STOKERS AND POKERS:
OR, THE
LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY,
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,
AND
THE RAILWAY CLEARING-HOUSE.
BY THE AUTHOR OF
‘BUBBLES FROM THE BRUNNEN OF NASSAU.’
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1849.
London: Printed by W. CLOWES and SONS, Stamford Street.
TO
RAILWAY TRAVELLERS,
AND
TO THE PROPRIETORS
OF THE
GREAT WESTERN,
MIDLAND,
LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE,
YORK, NEWCASTLE, AND BERWICK,
EASTERN COUNTIES,
LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN,
YORK AND NORTH MIDLAND,
CALEDONIAN,
GREAT SOUTHERN AND WESTERN (IRISH),
LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN,
AND
OTHER BRITISH RAILWAYS,
THESE ROUGH SKETCHES, DELINEATING THE DIFFICULTIES
ATTENDANT UPON THE CONSTRUCTION,
MAINTENANCE, AND WORKING OF A RAILWAY,
ARE INSCRIBED.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 7
I. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY 11
II. ON THE MAINTENANCE OF THE PERMANENT WAY 33
III. THE TRAINS, EUSTON 38
IV. THE RAILWAY CARRIAGES 48
V. LOST LUGGAGE OFFICE 53
VI. PARCEL DELIVERY OFFICE 56
VII. THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE--CAMDEN 61
VIII. GOODS DEPARTMENT 68
IX. WOLVERTON 81
X. LETTERS AND NEWSPAPERS 92
XI. CREWE 100
XII. A RAILWAY TOWN 109
XIII. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 113
XIV. THE RAILWAY CLEARING-HOUSE 134
XV. MORAL 144
APPENDIX 157
RULES AND REGULATIONS 159
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 his 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” was
dressed--what he had been living on--how he looked--how, at the
word “_Away!_” he started like an arrow from a bow--how gallantly
Tranby, his favourite racer, 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
perspiration 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 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
sunshine 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 all or of any one of the innumerable
arrangements necessary for the astonishing luxury we have enjoyed.
On the practical working 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 effected our object; and although,
under such circumstances, our unbiassed observations were necessarily
superficial, we propose, first, to offer 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 Railway--say EUSTON, CAMDEN,
WOLVERTON, and CREWE.
LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY.
At the grand inauguration dinner eaten in Paris on the 28th
of December, 1848, for the express purpose of celebrating the
installation of the new President of the French Republic, it has been
recorded by the reporters present, that among the numerous guests
assembled, there was no one whose presence engrossed such universal
attention as that of an erect emaciated member of “_La Vieille
Garde_.”
The old soldier, it is stated, as he sat at table, scarcely
noticed the constellations of bright, black, and hazel-coloured
eyes that from all directions were concentrated upon him, but,
addressing himself first to his own black bottle, and then with
the utmost good humour to those of his neighbours, he drank and
ate--drank--swigged--reflected,--and then, as if to refresh himself,
drank again, again, and again, until, according to pre-arrangement,
he stood up on the tribune to re-propose the health of “LOUIS
NAPOLEON,” to which--coupling the meteor now shining in its zenith
with the “sun of Austerlitz,” which, though sunk for ever below the
horizon, still beamed as resplendently as ever within his heart--he
added, with great naïveté, “MAIS SANS OUBLIER L’AUTRE!”
The French people, or rather the representatives of the French
nation who were assembled, had received the consecutive orations
of several of the most illustrious of their fellow-citizens with
considerable marks of approbation; but when the veteran in question,
who was about seventy years of age, with hair white as snow, rose to
address to them a short speech that would scarcely have filled his
empty wine-glass, the sight of the uniform so dear to Frenchmen--the
tall bear-skin cap, the crimson feather, blue coat, red facings,
red worsted epaulettes, white breast, white breeches, long black
gaiters reaching over the knee, and, above all, buttons with an eagle
supporting the imperial crown--created a storm of applause which it
would be utterly impossible to describe. For nearly a quarter of an
hour shouts and clappings of hands prevented the old warrior from
opening his lips, and the applause if possible increased when the
veteran, with the palm of his hand turned outwards, stiffly saluted
the company in correct martial style: and yet, strange to record, at
the very moment of all this military enthusiasm, so characteristic of
a nation of whom it was lately very eloquently stated “that it had
been its ambition to be the world’s guide and its destiny to be the
world’s warning,” the French Government was not only without funds to
protect public or private property, but, in fact, had nothing but the
plunder of both to conciliate and feed the multitude of misguided and
misguiding people who, by the ruin of commerce and by the stagnation
of trade, were literally all over France starving from cold and
hunger. Of their enthusiasm, therefore, as of that of the veteran
standing up before them, it may truly be said or sung--
“Happy’s the soldier that lives on his pay,
And spends half-a-crown out of sixpence a-day!”
