The great thing in regard to railways
used in war was that they should be quickly made and worked, for time was
everything. If we had to go to war and to operate inland in a country where
there were no roads, it would be of the greatest importance to have a line
from the base to the scene of operation, and Mr. Haddan's proposals gave a sys-
tem which would meet the requirements of an army in that position. As to par-
ticular railways which had been proposed for army transports, in these days of
short and sharp campaigns earthworks were out of the question, for now armies
did not sit down to long campaigns like the sieges of Troy and Sebastopol.
Other systems required good roads, but for a country without the roads, and in
rapidity and simplicity of construction, Mr. Haddan's railway would meet an
army's wants.” The proceedings lasted until 11 o'clock at night, and the com-
pany then went to view the section in the grounds at Whitehall, lighted by port
fires,--The ‘Times,” May 22nd, 1878.
* * * * * * But, alas ! those heavy waggons, long pontoon-boats, tele-
graph waggons, and photographic carts, all mean roads; no provision seems to
be made for transport over uncivilised countries such as we now wage war in.
It is much to be feared that the present system, advanced as it is compared with
the old, which left everything to be arranged after the outbreak of war, is scarcely
adapted for the Bulgarian or Armenian roads, admirable though they are on our
macadamised highways in Great Britain.—The ‘Times, May 30th, 1878.
INDIAN RAILWAYS.
From the ‘TIMEs,” June 17th, 1878.
The conclusion Mr. Haddan arrives at is nevertheless worth attending to.
Where a regularly constructed railroad is, for any reason, too costly a thing to
yield a profit, there may be room for a lighter line—a Pioneer railway, as
Mr. Haddan terms it—to be sent out ready made from this country and fit for
use as soon as it can be laid down. We can hardly doubt that some such simple
affair as this might very advantageously have taken the place of some, at least,
of our Indian lines. Still more useful would it be for extensions into less favour-
able regions. When the start had been given in this way, there would be room
afterwards for the more elaborate and more costly railway proper, with all its
pomp and circumstance, its sixty-ton locomotives, its eighty-pound rails, its
igantic earthworks and colossal masonry, and all the rest of which our corre-
spondent speaks with a disfavour not common in his profession. There is plenty
of space still to be found for the experiment both in India itself and in the
countries bordering on India. The want of feeder lines is much felt by almost
every one of the great Indian railways. It is kind of Mr. Haddan to suggest that
we should supply Turkey with lines of the sort he favours. There is no reason
why we should not do so, if we can induce Turkey to purchase them from us.
( 56 )
But the need of them for India is equally obvious, and we might hope for
something better from them, at all events, than the poor return of “less than
1 per cent.”
AFRICA OUR SECOND INDIA.
To THE EDITOR of THE ‘MANCHESTER coupleR.'
SIR,--Your townsmen should be the first to scotch the following Indian and
colonial worm in the bud of free-trade; and, moreover, see they do not fall into
like error while supporting Mr. Bradshaw's excellent project for developing
Central Africa.
This parasite, which is attracting so much attention in Manchester at the
present moment, is English born and bred; and its remedy is also in our own
hands.
Its origin is really due to the hitherto deemed necessary evil of railways in
general being as a matter of course unremunerative for a season. Hence in
India, the colonies, and many of the minor foreign States; railways are under-
taken with, to them, foreign money: not so much because they have not the
requisite funds themselves, but because the guarantee or profit is not good enough
to attract their local capitalists.
The local investor is, therefore, forced to seek by protective duties to form an
artificial field in which to utilise his capital, although he has to do it of course at
the expense of his countrymen.
Every means of increasing exports, of which railways with low fares is the
essence, should form a local investment. That this order of things is reversed, is
the reason why the colonies cannot accept free-trade; and why without, however,
the same excuse, they behave more or less like the Indian ryot of the interior, who,
cut off from freedom of trade by his isolated condition, is forced to be conservative
and cultivate for himself a patchwork holding, producing every personal want,
from cotton to tobacco. -
The remedy rests in the hands of our mechanical engineers, who, having slain
the goose which laid the golden eggs, must now produce remunerative or ready-
money railways, on a scale and extent suitable to the colonial requirements, viz.;
of small purse and huge acreage.
