axles will necessarily depend upon the diameter of the wheels, and the weight they have to sustain. Upon the waggons used to carry the coals from the collieries in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, the diameter of the axles are from two inches and a half to two and three-quarters, the weight of the carriage and load amounting to nearly three tons, and the diameter of the wheels about three feet.

CHAPTER IV.

DESCRIPTION OF MOTIVE POWER, AND DISPOSITION OF RAIL-ROADS.

In the early periods of the history of Rail-roads, the disposition of the general line of the road seem to have been an object of little moment. The most of the Rail-roads, descending in the direction the goods were to be conveyed, afforded an easy draught to loaded carriages; and the descent was never so great, but the empty carriages could be easily drawn up the acclivities. In some of the deep ravines, mounds of earth are found thrown up, and in some are sudden and abrupt acclivities partially levelled; but trifling undulations do not

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appear to have been noticed. The horses therefore would, along the same line of road, be frequently subjected to very fluctuating degrees of draught. Upon some of the old waggon-ways, the horse is sometimes very heavily strained, and his action is, at other times, not required at all. When the waggon came to some of the descents, it was the custom to unhook him from the fore-part of the waggon, and cause him to follow behind, the waggons running of themselves; the horse thus followed until he arrived at a part of the road where the waggon would no longer run down; he was then again fastened to the waggon, until he arrived at another declivity, when his action was not required; and it was no uncommon thing to find him thus changed several times in the course of his journey.

The only motive power for a long time after the introduction of Rail-ways were horses, and, so long as the wooden rail continued in use, the general load was from two to three tons, including the weight of the carriages. The only guide, in the formation of the road, appears to have been to enable the horse to drag that weight, and the road was sloped accordingly. It is interesting to trace the gradual advancement towards the present state of improvement from the old roads to those successively formed

at the different steps of their progress; and the quantity of goods conveyed, at different periods, exemplify it in a very distinct manner. While the wooden rails without plates continued, the road followed almost always the undulations of the surface, except to avoid steep ascents; and where there was a separate road for the empty carriages, the latter invariably did so; no attempts were made to avail themselves of the action of gravity down the steep declivities; and the most disastrous effects were occasionally produced by the waggons running “a-main,” that is, down the steep declivities, a brake, or convoy, only being used, as before stated, to regulate their descent. This brake was pressed by the man with more or less force, according to the declivity of the road, or the velocity with which he wished the waggons to descend. In wet or damp weather, the wheels, by licking up the dirt and mud from the rail, became so slippery that the action of the brake was almost destroyed, and the attendant having thus no power over it, it frequently got away, destroyed every thing in its course, killed the horses that were upon the declivity, and finally was dashed to pieces. These accidents were not uncommon, and the destruction caused by them, and the narrow escapes which the men themselves frequently experienced, are

in the recollection of many now living. In wet weather, boys and men were employed strewing ashes upon the rails down the steep declivities, or, as they were termed, " runs," to cause the brake to take effect; and, in some states of the weather, when very steep declivities occurred, the work was obliged to be stopped entirely."*

When the double wood-way came into use, plated with iron, and occasional ascents intervened, more care was taken in forming the road, and a horse was enabled to take a chaldron waggon, containing 53 cwt. of coals, exclusive of the weight of the empty waggon; still, however, the evil occasioned by the waggons running amain" down the steep declivities, remained."+

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* Frequently where very steep descents occurred, for many days the work was laid off on account of the weather; a sudden shower of rain occurring, when any of the waggons were upon the declivity, set the whole away, and men were stationed to draw ropes, as booms across the line of road, to stop their progress. If the ropes could be drawn across before their momentum became very great, the damage was less; but, if they broke the ropes, then the most disastrous effects followed.

+ And when the cast-iron wheels were brought into use, the hind-wheels of the waggon were still made of wood, that the brake might be enabled to take a better hold in regu

The next improvement was, the adoption of iron rails, when the load of the horse was increased to nearly double the quantity heretofore taken upon the wooden rail; which also led to a complete change in the disposition of the road. The brake could no longer afford security to the waggons descending steep hills, and recourse was had to a series of other modes of moving, and of restraining the velocity of the waggon's power, viz. the adoption of what is called, the self-acting inclined plane." When the gravity of the loaded waggons was employed in dragging the empty ones up the planes, the prevailing means of draught was their horses upon the level and slightly descending or ascending parts of the road, and self-acting planes upon the steep declivities.

Afterwards, when the steam-engine became the most extensive moving power for all other mechanical purposes, its action was employed

lating the descent. The brake, for a long time, only acted upon the hind-wheels; and, in that case, I suppose, they found it necessary to retain the wooden wheels, to secure sufficient hold. After it was prolonged beyond the fulcrum, and made to act upon both wheels, the effect being doubled, I presume they found its action upon the cast-iron wheels sufficiently powerful, on such descents as they traversed, to secure the proper hold: the wooden wheels were therefore relinquished.