Having related, or rather merely repeated, this curious little
anecdote, we will now endeavour to explain in what manner it applies
to the subject of our chapter, namely, “_the construction of a
railway_.”
It has been justly observed that “England is bound over to keep
the peace by a national debt, or penalty, of 800 millions.” During
the glorious expenditure of all this money, the attention of the
country was solely engrossed with the art, employment, occupation,
and victories of war. Our great statesmen were war-ministers--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 OF PEACE.
Send her victorious--happy and glorious--
Long to reign over us--God save that queen!
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LINE.
1. In considering the project of a railway, after fixing upon the two
termini, it becomes necessary to select the towns through which it
ought to pass.
2. When these have been determined, the chief engineer to whom the
investigation of the proposed line has been confided, with the
Ordnance map in his hand, walks and re-walks over the whole length
(Mr. Robert Stephenson, in his investigation of the proposed line
between London and Birmingham, walked upwards of twenty times over
the country between each), until he feels that he carries in his
mind 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 either been impeded by delay,
or altogether clogged by the heavy charges on their transit, our
engineers, in tracing the lines for our great arterial railways,
were but too often looked upon as magicians, evil genii, or unclean
spirits, whose unearthly object was to fright the land from its
propriety.
In many instances where it was proposed, by tapping the dull stagnant
population of a country town, to give vigour and animation to its
system, the inhabitants actually fancied that their interests and
their happiness would, like their habits, expire under the operation.
For example, it is well known that one of the results of Mr. R.
Stephenson’s deliberate investigations was, that the present London
and North-Western Railway ought to pass through the healthy and
handsome town of Northampton,--an arrangement which of course would
instantaneously have given to it commercial importance of inestimable
value. The inhabitants, however, urged and excited by men of
influence and education, opposed the blessing with such barbarous
force, that they succeeded, to their everlasting punishment, in
distorting the line--_viâ_ the Kilsby Tunnel, which, if the projected
plan had been adopted, would not have been required--to a point five
miles off! and if such ignorance could, in the nineteenth century,
exist in a large and populous town, it cannot be a matter of surprise
that our engineers should have had to encounter similar, or, if
possible, still greater prejudices in rural districts.
It was there generally considered to be utterly incredible that a
railway could ever possibly supersede our mail and stage coaches; at
market meetings, and at market dinners, the invention was looked upon
as, and declared to be, “a smoky substitute for canals;” and while
men of property inveighed against its unsightly appearance, their
tenants were equally opposed to the measure.
For instance, among the _reasons_ for preventing the present
London and North-Western Railway coming to Northampton, it was
seriously urged by many very wealthy and respectable graziers in the
neighbourhood, that the smoke of the passing engines would seriously
discolour the wool of their sheep; that the 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 opposition to the new system, that
one of the engineers employed by the London and North-Western Railway
to trace out a branch line (which, at a considerable expense to the
Company, was to confer inestimable advantages upon its locality) was
attacked by the proprietors of the soil, and a conflict or battle
royal ensued, which ended in very serious legal results.
3. As soon as the chief engineer has, instead of the _best_ line
of railway that could have been determined on, decided on that
which, for the _reasons_ stated, it is _advisable_ he should
recommend--alas! what a pity it is that, in the construction of our
great arterial railways, such a discreditable difference should
have been allowed to exist!!--he employs his assistant engineers
and surveyors to make for him accurate surveys, and to take correct
sections, copies of which are to be deposited, according to Act of
Parliament, with the various clerks of the peace of the several
counties through which the line is to pass, with the Commissioners
of Railways, &c. &c. &c.; besides which there is to be prepared for
each parish its proportion, as also for every landholder a section,
showing the greatest depth of cutting or embankment in any of his
fields.
