which pass through their flanges and the sleeper together. At the In the United States (also very largely in Germany, Canada, and Metallic Metallic Permanent Way.-Metallic permanent way, in which the sleepers are of iron, has been much employed in tropical permanent way, countries, and is now to some ex tent adopted in France and in Germany. The oldest and most widely used system of metallic way is that of Mr H. Greaves, who in 1846 introduced a spherical or bowl cleeper of cast-iron, having the chair for the rail cast on its summit (see fig. 33). Every second pair of sleepers are connected and held FIG. 38. Greaves's cast-iron sleepers. to gauge by transverse tie-bars, which pass through and are bolted to them. The form of the sleeper is strong, it holds well in the ground, the chair is not liable to be detached, the whole bearing surface is directly beneath the road, the ballast is kept dry and clastic, and there is a simple means of packing the sleeper through holes in the top, with a pointed rammer from the surface, so that the sleeper and the rail can be forced upwards without disturbing the general bed of ballast. They may also be lowered by taking out a portion of ballast from the interior. system, Mr W. Bridges Adams's "suspended girder rail," is shown in fig. 39. The rail FIG. 39. Suspended girder rail. Another is 7 inches deep, weighing 65 lb per lineal yard, and is suspended by continuous angle-wires, or side wings bolted to it, and bedded in the ballast; and, as the bearing surface on the ballast was approximated to the bearing surface of the rail, a great degree of stability was anticipated. Wrought-iron transverse sleepers were first tried in Belgium in 1862, then in France and in Portugal, and afterwards in Germany. There are various systems, most of which were unsatisfactory, but the Vautherin sleeper, first tried in 1864 on the Lyons railway, has been successful. It is hollow in section, of the form A truncated, supposing the upper part of the letter to be removed, presenting a flat bearing surface, 3 inches wide, for a flange rail. It is 8 feet in length and 9 inches wide over the flanges forming the base. It is three-eighths of an inch thick at the centre and is only half that thickness in the wings. The rail is fixed to the sleeper with gibs and cotters. It has been reported that the motion over the Vautherin sleepers is much easier than that over sleepers of oak, and that in consequence the cost of maintenance is comparatively low. It is stated that amongst a number of rails laid for trial under similar conditions, some of them on wooden sleepers and some of them on Vautherin sleepers, the number of defective rails amounted to only 2 per cent. of those laid on Vautherin sleepers against 13 per cent. of those laid on wood. It was found that if the Vautherin sleepers were not at least 8 feet in length they failed at the ends, and that even for this length it was expedient to strengthen them at the angles. It was also found that large and hard ballast, or broken stones or broken slag, aggravated the tendency to give way. Ballast of ashes produced a similar bad effect, and also caused the sleepers to rust. On the contrary, ballast of gravel, of a marly character, adapted itself admirably to the form of the sleeper. The system of fastening the rails to the sleepers by gibs and cotters has been abandoned in favour of clips and hookbolts. The Hartwich system of iron way need not be described here, having always given bad results. The Hilf system of iron way consists of two parts,-an iron longitudinal sleeper and a flange rail of steel. It is simple, easily laid and maintained, and economical. The sleeper is in section like the letter E, bevelled at the angles, having an upper flat surface and three flanges downwards.. It is 12 inches wide and about 2 deep; and it can be rolled to lengths of 30 feet and only one-third of an inch in thickness, and to a weight of 59 lb per yard. The rail is 4.32 inches high, with 2.32 inches width of table, 3'40 width of flange base, and fourtenths of an inch thickness of web. It is rolled in lengths of 30 feet and weighs 51 b per yard. It is fish-jointed and is fixed to the sleeper with two rows of bolts and nuts at intervals of from 30 to 40 inches. The gauge is preserved by means of 1-inch tie-rods, screwed at both ends with nuts. One tie-rod is sufficient for each length of rail. The combined rail and sleeper, placed on supports 54 inches apart, can carry 18 tons at their middle, without impairing their elastic strength. LOCOMOTIVE Power. Locomotives may broadly be reduced to two classes, according Types of to the situation of the working cylinders. In the first class these engine. are within the framing, under the boiler, with the main driving axle cranked at two points to receive the power from the two cylinders; in the second class they are outside the framing, and connected, not to the axle, which is straight, but to crank-pins fixed between the spokes of the wheels, in connexion with the nave. From these distinguishing