PARIS TO ST. MICHEL—“ABOVE SEA-LEVEL”—THE HOLBORN VIADUCT—THE MONT
CENIS RAILWAY.
If the reader will refer to page 16 _ante_, he will see that we left
an imaginary travelling companion of ours, to refresh himself at one
of the innumerable restaurants of Paris, whilst we were to employ the
time in giving some account of the four greatest existing railways in
Europe, and of the Pacific Union Railroad, now constructing across
the continent of North America. But one thing has led to another, and
descriptions which we had originally intended should only occupy some
fifty or sixty pages, have grown to more than 200. We now revert to
our original plan, which is, to take the reader, in the shape of an
imaginary traveller, to the Mont Cenis Railway, and having given the
best explanation of it in our power, to impart (_apropos_ of the Tunnel
of the Alps) the information we have recently collected about tunnels,
ancient and modern, canal and railway, in Great Britain, and in other
parts of the world. From the Alps, we shall proceed, by means of the
existing railways, to the extreme south-eastern end of Italy, whence we
shall cross over to Sicily, the most southern part of Europe to which
railways extend. In this manner we propose to bring the present volume
to a conclusion.
Taking place in the train of the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean
Railway, at the Mazas Station, built nearly opposite to Paris’s great
prison of the same name, we travel on the main line, 275 miles, as
far as Lamartine’s birthplace, Macon, forty-four miles short of
Lyons, and 262 short of Marseilles, which is 537 miles from Paris.
We must leave the detailed description of the route to _Murray’s Hand
Books_, of which Hand Hooks in general we have recently said, and now
repeat, that an experience of upwards of thirty years’ very frequent
travelling in many parts of the continent enables us to state that,
for lucid description, accuracy, and impartiality, they are the only
English ones that completely merit the confidence of the public. _Per
contra_, the omissions and inaccuracies met with in other so-called
“Guides” are a source of continual annoyance and disappointment to the
inexperienced continental traveller. To mention only one instance, a
Hand Book which we were assured, at the office of its publication,
was published in June 1866 (of course there is no date of publication
on the title-page), is, with a few trifling alterations, a reprint of
pages in stereotype published twelve or thirteen years previously, and
the routes given to reach the country which it professes to describe
are those that were in use, by ordinary road and by steam-boat, until
railways, opened now between six and ten years, superseded them.
At Macon we turn off from the main line of railway to the left, and
pass successively Bourg and Culoz, near to which was the boundary
between France and Italy, until the “rectification of frontier” in
1859 transferred the line of demarcation to the summit of the Alps,
and converted Niceois and Savoyards into Frenchmen. At Culoz there is
a further separation of railway—one branch turns north-east to Geneva
45 miles—the other, formerly the Victor Emanuel Railway, but lately
swallowed up by the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Company, continues
direct into the _Savoie Propre_, and after passing Aix les Bains and
Chambery, runs up the Valley of the Arq to St. Michel, at present the
terminus of the lines in this direction. When the stupendous task of
piercing the Alps is achieved, this line will be continued to Modane,
twelve miles farther up the valley, where it will enter the great
tunnel. The works on this length, as will be explained hereafter, will
be exceedingly difficult and costly.
At St. Michel, the traveller at the present time has to exchange from
the luxurious first-class carriage to the jolting, crowded, slow
diligence. But very shortly he will only be called upon to move from
the first-class carriage of the Mediterranean Company into the equally
comfortable one of the Mont Cenis Railway, a specimen of which was
exhibited at the recent Paris Exhibition. In this he will travel from
St. Michel to Susa in less than half the time, and at a little more
than half the expense of the journey _en Diligence_.
St. Michel is 146 English miles from Macon, 421 from Paris, 717 from
London. The traveller who leaves London any morning of the week,
at twenty-five minutes past seven, will (with a break of two hours
in Paris) find himself at St. Michel at noon the following day,
notwithstanding the fact, that the railway from Macon onwards is far
from being a first-class one; its gradients are steep, its curves
numerous and abrupt. Between Calais and St. Michel, including various
ups and downs (for railways are subject to the fluctuations physically
that man experiences bodily), the traveller has risen 2,493 English
feet, but principally in the seventy-two miles and a-half from Culoz
onwards. He has, in fact, completed more than a third of the total
elevation he has to conquer, in order to be at the summit of the Mont
Cenis Pass. This summit is 6,658 feet above the sea level at Calais and
elsewhere.
