Stokers and Pokers

London & North Western Railway, Electronic Telegraph & Railway Clearing Hse.

Francis B. Head

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780714614403
• eBook ISBN: 9781136239854
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Published in the year 1968, Stokers and Pokers is a valuable contribution to the field of Economics.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY.

AT the grand inauguration dinner eaten in Paris on the 28th of December, 1848, for the express purpose of celebrating the installation of the new President of the French Republic, it has been recorded by the reporters present, that among the numerous guests assembled, there was no one whose presence engrossed such universal attention as that of an erect emaciated member of “ La Vieille Garde.”

The old soldier, it is stated, as he sat at table, scarcely noticed the constellations of bright, black, and hazel-coloured eyes that from all directions were concentrated upon him, but, addressing himself first to his own black bottle, and then with the utmost good humour to those of his neighbours, he drank and ate—drank —swigged—reflected,—and then, as if to refresh himself, drank again, again, and again, until, according to pre-arrangement, he stood up on the tribune to re-propose the health of “LOUIS NAPOLEON,” to which—coupling the meteor now shining in its zenith with the “sun of Austerlitz,” which, though sunk for ever below the horizon, still beamed as resplendently as ever within his heart—he added, with great naïveté, “MAIS SANS OUBLIER L’AUTRE!”

The French people, or rather the representatives of the French nation who were assembled, had received the consecutive orations of several of the most illustrious of their fellow-citizens with considerable marks of approbation ; but when the veteran in question, who was about seventy years of age, with hair white as snow, rose to address to them a short speech that would scarcely have filled his empty wine-glass, the sight of the uniform so dear to Frenchmen—the tall bear-skin cap, the crimson feather, blue coat, red facings, red worsted epaulettes, white breast, white breeches, long black gaiters reaching over the knee, and, above all, buttons with an eagle supporting the imperial crown—created a storm of applause which it would be utterly impossible to describe. For nearly a quarter of an hour shouts and clappings of hands prevented the old warrior from opening his lips, and the applause if possible increased when the veteran, with the palm of his hand turned outwards, stiffly saluted the company in correct martial style: and yet, strange to record, at the very moment of all this military enthusiasm, so characteristic of a nation of whom it was lately very eloquently stated “ that it had been its ambition to be the world’s guide and its destiny to be the world’s warning,” the French Government was not only without funds to protect public or private property, but, in fact, had nothing but the plunder of both to conciliate and feed the multitude of misguided and misguiding people who, by the ruin of commerce and by the stagnation of trade, were literally all over France starving from cold and hunger. Of their enthusiasm, therefore, as of that of the veteran standing up before them, it may truly be said or sung—

“ Happy’s the soldier that lives on his pay,
And spends half-a-crown out of sixpence a-day!”

Having related, or rather merely repeated, this curious little anecdote, we will now endeavour to explain in what manner it applies to the subject of our chapter, namely, “ the construction of a railway.”

It has been justly observed that “ England is bound over to keep the peace by a national debt, or penalty, of 800 millions.” During the glorious expenditure of all this money, the attention of the country was solely engrossed with the art, employment, occupation, and victories of war. Our great statesmen were warministers—our great men were naval and military warriors of all ranks, whose noble bearing and gallant feats were joyfully announced, and, by universal acclamation, as gratefully rewarded ; and if every man who took a government contract, or who in any way came into contact with government, easily made a large fortune by war, he, generally speaking, as rapidly spent it; and thus an artificial circulation of wealth was kept up, which, like the schoolboy’s mode of warming himself, commonly called “ beating the booby,” produced a temporary glow, estimated at the moment to be of as much value as if it had naturally proceeded from the heart.

The English people during the period in question drank hard. The rule had scarcely an exception. As regularly as four o’clock P.M. struck, our noblemen, magistrates, judges, hunting squires, and country gentlemen, began to look a little flushed—the colour gradually increasing, until in clue time they all became, like their sun in a fog, red in the face. Before bedtime the semi-rulers of the nation were half inebriated—some of our leading statesmen being, alas! notoriously, very nearly in the same state.

