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[Picture: George Stephenson]
LIVES
OF THE
ENGINEERS.
THE LOCOMOTIVE.
GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON.
BY SAMUEL SMILES,
AUTHOR OF 'CHARACTER,' 'SELF-HELP,' ETC.
"Bid Harbours open, Public Ways extend;
Bid Temples, worthier of God, ascend;
Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous flood contain,
The Mole projected break the roaring main,
Back to his bounds their subject sea command,
And roll obedient rivers through the land.
These honours, Peace to happy Britain brings;
These are imperial works, and worthy kings."
POPE.
_A NEW AND REVISED EDITION_.
* * * * *
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1879.
_The right of Translation is reserved_.
INTRODUCTION.
Since the appearance of this book in its original form, some seventeen
years since, the construction of Railways has continued to make
extraordinary progress. Although Great Britain, first in the field, had
then, after about twenty-five years' work, expended nearly 300 millions
sterling in the construction of 8300 miles of railway, it has, during the
last seventeen years, expended about 288 millions more in constructing
7780 additional miles.
But the construction of railways has proceeded with equal rapidity on the
Continent. France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland,
Holland, have largely added to their railway mileage. Austria is
actively engaged in carrying new lines across the plains of Hungary,
which Turkey is preparing to meet by lines carried up the valley of the
Lower Danube. Russia is also occupied with extensive schemes for
connecting Petersburg and Moscow with her ports in the Black Sea on the
one hand, and with the frontier towns of her Asiatic empire on the other.
Italy is employing her new-born liberty in vigorously extending railways
throughout her dominions. A direct line of communication has already
been opened between France and Italy, through the Mont Cenis Tunnel;
while another has been opened between Germany and Italy through the
Brenner Pass,--so that the entire journey may now be made by two
different railway routes (excepting only the short sea-passage across the
English Channel) from London to Brindisi, situated in the south-eastern
extremity of the Italian peninsula.
During the last sixteen years, nearly the whole of the Indian railways
have been made. When Edmund Burke, in 1783, arraigned the British
Government for their neglect of India in his speech on Mr. Fox's Bill, he
said: "England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no
navigations, dug out no reservoirs. . . . Were we to be driven out of
India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it had been possessed,
during the inglorious period of our dominion, by anything better than the
ourang-outang or the tiger."
But that reproach no longer exists. Some of the greatest bridges erected
in modern times--such as those over the Sone near Patna, and over the
Jumna at Allahabad--have been erected in connection with the Indian
railways. More than 5000 miles are now at work, and they have been
constructed at an expenditure of about 88,000,000 pounds of British
capital, guaranteed by the British Government. The Indian railways
connect the capitals of the three Presidencies--uniting Bombay with
Madras on the south, and with Calcutta on the north-east--while a great
main line, 2200 miles in extent, passing through the north-western
provinces, and connecting Calcutta with Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Moultan,
and Kurrachee, unites the mouths of the Hooghly in the Bay of Bengal with
those of the Indus in the Arabian Sea.
When the first edition of this work appeared, in the beginning of 1857,
the Canadian system of railways was but in its infancy. The Grand Trunk
was only begun, and the Victoria Bridge--the greatest of all railway
structures--was not half erected. The Colony of Canada has now more than
3000 miles in active operation along the great valley of the St.
Lawrence, connecting Riviere du Loup at the mouth of that river, and the
harbour of Portland in the State of Maine, _via_ Montreal and Toronto,
with Sarnia on Lake Huron, and with Windsor, opposite Detroit in the
State of Michigan. During the same time the Australian Colonies have
been actively engaged in providing themselves with railways, many of
which are at work, and others are in course of formation. The Cape of
Good Hope has several lines open, and others making. France has
constructed about 400 miles in Algeria; while the Pasha of Egypt is the
proprietor of 360 miles in operation across the Egyptian desert. The
Japanese are also making railroads.
But in no country has railway construction been prosecuted with greater
vigour than in the United States. There the railway furnishes not only
the means of intercommunication between already established settlements,
as in the Old World; but it is regarded as the pioneer of colonization,
and as instrumental in opening up new and fertile territories of vast
extent in the west,--the food-grounds of future nations. Hence railway
construction in that country was scarcely interrupted even by the great
Civil War,--at the commencement of which Mr. Seward publicly expressed
the opinion that "physical bonds--such as highways, railroads, rivers,
and canals--are vastly more powerful for holding civil communities
together than any mere covenants, though written on parchment or engraved
on iron."
The people of the United States were the first to follow the example of
England, after the practicability of steam locomotion had been proved on
the Stockton and Darlington, and Liverpool and Manchester Railways. The
first sod of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway was cut on the 4th of July,
1828, and the line was completed and opened for traffic in the following
year, when it was worked partly by horse-power, and partly by a
locomotive built at Baltimore, which is still preserved in the Company's
workshops. In 1830, the Hudson and Mohawk Railway was begun, while other
lines were under construction in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New
Jersey; and in the course of ten years, 1843 miles were finished and in
operation. In ten more years, 8827 miles were at work; at the end of
1864, 35,000 miles; and at the 31st of December, 1873, not less than
70,651 miles were in operation, of which 3916 had been made during that
year. One of the most extensive trunk-lines is the Great Pacific
Railroad, connecting the lines in the valleys of the Mississippi and the
Missouri with the city of San Francisco on the shores of the Pacific, by
means of which it is possible to make the journey from England to Hong
Kong, via New York, in little more than a month.