features the two types of engines are known respectively as "inside cylinder locomotives" and "outside cylinder focomotives." In the latter the general contour of the cylinders is usually visible at the fore-end of the machine. The tenders have six or four wheels, according to the taste of the designer, and they are supplied with powerful brakes, worked by screws, with blocks of wood placed against each wheel. A watertank forms the upper part of the tender, namely, the two sides and the back, usually in the form of a horse-shoe, holding from 1000 to 3000 gallons; and in the hollow of the shoe the fuel is deposited, of which a full charge may weigh from 30 cwt. to 31 tons. The engine and the tender are sustained on springs placed over the axle-bearings. Again, there is the general classification of locomotives into passenger engines and goods and mineral engines. As the power of the engine is brought into action through the grip of the driving wheels upon the rails, it is necessary, for the exertion of maximum power in goods engines, to make two or more pairs of the wheels of one size, and transmit the driving force from the central pair of wheels to the front and back pairs by means of coupling-rods attached to crank-pins at the naves of the wheels. Such engines are called "six-coupled," and for them the most convenient combination is with inside cylinders. When the cylinders are outside it is usual to couple only the hind pair of wheels to the driving wheels, making a four-coupled " engine, the leading or front wheels being of smaller diameter than the driving-wheels, and so leaving room for the convenient placement of the cylinders. The six-coupled engine can take the heaviest train on a good straight railway, that is, one free for the most part from curves; but four-coupled engines work more economically on lines with frequent curves, and may be made so as to take, in average practice, as great a load as six-coupled engines. Passenger locomotives have usually been constructed with a single pair of driving-wheels, for free running at high speeds; but as traffic became heavier four-coupled-wheel passenger engines came into vogue; and express trains are now for the most part worked with four-coupled engines. In recent years the forepart of engines has in many cases been placed on a four-wheeled truck connected Speed and by a central bolt or pivot to the frame of the engine, so that the fore-wheels can swing to the curves of the line. On the Metropolitan, Metropolitan District, and North London Railways entirely, and on many large railway systems partially, where sharp curves are frequent, bogie-engines are employed, and with great advantage in facilitating traction. Another device for the same purpose is the use of radial axles, that is, axles either at the forepart or the back of the engine, which by their axle-boxes slide laterally between circularly formed guides on entering and on leaving curved parts of the way, and so maintain a radial position at right angles to the line of rails. American practice, many years since, arrived at two leading types of locomotive for passenger and for goods traffic. The passenger locomotive has eight wheels, of which four in front are framed in a bogie, and the four wheels behind are coupled drivers. This is the type to which English practice has been approximating. The tender is carried on eight wheels, disposed under two trucks or bogies, fore and aft. Goods locomotives are made with eight wheels and with ten wheels, of which, in each case, the leading pair of wheels are connected with a swing bolster and radius bar, to conform laterally and radially to curves. As the speed increases a more than proportional increase in the engine-power is necessary to draw a given train. Thus, if an engine engine and tender, weighing together 40 tons and exerting a given tractive power. force, takes, say, forty loaded carriages, weighing 360 tons, at 20 miles per hour on a level, the loads which it could take if it exerted the same tractive power at higher speeds would be only as follows: At 20 miles per hour, 40 carriages, weighing 360 tons. 30 " 30 200 50 75 " The influence of gradients also is very important. If an engine and tender, weighing together 40 tons, is capable of drawing a maximum train of, say, forty-two loaded carriages, weighing 420 tons, at 20 miles per hour on a level, it would only draw the following loads at the same speed on the following inclines : Level 42 carriages, weighing 420 tons. : feet of heating surface. The engine weighs 27 tons in working order and the tender 17, together 44 tons. The tender is fitted with Mr Ramsbottom's apparatus for picking up feed-water whilst running: a scoop is let down from the bottom of the tender and dips into water contained in a long open trough laid between the rails, from which it is scooped up into the tanks. The minimum speed at which this operation can be effected is 22 miles per hour. By the aid of the water-lifter this express engine has been enabled to run the whole distance from Holyhead