The remedy in India, or where many railways already exist; is for the Govern-
ment to accept the fact that a railway dividend obtained by high fares is merely
a sign of individual prosperity, gained at the expense of the imports and exports
of the country. The guarantee system is rotten, and the Government refuse to
extend the system; it is not sufficient in amount to attract local shareholders, nor
does it induce economical administration.
The main lines should all be State railways, on which the earning of a divi-
dend should be the last consideration. But if private local capitalists are desirous
of making branch railways, the Government should fix their tariffs unremunera-
tively low, and make up the difference in the shape of a subvention per ton and
per passenger, in lieu of per mile. This would so encourage exports that the
local capitalist would leave cotton-spinning and such like home work to those
who can do it so much better and cheaper. I may mention that for the last ten
years I have been elaborating a steam caravan or Pioneer railway, the cost of
which, of a carrying capacity equal to the narrow gauge, does not exceed 1000l.
per mile in running order. The whole is in iron, erected by the mile or so daily,
and is, in fact, a continuous low fence or bridge; there are no earthworks, and
local labour is not wanted; its route is “as the crow flies.” English hands,
shops, and capital, supply the whole in the shape of one of our staples— iron—
instead of sending the gold to foreign countries to perform what may be called
their commercial dirty work, leaving them free to invest every penny of their
own in starting local rival factories to our home manufactures. Export manu-
factured iron, not gold, is my panacea
Yours, &c., .
J. L. HADDAN, M. INST. C.E., F.R.G.S., &c.
March 3, 1879.
( 57 )
INDIAN BREAK OF GAUGE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE * TIMES.”
SIR,--‘Australia has five different breaks of gauge already,” and already finds
their rectification beyond her resources. “Could we only begin again,” formed
the sorrowful key-note of a paper read a few weeks back on Colonial Railways
at our Institution, under the able presidency of Mr. P. Barlow.
It was almost the universal opinion, founded upon facts, that the question was
decided in favour of the broad gauge; “since, so long as concentrated weight
constitutes, as it does, our locomotive tractive power, the broad gauge must from
the very outset be the cheapest to work; that the apparent saving in first cost
offered by the narrow gauge was delusive, since the balance was more than
covered in the early future by the saving in working.” In fact that on existing
principles, a cheap light railway is an impossibility, and a delusion and a snare
to those who so falsely think the first cost per mile a criterion of value, either
present or future; first, as regards the present, because lines may be lengthened
to the most extravagant extent, as so ably practised by Baron Hirsch in Rou-
melia; and secondly, as regards the future, the banks and cuttings so necessary
for securing easily workable grades; may be, and are, cut down to such an
extent, as to reduce the effective train load to nil.
Hence the Government did quite right to refuse to construct a surface line to
the Bolan Pass—first, because Sir Henry Green says the winter rains would wash
any closed structure away; and secondly, because Crimean * experience showed
that on a surface line the grades were necessarily so steep, that horses, stationary
engines, and locomotives, combined with a staff of 1000 men, failed to carry a
paying load over less than a dozen miles of line.
Yours, &c.,
x - J. L. HADDAN.
25, Great George Street, March 3, 1879.
THE KING OF THE BELGIANS AND THE PIONEER RAILWAY.
His Majesty the King of the Belgians, attended by Major-General Gardiner,
visited the theatre of the Royal United Service Institution yesterday, to inspect the
Pioneer railway, invented by Mr. J. L. Haddan, M.I.C.E. There were also present
Admiral Selwyn, Mr. Berry (Prime Minister of Victoria), Capt. Burton (the African
explorer), Mr. Grover, M.I.C.E., the Consulting Engineer, Mr. John Kendall,
Capt. Haddan, Capt. Burgess (the Secretary of the Institution), and other gentlemen.
It was explained to the King (who is the President of an African Exploration
Expedition) that the railway was intended to apply to countries like Africa,
Cyprus, and the Northern Provinces of India, which could not afford the construc-
tion of a first-class railway, owing to the paucity of the traffic. The principle was
that of a single rail, the centre of gravity being kept very low so as to prevent
oscillation. The system of driving was applied to all the wheels of the train in a
manner analogous to the continuous brake reversed. Thus the whole weight of
the train was available for adhesion, and grades of 1 in 7—or a crow's-flight route
—gave the system a direct right of way even in mountainous countries. The cost
of the erection of such a railway in timber would be about £700 a mile, and
entirely of iron about £1500 a mile in running order complete; but in contra-
distinction to roads and earthwork railways, where the cost of maintenance against
the weather alone was at least equal to £1000 per mile capitalised: the Pioneer,
by abolishing earthworks, started with a negative subsidy of £1000 per mile. It
* At Metz, under more favourable conditions, since the works were in connection with existing
railways, the result was equally disappointing.