In addition to the collection and construction of all these data
and drawings, notices are to be served upon every landowner,
wherever he may be, in the United Kingdom; for which duty in 1845
almost everybody that could be picked up was engaged, the number of
horses employed and _killed_ in the operation having been utterly
incalculable.
4. By the time these expenses have been incurred, the attention
of the chief engineer is engrossed by a new struggle of vital
importance, practically called “_the fight for the Act_,” in both
houses of Parliament.
As the question before the reader is abstractedly one of science, we
gladly refrain from staining it by the slightest political remark;
we will therefore, on this branch of the subject, only state that,
from returns which have officially been published, it appears that,
in the years 1845, 1846, and 1847, more than ten millions were
expended in parliamentary inquiries and parliamentary contests.
This money would, at the rate of 20,000_l._ per mile, have
constructed a national railway 500 miles in length--say from London
to Aberdeen!
Casting aside the bitter mortification which these expenses must
create to the man of science, whose mind is enthusiastically
engrossed with the vast importance of railway communication, the
permanent tax which they inflict upon the public can very briefly be
demonstrated.
Supposing 5 per cent. be deemed an adequate return to railway
proprietors for the capital they have expended, the comparative
charges to be levied by them on every passenger or ton of goods would
be as follows:--
Charge per mile on a railway which ought to have
cost 15,000_l._ per mile 1_d._ per mile.
Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been
made to cost 20,000_l._ per mile 1⅓_d._ „
Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been
made to cost 25,000_l._ per mile 1⅔_d._ „
Ditto on a railway which has unnecessarily been
made to cost 30,000_l._ per mile 2_d._ „
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 up shall as nearly as possible balance each
other; in short, inasmuch as all contractors prudently, and indeed
very properly, invariably lower their tenders in proportion as the
work they are required to execute has been clearly laid open to their
view, and, on the other hand, to secure themselves from unknown
difficulties, as invariably _raise_ their tenders for work which has
not been sufficiently bored or examined, he is fully sensible that
a considerable saving in the cost of the proposed railway will be
effected by a clear preliminary development of its works.
6. This mass of information having been prepared, the chief engineer
now advertises his work in its various lengths for execution by
contract, and, on receiving tenders for the same, he selects, not
always the _lowest_, but that which, for various reasons, is the most
_approved_, taking security generally to the amount of 10 per cent.
of the contract.
Previous, however, to the reception of the tenders the chief engineer
appoints his staff of assistants. To each 40 or 50 miles there
is usually appointed an experienced engineer, having under him
“_sub-assistants_” who superintend from 10 to 15 miles each--these
sub-assistants being again assisted by “_inspectors_” of masonry,
of mining, of earth-work, and of permanent way, to each of whom a
particular district is assigned.
7. The chief engineer now finds himself engaged in a new struggle
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 engineer has to overcome:
for it must be evident that if, by means of bribery, or from
inattention, or from sheer roguery, any important portion of the
work be “scamped,” 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 shafts,” 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_l._
In order to drive the tunnel, it was deemed necessary to construct 18
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.
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 Kilsby 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 subsequently incurred, justified the
verdict. But in science, as well as in war, the word “IM_possible_”
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 duly authorised 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 degree, 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 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 moan of the rumbling train,
or the occasional subterranean whistle 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 shafts when,
the back of his coat happening to get into an angular crevice of
the partition, called by miners a “_brattice_,” which separated
the shaft 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, which, 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 shaft an accident of exactly a contrary nature
subsequently occurred. In order to execute some trifling repair to
the brattice, there was, during a desperate cold night, suspended,
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 Pierson, fell from
the surface with such momentum, that, breaking through the frail
scaffolding as if it had been tinder, he was in a few seconds heard
to go souse into the water at a considerable depth beneath!