* * * * *
The results of the working of railways have been in many respects
different from those anticipated by their projectors. One of the most
unexpected has been the growth of an immense passenger-traffic. The
Stockton and Darlington line was projected as a coal line only, and the
Liverpool and Manchester as a merchandise line. Passengers were not
taken into account as a source of revenue, for at the time of their
projection, it was not believed that people would trust themselves to be
drawn upon a railway by an "explosive machine," as the locomotive was
described to be. Indeed, a writer of eminence declared that he would as
soon think of being fired off on a ricochet rocket, as travel on a
railway at twice the speed of the old stagecoaches. So great was the
alarm which existed as to the locomotive, that the Liverpool and
Manchester Committee pledged themselves in their second prospectus,
issued in 1825, "not to require any clause empowering its use;" and as
late as 1829, the Newcastle and Carlisle Act was conceded on the express
condition that the line should not be worked by locomotives, but by
horses only.
Nevertheless, the Liverpool and Manchester Company obtained powers to
make and work their railway without any such restriction; and when the
line was made and opened, a locomotive passenger train was advertised to
be run upon it, by way of experiment. Greatly to the surprise of the
directors, more passengers presented themselves as travellers by the
train than could conveniently be carried.
The first arrangements as to passenger-traffic were of a very primitive
character, being mainly copied from the old stage-coach system. The
passengers were "booked" at the railway office, and their names were
entered in a way-bill which was given to the guard when the train
started. Though the usual stage-coach bugleman could not conveniently
accompany the passengers, the trains were at first played out of the
terminal stations by a lively tune performed by a trumpeter at the end of
the platform; and this continued to be done at the Manchester Station
until a comparatively recent date.
But the number of passengers carried by the Liverpool and Manchester line
was so unexpectedly great, that it was very soon found necessary to
remodel the entire system. Tickets were introduced, by which a great
saving of time was effected. More roomy and commodious carriages were
provided, the original first-class compartments being seated for four
passengers only. Everything was found to have been in the first instance
made too light and too slight. The prize 'Rocket,' which weighed only
4.5 tons when loaded with its coke and water, was found quite unsuited
for drawing the increasingly heavy loads of passengers. There was also
this essential difference between the old stage-coach and the new railway
train, that, whereas the former was "full" with six inside and ten
outside, the latter must be able to accommodate whatever number of
passengers came to be carried. Hence heavier and more powerful engines,
and larger and more substantial carriages were from time to time added to
the carrying stock of the railway.
The speed of the trains was also increased. The first locomotives used
in hauling coal-trains ran at from four to six miles an hour. On the
Stockton and Darlington line the speed was increased to about ten miles
an hour; and on the Liverpool and Manchester line the first
passenger-trains were run at the average speed of seventeen miles an
hour, which at that time was considered very fast. But this was not
enough. When the London and Birmingham line was opened, the mail-trains
were run at twenty-three miles an hour; and gradually the speed went up,
until now the fast trains are run at from fifty to sixty miles an
hour,--the pistons in the cylinders, at sixty miles, travelling at the
inconceivable rapidity of 800 feet per minute!
To bear the load of heavy engines run at high speeds, a much stronger and
heavier road was found necessary; and shortly after the opening of the
Liverpool and Manchester line, it was entirely relaid with stronger
materials. Now that express passenger-engines are from thirty to
thirty-five tons each, the weight of the rails has been increased from 35
lbs. to 75 lbs. or 86 lbs. to the yard. Stone blocks have given place to
wooden sleepers; rails with loose ends resting on the chairs, to rails
with their ends firmly "fished" together; and in many places, where the
traffic is unusually heavy, iron rails have been replaced by those of
steel.
And now see the enormous magnitude to which railway passenger-traffic has
grown. In the year 1873, 401,465,086 passengers were carried by day
tickets in Great Britain alone. But this was not all. For in that year
257,470 periodical tickets were issued by the different railways; and
assuming half of them to be annual, one-fourth half-yearly, and the
remainder quarterly tickets, and that their holders made only five
journeys each way weekly, this would give an additional number of
47,024,000 journeys, or a total of 448,489,086 passengers carried in
Great Britain in one year.
It is difficult to grasp the idea of the enormous number of persons
represented by these figures. The mind is merely bewildered by them, and
can form no adequate notion of their magnitude. To reckon them singly
would occupy twenty-five years, counting at the rate of one a second for
twelve hours every day. Or take another illustration. Supposing every
man, woman, and child in Great Britain to make ten journeys by rail
yearly, the number would greatly fall short of the passengers carried in
1873.