( 58 )
was eminently suitable for military purposes, so that troops might erect the railway
as they went on, and carry their stores with them—really hold the ground they
occupied. After the principle of the construction had been fully explained, his
Majesty went into the grounds at the rear of the Institution, and saw a full-size
section in timber erected by a party of soldiers. It was also stated that the system
was now past the stage of theory, as an eminent engineering firm had guaranteed
the construction of the engine as designed by Mr. Haddan, and another firm had
guaranteed the stability of the road to which the system should be applied. An
offer had also been made to the Indian Government to supply such a road for the
Service of the troops in Afghanistan, and it was stated that the offer had been
strongly supported by the recommendation of the Home Government. His
Majesty expressed his thanks for the lucid explanations afforded by Mr. Haddan.—
The ‘Globe.” :
ELEPHANTS FOR AFRICA.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE * DAILY TELEGRAPH.”
SIR,-His Majesty the King of the Belgians certainly deserves well of civilisa-
tion in that he will not leave a stone unturned in his search to open up the Dark
Continent. Some one has suggested elephants to him, and he goes into the ques-
tion with his accustomed energy. That carriage must be found is clear, for Mr.
Bradshaw shows most conclusively that all the African ports are already flooded
with Manchester goods, and relief can only be attained by extensions inland,
That famous “white elephant” the English railway, is out of the question;
since, let alone its first cost and its inability to run alone for years; the insurance
against the effect of tropical rains upon their earthworks will alone amount to £1000
a mile, if capitalised—an objection equally applicable to roads. The natural animal
so far resembles its prototype that it deludes the public by offering a brilliant
mechanical success contemporaneous with commercial failure. An elephant weighs
60 cwt. and can carry only 15 cwt. Unless the road is good he suffers from sore
feet. He requires in hot weather a bath twice daily. He is equally with other
cattle affected by climate. His daily rations are costly and epicurean, viz. 25 lb.
of chupatties or cooked flour cakes, and about 175 lb. of hay. His maintenance
costs about £150 per annum, and calculating from Sir Garnet Wolseley's ad-
mirable data, the cost of elephant transport, even when organised, will hot be less
than 2s. per ton per mile. -
Mr. Juland Danvers' Indian railway returns show that even at a cost for transport
of only 0°35d. per ton per mile, many bulky substances cannot be exported; it is
evident therefore that with a tariff of 2s. per ton per mile the elephant transport
would be restricted for general purposes to but a few miles inland 2 so cui bono
If ever there was a country where common sense suggests the conversion of her
forests into transport power it is Africa, where animal-carrying force is at such a
discount as to have suggested relief in enslaving men for the purpose. When
inspecting my Pioneer or African steam caravan, his Majesty only expressed a fear
that capitalists would require some form of guarantee, before investing even so
limited a capital as was required for its installation—viz., £1000 per mile. I had
the honour of pointing out to his Majesty that the days of so-called guarantees
were fortunately over, and that our profession was at last alive to the disgrace of
having slain the goose which laid the golden eggs, by sinking millions in unre-
munerative railways, instead of making them on a scale capable of extending
themselves ad infinitum out of their own earnings.
While unlimited capital has been freely given us, we have, by squandering the
means afforded, most signally failed in the imperative duty of keeping pace with
the productive power of England by supplying it with fresh markets. We
engineers are responsible for the trade depression, and no one else; for it will take
ten years at least before the railway capital already sunk will earn enough to
extend itself. While steamers daily work more economically; railways, under
financial treatment, daily become more unsatisfactory. .
J. L. HADDAN.
( 59 )
Ea:tract ‘SoCIETY OF ARTs Journal,” May 2nd.
Sir Henry Tyler, than whom no one possesses greater knowledge of English
railways, dubbed Bosnia an impracticable country, and very justly so, as regards
the ordinary railway; but are such countries going to accept isolation from
civilisation because our motto is “Aut Caesar aut nullus”—the English railway or
nothing? There are whole continents in a similar position; and our profession
will, let us hope, mark the pertinent remarks offered by Colonel Stanley, Mr. Lowe,
and Sir Michael Hicks Boach, at the annual dinner of the Institute of Civil
Engineers, for they all three inculcated the same lesson. Colonel Stanley (no
doubt fresh from the perusal of returns of the irremediable loss of animal power
lately experienced in the Zulu and Afghan campaigns), reminds the profession
that although the condition of a great portion of our vast empire brought us face to
face with primeval times as regards transport, we had nothing suitable to offer.