to London-264 milesin one continuous run, at an average speed of 42 miles per hour, taking a train of eight or nine carriages, and consuming 27 b of coal as fuel per mile run. An express passenger locomotive having 18-inch cylinders and four-coupled driving-wheels, 7 feet in diameter, with a four-wheel bogie in front under the smoke-box, was designed by Mr T. W. Johnson for the traffic of the Midland Railway. The engine stands on eight wheels, forming a base 21 feet long. It weighs about 42 tons in working order, and with the tender, including coal and water, about 68 tons. The average load taken by engines of this class is fourteen carriages at the time-bill speed of 50 miles per hour, over gradients of from 1 in 120 to 1 in 130, with a consumption of 28 t of coal per mile run. The engine can take as a maximum load seventeen carriages between Manchester and Derby, over ruling gradients of 1 in 90 and 1 in 100 for 10 miles, at a speed up the inclines of 35 miles per hour, and on levels and falling gradients at 50 miles per hour. The carriages weigh, with passengers, 11 tons each, making up a train of the gross weight of 187 tons. The express passenger engines on the Great Northern Railway (fig. 40), designed by Mr Patrick Stirling, have outside cylinders, 18 Incline 1 in 600, 34 100, 15 75, 12 50, 9 30, 5 Express pass enger Lives. nil This is the reason why the older railway's were made nearly level at an enormous cost,-the elder Stephenson's policy being to incur a large expenditure in construction in order to avoid otherwise heavy inclines and heavy expenses. The ruling gradient of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was fixed at 1 in 900, excepting, of course, the inevitable inclines at Rainhill summit, for working which special provision was made; that of the next great line, the London and Birmingham, was fixed at 1 in 330; on the Great Western Railway, one of the earliest made lines, the ruling inclination is 1 in 1320 for the greater part of the way. Locke, as already explained, initiated the system of cheaply constructed railways, as the facilities for increasing the power of locomotives became better understood; he constructed lines with long steep gradients, some of them 1 in 70, 1 in 75, 1 in 80. The Great Northern Railway, of comparatively recent origin, was constructed on a ruling gradient of 1 in 200; and, in general, the more recently made lines have the steepest gradients. Steep railways are generally also lines of frequent curves, which is another cause of loss of locomotive power. Moreover, the ruling speeds, as they may be called, have in the course of years increased. Thus in every way more powerful engines are now needed than in the early days of railways. The fundamental characteristics of English practice are fairly represented by a few types of locomotives. Tako first an express passenger locomotive, which stands on a wheel base-the distance locomo- apart of the centres of the extreme axles-of 15 feet 4 inches. The cylinders are inside and are 16 inches in diameter, with a slide of 22 inches. The driving-wheels are 7 feet in diameter. The firegrate has an area of 18 square feet, and the heating surface of the fire-box and flue-tubes taken together is 1339 square feet. The total weight of the engine in working order is 23 tons 6 cwt., of which nearly 12 tons are driving weight, the weight at the driving wheels The tender stands on three pairs of wheels and weighs about 16 tons, with, in addition, 1780 gallons or 8 tons of water when filled, and 3 tons of coal. The "Lady of the Lake" is an express passenger locomotive, one of a class which was designed by Mr John Ramsbottom with special regard to the running of express trains on the northern division of the London and North-Western Railway. The cylinders are "outside"; they are 16 inches in diameter, with 24 inches of stroke, and the driving-wheels are 7 feet 7 inches in diameter. The fire-grate has an area of 15 square feet, and there is over 1000 square FIG. 40.-Express locomotive; Great Northern Railway. inches in diameter, and a single pair of 8-feet driving-wheels. It is one of the most recent developments of the single-wheel engine. It is placed on eight wheels, of which the first four are framed in a bogie, or truck, pivoted on a centre under the smoke-box. The cylinders are placed outside, and between the wheels of the bogie at each side. They are 18 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 28 inches,-dimensions which, taken together, exceed in magnitude those of any other engine for English passenger-traffic. The driving-wheels are 8 feet 1 inch in diameter and the bogic-wheels 3 feet 11 inches. The engine weighs 38 tons in working order, the distribution of the weight being as follows::Leading bogie-wheels Hind There is in all 1165 square feet of surface, and there is 17 6 square feet of grate surface. Mr Stirling, on the question of single-wheel versus coupled wheels for passenger locomotives, states that he constructed two classes of engines,-one class with four 