while in 1853 one of the Bristol and Exeter 9-foot engines was officially timed at a speed of just over 80 miles per hour. This has never been beaten, unless we can swallow the tales lately received from America about some wonderful runs, which no doubt make an attractive newspaper paragraph, but require to be taken with a little salt.

In February of this year, the writer tried to induce the Great Western to make a new record of broad gauge speed before abolishing the same. The idea was, that during April a train should run from London to Exeter, stopping only at Swindon, doing the journey, 192 miles, in 3 hours; but Mr. Burlinson did not think it worth while, we are sorry to say. Perhaps the reader will wonder why the stop should be at Swindon instead of half-way, say at Bath. The following will explain: When the Great Western was short of money, a person agreed to build refreshment-rooms at Swindon at his own cost, provided a long lease was granted to him at a rental of one penny per annum, and that all the trains stopped there ten minutes to allow the passengers time for refreshments. This the company agreed to, and now they would gladly get out of it, but they cannot.

We need scarcely add that many refreshment contractors have made big fortunes at Swindon. Returning to Brunel's works, the next portion we come to is that part of the Great Western from Exeter to Plymouth, known as the South Devon line, and which, from Star Cross to Teignmouth, passes along the very edge of the sea, and at several places, where the cliffs jut out too boldly to allow of curves round them, have been tunnelled, and the line reappears by the side of the waves at the other side of the headland. Brunel intended this line to be worked on the atmospheric system, i.e., a pipe of large diameter was to be laid between the rails, and a piston fitting in it was to be connected with the carriage, while a stationary steamengine pumped the air from the front of the piston, so causing a vacuum; the pressure of the air from behind would force the piston, and, consequently, the carriages attached to it, forward. Up to Newton Abbot the gradients are the easiest of any main line-mostly I in 660; from this point, however, to the end of the line at Penzance, it is for the most part up and down steep banks, and, for a main line, a curious change takes place here in the class of engine drawing the trains westward. Instead of the 8-foot " single," a 6-coupled saddle tank is employed; indeed, when about two years ago a new express was put on (the 10.15 A.M. ex. Paddington, known as the "Cornishman"), which does not stop at Newton, but runs through from Exeter to Plymouth, the company had to convert some tankVOL. CCLXXIII. NO. 1939

F

engines which were suitable to the line, and add tenders to them, to enable them to carry a sufficient supply of water to traverse the 53 miles without a stop. Most likely this is the only case on record of a "tank" having a tender added to it, except the B and E, 9-feet.

After Plymouth, we come to another of Brunel's giants—the Suspension Bridge over the Tamar, at Saltash-which is still one of the most remarkable bridges in the world, despite the wonderful “Forth Bridge.” It is 260 feet above the water, and is 2,240 feet long, consisting of 19 spans (of which 17 are wider than the widest of Westminster Bridge), and two spans, which rest on a single cast iron column of four pillars in the centre of the river-which is wider than he Thames at Westminster. Passing into Cornwall we find the ungainly and old wooden viaducts, reminding us of the American tressel bridges, of these there are 41. The "battle" raged furiously in the spring of 1845. The "Sesquipedalians," as the Great Western's advocates were called, promoted a Bill for a line from Oxford to Wolverhampton via Worcester, and another fron Oxford to Rugby. The London and Birmingham immediately brought forward an opposition scheme to the same places via Tring, and, as they thought to make sure of their Bill, inserted a clause that the line should accommodate both broad and narrow gauge traffic from Worcester to Wolverhampton. The Board of Trade, which had recently been formed, reported in favour of the narrow gauge line, but Parliament, thinking the Board had taken too much upon itself, and as if in pique, passed the Broad Gauge Bill instead.

The autumn of 1845 saw a decisive blow struck at the fortunes of the broad gauge; the Grand Junction, and the London and Birmingham, combined with the Liverpool and Manchester, and a year later with the Manchester and Birmingham, thus forming a most powerful opposition, known as the London and North-Western Railway.

On June 25, 1845, on the motion of Mr. Cobden, a Royal Commission was appointed to report upon the uniformity of railway gauges. It consisted of Sir G. B. Airy, the Astronomer Royal; Lieutenant-Colonel Sir F. Smith, Royal Engineers; and Professor Barlow, C.E., all very good as theorists, but not practical railway

men.

In the trials that took place, the Great Western chose as their course the 53 miles from Paddington to Didcot, while the narrow gauge champions picked out the very straight and level length of line between York and Darlington, 45 miles long. The rival trains were unfairly allowed to be loaded as their advocates pleased. It was a remarkable triumph for the broad gauge. Gooch's train, drawing 80 tons,

averaged a speed of 48 miles per hour, while Bidder's narrow gauge engine, drawing only 50 tons, could not attain a greater speed than 35 miles per hour. This bad result was attributed to a strong wind then prevailing; and Brunel, upon hearing the excuse, facetiously said it was caused by the presence of Hudson, the "Railway King," who was at his usual practice of "raising the wind." Next day the narrow gauge did better, drawing 50 tons at the rate of 48 miles per hour, and later, 80 tons at the rate of 44 miles per hour.