Mr. Lowe followed suit, and blamed us for so abjectly treading in the footsteps of
our fathers, whose rapid success had intoxicated the universe, whose varied
demands, however, we had not met, except by a stereotyped system. Sir Michael
Hicks Beach, referring to the commercial failure of colonial railways, gave the
coup de grâce ;* when he reminded us that the vast area of the colonies, and their
inversely small means, called for anything but the grandiose treatment of our
mammoth English lines, the charges to support the mechanical luxury of which,
it cannot be denied, are fast destroying our export trade. Wages are reduced,
hours are lessened, but railway tariffs (as much an export tax as if levied by the
Customs), still maintain a price which might be reduced more than one-half if
economical principles were employed. The existing wasteful railway is guilty of
the present depression of trade. The vast sums confided to our possession for
making railways to extend our markets have been sunk in unprofitable railways,
and not invested in procreative means of communication, the immediate profits of
which would have pushed railways on at a pace commensurate with our industrial
production, and not have come suddenly to a full stop, leaving all the markets of
the world glutted, and no outlet possible. Railway construction, to be economical,
must be designed quite as much to meet the actuary's requirements as purely
technical ones. Hence, to obtain a fair comparison between any two or more
systems, the durability of the materials are a most essential feature; and there-
fore in submitting an estimate the costs of repairs and working expenses should be
capitalised: for the cost per mile is utterly unreliable, as it neither illustrates the
length, quantity, or quality, nor the durability either. One example: the abolition
of earthworks means, in the case of an ordinary road or railway, a saving of annual
maintenance equal to a minimum of £1000 per mile capitalised, and to a maximum
of over £5000 in tropical countries, where the yearly rainfall falls in a few days or
hours. The prize, therefore, offered to an elevated railway is a great one, but it
cannot be even mechanically obtained on the gravity system, except at a fatal
sacrifice of efficiency. It is not surprising that in the face of recent railway
investment failures, the general public should cry down railways and put their
trust in animals, which are quite as unreliable, however, as the proverbial princes
we are warned against. The bare idea is retrograde, for steam properly applied
can beat animals hollow.f African climate is against their use, and their con-
comitants, roads, which never can pay commercially, because the wear and tear on
them, as upon a tramway, is mostly due to extraneous causes. -
J. L. HADDAN.
* Lord Salisbury in his recent evidence on the East India Bill has added another claim to the
gratitude we owe the present government for exposing the error- of the Railway system.
+ Mr. Grover, the eminent engineer, shows steam, properly used, to be 300 times as economical as
animal traction. (See "I a. page 64.) -
( 60 )
RAILWAYS AND FREE-TRADE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE * MANCHESTER courIER.’
SIR,-Since the vital spark of free-trade cannot even originate until facilities
for the interchange of commodities are provided—instance, isolated portions
of Central India, where I found even money was not yet in general circulation—
it is evident that transport plays no inconsiderable part in the free-trade question;
and, moreover, no revenue can possibly accrue without it.
In fact, any obstacle to “freedom” of trade intercourse, whether it be adminis-
trative, fiscal, or physical, all deserve attention, for one and all effect in some
degree the final selling price; but transport more than all the others put
together.
Administratively: When, as in Turkey, the detergent effect of physical
difficulties are still further enhanced by vexatious methods of collection, which
frequently double the actual percentage of the dues levied; or when, as in India,
the State railways are employed to tax exports (especially of bulky raw
materials) by striving. to earn a dividend like a private enterprise; and in the
case of the East Indian, positively promoting high fares by offering the working
company a share in surplus profits. In Queensland diametrically the opposite
system prevails. Consequently we have ample means of judging which of the
two works most in accordance with freedom of trade, and acting accordingly.