As soon as the men on the scaffold had recovered from their surprise
they naturally all at once were animated with a desire to save their
comrade. One lustily roared out for rope; another vociferously
proposed something else; while several navvies, bawling from the
surface, were each as eagerly and as loudly prescribing his own
remedy. In the midst of this confusion the stentorian voice of Jack
Pierson himself was heard, from the very bottom of the pit, calmly to
exclaim,
“DARM YOUR EYES, MAKE LESS NOISE AND POOL ME AROUT!!”
His rough command was instantly attended to, and he was moreover
carried to his bed, where, poor fellow! he lay many weeks unable to
move.
Besides the 1250 labourers employed in the construction of the
tunnel, a proportionate number of suttlers and victuallers of all
descriptions concentrated upon the village of Kilsby. In several
houses there lodged in each room sixteen navvies, and as there were
four beds in each apartment, two navvies were constantly in each;
the two squads of eight men as alternately changing places with each
other in their beds as in their work.
Such was the demand for lodging that it was, as we have stated,
found necessary to construct a large village over the tunnel for
the accommodation of the workmen, and, as they generally allowed
themselves three meat meals a-day, it has been asserted that more
beef was eaten at Kilsby during the construction of the tunnel than
had previously been consumed there since the Deluge.
As these navigators are now before us, we trust that our readers will
not only be curious but desirous to know a little more of the habits
of a set of men who have lately added so materially to the prosperity
of the country as well as to our luxuries, by the numerous railways
which, by the honest sweat of their brows, they have one after
another executed.
We need hardly say that, as regards their physical strength, they
are the finest Herculean specimens of the British race; and, as is
generally the case, in proportion as they are powerful so are they
devoid of all bluster or bravado.
Those who have commanded large numbers of them state that they are
not only obedient to all above them, even to their own “gangers,” but
that, although they have--we think very justly--occasionally required
a permanent increase of pay, they have never meanly taken advantage
of a press of business to strike for wages. Indeed the conduct of a
“navvy,” like his countenance, is honest and open. If from illness
or misfortune he is unable to work, he and his family are maintained
by his comrades; in truth the same provision is made among them for
what are called by navvies their “_tally-wives_,” a description of
relationship exceedingly difficult _correctly_ to describe.
As they earn high wages, it is a fashion among them to keep dogs; and
as rather a noble trait, we may mention that there have been several
instances where 10_l._ has been in vain offered to “a navvy” to
induce him to sell his dumb favourite.
Generally speaking they are not addicted to poaching; but when not
at work they usually amuse themselves by playing at skittles, at
quoits, by drinking, and occasionally by fighting; and although the
latter species of recreation is no doubt reprehensible, yet surely it
is better for a man to walk homewards at night with a pair of black
eyes and a bloody nose, than with an I O U cheque in his pocket for
ten thousand pounds, gained by what the fashionable world terms “at
_play_” from a companion whose wife he has made destitute, and whose
children he has probably ruined!
At a navvy’s funeral 500 of his comrades in their clean short white
smock-frocks, with thin black handkerchiefs tied loosely round
their throats, are seen occasionally in procession walking in pairs
hand in hand after the coffin of their mate. In short, there exists
among them a friendly “_esprit de corps_,” which not only binds them
together, but renders it rather dangerous for any stranger to cheat,
or even to endeavour to overreach them.
During the construction of the present London and North-Western
Railway, a landlady at Hillmorton, near Rugby, of very sharp
practice, which she had imbibed in dealings for many years with
canal boatmen, was constantly remarking aloud that no navvy should
ever “_do_” her; and although the railway was in her immediate
neighbourhood, and although the navvies were her principal customers,
she took pleasure on every opportunity in repeating the invidious
remark.
It had, however, one fine morning scarcely left her large,
full-blown, rosy lips, when a fine-looking young fellow, walking up
to her, carrying in both hands a huge stone bottle, commonly called
“a grey-neck,” briefly asked her for “half a gallon of gin;” which
was no sooner measured and poured in than the money was rudely
demanded before it could be taken away.
On the navvy declining to pay the exorbitant price asked, the
landlady, with a face like a peony, angrily told him he must either
pay for the gin or _instantly_ return it.