Mr. Porter, in his 'Progress of the Nation,' estimated that thirty
millions of passengers, or about eighty-two thousand a day, travelled by
coaches in Great Britain in 1834, an average distance of twelve miles
each, at an average cost of 5s. a passenger, or at the rate of 5d. a
mile; whereas above 448 millions are now carried by railway an average
distance of 8.5 miles each, at an average cost of 1s. 1.5d. per
passenger, or about three halfpence per mile, in considerably less than
one-fourth of the time.
But besides the above number of passengers, over one hundred and
sixty-two million tons of minerals and merchandise were carried by
railway in the United Kingdom in 1873, besides mails, cattle, parcels,
and other traffic. The distance run by passenger and goods trains in the
year was 162,561,304 miles; to accomplish which it is estimated that four
miles of railway must have been covered by running trains during every
second all the year round.
To perform this service, there were, in 1873, 11,255 locomotives at work
in the United Kingdom, consuming about four million tons of coal and
coke, and flashing into the air every minute some forty tons of water in
the form of steam in a high state of elasticity. There were also 24,644
passenger-carriages, 9128 vans and breaks attached to passenger-trains,
and 329,163 trucks, waggons, and other vehicles appropriated to
merchandise. Buckled together, buffer to buffer, the locomotives and
tenders would extend from London to Peterborough; while the carrying
vehicles, joined together, would form two trains occupying a double line
of railway extending from London to beyond Inverness.
A notable feature in the growth of railway traffic of late years has been
the increase in the number of third-class passengers, compared with first
and second class. Sixteen years since, the third-class passengers
constituted only about one-third; ten years later, they were about
one-half; whereas now they form more than three-fourths of the whole
number carried. In 1873, there were about 23 million first-class
passengers, 62 million second-class, and not less than 306 million
third-class. Thus George Stephenson's prediction, "that the time would
come when it would be cheaper for a working man to make a journey by
railway than to walk on foot," is already verified.
The degree of safety with which this great traffic has been conducted is
not the least remarkable of its features. Of course, so long as railways
are worked by men they will be liable to the imperfections belonging to
all things human. Though their machinery may be perfect and their
organisation as complete as skill and forethought can make it, workmen
will at times be forgetful and listless; and a moment's carelessness may
lead to the most disastrous results. Yet, taking all circumstances into
account, the wonder is, that travelling by railway at high speed should
have been rendered comparatively so safe.
To be struck by lightning is one of the rarest of all causes of death;
yet more persons are killed by lightning in Great Britain than are killed
on railways from causes beyond their own control. Most persons would
consider the probability of their dying by hanging to be extremely
remote; yet, according to the Registrar-General's returns, it is
considerably greater than that of being killed by railway accident.
The remarkable safety with which railway traffic is on the whole
conducted, is due to constant watchfulness and highly-applied skill. The
men who work the railways are for the most part the picked men of the
country, and every railway station may be regarded as a practical school
of industry, attention, and punctuality.
Few are aware of the complicated means and agencies that are in constant
operation on railways day and night, to ensure the safety of the
passengers to their journey's end. The road is under a system of
continuous inspection. The railway is watched by foremen, with "gangs"
of men under them, in lengths varying from twelve to five miles,
according to circumstances. Their continuous duty is to see that the
rails and chairs are sound, their fastenings complete, and the line clear
of all obstructions.
Then, at all the junctions, sidings, and crossings, pointsmen are
stationed, with definite instructions as to the duties to be performed by
them. At these places, signals are provided, worked from the station
platforms, or from special signal boxes, for the purpose of protecting
the stopping or passing trains. When the first railways were opened, the
signals were of a very simple kind. The station men gave them with their
arms stretched out in different positions; then flags of different
colours were used; next fixed signals, with arms or discs of rectangular
or triangular shape. These were followed by a complete system of
semaphore signals, near and distant, protecting all junctions, sidings,
and crossings.
When Government inspectors were first appointed by the Board of Trade to
examine and report upon the working of railways, they were alarmed by the
number of trains following each other at some stations, in what then
seemed to be a very rapid succession. A passage from a Report written in
1840 by Sir Frederick Smith, as to the traffic at "Taylor's Junction," on
the York and North Midland Railway, contrasts curiously with the railway
life and activity of the present day:--"Here," wrote the alarmed
Inspector, "the passenger trains from York as well as Leeds and Selby,
meet four times a day. No less than 23 passenger-trains stop at or pass
this station in the 21 hours--an amount of traffic requiring not only the
utmost perfect arrangements on the part of the management, but the utmost
vigilance and energy in the servants of the Company employed at this
place."
Contrast this with the state of things now. On the Metropolitan Line,
667 trains pass a given point in one direction or the other during the
eighteen hours of the working day, or an average of 36 trains an hour.
At the Cannon Street Station of the South-Eastern Railway, 627 trains
pass in and out daily, many of them crossing each other's tracks under
the protection of the station-signals. Forty-five trains run in and out
between 9 and 10 A.M., and an equal number between 4 and 5 P.M. Again,
at the Clapham Junction, near London, about 700 trains pass or stop
daily; and though to the casual observer the succession of trains coming
and going, running and stopping, coupling and shunting, appears a scene
of inextricable confusion and danger, the whole is clearly intelligible
to the signalmen in their boxes, who work the trains in and out with
extraordinary precision and regularity.