Fiscally: When protective duties are used, as they chiefly are, as counterpoises
to defective means of intercommunication. g’
Physically: When geographical difficulties are either not palliated or removed,
or performed in so costly a manner as not only to saddle the endless future with
high rates of transport, but sink for a decade at least a vast amount of capital,
upon the daily circulation of which our workmen of course depend. Hence the
present trade depression. Cost of production, as far as labour is concerned, comes
also under this latter heading; but as in the case of agricultural produce, where
the rent plays but an insignificant part, so will it be found that the item of
labour is but a trifle compared with transport charges.
How comes it therefore that, while daily we find contentions over fractional
reductions in wages, our home railways are allowed unheeded to levy rates which
according to their own showing mulct goods for tenfold the accommodation they
require? The London and North-Western statistics show that, simply owing to
defective organisation, a 10-ton waggon does not on an average carry more than
one ton. In other words, goods are habitually treated to all the costly elbow-room
of a Pullman car—a method of travelling which, even for passengers, only pays
indirectly as an attraction, but certainly not per 8e ; while in addition they use a
sliding scale of charges which may act either protective or otherwise, according
as they are lowered to favour imports or exports, a system touched upon by the
Marquis of Huntly a few days since, but hardly with the determination its im-
portance deserves.—Yours, &c.,
e J. L. HADDAN.
25, Great George Street, Westminster,
July 7, 1879.
( 61 )
MILITARY RAILWAYS.
From the ‘GLOBE, Sept. 11, 1879.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “GLOBE.”
SIR,-Many a war has been undertaken solely with an eye to future business,
and as a nation of shopkeepers there is no reason why our military tactics
should not be designed to support this principle, especially when greater effi-
ciency results. It would, however, be scarcely consistent with this desirable
theory, if, to begin with, we destroy over one-third of the whole transport power
of such portion of our own country as lies within a hundred miles or so of the
seat of war. The loss of 60,000 camels,” the ships of the desert, means no less
than £1,500,000 in hard cash to begin with, certainty of famine in the immediate
future, and trade depression for a decade at least; consequent upon the loss of
such a vast physically active, capital—the only specie available in Eastern
countries. To give some idea, however, of the local value of the loss really sus-
tained, we might refer to the Franco-Prussian indemnity, except that in this
case the victors are the victims ; or we might fairly take as an equivalent one-
third of the railway capital of the United Kingdom, say, £200,000,000 or so, as
representing the local value of the extermination of 60,000 camels. General
Hamley, moreover, has conclusively proved that the hill-tribes are robbers more
from necessity than choice; and that trade, and not burning their homes, is the
only sure peacemaker. It is therefore evident that trade weapons are the proper
ones for men of business to fight with. A military railway rendered as handy
and efficient as our more strikingly offensive weapons have been, by subjecting
it to like rigorous trials and experiments; would form the most formidable
weapon of offence possible, while it would perform the double duty of the sword
and pruning-hook. For while enabling the blow to be struck more rapidly and
effectually, and consequently more mercifully; "it would likewise afford the
strongest possible occupative force (a necessity when conquest outstrips our only
civiliser, the lethargic railway proper) by securing the vanquished in the bonds
of self-interest—the cheapest of fetters. The consequences of the loss of 60,000
of our camels, which, far more than the men, are the bread-winners of the
East; will force themselves ere long on our notice, unless some equivalent
&n kind be at once provided. Money is no use; it cannot restore the dead to
life, or keep the hillmen, who far more than the inhabitants of the plains
depend upon transport for their daily food. We have found both in India
and at the Cape, that when an ultra-civilised army, the pink of mechanical
perfection, is brought face to face with primitive conditions of transport, then
comes the tug of war; owing to transport, which every military man acknow-
ledges to be the backbone of the service, being regarded as a civil commodity on
which they may freely indent when requisite. At home there is some excuse for
this reliance upon outsiders; but whether a campaign be undertaken at home or
abroad, it is a grave commercial error to suppose that it is admissible to ruin
(more or less completely) the civil transport of their own country (or of the
enemy either for that matter), by either destroying its animals or monopolising
its railways. -
Every branch of the great military machine should be independent. Just as
tons of shot and shell and regiments of Woolwich Infants must be kept in stock,
with far more reason should half a million or so of portable railway be held in
reserve, for the supply of the one by private firms would encourage business,
while the undue interference with the regularity of the carrying trade of the
railways, would in a few weeks show a national loss of millions. We have
lately, even at home, had a taste of the vast power a transport monopoly affords.