“Above sea level!” What does this mean? We shall endeavour to
illustrate; we shall therefore ask our reader to be so good as,
in the first instance, to place himself, either in imagination or
reality, exactly parallel with those at-one-time-considered impregnable
fortresses at Albert Gate Knightsbridge, Malta, and Gibraltar, so
called, because, for a long time, no one could be found to take them.
The ice, however, was broken as regards one of them, Malta, by a
monarch of former days—for the most part wrongly accused and unfairly
deposed—the Railway King. He sold it to our “natural enemy;” it has,
therefore, for many years, been in possession of France, as the
residence of the French ambassador, and let us _en passant_ express a
fervent hope—long may it continue to be so. Gibraltar, less dignified,
has, probably, not been less useful; it fell, however, through the
fatal influence of gold; it has long been a tributary or branch of one
of our leading joint stock banking establishments.
So much for our starting point, and now for the ground to be got over.
It has just been stated that the summit of the Mont Cenis Pass is 6,658
feet above sea level.[114] Converted into terms which we can more
readily appreciate for such lengths, it means one mile and a quarter
with fifty-eight feet over for good measurement. Placing this distance
on the flat instead of the perpendicular it represents the whole of the
ground that intervenes between the whilom fortresses and the corner of
Coventry Street and the Haymarket; that is, a person wanting to walk
6,658 feet on or nearly the level, must go over ground equal to that
which we have named as between these two points of measurement. But
when we come to ascend a height, be it great or small, only a few feet
or a mountain, we know by a universal law that we cannot mount exactly
perpendicularly. Even in the nearest approach to the upright straight
rise—the ladder—we are obliged to have some slope in it. We therefore,
in all ascents by steps must mount gradually, so gradually in fact that
the place for placing the human foot is usually greater than the rise
made at each step it takes forward. In ordinarily built houses of the
usual proportions, the rise of a step in a staircase is seven inches,
but what the foot steps on is eleven inches wide; consequently, for
every seven inches that we rise we must go forward eleven inches. But
this is not all: at every twelve or fourteen feet we must have breaks
in the ascent—landings; therefore, for any height above twenty feet
or so, the proportion between elevation and step forward is, as near
as can be, one to three. Taken by this standard, a person wanting to
rise 6,658 feet by means of staircases or steps, must be continually
ascending for a length that measures not only from Albert Gate to the
Haymarket; but a farther distance represented by Leicester Square,
Cranbourne Street, Long Acre, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,
Holborn, Newgate Street, Cheapside, and to the Bank of England.
Let us look at “above the level of the sea” in another light. The
staircase height of each of the houses we have referred to is about
sixty feet, a fatiguing ascension even for the lightest of us. The
summit of the Mont Cenis Pass is exactly 111 times 60. The top of St.
Paul’s Cathedral is 404 feet from the ground at St. Paul’s Churchyard.
The summit of the Mont Cenis Pass is sixteen and a half times higher.
Elevation by steps is only available for man, and for man’s ever
faithful, as well as for man’s doubtfully faithful, companions, the
dog and the cat. They therefore are able to ascend and descend a
_staircase_ gradient of 1 in 2; not so all other useful and domestic
animals—the horse, the mule, the sheep, and the cow can only go along
a continuous roadway; the mountain goat can skip occasionally from
rock to rock, but its normal step is that of the other animals we have
just enumerated. Were the steps of a staircase covered over, say with
boards, and the ascent made uniform, man could not ascend or descend
a gradient of 1 in 2, 1 in 3, 1 in 4, and scarcely 1 in 5. He could
not, in fact, ascend or descend the last-named gradient without having
something beside him to hold on by. But the muscles of man’s legs, and
the organisation of his feet, enable him, by one of the innumerable
and beautiful arrangements of the all-provident Creator, to ascend
elevations by steps with complete facility, and at any moment. The
steepest gradient that a horse can ascend or descend for any distance
with a load is 1 in 10; occasionally there are short slopes in roads,
especially old ones, of 1 in 6 or 7, but they overtax muscular strength
in which ever direction an animal is going. It is a good mountain road
the gradient of which does not exceed 1 in 15, or 352 feet in a mile,
excellent, if it be anything like 1 in 20, or 264 feet in a mile. A
strong, well-fed English horse with a moderate load behind him, could
trot up this latter gradient for a short distance, and then he would
fall into a walking pace, but he would draw a heavier load and with
less distress to himself if he be started at a walk and be never
pressed out of it.