The inside of a signal-box reminds one of a pianoforte on a large scale,
the lever-handles corresponding with the keys of the instrument; and, to
an uninstructed person, to work the one would be as difficult as to play
a tune on the other. The signal-box outside Cannon Street Station
contains 67 lever-handles, by means of which the signalmen are enabled at
the same moment to communicate with the drivers of all the engines on the
line within an area of 800 yards. They direct by signs, which are quite
as intelligible as words, the drivers of the trains starting from inside
the station, as well as those of the trains arriving from outside. By
pulling a lever-handle, a distant signal, perhaps out of sight, is set
some hundred yards off, which the approaching driver--reading it quickly
as he comes along--at once interprets, and stops or advances as the
signal may direct.
The precision and accuracy of the signal-machinery employed at important
stations and junctions have of late years been much improved by an
ingenious contrivance, by means of which the setting of the signal
prepares the road for the coming train. When the signal is set at
"Danger," the points are at the same time worked, and the road is
"locked" against it; and when at "Safety," the road is open,--the signal
and the points exactly corresponding.
The Electric Telegraph has also been found a valuable auxiliary in
ensuring the safe working of large railway traffics. Though the
locomotive may run at 60 miles an hour, electricity, when at its fastest,
travels at the rate of 288,000 miles a second, and is therefore always
able to herald the coming train. The electric telegraph may, indeed, be
regarded as the nervous system of the railway. By its means the whole
line is kept throbbing with intelligence. The method of working the
electric signals varies on different lines; but the usual practice is, to
divide a line into so many lengths, each protected by its
signal-stations,--the fundamental law of telegraph-working being, that
two engines are not to be allowed to run on the same line between two
signal-stations at the same time.
When a train passes one of such stations, it is immediately signalled
on--usually by electric signal-bells--to the station in advance, and that
interval of railway is "blocked" until the signal has been received from
the station in advance that the train has passed it. Thus an interval of
space is always secured between trains following each other, which are
thereby alike protected before and behind. And thus, when a train starts
on a journey, it may be of hundreds of miles, it is signalled on from
station to station--it "lives along the line,"--until at length it
reaches its destination and the last signal of "train in" is given. By
this means an immense number of trains can be worked with regularity and
safety. On the South-Eastern Railway, where the system has been brought
to a state of high efficiency, it is no unusual thing during Easter week
to send 600,000 passengers through the London Bridge Station alone; and
on some days as many as 1200 trains a-day.
While such are the expedients adopted to ensure safety, others equally
ingenious are adopted to ensure speed. In the case of express and mail
trains, the frequent stopping of the engines to take in a fresh supply of
water occasions a considerable loss of time on a long journey, each
stoppage for this purpose occupying from ten to fifteen minutes. To
avoid such stoppages, larger tenders have been provided, capable of
carrying as much as 2000 gallons of water each. But as a considerable
time is occupied in filling these, a plan has been contrived by Mr.
Ramsbottom, the Locomotive Engineer of the London and North-Western
Railway, by which the engines are made to _feed themselves_ while running
at full speed! The plan is as follows:--An open trough, about 440 feet
long, is laid longitudinally between the rails. Into this trough, which
is filled with water, a dip-pipe or scoop attached to the bottom of the
tender of the running train is lowered; and, at a speed of 50 miles an
hour, as much as 1070 gallons of water are scooped up in the course of a
few minutes. The first of such troughs was laid down between Chester and
Holyhead, to enable the Express Mail to run the distance of 841 miles in
two hours and five minutes without stopping; and similar troughs have
since been laid down at Bushey near London, at Castlethorpe near
Wolverton, and at Parkside near Liverpool. At these four troughs about
130,000 gallons of water are scooped up daily.
Wherever railways have been made, new towns have sprung up, and old towns
and cities been quickened into new life. When the first English lines
were projected, great were the prophecies of disaster to the inhabitants
of the districts through which they were proposed to be forced. Such
fears have long since been dispelled in this country. The same
prejudices existed in France. When the railway from Paris to Marseilles
was laid out so as to pass through Lyons, a local prophet predicted that
if the line were made the city would be ruined--"_Ville traversee_,
_ville perdue_;" while a local priest denounced the locomotive and the
electric telegraph as heralding _the reign of Antichrist_. But such
nonsense is no longer uttered. Now it is the city without the railway
that is regarded as the "city lost;" for it is in a measure shut out from
the rest of the world, and left outside the pale of civilisation.
Perhaps the most striking of all the illustrations that could be offered
of the extent to which railways facilitate the locomotion, the industry,
and the subsistence of the population of large towns and cities, is
afforded by the working of the railway system in connection with the
capital of Great Britain.
The extension of railways to London has been of comparatively recent
date; the whole of the lines connecting it with the provinces and
terminating at its outskirts, having been opened during the last thirty
years, while the lines inside London have for the most part been opened
within the last sixteen years.