Muke a line to Candahar, and leave Cabul out in the cold, and see if their
punishment will not be far more effectual than, let us say, destroying a few .
g
* The official number exterminated in the first part of the Afghan campaign 1878-9,
( 6.2 )
thousand or so more of our own camels in a spirited advance. A scientific .
frontier to deserve the name should be attained and held by Science, not brute
force. The telegraph having outstripped the steam-horse, makes diplomacy eat
its own words, simply from want of steam legs to keep pace with lightning
despatches.
t Yours, &c.,
j - J. L. HADDAN.
25, Great George Street, Westminster, Sept. 10.
THE INDO-MIEDITERRANEAN RAILWAY.
From the ‘TIMEs, Sept. 24, 1879.
To THE EDITOR of THE TIMEs.’
SIR,-It seems surprising that although Ministers and ex-Ministers have
repeatedly shown within the last few months that trade depression is due to our
capital being squandered in unsubstantial investments, principally foreign : yet
we find Mr. Hamilton Lang proposing to develop Turkey on the very system
which is mainly responsible for it all—viz. railway guarantees. Lord Derby
referred to defaulting States when he attributed trade depression to foreign loans;
but the system is equally commercially rotten even when the interest is regularly
paid : for until a profit is made, the interest should be deducted from capital
account, which consequently might one day disappear entirely. Ex-In India
the guaranteed interest paid upon £100,000,000 has already reached £66,000,000.
Indian railways since 1858—they started in 1846—have expended in round
numbers £79,000,000, and have paid in interest £22,000,000 thereon, after ,
deducting the earnings. In other words, borrowing under a 5 per cent.
guarantee, increased the cost price of the lines nearly 30 per cent., and was equal
all round to a money subvention or bonus of £4000 per mile.
The guaranteed interest and capital expended during India's railway existence
has been £166,000,000, upon which only £40,000,000 has been earned. The balance
of £120,000,000 has, therefore, been sunk—i.e. withdrawn from that active circu-
lation of capital upon which business, and especially workshop trade (England's
specialité), entirely depends. . In fact, for a time, say a decade more at least;
England is poorer by this £120,000,000, just as though the investment were
Bolivian, Spanish, or Turkish, and the money irretrievably lost.
We have here the result of railway finance kings acting in concert with engineer
princes; who, as Mr. Lowe said at our annual dinner, were content to live upon
the reputation of their fathers, whose rapid success had so intoxicated the universe
that endless millions were always without question forthcoming for reproducing
stereotypes of any of the works of the great English masters. The present de-
pression will, however, let us hope, teach railway constructors and administrators
that they must put themselves out to provide steam communication adapted to
the wants of other countries, and not expect any longer to enjoy the halcyon days
of fat commissions upon exporting en bloc the English railway proper; the gauge
of which even chance determined, and which its inventor, George Stephenson,
always declared to be out of its element in even moderately mountainous countries;
having been primarily designed by him to compete with canals - on the level.
Your correspondents, Mr. Lang and Mr. Austin, advocate Tripoli as a point de
départ for the Indo-Mediterranean Railway, simply for the primá facie forcible
reason that it is the easiest line of country; and thus prove by their choice that
the Stephenson railway is quite out of place in Syria, since it must bow to every
trifling physical obstacle, instead of commanding its own route under the guidance
of purely commercial considerations only: thereby changing the trade routes and
interests established for centuries, and upsetting everybody, simply to suit con-
tractors’ notions of railway construction. *

( 63 )
A Turkish railway, and I speak from experience, should possess the military
faculty which Sir Garnet Wolseley insists upon—viz. of obeying orders and going
anywhere, following the mule tracks traced by the experience of ages, and not by
the hasty hand of some freshly-imported engineer; in direct contradistinction to
the ordinary railway, which, after exacting all sorts of physical and financial con-
cessions as tributes to its inherent weaknesses, cannot, even when started as Mr.
Lang suggests—one little stage, say as far as Aleppo-take another feeble step
forward on its own bottom, under a quarter of a century at least. Ex-The
Indian Government have not the means of completing their railways after work-
ing thirty years on the guarantee system, and spending £114,000,000; how,
therefore, can Turkey hope to fare better? It is surely wiser to face the difficulty
boldly, for necessity can and has provided a remedy. - -
Engineers have not, thanks to financiers, hitherto had any call to exert them-
selves to produce ready-money railways, capable, like all other sound investments,
of earning their own living, and procreating themselves by turning over their
capital; but it will be entirely the fault of so-called men of business, if they do
not exact from engineers that they shall do their duty in always providing markets
for our products, by properly employing at least a portion of the 300-fold margin
which steam theoretically maintains over horses : in face of the fact that we can
any day ride farther in a tram for less money than we can by rail : while inland.
goods are landicapped by extravagant railway freights—the only item in the
selling price which does not accommodate itself to the invariable law of supply
and demand.