6-feet wheels coupled, the other with a single pair of 7-feet driving-wheels. The boilers of the two classes were alike; also the cylinders, which were 17 inches in diameter, with 24 inches of stroke. The pressure in the boilers was 140 lb. With like trains the single-wheel engine had the better of it; in fact, it generally beat the coupled engine in time, running from King's Cross to Potter's Bar, a distance of nearly 13 miles, nearly all uphill, the gradients varying from 1 in 105 for 2 miles to 1 in 200. Engines of the class of the 8-feet-wheel engine travel between King's Cross and Leeds or York. The steepest gradients on the route are met with on leaving Leeds, ascending 1 in 50, besides the gradient 1 in 105 leaving King's Cross Trains of from sixteen to twentytwo carriages are taken from King's Cross station with ease; and on several occasions twenty-eight carriages have been taken, and time has been kept. On one occasion a distance of 15 miles in twelve minutes was accomplished with a train of sixteen carriages, making a speed of 75 miles per hour. The engine has taken a train of thirty-three carriages full of passengers from Doncaster to Scarborough and back at an average speed of 45 miles per hour. It is capable of moving a gross weight, including engine, tender, and train, of 356 tons on a level at a speed of 45 miles per hour. The average results of the regular performance of seven engines of this class between Doncaster, Peterborough, and London for the third quarter of 1884 show that a train of twelve six-wheeled carriages weighing 13 tons each was taken at a speed of from 50 to 53 miles per hour, for a consumption of 25 of coal per mile run and five pints of oil per 100 miles run. Other Four-coupled locomotives, having the cylinders inside, and four locomo- wheels coupled "in front," with a pair of hind or trailing wheels, tives. are known as "mixed engines," that is to say, engines adapted for either passenger traffic or goods traffic,-a generally useful type. In one example the cylinders are 16 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 22 inches; the coupled wheels are 5 feet in diameter. The weight of the engine is 24 tons, of which 20 tons are driving weight. The next engine to be noticed is a generally useful engine, fourcoupled "behind," for passenger traffic, such, for instance, as that with inclined fire-grate and sloping fire-box designed by Mr J. J. Cudworth for service on the South-Eastern Railway. On a wheelbase of 15 feet the weight of the engine-30 tons-is so distributed that 10 tons fall at each pair of driving-wheels and 9 tons at the leading wheels. The cylinders are inside, 16 inches in diameter, with 24 inches of stroke and 6-feet driving-wheels. Another express passenger locomotive, having inside cylinders and four-coupled wheels behind, for service on the London and North-Western Railway, has cylinders 17 inches in diameter, with 24 inches of stroke, and 6 feet 7 inch driving wheels. The engine weighs 29 tons, of which 11 are at the middle wheels, 8 at the hind wheels, and 93 at the front; thus the driving weight amounts to two-thirds of the total weight. This engine can move a gross weight of 293 tons, comprising engine, tender, and train, on a level at a speed of 45 miles per hour, with a working pressure of 120 lb per square inch in the boiler. With traius averaging ten carriages the consumption of coal is 261 lb per mile run. | A tank locomotive is an engine which carries its supply of fuel and water with it on its own frame, dispensing with the tender. Such engines are much used for short traffic, as well as for shunting and marshalling trains. The four-coupled tank engine (fig. 41) used for the passenger FIG. 41.-Tank locomotive; Metropolitan Railway. traffic of the Metropolitan Railway has four wheels coupled behind and a bogie in front. This engine weighs in working order 454 tons, of which about 85 tons are utilized as driving weight, making 173 tons for one pair of wheels,-about the greatest load on one pair of wheels anywhere. The regular duty of this engine is to take a train of six carriages capable of holding in all 432 passengers, and weighing in themselves 13 tons each, at an average speed, including stoppages, of 18 miles per hour, consuming 37 b of Welsh coal per train mile run. Whilst passing through the tunnels or covered ways the exhaust steam from the engine is condensed in large tanks carried on the engine, filled with cold water. The quantity of condensing water consumed is 900 gallons for half the journey, or every 6 miles; it is raised to 200° Fahr. temperature. The eight-wheeled tank engine (fig. 42) has been designed by Mr FIG. 42.