The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 2, 3 January 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1867.

Thk quest icn of mil iow gauges lor railways wl.ere tlie tisitfic is limited and tlie country is difficult is attracting attention everywhere : but the n.ost interesting collection of facts which we have yet met with is contained in a ] aper published in the August and September numbers of j the Civil Engineer and Anhiit'i-i's Journal, will) the discussion ou it by the engineers. The Festiniog railway was made in 1832, to open up the slate quarries in Merionethshire to the const. It w;is originally used with horses, but the curves and gradients were gradually improved, and in 18(53 it was worked with locomotives and opened for passenger traffic. The distance of ihis part is I2| miles, ihe total rise 700 feet, the average gradient 1 in 92, the steepest gradient 1 in 79"82, on the part where passengers travel, and ou another part where locomotives are used 1 in (iO. The curves are exceedingly sharp, some having only a 2 chains radius! The speed travelled is Irom 8 to 12 miles an hour, the gauj:e only 2 feet. Now let us see what work this line ea-i do. The eng : ues are built to suit the line, the wheels — even ihe driving wheels — are only 2 ieet in diameter, and the cylinders which are outside the- wheels, are but 6 inches above I lie rail. The weight of the engine is 7a tons. The average load taken up ihe incline is 50 tons, at ihe rate of 10 miles an hour. "The. actual performance of the engines exclusive of considerable shunting is to convey daily on the up journey to Portniadoe, along the Treat h Mawr embankment, average loads of 2GO tons of slate, all the empty shite trucks from Portmaiioc, 50 tontr of goods, and 100 passengers, besides parcels, at an expenditure of 17 cwt, of coals and coke for two engines, or OTolhs. per ton per mile.', The accounts of two years working show that locomotive traction ou this line is about 22 per cent, cheaper than traction by horse power. The rails weigh UUbs. per yard. It is not easv to discover the cost per mile in consequence of the line having bi en so much altered, but the total capital of the company is only £50,000, and it includes apparently a considerable extent of line of preeper gradient still worked by horses, besides that now worked by locomotive?. We have in the same paper an account of two lines recently constructed in Norway with a 3-feet 6-inch gauge, one 24 miles and the other 30 miles long, which cost, including rolling-stock and stations, the one £3000 a mile, and the other, through a very difficult couniry, £6000 a mile. The- rails are 371bs, and the speed lo miles an hour, including stoppages. The Norwegian Government is commencing a new line of 56 miles, "and no other gauge is contemplated in the traffic of that country." Mr Peter Bruff, one speaker, informed the Society that the Hamar line, the cheapest of the two, included in the £3000 a mile an iron bridge 900 feet long on stone piers, and that the line "crossed deep and extensive swamps." It also included 3 engines, 6 passenger carriages, 3 break vans, and 50 goods waggoDs, with - the necessary ballast waggons and repairing tools, 2 terminal and 6 : intermediate stations. The Throndhjein, line, he says, costs about £5000 a mile,, including, the cost of numerous large ; bridges, some from 70 to 100 feet high, cuttings of from 50;000 to 70,000 cubic yards,' and others through rock of more

tliau 30 feet in depth.-. An extension of , the old line, constructed by Stephenson and Bidder on the 4-feet B i- inch gauge, cost £"6400 per mile, but the 1 character of the country is not stared. Other lines were men tioned. Those. in Queens-land, where the guage is 3 feet 6 inches ;• one between Antwerp and Ghent, with a 2 feet 3 inch gunge ; : and a line which docs the work of the shops at (Jrewe, ou a gunge of ]S inches ! I The nar.owness of i lie gnngo, and the small diameter of tlie wheels giving a very short, distance between the points where the fore and hind wheels touch (he mils, enable the carriages to go freely round curves formerly ilirmt'il perfectly impracticable, and this facility is greatly increased by the use of bodies, in other words fore-carriages, uhicli turn so as to adjust themselves to curves. The possibility of going round sharp curves and up exceedingly stei-p gradients:, creates a newcm in the history of railways. Instead of the gigautic works in cuttings, bfiiljjcs, embankments, and funnels, neCessarv (o maintain the even levels and straight directions of railway lines, all the inonev required to construct such works may he caved, and the traffic can of course be carried so much cheaper. The rate charged lor the traffic depends on \\m working expenses plus the interest on the capital sunk. Supposing the working expenses are the same in both cases, 'tithe line has cost £100,000 instead of £300, 0i»0, the part of 1 lie rate due to interest may he lowered, to one-third, or if the same rate be maintained the shareholders' dividends will be increased to an equal extent. We know it lias been argued by some engineers that lirtle is gained in a plain country by a narrow line uvvra broad one. Of course the gain is vovy much greater in a hilly country, but. there is a pain even in a level plain in the lightness of the rails and of all the rolling stock. If37ll». rails are sufficient, in a lii!ly country like j Norway, 301b. rails would be amply sufficient (or the same weight, of traffic where there were neither gradients nor curves, as. on these plains. The mils on our Southern line are, we believe, 021b. to 651b., so that in rails alone the saving of cost in a narrow line would be more than £30 a yard, or probably £300 a mile. But we have not only to consider what will be gained on the plains, but the disadvantage of a break of gnage. All engineers lay the greatest possible stress on this, and strongly condemn it. As, then, the majority of New Zealand is very hilly, ought not the gunge to be introduced which will be suitable to mountainous districts, and at the same time will do all the work which can be required on the plains for many years to come ? No one probably would advocate such a nairow gunge as that of the Festiuiog railway, but it may readily be proved that a 3 feet or 3 feet 6 inch line will carry all the traffic of this colony for the next. 50 years. Figures will fuliy bear out. this assertion. Ir, is to be re•rrelted that this matter should nof have been fully considered before our railway system was commenced here, but it. is not too late. It is not too Inle to convert, the part of the Southern line already done to a 3 feet 6 inch guage. And if the broader gnage be still retained into Port, ihe cost of the transhipment of up-country jroods at Christchiircli can be avoided by the use of ii thud rail — the common plan adopted in England to. unite the two guages on the same line. Now is the time when the- whole question ought to be considered before we »o still further in a wrong direction. If we can make two miles of narrow gunge fur the pane sum for which we can make one mile of the broad, and the narrow gunge will cdrry all our traffic, will any engineer or financier point out what is gained by the more costly line ? Even the narrowest gua<r« will press severely on our means. If such a line in a, difficult country costs £5000 or £6000 a mile in Norway, it may I safely be put down at neatly double in Ihi.s ; country. That is to say, the 70 miles of j railway through the mountainous part alone of the route to the West Coast would cost £700,000 ; -yet we must look forward to the time when this must be done. Our [ present object should be- to fix on such a I gua'ge as shall render these mountniu lines '■ possible without break of giiage. We must .advance with the advance of engiKneering science, and year by. year it is'evi- [ dent that gradients and curves are coin- . ing into use, by the aid of new inventions, which were formerly " unheard of. Railways are now possible in countries and at ' a cost of which the old enginoers never

dreamed. Take, for example, the line now constructing over the summit of Mouut Cenis. Long tunnels and gigantic cuttings will soon belong to the barbaric age of railway engineering, and shareholders have been taught by bitter experience 'he relation between the cost of such works and dividends. Here we do not want dividends, but to pay a fixed interest on' the i capital spent, we s-taill find tlie difference iii the cost of ii'iiffir. — 0.-tn/eriiury JPre.?s.