No sooner, however, were the British people, by the results of 1815, suddenly weaned from war, than their extraordinary natural powers, moral as well as physical, invigorated by comparative temperance, were directed to investigations, occupations, and studies which rapidly produced their own rewards. Indeed, without entering into details, the wealth which has been created and amassed since the period in question, added to that with which we have not only irrigated, but almost without metaphor top-dressed the greater portion of the old as well as of the new world, and, lastly, the extraordinary improvements that have taken place in light, heat, locomotion—electrical as well as by steam-power—machinery, in short in everything that administers to human comfort, form altogether the golden harvest of our labours; and thus, although to our eminent civil engineers considerable credit is due, they are, in fact, but secondary causes; the engineer-in-chief—the primary inventor—the real constructor of our railways most indisputably being

THE GODDESS OF PEACE.

Send her victorious—happy and glorious—
Long to reign over us—God save that queen!

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LINE.

1. In considering the project of a railway, after fixing upon the two termini, it becomes necessary to select the towns through which it ought to pass.

2. When these have been determined, the chief engineer to whom the investigation of the proposed line has been confided, with the Ordnance map in his hand, walks and re-walks over the whole length (Mr. Robert Stephenson, in his investigation of the proposed line between London and Birmingham, walked upwards of twenty times over the country between each), until he feels that he carries in his mind its correct picture; and while he is thus imagining and making out various lines for consideration, his assistants are testing the eligibility of each by rapidly taking for him what are called “ flying levels,” as also “ cross levels,” along the principal ridges that at various angles intersect the proposed line, and yet, notwithstanding the accuracy of these mathematical precautions, it is almost invariably found that the eye of the chief engineer has intuitively selected the best line.

It is, however, as painful to reflect on, as it is humiliating to record, the prejudices, ignorance, passions, and artifice by which our principal engineers were opposed, or rather by which they were consecutively thwarted in the calm scientific investigations for the benefit of the public which we have just described.

Instead of a general desire on the part of the community to hail with gratitude, and to receive with open arms, an invention which was practically not only to enable them with double elbow-room, and at about half fares, to travel at four or five times the speed which by their utmost efforts they had previously been enabled to attain, but to afford similar facilities to millions of tens of manufactures and merchandize, much of which had either been impeded by delay, or altogether clogged by the heavy charges on their transit, our engineers, in tracing the lines for our great arterial railways, were but too often looked upon as magicians, evil genii, or unclean spirits, whose unearthly object was to fright the land from its propriety.

In many instances where it was proposed, by tapping the dull stagnant population of a country town, to give vigour and animation, to its system, the inhabitants actually fancied that their interests and their happiness would, like their habits, expire under the operation.

For example, it is well known that one of the results of Mr. R. Stephenson’s deliberate investigations was, that the present London and North-Wèstern Railway ought to pass through the healthy and handsome town of Northampton,—an arrangement which of course would instantaneously have given to it commercial importance of inestimable value. The inhabitants, however, urged and excited by men of influence and education, opposed the blessing with such barbarous force, that they succeeded, to their everlasting punishment, in distorting the line— viâ the Kilsby Tunnel, which, if the projected plan had been adopted, would not have been required—to a point five miles off! and if such ignorance could, in the nineteenth century, exist in a large and populous town, it cannot be a matter of surprise that our engineers should have had to encounter similar, or, if possible, still greater prejudices in rural districts.

It was there generally considered to be utterly incredible that a railway could ever possibly supersede our mail and stage coaches; at market meetings, and at market dinners, the invention was looked upon as, and declared to be, “a smoky substitute for canals;” and while men of property inveighed against its unsightly appearance, their tenants were equally opposed to the measure.

For instance, among the reasons for preventing the present London and North-Western Railway coming to Northampton, it was seriously urged by many very wealthy and respectable graziers in the neighbourhood, that the smoke of the passing engines would seriously discolour the wool of their sheep; that the repeated progress through their verdant meadows of a sort of rumbling, hissing, fiery serpent, would, by continually alarming, fretting, and distracting the attention of their cattle, prevent them, “ poor things!” from fattening; in short, such was the opposition to the new system, that one of the engineers employed by the London and North-Western Railway to trace out a branch line (which, at a considerable expense to the Company, was to confer inestimable advantages upon its locality) was attacked by the proprietors of the soil, and a conflict or battle royal ensued, which ended in very serious legal results.

3. As soon as the chief engineer has, instead of the best line of railway that could have been determined on, decided on that which, for the reasons stated, it is advisable he should recommend—alas ! what a pity it is that, in the construction of our great arterial railways, such a discreditable difference should have been allowed to exist!!—he employs his assistant engineers and surveyors to make for him accurate surveys, and to take correct sections, copies of which are to be deposited, according to Act of Parliament, with the various clerks of the peace of the several counties through which the line is to pass, with the Commissioners of Railways, &c. &c. &c.; besides which there is to be prepared for each parish its proportion, as also for every landholder a section, showing the greatest depth of cutting or embankment in any of his fields.