Being anxious to show by an illustration, which would be familiar to
most persons, who are either resident in, or have visited London,
what is a gradient, we applied for information to Mr. Wm. Haywood,
the engineer of the Corporation of London, under whose direction the
Holborn Viaduct and Embankment are now in course of construction.
He has kindly and courteously furnished a diagram—a copy of which
is annexed at the end of the volume, showing in minute detail the
variations of gradient, from Staples Inn to opposite the Old Bailey and
Giltspur Street. The total length from point to point is 2,202 feet, a
little more than two-fifths of a mile. The steepest gradient is 1 in 15
(352 feet in the mile) for 86 feet, the next 1 in 18 (293 feet in the
mile) for 257 feet, and 1 in 19 (278 feet in the mile) for 113 feet.
These gradients are all on Holborn Hill, between Hatton Garden and Shoe
Lane. The steepest on Snow Hill is 1 in 21 (251 feet in the mile) for
87 feet, and 1 in 24 (220 feet in the mile) for 312 feet. All these
gradients will, however, in a year or so, be matters of history, for it
is hoped that the Holborn Viaduct will be opened for traffic at the
beginning of 1869.[115]
[Illustration: GRADIENTS OF HOLBORN HILL & OF SNOW HILL LONDON
_Horizontal scale, 352 feet to an Inch._
_Vertical scale, 44 feet to an Inch._
]
It is, however, a misnomer to call it a viaduct. It is true that, by
means of a massive construction, the opposite sides of a valley—at
their summits more than two-fifths of a mile apart—are connected
together on the level. But, in reality, the viaduct is a great
metropolitan work, worthy of the Corporation of the City of London,
which, although well abused by persons who do not understand its
operations, is never-ceasing, to the extent of its means, in carrying
out improvements within its limits. A list of the works and changes
effected by the Corporation in the last thirty years would show that
it has expended millions in altering the face of the City,[116]
and in increasing facilities for traffic, especially at points of
aggregation. The manner in which the new street that is to run from
the Mansion House to Blackfriars Bridge, within City boundaries, is
advancing, contrasts markedly with what is doing beyond them. According
to present appearances, the City will have completed its work and
opened its portion of the street for traffic about the time that the
Metropolitan Board of Works will have made a fair start upon what it
has to accomplish.
The next great work that the Corporation has to take in hand is the
widening of the Poultry, infinitely more important, and more absolutely
required, in the opinion of all people who frequent the City, than the
widening of Newgate Street, upon which the Corporation is now engaged.
The expense, of course, will be enormous, but it must be met—somehow:
land to be paid for by the square _inch_; splendid constructions to
come down; historic Bucklersbury to disappear; even the Mansion House
will stop the way, and His Lordship will have to find residence either
at the rear of Guildhall, as was suggested some short time ago, or
elsewhere. Metropolitan fellow residents, metropolitan suburbanists,
and inhabitants who dwell to the extent of six miles outside the
Post-Master General’s twelve mile postal circle, you may all rest
assured that the granite pillars you see at the eighteen mile distance
post from London, on railway and roadway, on river bank and canal
tow-path—the columns of Luxor of the Corporation—with inscriptions on
them destined, in remote future times, to represent the hieroglyphics
of ancient Anglia—will remain and be found among the few signs then
extant, of the by-gone civilisation which the prophesied New Zealander
is to make his musings upon. Of the London coal tax as of the river:—
“Rusticus expectat dum defluit amnis; at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.”[117]
The tax exists _ex necessitate rerum_, and must continue
notwithstanding fervescence frequent—always at boiling point—in
Parochial Parliaments, with echoes occasional in that of St. Stephens.
By means of the Viaduct, as already said, the two summits of the valley
will be connected together almost on the level. The roadway will be 80
feet wide. Commencing at the western end of Newgate Street, it will be
carried in a straight line to Farringdon Street, occupying the whole of
the space which recently formed Skinner Street, as well as the sites
of several of the houses on that thoroughfare. It will include also a
portion of the church of St. Sepulchre, the dismal bell of which tolls
“the knell of parting day” to those miserable beings upon whom the law
enacts terrible and life-destroying vengeance. From Farringdon Street
the Viaduct is carried by a gentle curve to Hatton Garden, occupying
the present roadway and the sites of the houses which formerly stood
on the southern side of Holborn Hill. It will also occupy part of the
churchyard of St. Andrew’s, Holborn.
At the entrance to St. Sepulchre’s Church a street from Farringdon
Road will join the Viaduct on its northern side, and it is at this
point that whatever little gradient there is on the Viaduct may be
said to commence. From there to Farringdon Street it will be 1 in
153, or at the rate of 34 feet in the mile; from Farringdon Street to
Hatton Garden, 1 in 143, or at the rate of 35 feet in the mile. For all
purposes of traffic the Viaduct may therefore be said to be level.