He silently chose the latter, and accordingly, while the eyes of
his antagonist were wrathfully fixed upon his, he returned into her
measure the half-gallon, and then quietly walked off; but having
previously put into his grey-neck half a gallon of water, each party
eventually found themselves in possession of half a gallon of gin
and water; and, however either may have enjoyed the mixture, it is
historically recorded at Hillmorton that the landlady was never again
heard unnecessarily to boast “that no navvy could ‘_do_’ her.”
A navvy at Kilsby, being asked why he did not go to church? dully
answered in geological language--“_Why, Soonday hasn’t cropped out
here yet!_” By which he meant that the clergyman appointed to the new
village had not yet arrived.
The contrast which exists between the character of the French and
English navigator may be briefly exemplified by the following
trifling anecdote:--
In excavating a portion of the first tunnel east of Rouen towards
Paris, a French miner dressed in his blouse, and an English “navvy”
in his white smock jacket, were suddenly buried alive together by
the falling in of the earth behind them. Notwithstanding the violent
commotion which the intelligence of the accident excited above
ground, Mr. Meek, the English engineer who was constructing the
work, after having quietly measured the distance from the shaft to
the sunken ground, satisfied himself that if the men, at the moment
of the accident, were at the head of “the drift” at which they were
working, they would be safe.
Accordingly, getting together as many French and English labourers as
he could collect, he instantly commenced sinking a shaft, which was
accomplished to the depth of 50 feet in the extraordinary short space
of eleven hours, and the men were thus brought up to the surface
alive.
The Frenchman, on reaching the top, suddenly rushing forwards, hugged
and embraced on both cheeks his friends and acquaintances, many
of whom had assembled, and then, almost instantly overpowered by
conflicting feelings,--by the recollection of the endless time he had
been imprisoned--and by the joy of his release,--he sat down on a log
of timber, and, putting both his hands before his face, he began to
cry aloud most bitterly.
The English “navvy” sat himself down on the very same piece of
timber--took his pit-cap off his head--slowly wiped with it the
perspiration from his hair and face--and then, looking for some
seconds into the hole or shaft close beside him through which he had
been lifted, as if he were calculating the number of cubic yards that
had been excavated, he quite coolly, in broad Lancashire dialect,
said to the crowd of French and English who were staring at him as
children and nursery-maids in our London Zoological Gardens stand
gazing half terrified at the white bear,
“YAW’VE BEAN A DARMNATION SHORT TOIME ABAAOWT IT!”
In the construction of the London and North-Western Railway, the
contractor at Blisworth also failed and also died.
Besides the perpendicular cutting which he had undertaken to execute,
there was, on the surface of the rock through which it now passes, a
stratum of about twenty feet of clay of so slippery a nature, that
for a considerable time, in spite of all efforts or precautions,
it continued to flow over into the cutting like porridge. The only
remedy which could be applied was, at vast labour and expense, to
remove this stratum for a considerable distance, terminating it by
a slope at a very flat angle, all of which extra labour, trouble,
and expense, we may observe, is not only unseen but unknown to the
traveller, who, as he flies through the tunnel, if he looks at the
summit at all, naturally fancies that it forms the upper extremity of
the work.
In the construction of the tunnel at Walford an accident occurred
of rather a serious nature. A mass of loose gravel concealed in the
chalk, slipping _viâ_ the shaft into the tunnel, suddenly killed
eleven men, besides letting down from the surface a horse and gin.
CUTTINGS.
9. In passing through the consecutive cuttings of a great railway,
the traveller usually considers that those through rock must have
been desperate undertakings, infinitely more expensive than those
through clay. The cost of both, however, is nearly equal; for, not
only does the perpendicular rock-cutting require infinitely less
excavation than the wide yawning earth one of the same depth, but
when once executed the former is not liable to the expensive slips
which subsequently occasionally afflict the latter.
In determining whether the line should proceed by tunnelling or by
cutting, the engineer’s rule usually is to prefer the latter for any
depth less than sixty feet; after which it is generally cheaper to
tunnel. If, however, earth be wanted for a neighbouring embankment,
it becomes of course a matter of calculation whether it may not
be cheaper to make a cutting instead of what abstractedly ought
otherwise to have been a tunnel.