All the various distinguished travellers acquainted with Syria maintain there
is considerable business activity—Captain Burton, who would renew Tyre's ancient
glories; Commander Cameron, who is smitten with Tripoli as a feasible port; and
lastly, not least, Mrs. Brassey, who thinks donkey-back travelling' hardly good
enough for the Holy Land; nor is it. I
But putting together all their valuable information, combined with my own,
obtained during a long residence as engineer-in-chief of these provinces; I find
even the trunk routes cannot afford a larger capital expenditure per mile than
£1000 : on which amount a dividend of about six per cent, is absolutely certain.
I would, moreover, draw the attention of our Government to the patent fact that
the Turkish Empire cannot be reformed by diplomacy, the great distances
involved rendering the strongest arm valueless; but organization of the existing
means of communication previous to the introduction of railways will revive trade,
pay its own way, and through its endless ramifications introduce a subtle power
of control, none the less tangible because it works sub rosá—the only way to steer
clear of the overweening pride of the Turkish governing race, which always so
dexterously converts any European interference into coals of fire piled upon the
unfortunate head of the broad-daylight reformer. From engineers they will
accept instruction, but in diplomacy they consider they require no teaching.”
- J. L. HADDAN.
25, Great George Street, Westminster, Sept. 19.
* See Turkish Reforms, page 36.
( 64 )
EXTRACT FROM A REPORT ON THE PIONEER SYSTEM By
J. W. GROVER, M. INST. C.E.
a. Now to sum up the combined advantages therefore of an engine on a level
railway, against a horse on a level common road at ten miles an hour, we shall
find that the former gives an economy over the latter of nearly 300 to 1.
b. In the autumn of 1869 the ‘Times’ took up the railway problem, but
though advocated by so powerful a pen the reforms still remain unaccomplished
—indeed uncommenced. It was then shown that in practice every passenger on
a railway involved over two tons of iron and timber to carry him—or about 95 per
cent. of dead weight. Mr. Haddan's system gives a paying load one fourth greater
than the dead load.
c. When a little branch railway has to be constructed why should the country
expect a scale of magnificence in works and stations like that upon the main line
from London to Liverpool? why should the undertaking be saddled with bank-
ruptcy from its inception and what is beneficial in itself, be converted into a
bye-word 2 The fact is that the world, not excepting engineers themselves, has been
educated up to a certain standard of requirements; and hence it is absolutely
hopeless to look for any change in England in Railways as we understand them.
d. A “Light” Railway is a misnomer—a term which has led to a great deal of
confusion and loss of money—a “light” Railway must necessarily be a bad railway.
The main line manager finds all the gradients have been made too steep and the
curves too sharp–to avoid expensive earthworks—a manoeuvre which actually
involves even heavier permanent way than he is using on his main line. In fact
the line has to be remade.
Engineers have freely acknowledged that a branch line must be absolutely
something different from the parent stem, and Traffic managers for different
reasons, hold the same opinion.
e. The Little Festiniog Railway in North Wales has been frequently illustrated
in support of the arguments for an extremely narrow line, for though only two feet
wide between the rails it has paid dividends exceeding 12 per cent.—that it
has been assumed somewhat hastily that the dividend varies inversely as the
gauge, and that by halving the width between the rails, the profits can be
doubled. The fallacy of this argument is proved at Festiniog itself, for there
even on the face of the same mountains is another line, not a branch of the first,
but rather its continuation to the village of Festiniog, which though worked and
made by an independent company has returned no dividend to its shareholders.
f. In how many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but more especially
the Colonies, which are languishing for want of humble but efficient steam ways—
how enormously might the productive powers of the soil be increased by easy
access to and from the railway system, so that every farmer might have heavy
freight brought to his homestead, giving him cheaplime, coal, and manure against
his produce, hay, straw and cattle; and furthermore what a field is here opened
out for the investment of capital now Seeking employment and only finding it in
foreign enterprises - .
