LIGHT RAILWAYS IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND Wales,

253-278

APPENDICES.

I. Cost of Railway Construction in different Countries,

281

II. Railway Returns for England and Wales, Scotland, and

III. Table of Interest per Annum, and of Earnings and Expen-

diture per Mile per Week, .

282

IV. Railway Returns for India, 1894,

facing 282

V. Half-yearly Statistics of Indian Railways, 1894,

283-289

VI. North-Western Railway, India—Coaching and Goods Tariff,

290-296

VII. Concessions offered by Government of India for Construction

of Branch Lines, 1896,

VIII. Light Railways Act, 1896,

297-306

307-319

IX. Statutory Rules and Orders made by the Board of Trade

with respect to Applications for Orders Authorising Light

Railways, .

320-327

X. General Enactments relating to Railways referred to in the

Light Railways Act,

328

Supplementary Note on the Colonies,

329

Supplementary Note on the Promotion and Working of

Light Railways,

331

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Permanent-Way, Belgian Light Railways-Mode of Fixing Rails in

Road Transport-Traction Engine, Road Locomotive, and Traction

Wagon,

Station Yard Plans on Single Line,

p. 151, Plate I.

p. 204, Plate II.

Signalling and Interlocking at-I. a Station, II. a Double Junction,

and III. a Slip-road in a Crossover-road,

List and Morse Patent Signals,

Proposed Type of Station Arrangements, Plans A and B,

Front Elevations of Engines (three gauges) on the Eastern

State Railway,

p. 209, fig. 3

p. 214, Plate III.

p. 218, Plate IV.

Bengal

Side Elevations and Plans of Engines (three gauges) on the Eastern

Bengal State Railway,

Carriage and Wagon Stock, Eastern Bengal State Railway,

p. 246, fig. 4

p. 252, Plate V.

Permanent-Way and Rolling-Stock, Wisbech and Upwell Tram-

way,

Waterways and Depôts Three Horse-Shoes and Benwick Line, p. 264, Plate IX.

LIGHT RAILWAYS

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

CHAPTER I.

DISCUSSION OF THE TERM "LIGHT RAILWAYS.”

CONTENTS.-A precise definition difficult-Relation of other terms-Standard
railways-Narrow-gauge railways-Portable railways-Pioneer railways-Dis-
classed lines-Feeder lines-Foreign terms-Tramways and tramroads-Sir D.
Fox's interpretation-Sir John Wolfe Barry's description-The term as generally
understood-Restricted by the Act of 1868-Undefined by the Act of 1896-
Differentiation not a practical difficulty-Differences between standard and light
lines in degree only-The same principles of rating, etc., applicable to both-
Importance of light railways to agriculture—Road transport as an alternative.

Definitions of Terms.-The subject of light railways may be con-

pared to a country which has no fixed frontiers, or to those Arctic

lands whose northern limits are still unmapped. The reader's first

and natural demand for a definition of the term "light railways

must be frankly met with the disappointing reply that a hard and

fast definition, at once concise, exact, and comprehensive, is not forth-

coming.

It is not easy to determine the exact point of divergence of light

from standard railways. One is not necessarily divided from the

other by the mere detail of gauge, for we may have a first-class railway,

like the Rajputana-Malwa in India, on the metre gauge, and a light

line, like the Easingwold in Yorkshire, on the standard gauge. The

terms light and narrow-gauge railways, therefore, are not interchange-

able. That portable railways-such as Messrs John Fowler & Co.

or the Decauville Company supply-are light railways is obvious, but

they represent a limited and extreme type.

Nor does the length or location of a line establish the difference

between a light and a standard railway; for a pioneer railway may

extend for two or three hundred miles and occupy a main trade route

-until the pressure of a growing traffic compels its replacement by a

more substantial system-in a new or poor country, where the choice

lies between a cheap light railway and none at all. In richer and

A