In addition to the collection and construction of all these data and drawings, notices are to be served upon every landowner, wherever he may be, in the United Kingdom ; for which duty in 1845 almost everybody that could be picked up was engaged, the number of horses employed and killed in the operation having been utterly incalculable.

4. By the time these expenses have been incurred, the attention of the chief engineer is engrossed by a new struggle of vital importance, practically called “ the fight for the Act,” in both houses of Parliament.

As the question before the reader is abstractedly one of science, we gladly refrain from staining it by the slightest political remark; we will therefore, on this branch of the subject, only state that, from returns which have officially been published, it appears that, in the years 1845, 1846, and 1847, more than ten millions were expended in parliamentary inquiries and parliamentary contests.

This money would, at the rate of 20,000l. per mile, have constructed a national railway 500 miles in length—say from London to Aberdeen!

Casting aside the bitter mortification which these expenses must create to the man of science, whose mind is enthusiastically engrossed with the vast importance of railway communication, the permanent tax which they inflict upon the public can very briefly be demonstrated.

Supposing 5 per cent, be deemed an adequate return to railway proprietors for the capital they have expended, the comparative charges to be levied by them on every passenger or ton of goods would, on a given traffic, be as follows :—

Charge per mile on a railway which ought to have cost
15,000l. per mile	Id.	per mile.
Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been made
to cost 20,000l. per mile	1⅓d.	”
Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been made
to cost 25,000l. per mile	1⅔d.	”
Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been made
to cost 30,000l. per mile	2d.	”

5. As soon as the Act of Parliament has been obtained, the chief engineer directs the immediate construction of a most accurate plan and section of the whole line, from which he ascertains and lays down its gradients. He then determines the sizes of the bridges required, as also the nature and amount of masonry for cach ; he calculates the quantities of embankments and cuttings, balancing the one against the other as nearly as circumstances will allow, and having, by first boring, and afterwards by the sinking of “ trial shafts,” ascertained as accurately as possible the nature of the various strata to be excavated or tunnelled, he proceeds to estimate in detail the cost of the several works, which he then divides into lengths for construction, taking care that in each the amount of earth to be excavated and filled up shall as nearly as possible balance each other; in short, inasmuch as all contractors prudently, and indeed very properly, invariably lower their tenders in proportion as the work they are required to execute has been clearly laid open to their view, and, on the other hand, to secure themselves from unknown difficulties, as invariably raise their tenders for work which has not been sufficiently bored or examined, he is fully sensible that a considerable saving in the cost of the proposed railway will be effected by a clear preliminary development of its works.

6. This mass of information having been prepared, the chief engineer now advertises his work in its various lengths for execution by contract, and, on receiving tenders for the same, he selects, not always the lowest, but that which, for various reasons, is the most approved,, taking security generally to the amount of 10 per cent, of the contract.

Previous, however, to the reception of the tenders the chief engineer appoints his staff of assistants. To each 40 or 50 miles there is usually appointed an experienced engineer, having under him “ sub-assistants” who superintend from 10 to 15 miles each—these sub-assistants being again assisted by “ inspectors” of masonry, of mining, of earth-work, and of permanent way, to each of whom a particular district is assig...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Editor Introduction
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter I. On the Construction of a Railway
• Chapter II. On the maintenance of the Permanent Way
• Chapter III. The Trains, Euston
• Chapter IV. The Railway Carriages
• Chapter V. Lost Luggage Office
• Chapter VI. Parcel Delivery Office
• Chapter VII.The Locomotive Engine. —Camden
• Chapter VIII. Goods Department
• Chapter IX. Wolverton
• Chapter X. Letters and Newspapers
• Chapter XI. Crewe
• Chapter XII. A Railway Town
• Chapter XIII. The Electric Telegraph
• Chapter XIV. The Railway Clearing-House
• Chapter XV. Moral
• Appendix
• Second Title
• Index
• Half Title 2
• Chapter I. The principle upon which the britannia and conway tubular bridges have been constructed
• Chapter II. Construction of the tubes and towers
• Chapter III. The floating of the tube
• Chapter IV. Raising the tubes
• Chapter V. MR. Fairbairn’s claims
• Chapter VI. Moral
• Postscript