-Tank locomotive; Great Eastern Railway. T. W. Worsdell to work the heavy suburban metropolitan traffic of the Great Eastern Railway, the ordinary trains in this service being composed of fifteen or twenty close-coupled carriages, taken over steep gradients and sharp curves. For this purpose the fore and hind axles are radially mounted, as before explained, to take the curves with facility, the engine running either end first. The engine weighs 52 tons in working order, and of these 30 tons are driving weight placed on the two pairs of coupled driving-wheels. With large cylinders 18 inches in diameter, and driving-wheels only 5 feet 4 inches in diameter, the engine is adapted for starting promptly, which it is required to do in order to keep time between closely placed stations. Every stop is made by the Westinghouse brake, with which the engine is fitted. Locomotives for drawing heavy goods trains, though not heavier than the most powerful passenger locomotives, can take goods trains of great weight. Six-coupled goods engines, with 17-inch cylinders and driving-wheels 5 feet in diameter, weighing 32 tons in working order, can take a train weighing 360 tons on a level at a speed of 25 miles per hour, consuming from 40 to 45 lb of coal per mile run with trains. The Fairlie engine (fig. 43) is placed on FIG. 43. The Fairlie locomotive, two bogies or swivelling trucks, the foremost of which carries the cylinders and propelling gear and the hindmost the tank and coalboxes. The longest distance run without stopping, combined with the Rates of highest speed, is performed on the Great Northern Railway, between speed. Grantham and King's Cross, 105 miles, in 1 hour 58 minutes, at the rate of 531 miles per hour. The Great Western Company run from Paddington to Swindon-77 miles-in 1 hour 27 minutes, being at the rate of 53 miles per hour. On the London and North-Western Railway the distance-77 miles-from Willesden to Rugby is run in 1 hour 28 minutes, at the rate of 52 miles per hour. The average rate of express and mail passenger trains on this line is 40 miles per hour or more. Parliamentary trains, calling at all stations, run at an average speed of from 19 to 28 miles per hour. Express goods trains attain a speed of from 20 to 25 miles per hour. The speed of coal trains is limited, as far as possible, to 15 miles per hour. The coal trains on the London and North-Western, Midland, Coal and Great Northern Railways generally consist of from thirty to trains. thirty-five waggons, weighing from 5 to 5 tons each, and carrying a load of 8 tons of coal. At this rate the total load of coal for thirty-five waggons weighs 280 tons, and, adding the weight of the brake-van at the end of the train, 10 tons 17 cwt., the maximum gross weight of train is 483 tons 7 cwt., as on the Great Northern Railway. This train is taken by a goods engine with six-coupled wheels 5 feet in diameter, having two steam cylinders 17 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 26 inches, and a pressure of 140 b per square inch in the boiler. The locomotive weighs in working order 36 tons 18 cwt., and the tender with fuel and water 30 tons 17 cwt., making together 67 tons 15 The gross weights are as cwt. for the locomotive and tender. Tons. cwts. mile These large coal trains are taken at a speed of 18 miles per hour, on ascending inclines of 1 in 178 at 10 miles per hour. The consumption of coal as fuel in the engine is at the rate of 45 lb per run, including the coal consumed in getting up steam. Mr Patrick Stirling, the locomotive engineer of the Great Northern Railway, has also designed and constructed still more powerful engines, having six-coupled 5-feet wheels, with cylinders 19 inches in diameter and of 28 inches stroke. These engines are capable of taking a train of forty-nine loaded coal-waggons, weighing with brake-van 672 tons. Including the weight of the engine and tender the total gross load is, say, 740 tons, taken with a consump tion of 50 lb of coal per mile run. This is probably the most extraordinary example of a dead pull on an ascending incline of 1 in 178. It is equivalent to a gross weight of 1816 tons on a level. It was found that this train was too long for some of the sidings, besides fouling both the level crossings in the city of Lincoln; hence the train was reduced in number to forty-five waggons. Six-coupled goods-engines of the usual proportions, working at full power, exert a tractive force of from 5 to 6 tons in the direction of the rails, equal to the movement of a gross weight of engine, tender, and train of from 1240 to 1500 tons on a level straight line at a speed of 15 miles per hour, or to from 386 to 463 tons on a level straight line at a speed of 60 miles per hour. A tractive force of CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS. Varieties The common varieties of vehicle employed in railway traffic are Passen that the older carriages suffered most in cases of collision; hence there was an additional inducement to add to the size and weight of carriages. But this line of development has been mainly determined by the demands of the public for greater convenience, speed, and safety, and from the growth of traffic, involving greater length and weight of trains. The early first-class carriages weighed 3 tons, the bodies or ger car upper parts being 15 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4 feet 9 inches riages, high, divided