In the construction of the Tring cutting alone of the present London
and North-Western Railway, there were excavated 1,297,763 cubic yards
of chalk, of which about fifteen cubic feet weighed a ton.
EMBANKMENTS.
10. Besides contending with water above ground as well as below,
the constructor of a railway is occasionally assailed by an element
of a very different nature. For instance, when the Wolverhampton
embankment of the present London and North-Western Railway, at vast
trouble and expense, was nearly finished, it was observed first
to smoke, then get exceedingly hot, until a slow mouldering flame
visible at night appeared. The bank began to consume away, and the
heat continued until it actually burned the railway sleepers; at
last, however, it exhausted itself. The combustion was caused by the
quantity of sulphuret of iron or pyrites contained in the earth of
the embankment, which, having been baked by the fire, will probably
never slip.
11. It would be tedious, and indeed impossible, to detail the various
works which a railway engineer has to superintend in the construction
of the line, in the laying down of the rails or “permanent way,” and
in the subsequent, or rather simultaneous, erection of the various
station-houses, storehouses, workshops, &c. &c., the interior of
which we shall soon have occasion to enter.
An idea, however, of the magnitude of his operations may be
faintly imparted by the following brief abstract of a series of
calculations made by Mr. Lecount, one of the engineers employed in
the construction of the southern division of the present London and
North-Western Railway, and the writer of the article ‘_Railways_’
in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’ The great Pyramid of Egypt
was, according to Diodorus Siculus, constructed by three hundred
thousand--according to Herodotus by one hundred thousand--men; it
required for its execution twenty years, and the labour expended on
it has been estimated as equivalent to lifting 15,733,000,000 of
cubic feet of stone one foot high. Now, if in the same manner the
labour expended in constructing the Southern Division only of the
present London and North-Western Railway be reduced to one common
denomination, the result is 25,000,000,000 cubic feet of similar
material lifted to the same height; being 9,267,000,000 of cubic feet
_more_ than was lifted for the pyramid; and yet the English work was
performed by about 20,000 men only, in less than five years.
Again, it has been calculated by Mr. Lecount that the quantity of
earth moved in the single division (112½ miles in length) of the
railway in question would be sufficient to make a foot-path a foot
high and a yard broad round the whole circumference of the earth!
the _cost_ of this division of the railway in penny-pieces being
sufficient to form a copper kerb or edge to it. Supposing therefore
the same proportionate quantity of earth to be moved in the 7150
miles of railway sanctioned by Parliament at the commencement of 1848
(_Vide_ Parliamentary Returns), our engineers within about fifteen
years would, in the construction of our railways alone, have removed
earth sufficient to girdle the globe with a road one foot high and
one hundred and ninety-one feet broad!
Abandoning, however, speculations of this nature, we will conclude
our slight sketch of the principal works required for a railway by a
few data, exemplifying the magnitude of the Britannia Bridge over the
Menai Straits, the construction of which has been intrusted by its
well-known inventor to the very able and experienced management of
Mr. Frank Forster.
The dimensions of this straight wrought-iron aërial gallery, through
which passengers and goods are to travel by rail, are--
Total length of bridge, divided into 4 openings-- }
2 of 230 feet } } Feet. In.
2 of 460 feet } each } 1834 9
Height of rails above high-water mark 104 0
Quantity of masonry in the towers and abutments { 1,365,000
{ cubic feet.
Weight of one of the iron tubes for the largest }
span to be lifted 100 feet } 1,800 tons.
Value of each of the largest of the iron tubes, not }
including expense of raising it } £54,000
The cost of the scaffolding now in use about the }
bridge has exceeded } £50,000
It would, we conceive, be impertinent to dilute the above facts by a
single comment.
THE CHIEF ENGINEER.