The first London line was the Greenwich Railway, part of which was opened
for traffic to Deptford in February 1836. The working of this railway
was first exhibited as a show, and the usual attractions were employed to
make it "draw." A band of musicians in the garb of the Beef-eaters was
stationed at the London end, and another band at Deptford. For
cheapness' sake the Deptford band was shortly superseded by a large
barrel-organ, which played in the passengers; but, when the traffic
became established, the barrel organ, as well as the beef-eater band at
the London end, were both discontinued. The whole length of the line was
lit up at night by a row of lamps on either side like a street, as if to
enable the locomotives or the passengers to see their way in the dark;
but these lamps also were eventually discontinued as unnecessary.
As a show, the Greenwich Railway proved tolerably successful. During the
first eleven months it carried 456,750 passengers, or an average of about
1300 a-day. But the railway having been found more convenient to the
public than either the river boats or the omnibuses, the number of
passengers rapidly increased. When the Croydon, Brighton, and
South-Eastern Railways began to pour their streams of traffic over the
Greenwich viaduct, its accommodation was found much too limited; and it
was widened from time to time, until now nine lines of railway are laid
side by side, over which more than twenty millions of passengers are
carried yearly, or an average of about 60,000 a day all the year round.
Since the partial opening of the Greenwich Railway in 1836, a large
extent of railways has been constructed in and about the metropolis, and
convenient stations have been established almost in the heart of the
City. Sixteen of these stations are within a circle of half a mile
radius from the Mansion House, and above three hundred stations are in
actual use within about five miles of Charing Cross.
To accommodate this vast traffic, not fewer than 3600 local trains are
run in and out daily, besides 340 trains which depart to and arrive from
distant places, north, south, east, and west. In the morning hours,
between 8.30 and 10.30, when business men are proceeding inwards to their
offices and counting-houses, and in the afternoon between four and six,
when they are returning outwards to their homes, as many as two thousand
stoppages are made in the hour, within the metropolitan district, for the
purpose of taking up and setting down passengers, while about two miles
of railway are covered by the running trains.
One of the remarkable effects of railways has been to extend the
residential area of all large towns and cities. This is especially
notable in the case of London. Before the introduction of railways, the
residential area of the metropolis was limited by the time occupied by
business men in making the journey outwards and inwards daily; and it was
for the most part bounded by Bow on the east, by Hampstead and Highgate
on the north, by Paddington and Kensington on the west, and by Clapham
and Brixton on the south. But now that stations have been established
near the centre of the city, and places so distant as Waltham, Barnet,
Watford, Hanwell, Richmond, Epsom, Croydon, Reigate, and Erith, can be
more quickly reached by rail than the old suburban quarters were by
omnibus, the metropolis has become extended in all directions along its
railway lines, and the population of London, instead of living in the
City or its immediate vicinity, as formerly, have come to occupy a
residential area of not less than six hundred square miles!
The number of new towns which have consequently sprung into existence
near London within the last twenty years has been very great; towns
numbering from ten to twenty thousand inhabitants, which before were but
villages,--if, indeed, they existed. This has especially been the case
along the lines south of the Thames, principally in consequence of the
termini of those lines being more conveniently situated for city men of
business. Hence the rapid growth of the suburban towns up and down the
river, from Richmond and Staines on the west, to Erith and Gravesend on
the east, and the hives of population which have settled on the high
grounds south of the Thames, in the neighbourhood of Norwood and the
Crystal Palace, rapidly spreading over the Surrey Downs, from Wimbledon
to Guildford, and from Bromley to Croydon, Epsom, and Dorking. And now
that the towns on the south and south-east coast can be reached by city
men in little more time than it takes to travel to Clapham or Bayswater
by omnibus, such places have become as it were parts of the great
metropolis, and Brighton and Hastings are but the marine suburbs of
London.
The improved state of the communications of the City with the country has
had a marked effect upon its population. While the action of the
railways has been to add largely to the number of persons living in
London, it has also been accompanied by their dispersion over a much
larger area. Thus the population of the central parts of London is
constantly decreasing, whereas that of the suburban districts is as
constantly increasing. The population of the City fell off more than
10,000 between 1851 and 1861; and during the same period, that of
Holborn, the Strand, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, St. James's,
Westminster, East and West London, showed a considerable decrease. But,
as regards the whole mass of the metropolitan population, the increase
has been enormous. Thus, starting from 1801, when the population of
London was 958,863, we find it increasing in each decennial period at the
rate of between two and three hundred thousand, until the year 1841, when
it amounted to 1,948,369. Railways had by that time reached London,
after which its population increased at nearly double the former ratio.
In the ten years ending 1851, the increase was 513,867; and in the ten
years ending 1861, 441,753: until now, to quote the words of the
Registrar-General in a recent annual Report, "the population within the
registration limits is by estimate 2,993,513; but beyond this central
mass there is a ring of life growing rapidly, and extending along railway
lines over a circle of fifteen miles from Charing Cross. The population
within that circle, patrolled by the metropolitan police, is about
3,463,771"!