into three compartments, to hold six passengers cach, or eighteen in all. They now weigh from 8 to 13 tons each, Passenger luggage brake-vans are made open (for the most part) inside for passengers' luggage. They are fitted with a dog-box or small enclosure from side to side with doors at both ends, and with projecting sides, glazed, to accommodate the guard and afford a view of the train from end to end. A pair of doors are placed in each side for luggage. In some designs a separate compartment is partitioned off for the guard, in other cases a compartment of a passenger carriage is allotted for luggage and for the guard. The luggage van is fitted with a powerful brake; it should be fitted with three pairs of wheels. Horse-boxes are constructed to carry three horses. The long double-bogie passenger-car universally in use in the United United States, originally introduced by Ross Winans on the Balti-States more and Ohio Railroad, is distinguished essentially from the cars. carriages on British railways by the longitudinal passage in the centre of the body, reaching from end to end of the car, with seats at each side, and admitting of the free passage of the conductor throughout the train. The absence of doors at the sides permits of the enlargement of the body laterally. These cars are also distinguished by the use of two four-wheeled bogies or trucks on which the body is carried, and to which it is pivoted, allowing the car to pass with facility over quick curves. There is generally but one class of travellers; yet for the long journeys Pullman and other sleeping cars have come into use, at extra fares. From the Atlantic cities to the West there is a special "immigrant" class, as also over the Pacific railroads; and between the chief Western cities and the seaboard of late years a second-class system has been begun: passengers are usually carried in smoking cars at rates but little lower than firstclass fares, which on these lines are about 1d. per mile. Refreshment cars are also attached to trains. Ordinary passenger cars are 9 to 10 feet wide and 44 in length of body, or 49 feet over the extreme platforms. They are about 73 feet high at the sides, inside by steps at the ends. The middle passage is about 2 feet wide. the body, and nearly 10 feet high at the centre. The car is entered On each side there are fourteen seats, placed transversely, each 38 inches wide and holding two persons. which do not rise more than 34 inches above the floor, are mounted The backs of the seats, on swivels, by which the seat is made reversible. A window is placed next each seat, having a movable glass and a venetian blind. The cars are heated by stoves or steam heaters, burning coal, and coal-gas. Each car is provided with a water-closet and a supply of are lighted by oil-lamps or candles, on some lines by compressed iced water, and a vendor of books, papers, and cigars patrols the The car, complete, weighs from 17 to 20 tons, and sleeping cars There is a cord of communication with the engine-driver. about one-half more. cars. It may The form of goods truck generally used for some years after the Goods opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1829 was trucks. simply a platform about 10 feet long, on four wheels, with sides varying from 4 to 10 inches in height, weighing from 2 to 3 rough goods of 2 tons weight. The general unfitness of this style tons. Many such waggons were employed for transporting heavy of waggon led to the adoption of portable sides and ends, which consisted of open crib-rails dropped into staples; and to these was added the costly tarpauling or sheet to cover the goods and bind them down. The waggon thus appointed, 13 or 14 feet in length and weighing about 3 tons, was fit to carry 4 or 5 tons of ordinary goods. But loose or removable parts of waggons are liable to be lost or get out of order, and are costly to maintain, while a new tarpauling may be spoiled on the first day of using it by injury from projecting angles of goods under cover. Crib-rails by built covered waggons from 14 to 16 feet long and 74 feet wide, and tarpaulings, therefore, have been to some extent superseded with sliding or hinged doors and roofs, so that with the cranechairs a bale of goods, however heavy, can be deposited at or moved from any part of the interior of the waggon, and the goods wind, or rain. Covered waggons weigh from 4 to 6 tons, and may be perfectly enclosed and protected from damage by fire, they can carry, according to their dimensions, from 6 to 8 tons of goods. The cost of maintenance of ordinary open waggons is said to amount to from 7 to 10 per cent of the first cost, whilst that of covered waggons is said to be only 4 per cent. be stated generally that waggons if properly made will carry designed badly-made waggons will carry no more than their 60 per cent. more than their own weight of goods, but that illown weight of goods. The great demand for weight in arose, as much as from anything else, from the absence of spring. waggons buffers at the ends, which