g. My first reason in advocating Mr. Haddan's system is founded on the great
difficulties which cuttings and embankments offer to even the simplest form of
narrow gauge Railway construction, difficulties only known to those who have to
deal with them in practice. So great are they in foreign lands where labour is
difficult to get, and contractors with sufficient plant are wanting; that the fashion
now obtains amongst engineers of making the line meander round the hills in
N ( 65 )
very serpentine courses—thereby enormously increasing the length of the line,
and involving sharpness of curve, which would have shocked the original inventor
of Railways. The constant tendency to sharpen the curve and increase the
gradient—show the false direction to which the wants of civilisation are urging
engineers from year to year.
g.g. I laid out a line to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, which is only a
distance of eight miles as the crow flies. My line was twenty-three miles long,
and for works alone the narrow gauge contemplated would have cost £16,000
er mile.
p Mr. Haddan could serve this city with a line only ten miles long, and running
at half the speed could perform the journey in less time; and when we come to
take his capital expenditure into account, the enormous magnitude of the advan-
tage becomes manifest. & .
h. Now with respect to gradient—Mr. Haddan's system contemplates con-
necting the whole of the wheels of the train by means of an endless rope, theo-
retically therefore he could work gradients from 1 in 4 to 1 in 6, say in practice
1 in 10. With such a gradient he could go anywhere, and by the facility the
endless rope affords of applying continuous brake power, he could descend that
gradient successfully and safely. - - .
i. Whether crossing a plain or ascending the side of a mountain, or valley, on
sidelong ground, the difficulty with earthwork is great, because the natural
drainage of the country is interrupted, and frequent culverts and costly bridges
must be provided to allow streams and flood waters to get through. Take for
instance the plains of Hungary, which seem to the unpractised eye to offer great
material facilities for level and easy Railway construction. There I found that
the rails have to be carried on artificial continuous embankments six or seven
feet high, and frequently in the vicinity of flooding rivers there have to be long
viaducts involving immense cost; or else (as at Szegdin) lofty dam banks entailing
a standing menace to life and property. (See the Emperor of Austria's speech,
Times, May 19.)
In Mr. Haddan's system the constructed track really forms its own bridges and
culverts, and is also a permanent way; it requires no road bed and is therefore
best adaptable to the conformation of uneven countries. By my estimate it will
be found that the entire Pioneer track can be executed for less than the permanent
way of an ordinary “light” 4-8% gauge. -
k. I cannot avoid in conclusion repeating that there is a want of something less
costly and weighty than now exists; and although the Haddan system can never
be set up to do the work done by a modern Railway, it can go into places where
the present generation could never hope to see an ordinary railway.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.
MESSRs. HERBERT AND COMPANY are now in a position to accept
orders; having obtained guarantees from the makers as to both the
performance of the rolling-stock and the stability and endurance
of the road. To afford confidence to intending purchasers or
lessees in distant countries, the following advantageous terms are
offered. - -
The first ten miles to be paid for in cash, the remainder on
deferred payments, if desired. They undertake to supply the
Pioneer road in iron complete (suitable for any grade not exceed-
ing 1 in 20, or curve of 100 feet radius) together with locomotives
in running order; each supplied with a train of thirty composite
waggons constructed to carry either 60 tons net or 240 passengers,
or any desired proportion of each.
£
The first ten miles, as above, including two trains; pro-
visionally erected in this country, and tested to * 20,000
chasers' engineer's" Satisfaction. Shipped. Price, f.o.b.
Every additional mile in iron, f.o.b. ... ... ... ... ... 1,000
Proportionate rolling-stock, per mile ... ... ... ... .. 200
For military purposes—grades 1 in 10, curves 30 º 2,000
radius, road in Landore Siemens' steel—per mile, fo.b. ~
Extra powerful Locomotives for military purposes—each 1,000
The Pioneer Company will also construct and work lines at en-
tirely their own cost, provided a daily tonnage equal to 200 tons is
guaranteed. (See page 23.)
67, Strand, London, England,
November 1, 1879.
* The “Pioneer” Consulting Engineer in England is Mr. J. W. Grover,
M. Inst. C.E., of 9, Victoria Chambers, a gentleman of great experience in the
laying out and construction of mountain railways in various parts of the world.
A copy of his detailed report, may be obtained on application; but a few extracts
are given on pages 64 and 65.
IONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
- AND CHARING CBOSS.
, ,

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