Stokers and Pokers; Or, The London and North-Western Railway, the Electric Telegraph, and the ...

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Contents

CHAP. PAGE

Introduction 7

I. On the Construction of a Railway . . . .11

Introduction

A GOOD many years ago, one of the toughest and hardest riders that ever crossed Leicestershire undertook to perform a feat which, just for the moment, attracted the general attention not only of the country but of the sporting world. His bet was, that, if he might choose liLs own turf, and if he might select as many thorough-bred horses as he liked, he would undertake to ride 200 miles in ten hours ! ! !

The newspapers of the day described exactly how " the Squire " Mtos dressed — what he had been living on — how he looked — how, at the word " Away I " he started like an arrow from a bow — liow gallantly Tranby, his favourite lacer, stretched himself in his gallop— how, on arriving at his second horse, he vaulted from one saddle to another — how he then flew over the surface of the earth, if possible, faster than before — and how, to the astonishment and amidst the acclamations of thousands of spectators, he at last came in * . . a winner !

Now, if at this moment of his victory, while with dust and l)er8piration on his brow — ^his exhausted arms dangling just above the panting flanks of his horse, which his friends at each side of the bridle were slowly leading in triumph — a decrepit old woman had hobbled forward, and in the name of Science had

8 INTRODUCTION.

told the assembled multitude, that, before she became a skeleton, she and her husband would undertake, instead of 200 miles in ten hours, to go 500 — that is to say, that, for every mile " the Squire " had just ridden, she and her old man would go two miles and a half — that she would moreover knit all the way, and that he should take his medicine every hour and read to her just as if they were at home ; lastly, that they would undertake to perform their feat either in darkness or in daylight, in simshine or in storm, " in thunder, lightning, or in rain ;" — who, we ask, would have listened to the poor maniac ? — and yet how wonderfully would her prediction have been now fulfilled ! Nay, waggons of coals and heavy luggage now-a-days fly across Leicestershire faster and farther than Mr. Osbaldestone could go, notwithstanding his condition and that of all his horses.

When railways were first established, every living being gazed at a passing train with astonishment and fear : ploughmen held their breath ; the loose horse galloped from it, and then, suddenly stopping, turned round, stared at it, and at last snorted aloud. But the " nine days' wonder " soon came to an end. As the train now flies through our verdant fields, the cattle grazing on each side do not even raise their heads to look at it ; the timid sheep fears it no more than the wind ; indeed, the hen-partridge, running with her brood along the embankment of a deep cutting, does not now even crouch as it passes close by her. It is the same with mankind. On entering a railway station, we merely mutter to a clerk in a box where we want to go — say " How much ? *' — see him horizontally poke a card into a little machine that pinches it — receive our ticket — take our place — read our newspaper — on reaching our terminus drive away perfectly careless of

INTRODUCTION.

all or of any one of the innumerable arrangements necessary for the astonishing luxury we have enjoyed.

On the practical wording of a railway there is no book extant, nor any means open to the public of obtaining correct information on the subject.

Unwilling, therefore, to remain in this state of ignorance respecting the details of the greatest blessing which science has ever imparted to mankind, we determined to make a very short inspection of the practical machinery of one of our largest railways ; and having, on application to the Secretary, as also to the Secretary of the Post-Office, been favoured with the slight authorities we required, without companion or attendant we eflfected our object ; and although, under such circumstances, our unbiassed observations were necessarily superficial, we propose, first, to oflfer to our readers a faint outline of the difficulties attendant upon the construction and maintenance of a great railway, and then, by a few rough sketches, rapidly to pass in review some of the scenes illustrative of the practical working of the line, which we witnessed at the principal stations of the London and North-Western Eailway — say Euston, Camden, WoLVERTON, and Crewe.

LONDON AND NOKTH-WESTERN

RAILWAY.

CHAPTER I. On the Construction of a Bailwat

At the gr&nd inauguration dinner eat^ in Paris on the 28th of Decemberi 1848, for the elcpress 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 feittention as that of an erect emaciated member of " La Vieille Garden

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 NAPOI.EON," 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 naivete, " Mais sans oublier

r.' 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 seventj^ 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, andj 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 I"

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 constrtujtion of a railway J'

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

CHAP, i.l CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY. 13

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 due 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 op Peace.