The Viaduct in its formation will include vaultage beneath each footway
for the accommodation of the future houses on either side of the
roadway; outside these vaults will be a subway for the gas and water
pipes, and between each subway, and forming the centre of the Viaduct,
the roadway will be carried on a series of arches.
The general height of the subways will be about 11 feet 6 inches and
their width 7 feet; they will be of brickwork, excepting where they
are carried over the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway; there they
will be of iron. In each subway provision is made for water, gas, and
telegraph pipes, all of which will be so placed that their joints can
be inspected, and repairs made without difficulty.
The mode of construction of sewers, drains, and street gullies is such
that it will never be necessary to break up the surface of the Viaduct
to repair or cleanse them.
Farringdon Street will be crossed by a cast-iron bridge of an
ornamental character. It will be in three spans, supported by piers,
one row being on the outer edge of each footway. These piers, as well
as the outer abutment piers, are to be formed of polished granite. The
height of the bridge next to the curb stones will be 16 feet, and in
the centre the minimum height will be 21 feet, considerably more than
sufficient for the traffic. At each corner of this bridge flights of
steps will be constructed for pedestrians to pass between the upper and
the lower levels. These will be enclosed in stone structures, ample
light and ventilation being given to them.
Shoe Lane, now at its northern end but 14 feet wide, is to be increased
to 30 feet in width, and to be continued northwards, under the Viaduct,
to a new street which is to be formed from the corner of Hatton Garden
to Farringdon Road. A complete net-work of streets is to extend from
the Viaduct to all the existing adjacent streets, and as at the place
at which Holborn ends and the Viaduct commences several of these
streets concentrate, with the view to remedying the inconvenience which
would arise from a too limited area for traffic; and to add to the
character of the work in an architectural point of view, Mr. Haywood
has formed at this point a large circus 180 feet in diameter. This open
space will, in addition to its other advantages, afford an opportunity
for architectural display that we are sure will be judiciously availed
of.
The magnitude of the work may be represented, in one shape, by the
number of bricks required for its construction. From seventeen to
eighteen millions, of which rather more than two-thirds are in the
actual viaduct, and somewhat less than one-third in the constructions
connected with the side streets. Of course these amounts are
independent of what will be used in the houses and buildings to be
erected hereafter. These will be millions in their numbers also.
Of gradients in reference to railways we speak hereafter.
The distance from St. Michel to Susa is 78½ kilometres—48¾ English
miles. It is divided into two portions nearly equal in distance, but
very different as regards gradient. For the first half of the distance
the road continues to follow the valley of the Arq for twenty-five
miles up to the village of Lanslebourg, which is situated at the foot
of the Mont Cenis Pass, and here commences the second portion of the
route forming the passage of the mountain.
Before proceeding farther we had better state that a French metre
is equal to 3 feet 3·371 inches; consequently, 1,000 metres (or a
kilometre) are equal to 1093·6389 English yards; an English mile
is 1760 yards or 1609·31 French metres; 100 kilometres are 62¼
English miles; but a rough conversion of kilometres into English
miles can always be made by multiplying the number of the former
by 5 and dividing by 8; _vice versâ_ to convert English miles into
kilometres—multiply the number of the former by 8 and divide by 5.
In the 25 miles, or 40 kilometres, extending from St. Michel to
Lanslebourg, there is only a rise of 670 metres, or 1,994 English
feet. The steepest gradient is for 2½ kilometres (1½ miles) just
beyond Modane at the French entrance of the great Tunnel of the Alps,
of which we shall speak presently, the rise is 1 in 19, or 278 feet
in the mile; and beyond Bramans, five miles farther, there is a rise
of 1 in 20, or 264 feet in the mile, for 2 kilometres. The remaining
gradients are as follows—1½ kilometre, 1 in 47; 8½ kilometres (5¼
miles) 1 in 60; 4½ kilometres (nearly 3 miles) 1 in 100; 7½ kilometres
(4¾ miles) 1 in 108. In fact, with the exception of 4 kilometres (2½
miles) post-horses go at the trot over the whole distance between
St. Michel and Lanslebourg. It is at this latter place that the real
elevation of the pass commences, and the traveller who wishes to see
a considerable portion of the ascent that is before him, can do so
by taking a look out of the comfortless-looking, but, in reality,
comfortable _Hotel Imperial_, the ground-floor of which is occupied as
a refreshment room for passengers, and by _Messieurs les Employés de
la Douane Imperiale de la France_. The frontier which separates France
from Italy is exactly at the summit of the pass, and it is 10,500
metres or 6⅓ miles from Lanslebourg. In these 6⅓ miles it is necessary
to mount 2,171 feet, or at the continuous rate of 350 feet in the mile.