The broad gauge ascendency was more strongly marked in the tractive trials; they succeeded in drawing 400 tons at the rate of 24 miles per hour, while the narrow gauge, with the same load, only averaged 19 miles per hour. The Brunelites now thought victory was theirs; judge of their surprise, when the Commissioners' report was issued, to find it in favour of the narrow gauge. The following is the summary of their report:

Ist. That as regards safety, accommodation, and convenience of passengers, no decided preference is due to either gauge, but that on the broad gauge the motion is generally more easy at high velocities.

2nd. That in respect of speed, we consider the advantages are with the broad gauge, but we think the public safety would be endangered in employing the greater capabilities of the broad gauge much beyond their present use, except on roads more consolidated, and more substantially and perfectly formed than those of the existing lines.

3rd. That in the commercial use for the transport of goods, we believe the narrow gauge to possess the greater convenience, and to be more suited to the general traffic of the country.

4th. That the broad gauge involves the greater outlay, and that we have not been able to discover, either in the maintenance of way, in the cost of locomotive power, or in the other annual expenses, any adequate reduction to compensate for the additional first cost.

Upon the text of the report being known the "eleven Broad Gauge Lords," and others in authority, appear to have put pressure on the Board of Trade, as nine days after a very modified report was issued, in which, however, it was proposed that all lines then under construction, or hereafter to be constructed, should be of a uniform gauge of 4 feet 8 inches; but as this would have interfered with several Great Western lines then being built, the Act 9 and 10 Vict. cap. 57, intituled "An Act for Regulating the Gauge of Railways," enacted that only those constructed after the passing of the Act

should be 4 feet 8 inches in Great Britain, and 5 feet 3 inches gauge in Ireland.

In 1867 there were 1,456 miles of broad gauge, and at 26 points the two gauges met, and a transfer of traffic took place at an immense cost. The next year the first conversion took place, and, to quote Acworth :

Accordingly, bit by bit, first in the Midlands and to the north, next in the west and in Wales, then in Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset, the broad gauge has been abandoned. To-day, out of nearly 2,000 miles of line (owned by the Great Western Railway), only 426 is broad gauge at all, and of this all but 163 is suitable for narrow gauge traffic as well. Out of over 100 trains that leave Paddington or its adjacent goods-yard every day, only ten-seven passenger and three goods-run on broad gauge metals.

The following table gives the section and date of conversion to the narrow gauge:

Oxford to Wolverhampton, with Stratford and Great Bridge branches 89
Reading to Basingstoke.

1872 Swindon to Milford, with all branches

Vale of Neath, Merthyr Tydvil branch, and Grange Court to
Cheltenham

16

37

2

133

239

60}}

2

101

12

1874 Thingley Junction to Dorchester, Westbury to Salisbury, Barthamp ton to Bradford Junction, North Somerset Junction (Bristol) to Frome, Reading to Holt, with Marlborough and other branches. 197 Dorchester to Weymouth

St. Erth to St. Ives, Truro to Falmouth, Burngallow to Drinnick Mill,
Plymouth to Tavistock (mixed gauge), Tavistock to Launceston,
Laira to Sutton Harbour, Totnes and Totnes Quay to Ashburton,
Churston to Brixham, Newton Abbot to Kingswear, Newton Abbot
to Moretonhampstead

921

The final conversion has now been made. It took two days and three nights to carry out, and required all the permanent way men of the Great Western Railway that could be spared from the various districts, while the Midland and London and North-Western generously offered to lend men, if required; in all, nearly 4,000 were engaged on the work, which had been got as far advanced as possible before the actual date of conversion. In fact, the preparations had been going on for some months before; large gangs of extra plate-layers having been engaged in getting the narrow gauge points and crossings ready to be connected at the various stations and sidings. This rapidity compares very favourably with the conversion of the Hereford and Gloucester section in 1869, the 22 miles of which took 450 men five days to accomplish, at the time thought most marvellously quick.

To show the minuteness of the special arrangements that were made to carry out this last conversion (226 miles in all), the general manager issued a book of 56 pages, giving detailed instructions as to how the 2,940 extra permanent way men, from the various divisions of the line, were to be conveyed in seven special trains to the several mile posts where they were to be set down to commence operations; also instructions for the return of the empty stock, the number and description of the narrow gauge coaches to be sent to the various branches, some on "crocodile" trucks before conversion, others by London and South-Western Railway to Plymouth, to wait there till the line into Cornwall was narrowed. To those who take an interest in the details of railway management, this pamphlet is most instructive.

Twenty miles of sidings have been laid to accommodate the broad gauge rolling stock, which consists of 192 locomotives, 552 carriages, and 3,269 trucks, much of which has been specially built so as to be easily converted to narrow gauge, principally at Swindon, but at Lostwithiel, Newton Abbot, and Bridgewater, a limited number will be converted. On Thursday night, May 19, the sidings. at Swindon must have been pretty full, as a special of twenty-eight broad gauge trucks and two engines, which left London at 9.20, were sent to Didcot instead of Swindon, as previously arranged.

As long ago as 1870 some engines were built capable of conversion, but these have reached their long home--the scrap heapbefore the time for conversion arrived. Out of the broad gauge stock mentioned above, 67 engines, 120 carriages, and 2,500 waggons will not run again. The last broad gauge train to the far west, from London, was the "Cornishman" (10.15 A.M. ex. Paddington), on Friday, May 20; it stopped at several additional stations, and