The aggregation of so vast a number of persons within so comparatively
limited an area--the immense quantity of food required for their daily
sustenance, as well as of fuel, clothing, and other necessaries--would be
attended with no small inconvenience and danger, but for the facilities
again provided by the railways. The provisioning of a garrison of even
four thousand men is considered a formidable affair; how much more so the
provisioning of nearly four millions of people!
The whole mystery is explained by the admirable organisation of the
railway service, and the regularity and despatch with which it is
conducted. We are enabled by the courtesy of the General Managers of the
London railways to bring together the following brief summary of facts
relating to the food supply of London, which will probably be regarded by
most readers as of a very remarkable character.
Generally speaking, the railways to the south of the Thames contribute
comparatively little towards the feeding of London. They are, for the
most part passenger and residential lines, traversing a limited and not
very fertile district bounded by the sea-coast; and, excepting in fruit
and vegetables, milk and hops, they probably carry more food from London
than they bring to it. The principal supplies of grain, flour, potatoes,
and fish, are brought by railway from the eastern counties of England and
Scotland; and of cattle and sheep, beef and mutton, from the grazing
counties of the west and north-west of Britain, as far as the Highlands
of Scotland, which have, through the instrumentality of railways, become
part of the great grazing grounds of the metropolis.
Take first "the staff of life"--bread and its constituents. Of wheat,
not less than 222,080 quarters were brought into London by railway in
1867, besides what was brought by sea; of oats 151,757 quarters; of
barley 70,282 quarters; of beans and peas 51,448 quarters. Of the wheat
and barley, by far the largest proportion is brought by the Great Eastern
Railway, which delivers in London in one year 155,000 quarters of wheat
and 45,500 quarters of barley, besides 600,429 quarters more in the form
of malt. The largest quantity of oats is brought by the Great Northern
Railway, principally from the north of England and the East of
Scotland,--the quantity delivered by that Company in 1867 having been
97,500 quarters, besides 24,664 quarters of wheat, 5560 quarters of
barley, and 103,917 quarters of malt. Again, of 1,250,566 sacks of flour
and meal delivered in London in one year, the Great Eastern brings
654,000 sacks, the Great Northern 232,022 sacks, and the Great Western
136,312 sacks; the principal contribution of the London and North-Western
Railway towards the London bread-stores being 100,760 boxes of American
flour, besides 24,300 sacks of English. The total quantity of malt
delivered at the London railway stations in 1867 was thirteen hundred
thousand sacks.
Next, as to flesh meat. In 1867, not fewer than 172,300 head of cattle
were brought to London by railway,--though this was considerably less
than the number carried before the cattle-plague, the Great Eastern
Railway alone having carried 44,672 less than in 1864. But this loss has
since been more than made up by the increased quantities of fresh beef,
mutton, and other kinds of meat imported in lieu of the live animals.
The principal supplies of cattle are brought, as we have said, by the
Western, Northern, and Eastern lines: by the Great Western from the
western counties and Ireland; by the London and North-Western, the
Midland, and the Great Northern from the northern counties and from
Scotland; and by the Great Eastern from the eastern counties and from the
ports of Harwich and Lowestoft.
In 1867, also, 1,147,609 sheep were brought to London by railway, of
which the Great Eastern delivered not less than 265,371 head. The London
and North-Western and Great Northern between them brought 390,000 head
from the northern English counties, with a large proportion from the
Scotch Highlands. While the Great Western brought up 130,000 head from
the Welsh mountains and from the rich grazing districts of Wilts,
Gloucester, Somerset, and Devon. Another important freight of the London
and North-Western Railway consists of pigs, of which they delivered
54,700 in London, principally Irish; while the Great Eastern brought up
27,500 of the same animal, partly foreign.
While the cattle-plague had the effect of greatly reducing the number of
live stock brought into London yearly, it gave a considerable impetus to
the Fresh Meat traffic. Thus, in addition to the above large numbers of
cattle and sheep delivered in London in 1867, the railways brought 76,175
tons of meat, which--taking the meat of an average beast at 800 lbs., and
of an average sheep at 64 lbs.--would be equivalent to about 112,000 more
cattle, and 1,267,500 more sheep. The Great Northern brought the largest
quantity; next the London and North-Western;--these two Companies having
brought up between them, from distances as remote as Aberdeen and
Inverness, about 42,000 tons of fresh meat in 1867, at an average freight
of about 0.5d. a lb.
Again as regards Fish, of which six-tenths of the whole quantity consumed
in London is now brought by rail. The Great Eastern and the Great
Northern are by far the largest importers of this article, and justify
their claim to be regarded as the great food lines of London. Of the
61,358 tons of fish brought by railway in 1867, not less than 24,500 tons
were delivered by the former, and 22,000 tons, brought from much longer
distances, by the latter Company. The London and North-Western brought
about 6000 tons, the principal part of which was salmon from Scotland and
Ireland. The Great Western also brought about 4000 tons, partly salmon,
but the greater part mackerel from the south-west coast. During the
mackerel season, as much as a hundred tons at a time are brought into the
Paddington Station by express fish-train from Cornwall.
