The line of the proposed plan for this useful and excellent undertaking
has been forwarded to us. We know not whether the projectors are aware
that a straight line is no longer necessary, but that the sharpest turns
may now be made on rail-roads by an American invention, lately carried
into effect in the United States with singular success.--The line of
railway will be 112-1/2 miles. Birmingham being between 3 and 400 feet
higher than London, and the intervening ground much broken, the railway
could not be laid down without an inclination in its planes; the rise,
however, will in no case exceed 1 in 330. The highest point of the line is
on the summit of an inclined plane 15 miles long, rising 13-1/3 feet in
each mile, and is 315 feet above the level at Maiden Lane, London; from
which it is distant 31 miles. The termination at Birmingham is 256 feet
higher than the commencement at London. It is intended that there should
be 10 tunnels--one at Primrose Hill half a mile long, one near Watford a
mile long, and one near Kilsby, 78 miles from London, a mile and a quarter
long. The others are each less than a quarter of a mile in length, with
the exception of one, which is a third of a mile long. They will all be 25
feet in height, well lighted, and ought rather to be called galleries than
tunnels. The strata through which the railway is carried, appear generally
to follow in this order from London:
Miles.
London clay and plastic clay 15-1/2
Chalk and chalk flints 18-1/2
Chalk, marl, weald clay, iron sand,
and Oxford clay or clunch clay 20
Great and inferior oolite limestones,
and sandy beds 18
Lias marls, lias limestone or water
lime and shale beds 16
Red marl and new red sandstone 24-1/2
-------
112-1/2
The railway will be composed of two lines of rails with a space between
them of six feet, but at particular points two additional lines will be
required as turns-out to facilitate the passage of the locomotive engines
and carriages. If we assume the average rate of travelling on the railway
to be 20 miles an hour, (which is about the mark,) that 1,200 persons pass
along it in a day, and 120 are conveyed in each train of carriages, then
only ten trains of carriages would be required for all the passengers;
each train would separately take a minute and a half, and the ten trains
not more than fifteen minutes in passing over half a mile of ground. Allow
twice this time for the passage of cattle and merchandise, and it is
manifest that the traffic on railways can never be a source of annoyance
to persons residing near them. All who have travelled in carriages drawn
by locomotive steam-engines on the Liverpool and Manchester railway can
vouch for the safety and comfort, as well as the expedition, of this mode
of conveyance; but the strongest evidence of public opinion on this
subject is the fact, that twice as many persons go by the railway, as were
formerly carried in coaches running on the roads between the two
places--and yet, although the expense of travelling is reduced one-half,
and the works of the railway cost more than 800,000_l_., the proprietors
are in the receipt of a dividend of 9_l_. for a year on their 100_l_.
shares! Enough has been ascertained of the traffic in the districts
through which the London and Birmingham Railway will pass, to remove all
doubt as to an ample return for the necessary outlay.--_Metropolitan_.
* * * * *