Send her victorious — happy and glorious — Long to reign over us — Grod save that queen I

The Construction of the Line.

1. In considering the project of a railway, after fixing upon tlie 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 the whole 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 tons of manufactures and merchandize, much of which had

Chap. I.] Construction Op A Railway. 15

either been impeded by delay, or altogether clogged by the heavy cliarges 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-Western Eailway 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 — via the Balsby 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 tliat 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 continual 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 op-' position 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 iiS abstractedly one ot science, we gladly refrain from staining it by the slightest poll*

CHAP. I.] CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY. 17

tical 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 20,000/. 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 oh every passenger or ton of goods would be as follows : —

Charge per mile od a railway which ought to have cost

15,000/. per mile 1</. per mile.

Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been made

to cost 20,000/. per mile IJrf. „

Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been made

to cost 25,000/. per mile . . . • . IJc/. „

Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been made

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 each ; 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

c up shall as nearly as possible balance each other; in short, inasniucii 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 etiected 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 60 miles there is usually appointed an experienced engineer, having under him '^ sub-assistapits," 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 assigned.

7. The chief engineer now finds himself engaged in a newstruggle with man in addition to nature. In many instances the contractors let out a portion of the work they have engaged to perform to sub-contractors, who again "set" the earth- work to a body of " navvies,*' who again among themselves sub-divide it among the three branches of which their State is composed, namely, *' excavators," " trenchers," and ** runners," each party of whom appoint their own " ganger."

The duty of effectually overlooking all these details, of preventing collusion as well as collision, of enforcing the due execution of the contract, and yet, where necessary, occasionally to alleviate the strict letter of its law, constitute perhaps the most harassing of the various difficulties which the chief aigineer has to overcome : for it must be evident that if. by means of briberr, or from inattention, or from sheer roguery, any important portion

CHAP. I.] CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY. 19

of the work be " seamped," or insufficiently performed, results may ere long occur of the most serious description.

Tunnels.

8. The brief history of the construction of the Kilsby Tunnel of the London and North-Western Railway very strikingly demonstrates the latent difficulties which occasionally evade the investigations, baffle the calculations, and which, by chastening as well as by humbling, eventually elevate the mind of every man of science who has practically to contend with the hidden secrets of the crust of the earth which we inhabit.

The proposed tunnel was to be driven about 160 feet below the surface. It was to be, as indeed it is, 2399 yards 2 feet 6 inches in length, with two shafts of the extraordinary size of 60 feet in diameter, not only to give air and ventilation, but to admit light enough to enable the engine-driver in passing through it with a train to see the rails from end to end.

In order correctly to ascertain, and honestly to make known to the contractors, the nature of the ground through which this great work was to pass, the engineer in chief sank the usual number of what are termed *' trial shifts," and, it clearly appearing therefrom that the principal portion of the stratum was the shale of the lower oolite, the usual advertisements for tenders were issued, and the shafts, &c., having been minutely examined by the competing contractors, the work was let to one of them for the sum of 99,000/.

In order to drive the tunnel, it was deemed necessary to construct 1 8 working shafts, by which, like the heavings of a mole, the contents of the subterranean gallery were to be brought to the surface.

This interesting work was in busy progress, when all of a sudden it was ascertained, that at about 200 yards from the south end of the tunnel, there existed, overlaid by a bed of clay 40 feet thick, a hidden quicksand, which extended 400 yards into the proposed tunnel, and which the trial shafts on each side of it had almost miraculously just passed without touching.

c2

The traveller in India could scarcely be more alarmed at the sudden sight of a crouching tiger before him, than the contractor was at the unexpected appearance of this invincible enemy. Overwhelmed at the discovery, he instantly took to his bed, and though he was liberally, or, to speak more correctly, justly relieved by the Company from his engagement, the reprieve came too late, for he actually died !

The question then arose whether, in the face of this tremendous difficulty, the execution of the Ealsby Tunnel should be continued or abandoned. The general opinion of the several eminent engineers who were consulted was against proceeding, and certainly the amount of the difficulties which were subsequentlyincurred, justified the verdict. But in science, as well as in war, the word " impossible " can occasionally, by cool and extraordinary exertions, be divested of its first syllable ; and accordingly, Mr. Robert Stephenson offering, after mature reflection, to undertake the responsibility of proceeding, he was dulyauthorised to do so.