As the selection of an engineer-in-chief, competent to determine
the best line for a projected railway to take, the mode in
which it should be constructed, and, lastly, to execute his own
project--deviating from it with consummate judgment according to
the difficulties, physical, moral, and political, which, sometimes
separately and sometimes collectively, suddenly rise up to oppose
him--is a point not only of vital importance to the success of
the undertaking, but in the undertaking is the _first_ important
point to be decided, it would, we were aware, have apparently been
the most regular to have commenced the present chapter with this
subject. We conceived, however, that instead of there detailing
the qualifications necessary for the duties required, it would
save us very many words, and our readers as much time, if we were
to defer the consideration of that subject until a brief outline
of those duties should, without comment, practically explain the
qualifications required.
If the United Kingdom had only projected the construction of one
or two great arterial railways, we might naturally have expected
that the few competent engineers necessary would readily have been
obtained; but when we consider the number of railways that were
simultaneously created, the surveys, plans, sections, and other
preparations that were necessary, the magnitude of the works of
various descriptions that were to be constructed in each, it must
evidently to many be a subject of astonishment that there should
have been found on the surface of our country not only the amount of
engineering talent necessary for the execution of such vast works,
but an amount which may truly be said to have exceeded the demand.
The curious historical fact, however, is, that the amount of
engineering talent thus suddenly required existed not on _the
surface_ of our country, but, on the contrary, many hundred fathoms
_beneath it_. The brilliant talents that were required were “black
diamonds,” without metaphor embedded in the bowels of the earth.
Science called her spirits from the vasty deep, and in obedience to
her commands there arose out of the shafts of our coaleries, and from
beneath the bottom of the Thames--
OLD GEORGE STEPHENSON, who had served his articles of apprenticeship
in a coal-mine, for many years working at the engines both above
ground and below;
ISAMBARD BRUNEL, whose principal experience had been acquired in the
construction of the Thames Tunnel;
JOSEPH LOCKE, a colliery-viewer, who had served his apprenticeship
below ground;
ROBERT STEPHENSON, brought up as a coal-miner, served his
apprenticeship at Killingworth colliery;
FRANK FORSTER had worked for seven years as an apprentice in a
coal-mine;
NICHOLAS WOOD, ditto;
CHARLES LEAN, ditto;
And a crowd of similar genii, all slaves of the same lamp, or “_Old
Davy_,” as they term it.
To such men the difficulties attendant upon the construction of a
railway were trifling as compared with those against which all their
lives they had been contending.
For instance, he who along dark, intricate, subterranean passages,
or “heavings,” as they are termed, often only three feet and a half
high, and occasionally only two feet high, creeping and crawling
through foul air, could with great speed, not only with unerring
certainty find his way, but in such a secluded study could plan
a variety of new cuttings, each forming part and parcel of a
reticulated system of excavation which an unpractised mind would
find it utterly impossible to comprehend, would, it may easily be
conceived, experience but little difficulty, when walking erect in
sunshine and in balmy air, to carry in his mind from, say Harrow
to Watford, Watford to Tring, Tring to Wolverton, and Wolverton to
Birmingham, those great leading features of the surrounding country
which would enable him to exercise for the laying out of a railway
the judgment and decision required.
Again, what, it may justly be asked, are embankments, deep cuttings,
and occasionally here and there a straight tunnel thirty feet broad,
twenty-seven feet high, _usually forming by drainage its own adit_,
in comparison with the overwhelming and intricate difficulties
attendant upon--
1st. The excavation of coal from strata of various characters, at
various depths, each passage or “air-heaving” requiring perhaps a
different system of support.
2nd. Encountering at various depths quicksands.
3rd. The great as well as minute arrangements necessary for wheeling
carriages and raising the coals.
4th. The organization and management of a subterranean army of men
and horses.
5th, and lastly. Lifting by steam-power from various depths, by night
and by day, streams, floods, and occasionally almost rivers of water?
It has been beneath the surface of our country that these and many
other difficulties of vast magnitude--unknown to and unthought of
by the multitude--have for many generations been successfully
encountered by science, capital, and by almost superhuman physical
exertion; and it was accordingly, as we have stated, from beneath the
surface of Great Britain that an organised corps of civil engineers,
who, like those we have named, had regularly served as apprentices,
arose, in the emergency of a moment, to assist their eminent
brother engineers above ground, in constructing for the country the
innumerable railways so suddenly required.