exposed them daily to rude and trying collisions. By and by buffing-springs were introduced at one end of the waggon, the other being left "dead," and at length, cheap and convenient buffers having been devised, springs came to be placed at both ends of new stock. Waggons, as formerly made, were in long trains likewise subjected to violent shocks in starting into motion, and therefore the draw-bars also were placed upon springs. Some companies have gone further and placed the guard or side chains upon springs. Thus the waggon has come to be defended by springs at all points, and there is no doubt that the extra cost so incurred has been amply covered by savings on repairs and diminished breakages of goods. Spiral springs for buffing and drawing, made of round or of oval steel, fixed externally to the placed under the floor, are taking their place. Broad-gauge (7-feet ends of waggons, have been much employed; but laminated springs, gauge) waggons have been constructed sufficiently strong to carry 20 tons of load on six wheels; but they were not generally made to carry more than 10 tons. Even 10 tons is considered in some quarters to be excessive as a maximum waggon-load on the ordinary or 4 feet 8 inch gauge. On the Midland Railway, for instance, the standard coal-waggon is constructed to carry 8 tons. The stock. heavier the load for which mineral vehicles are constructed, the greater is the tear and wear of the stock, insomuch that the waggons on that line which stood to their work best were the old 6-ton waggons. Recent Railway carriages are composed of two distinct parts, the undercarriage frame or substructure, and the body or superstructure. The underframe has to carry the body and to resist the stress of work. It should be on axles placed well apart, and should be firmly framed together, of hard wood, with iron tie-rods, brackets, knees, straps, bolts, and nuts. Powerful laminated springs are lodged within the frame to take the pull of the train through the central drawbars and to intercept and absorb the thrusts of the buffers at the ends through the buffing-rods. On the Midland Railway four Carriage. 6-wheeled bogie composite 4-wheeled bogie composite 4-wheeled bogie third class 4-wheeled bogie composite 6-wheeled first class 6-wheeled composite 6-wheeled third class wheeled carriages are (1885) being gradually superseded by sixwheeled and long bogie carriages. Four varieties of bogie carriage and three varieties of six-wheeled carriage are constructed for the service. First-class compartments are constructed to seat six persons, three on each side; third-class compartments seat ten persons, five on each side. A uniform width of 8 feet outside, or 7 inside, is adopted for all carriages; and, as a rule, first-class compartments are 74 feet long between the partitions, and thirdclass compartments 6 feet long. The roof is 7 feet 4 inches above the floor at the centre, and the clear height of the doorway is 6 feet. The wheels are 3 feet 7 inches in diameter. Leading particulars of the several kinds of carriage now constructed on the Midland Railway are given in Table XXX. as follows: Each of these carriages is fitted with a vacuum brake. In the beginning of 1885 there were 837 bogie carriages at work on the Midland Railway, inclusive of 34 Pullman cars. The bogie cars, in virtue of their ability to swing their bogies to the curves on the line, run more freely than ordinary carriages, which have parallel axles. Six-wheeled carriages are enabled to run the more freely by an allowance of lateral play for the axle-boxes of the middle axle between the axle-guards, whereby the wheels adapt themselves freely to the rails on curves. The Pullman cars in use on the Midland Railway were sent from America. They are of two kinds, -the drawing-room for day service and the sleeping-car. The body of the cars is 513 feet in length externally and 8 feet 9 inches wide. Inside the body is 8 feet 2 inches wide, and 8 feet 6 inches high above the floor. The total length, including the gangways at the ends, is 58 feet. Each car is mounted on two four-wheeled bogies. There are seats for twenty-seven persons in the drawingroom car, with lavatories and heating apparatus, and twenty-two beds are made up in each sleeping-car. The cars weigh 21 tons and their cost is £2700 each. The carriage stock of the Metropolitan Railway was designed to carry large numbers. The bodies of the carriages are 39 feet in length and feet wide outside, running on eight wheels, of which the extreme les radiate, or are movable laterally to suit the curves of the way. The first-class carriages are divided into six compartments, providing seats for forty-eight passengers. The second and third class carriages have eight compartments, holding altogether eighty passengers in each. These carriages weigh 13 tons each. The waggon stock of the Midland Railway is of several classes. All the standard goods and mineral waggons, as well as cattlewaggons, are constructed to carry 8 tons. Leading dimensions, weights, and prices are given below in Table XXXI. : Lighting. In In to each compartment. Ordinary coal-gas has also been used on the metropolitan railways. Pintsch's system of lighting carriages by compressed oil-gas is extensively in use on Continental railways, where it has been in operation for upwards of ten years. 