His first operation was of course to endeavour by the power of steam-engines — the comrades of his life — ^to lower the water with which he had to contend ; and although, to a certain d^ree, this attempt succeeded, yet by the draining of remote springs, and by the sinking of the water in wells at considerable distances, it was soon ascertained that the quicksand in question covered several square miles.

The tunnel, 30 feet high by 30 feet broad, arched at the top as well as the bottom, was formed of bricks laid in cement, and the bricklayers were progressing in "lengths" averaging 12 feet, when those who were nearest the quicksand, on driving into the roof, were suddenly almost overwhelmed by a deluge of water which burst in upon them. As it was evident that no time was to be lost, a gang of workmen, protected by the extreme power of the engines, were with their materials placed on a raft ; and while, with the utmost celerity, they were completing the walls of that short length, the water, in spite of every effort to keep it down, rose with such rapidity, that at the conclusion of the work the men were so near being jammed against

CHAP. I.] CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY. 21

the roof, that the assistant-engineer, Mr, Charles Lean, in charge of the party, jumped overboard, and then, swimming with a rope in his mouth, he towed the raft to the foot of the nearest working shaft, through which he and his men were safely lifted up into daylight, or, as it is termed by miners, " to grass,**

The water now rose in the shaft, and as it is called " drowned out" the works. For a considerable time all the pumping apparatus appeared to be insufficient. Indeed the effort threatened to be so hopeless that the Directors of the Company almost determined to abandon it, but the engineer-in-chief, relying on the power of his engines, prayed for one fortnight more ; before that period expired Science triumphed over her subterranean foe, and — thanks to the inventors of the steam-engine — the water gradually lowered.

By the main strength of 1250 men, 200 horses, and 13 steam-engines, not only was the work gradually completed, but during night and day, for eight months, the astonishing and almost incredible quantity of 1800 gallons per minute from the quicksand alone was raised by Mr. Robert Stephenson and conducted away ! !

Indeed such is the eagerness with which workmen in such cases proceed, that, on a comrade being one day killed at their side by falling down the shaft, they merely, like sailors in action, chucked his body out of the way and then instantly proceeded with their work. In the construction of the tunnel there were lost twenty-six men, two or three of whom were " navvies," killed in trying, " for fun," — ^as they termed it — to jump one after another across the summits of the shafts.

The time occupied from the laying of the first brick to the completion of the work was thirty months. The number of bricks used was 36,000,000, sufficient to make a good footpath from London to Aberdeen (missing the Forth) a yard broad !

On the completion of this great work the large populous village which had been constructed on its summit was of course suddenly deserted ; it has since completely disappeared, and, instead of the busy scenes it once witnessed, there is now nothing heard on the dreary summit of the Kilsby Tunnel but the desolate

» 111 '

moan of the rumbling train, or the occasional subterranean ivhistle of its engine; these noises being followed by the appearance of a slight smoke slowly meandering upwards from the two great shafts of the tunnel.

During the operations we have just described, an artificer who had been working in the tunnel was ascending one of the shafls when, the back of his coat happening to get into an angular crevice of the partition, called by miners a " brattice," which separated the shafl from the pumps, it became so completely jammed therein that the man was obliged to let go the rope, and accordingly, while dangling over his head it rose to the surface, he remained, to the utter astonishment and dismay of his comrades, suspended about 100 feet from the bottom, until some of them descended and rescued him by cutting away the imprisoned piece of his coat, wiiich, on being afterwards extricated, was long preserved in the engineer's office as a trophy demonstrating the strength of good honest English broadcloth.

At the same shafl an accident of exactly a contrary nature Hubsequently occurred. In order to execute some trifling repair to the brattice, there was, during a desperate cold niglit, suspende<l, about half-way down the shaft, a temporary scaffolding on which several artificers were working by candle-light, when all of a sudden a well-known powerful " navvy," named Jack Viorson, fell from the surface with sucli momentum, that, breaking through the frail scaffolding as if it had been tinder, he was in a few seconds hcanl to go souse into the water at a considerable depth beneath !