ROADS V. TRAMWAYS.

West Coast Times, Issue 338, 23 October 1866, Page 2

ROADS V. TRAMWAYS.

y We extract the following 1 remarks on this subject from the " Southland Times :" — " Neither metal,- faeines and gravel, /or corduroy and gravel roads (if • made upon the principle hitherto pursued) accord with the means at present at command. Good and permanent roads may be made quickly, and at a comparatively moderatecost, upon thefollowing plan, viz. : The Government to lay down tramw ays of the description first adopted at the Duke of Norfolk's colliery near Sheffield, aud which is still extensively used in mining districts in Britain ; it consists of a cast or malleable iron plate rail with an upright flange, fixed upon cross sleej era of timber like those employed to support , wooden rails, cast with holes for spike nails, and laid down, so that both the - flanges may be towards the middle of the track, or nice wsa, either plan, being sufficient to prevent carriages running off. The plate rails may be four inches, and their flanges three inches wide. Bails to be laid at the banie distance apart, as the length of the axle trees of ordinary road drays and waggons, so that settlers' vehicles of any kind, if of similar guage, may run upon them. The construction of turn-out 9 where necessary, with this description of rail is at once easy and efficient. According to experiments made by Mr Alexander Gordon, for a ' Committee of the House of Commons on " Turnpike Trusts and Tolls," the tractive power (of horse) to move one ton on a level road, is on gravel or bioken stone road 1401bs and upwards ; on macadamised road in best condition 431bs, never less ; on edge railway lOlbs. The friction on such a tramway as I have described being greater than on an edge railway, the tractive 'power may be fairly assumed not to exceed twenty pounds, and, as according to the laws of motion, the traction or force which a horse can exert at a sueed' of 3£ miles per hour is 104lbs, it follows that one horse will eaaily draw five tons at that rate of speed, and of course a greater weight at a lesser speed, j