The Great Eastern and Great Northern Companies are also the principal
carriers of turkeys, geese, fowls, and game; the quantity delivered in
London by the former Company having been 5042 tons. In Christmas week no
fewer than 30,000 turkeys and geese were delivered at the Bishopsgate
Station, besides about 300 tons of poultry, 10,000 barrels of beer, and
immense quantities of fish, oysters, and other kinds of food. As much as
1600 tons of poultry and game were brought last year by the South-Western
Railway; 600 tons by the Great Northern Railway; and 130 tons of turkeys,
geese, and fowls, by the London, Chatham and Dover line, principally from
France.
Of miscellaneous articles, the Great Northern and the Midland each
brought about 3000 tons of cheese, the South-Western 2600 tons, and the
London and North-Western 10,034 cheeses in number; while the
South-Western and Brighton lines brought a splendid contribution to the
London breakfast-table in the shape of 11,259 _tons_ of French eggs;
these two Companies delivering between them an average of more than three
millions of eggs a week all the year round! The same Companies delivered
in London 14,819 tons of butter, for the most part the produce of the
farms of Normandy,--the greater cleanness and neatness with which the
Normandy butter is prepared for market rendering it a favourite both with
dealers and consumers of late years compared with Irish butter. The
London, Chatham and Dover Company also brought from Calais 96 tons of
eggs.
Next, as to the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit, brought by rail. Forty
years since, the inhabitants of London relied for their supply of
vegetables on the garden-grounds in the immediate neighbourhood of the
metropolis, and the consequence was that they were both very dear and
limited in quantity. But railways, while they have extended the
grazing-grounds of London as far as the Highlands, have at the same time
extended the garden-grounds of London into all the adjoining
counties--into East Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, the vale of
Gloucester, and even as far as Penzance in Cornwall. The London, Chatham
and Dover, one of the youngest of our main lines, brought up from East
Kent in 1867 5279 tons of potatoes, 1046 tons of vegetables, and 5386
tons of fruit, besides 542 tons of vegetables from France. The
South-Eastern brought 25,163 tons of the same produce. The Great Eastern
brought from the eastern counties 21,315 tons of potatoes, and 3596 tons
of vegetables and fruit; while the Great Northern brought no less than
78,505 tons of potatoes--a large part of them from the east of
Scotland--and 3768 tons of vegetables and fruit. About 6000 tons of
early potatoes were brought from Cornwall, with about 5000 tons of
broccoli, and the quantities are steadily increasing. "Truly London hath
a large belly," said old Fuller, two hundred years since. But how much
more capacious is it now!
One of the most striking illustrations of the utility of railways in
contributing to the supply of wholesome articles of food to the
population of large cities, is to be found in the rapid growth of the
traffic in Milk. Readers of newspapers may remember the descriptions
published some years since of the horrid dens in which London cows were
penned, and of the odious compound sold by the name of milk, of which the
least deleterious ingredient in it was supplied by the "cow with the iron
tail." That state of affairs is now completely changed. What with the
greatly improved state of the London dairies and the better quality of
the milk supplied by them, together with the large quantities brought by
railway from a range of a hundred miles and more all round London, even
the poorest classes in the metropolis are now enabled to obtain as
wholesome a supply of the article as the inhabitants of most country
towns.
These great streams of food, which we have thus so summarily described,
flow into London so continuously and uninterruptedly, that comparatively
few persons are aware of the magnitude and importance of the process thus
daily going forward. Though gathered from an immense extent of
country--embracing England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland--the influx is
so unintermitted that it is relied upon with as much certainty as if it
only came from the counties immediately adjoining London. The express
meat-train from Aberdeen arrives in town as punctually as the Clapham
omnibus, and the express milk-train from Aylesbury is as regular in its
delivery as the penny post. Indeed London now depends so much upon
railways for its subsistence, that it may be said to be fed by them from
day to day, having never more than a few days' food in stock. And the
supply is so regular and continuous, that the possibility of its being
interrupted never for a moment occurs to any one. Yet in these days of
strikes amongst workmen, such a contingency is quite within the limits of
possibility. Another contingency, which might arise during a state of
war, is probably still more remote. But were it possible for a war to
occur between England and a combination of foreign powers possessed of
stronger ironclads than ours, and that they were able to ram our ships
back into port and land an enemy of overpowering force on the Essex
coast, it would be sufficient for them to occupy or cut the railways
leading from the north, to starve London into submission in less than a
fortnight.
Besides supplying London with food, railways have also been instrumental
in ensuring the more regular and economical supply of fuel,--a matter of
almost as vital importance to the population in a climate such as that of
England. So long as the market was supplied with coal brought by sea in
sailing ships, fuel in winter often rose to a famine price, especially
during long-continued easterly winds. But now that railways are in full
work, the price is almost as steady in winter as in summer, and (but for
strikes) the supply is more regular at all seasons.