1876-77 the system was tried successfully on the Metropolitan Railway, when it appeared that 1000 cubic feet of the compressed gas could do the work of 6500 cubic feet of coal-gas, at a cost of scarcely one farthing per burner per hour, against one-third of a penny for coal-gas lamps, and from d. to d. for oil-lamps. The gas is distilled from cheap oils, as the waste-products from the manufacture of paraffin, soft lignite, or shale. The gas is pumped from the gasholder into reservoirs, in which it is compressed to about one-tenth of its ordinary volume. From these it is drawn off into a reservoir stowed under each carriage at a pressure of six atmospheres, or 90 b per square inch. The Pintsch system is in use on railways in England and Scotland on nearly 3000 vehicles, and is being extended to other stock; the number of vehicles thus lighted in all the railways of Europe is about 18,000. Besides, the system is employed for the head-lights of locomotives. The covered goods waggons are made with a doorway at each side, 5 feet wide and 5 high, and a sliding door to each doorway. The high-sided waggons are made with a doorway and hinged door in each side, and two trap-doors in the bottom. the low-sided waggons each side is a door for its whole length. The cattle-waggons are made with doorways in each side, to each of which there are two doors hinged to each doorpost, and a lettingdown door hinged to the lower side-rail. All the waggons are fitted with transverse buffing and draw springs. Lighting of Carriages.-The North London Railway Company, it is believed, were the first to use gas instead of oil for lighting carriage stock. Thirty gas-lights in a train are supplied from two reservoirs or gasholders in the brake-vans, which hold 200 cubic feet of ordinary coal-gas, supplied from the mains,—-enough to serve the train for from two hours to two and a half hours. The gas is conducted by pipes over the roofs of the carriages, with a branch Intercommunication signals for railway trains are provided Interbetween driver and guard, driver and passengers, or passengers comand guard. Electric means of communication have been proposed municaand tried, but mechanical appliances are most commonly employed. tion There is the ordinary guard's cord, extending along the train out- signals. side, placed so as to be accessible from the window; then there are the same cord, with an attachment coming inside the window, the English cord, connected with a bell in the driving cab, a line inside the carriage connected with the steam-whistle, and so on. The acoustic signals appear to belong to the last type; but none of these systems is comparable with the through middle passage of the American cars already noticed. Continuous Brakes.-No department of railway practice has in Conrecent years received closer attention and more minute study than tinucus that of continuous brakes,-brakes applied to the several vehicles brakes. in a train. With the amount of brake-power that had for many years been supplied to passenger trains hand-brakes on tenders and guards' vans-a train running at from 45 to 50 miles per hour on a straight level line could not be pulled up within from 800 to 1200 yards; and even that inadequate amount of brake-power was in the hands of several men. It was clear that the problem of arresting a train in the shortest distance could only be solved by bringing a power to bear on every part of the train in the shortest possible time. But the difficulty consisted in establishing continuity of action, so that the engine-driver or the guard should be enabled to apply the brake-blocks on a series of vehicles in one operation. Mechanical means were first tried, in the systems of Fay and Newall, in which the brakes are worked by a continuous rod passed under the vehicles. These systems were found to be available only on sections of not more than four or five vehicles, and were not worked by the driver but by the guard. In September 1858 a circular was issued by the Board of Trade to the railway companies, calling attention to the advantages to be derived from having their trains controlled by a sufficient amount of brake-power. Subsequently many inventions were tried,-brakes worked by fluid pressure, others worked by chains; but no practical solution of the problem appears to have been arrived at until Mr Westinghouse of Pittsburgh, U.S.A., invented a really continuous brake worked by compressed air, which was quickly adopted in the United States, and was tried a few years later on several railways in England. It is still (1885) employed exclusively on the Metropolitan District Railway. Although the Westinghouse brake was greatly in advance of previously existing systems and answered ordinary requirements |