But the carriage of food and fuel to London forms but a small part of the
merchandise traffic carried by railway. Above 600,000 tons of goods of
various kinds yearly pass through one station only, that of the London
and North-Western Company, at Camden Town; and sometimes as many as
20,000 parcels daily. Every other metropolitan station is similarly
alive with traffic inwards and outwards, London having since the
introduction of railways become more than ever a great distributive
centre, to which merchandise of all kinds converges, and from which it is
distributed to all parts of the country. Mr. Bazley, M.P., stated at a
late public meeting at Manchester, that it would probably require ten
millions of horses to convey by road the merchandise traffic which is now
annually carried by railway.
Railways have also proved of great value in connection with the Cheap
Postage system. By their means it has become possible to carry letters,
newspapers, books and post parcels, in any quantity, expeditiously, and
cheaply. The Liverpool and Manchester line was no sooner opened in 1830,
than the Post Office authorities recognised its utility, and used it for
carrying the mails between the two towns. When the London and Birmingham
line was opened eight years later, mail trains were at once put on,--the
directors undertaking to perform the distance of 113 miles within 5 hours
by day and 5.5 hours by night. As additional lines were opened, the old
four-horse mail coaches were gradually discontinued, until in 1858, the
last of them, the "Derby Dilly," which ran between Manchester and Derby,
was taken off on the opening of the Midland line to Rowsley.
The increased accommodation provided by railways was found of essential
importance, more particularly after the adoption of the Cheap Postage
system; and that such accommodation was needed will be obvious from the
extraordinary increase which has taken place in the number of letters and
packets sent by post. Thus, in 1839, the number of chargeable letters
carried was only 76 millions, and of newspapers 44.5 millions; whereas,
in 1865, the numbers of letters had increased to 720 millions, and in
1867 to 775 millions, or more than ten-fold, while the number of
newspapers, books, samples and patterns (a new branch of postal business
began in 1864) had increased, in 1865, to 98.5 millions.
To accommodate this largely-increasing traffic, the bulk of which is
carried by railway, the mileage run by mail trains in the United Kingdom
has increased from 25,000 miles a day in 1854 (the first year of which we
have any return of the mileage run) to 60,000 miles a day in 1867, or an
increase of 240 per cent. The Post Office expenditure on railway service
has also increased, but not in like proportion, having been 364,000
pounds in the former year, and 559,575 pounds in the latter, or an
increase of 154 per cent. The revenue, gross and net, has increased
still more rapidly. In 1841, the first complete year of the Cheap
Postage system, the gross revenue was 1,359,466 pounds and the net
revenue 500,789 pounds; in 1854, the gross revenue was 2,574,407 pounds,
and the net revenue 1,173,723 pounds; and in 1867, the gross revenue was
4,548,129 pounds, and the net revenue 2,127,125 pounds, being an increase
of 420 per cent. compared with 1841, and of 180 per cent. compared with
1854. How much of this net increase might fairly be credited to the
Railway Postal service we shall not pretend to say; but assuredly the
proportion must be very considerable.
One of the great advantages of railways in connection with the postal
service is the greatly increased frequency of communication which they
provide between all the large towns. Thus Liverpool has now six
deliveries of Manchester letters daily; while every large town in the
kingdom has two or more deliveries of London letters daily. In 1863, 393
towns had two mails daily from London; 50 had three mails daily; 7 had
four mails a day _from_ London, and 15 had four mails a day _to_ London;
while 3 towns had five mails a day _from_ London, and 6 had five mails a
day _to_ London.
Another feature of the railway mail train, as of the passenger train, is
its capacity to carry any quantity of letters and post parcels that may
require to be carried. In 1838, the aggregate weight of all the evening
mails despatched from London by twenty-eight mail coaches was 4 tons 6
cwt., or an average of about 3.25 cwt. each, though the maximum contract
weight was 15 cwt. The mails now are necessarily much heavier, the
number of letters and packets having, as we have seen, increased more
than ten-fold since 1839. But it is not the ordinary so much as the
extraordinary mails that are of considerable weight,--more particularly
the American, the Continental, and the Australian mails. It is no
unusual thing, we are informed, for the last-mentioned mail to weigh as
much as 40 tons. How many of the old mail coaches it would take to carry
such a mail the 79 miles journey to Southampton, with a relay of four
horses every five or seven miles, is a problem for the arithmetician to
solve. But even supposing each coach to be loaded to the maximum weight
of 15 cwt. per coach, it would require about sixty vehicles and about
1700 horses to carry the 40 tons, besides the coachman and guards.
Whatever may be said of the financial management of railways, there can
be no doubt as to the great benefits conferred by them on the public
wherever made. Even those railways which have exhibited the most
"frightful examples" of financing and jobbing, have been found to prove
of unquestionable public convenience and utility. And notwithstanding
all the faults and imperfections that have been alleged against railways,
we think that they must, nevertheless, be recognised as by far the most
valuable means of communication between men and nations that has yet been
given to the world.
The author's object in publishing this book in its original form, was to
describe, in connection with the 'Life of George Stephenson,' the origin
and progress of the railway system,--to show by what moral and material
agencies its founders were enabled to carry their ideas into effect, and
work out results which even then were of a remarkable character, though
they have since, as above described, become so much more extraordinary.
The favour with which successive editions of the book have been received,
has justified the author in his anticipation that such a narrative would
prove of general, if not of permanent interest.