The gradient is consequently 1 in 15 in the whole of these 6⅓ miles.
From the summit to L’Hospice, 4⅕ kilometres along the bank of the Cenis
Lake, which yields capital trout six months in the year, and is frozen
over for the other six, the gradient falls 1 in 25, or 211 feet in the
mile. There is a short length of 3 kilometres to the Posting House of
La Grande Croix, with a gradient of 1 in 60, or 88 feet in the mile.
The severest gradient on the whole pass is in the next 10 kilometres
(6¼ miles), 1 in 14, or 376 feet to the mile; and from Molaretta to
Susa, 10⅓ kilometres (6½ miles), it is not much better, being 1 in
15, or 350 feet in the mile. There is a difference in the comparative
elevations above the sea, of St. Michel and Susa of 715 feet, Susa
being the lower of the two. Consequently, the Italian side of the pass
is more precipitous than the French, for, whereas the total rise from
St. Michel to the summit (a distance of 31 miles) is 4,165 feet, the
descent from the summit to Susa (a distance of 18 miles) is 4,880 feet;
in fact, the descent of the mountain only terminates as the town is
entered. Of course, what are ascent and descent when going from France
to Italy are reversed when coming in the opposite direction.
Mr. John Fell,[118] a gentleman about whom we have now to speak, has
been occupied during many years of his life in the construction of
railways and other works in Italy, being associated in several of them
with Mr. Thomas Brassey, the eminent contractor, and other English
gentlemen, among whom may be mentioned Mr. William Jackson, now M.P.
for North Derbyshire. Connected with the laying out and subsequent
construction of the magnificent railway between Pistoja and Bologna,
by which the Apennines are traversed and overcome by the locomotive,
Mr. Fell’s attention was directed to the mighty cost of construction
of this railway, as well as of that across the Sœmmering and of the
Giovi Incline, by means of which last-named, Genoa obtains railway
connection with all parts of the Italian system. Reasoning and
reflecting, Mr. Fell’s mind was, by a most happy incidence, brought
to bear upon the effect that would be developed if the adhesion of
the locomotive were increased by the application of horizontal wheels
to a third or intermediate rail. But, in order to understand and to
appreciate the full force of this conception, it is necessary to
explain that the power or motive force of a locomotive is derived from
two sources—the amount of steam evaporated and the amount of adhesion,
or, as it is familiarly called, “bite,” that the wheels have on the
rails. If a railway were completely level, it would only be necessary,
in the construction of engines for working it, to make them with as
little weight of material as possible, consistent with the strength
and solidity required for their complete efficiency. But as a railway
on, or very nearly on, the level, does not exist, it is necessary, in
building engines, to give them such weight as, in addition to their
steam power, will ensure them efficient adhesion upon the railway. On
railways with favourable gradients the additional weight of engine is
trifling; but exactly in proportion as gradients become unfavourable,
so has it been found necessary to increase the weight of engines. Mr.
Fell’s system increases adhesion without increasing the weight of the
engines,[119] except to the very trifling extent of that appertaining
to the four horizontal wheels, and the machinery connected with them.
These horizontal wheels—two on each side of the engine—are made to
rotate along the _sides_ of the centre rail by identically the same
steam that operates upon and causes the rotation of the perpendicular
wheels upon the upper surface of the two ordinary rails. In this fact
is contained the whole secret of the extraordinary development and
marvellous increase of power which are obtained by the introduction of
the centre rail, combined with the action of the horizontal wheels upon
it.[120]
[Illustration: A CENTRE RAIL ENGINE AND TRAIN ASCENDING A GRADIENT OF
440 PER MILE WITH A CURVE OF 44 YARDS.]
But before we go farther, let us endeavour to settle a question of
priority as regards this invention or discovery, and we are able to do
so all the more easily through the information furnished by Monsieur
P. Desbriere at page 61 of his _Etudes sur la Locomotion au Moyen du
Rail Central, Contenant la relation des expériences entreprises pour la
traversée du Mont Cenis_. Paris 1865.
“Claims having been recently started,” says M. Desbriere, “as to the
priority of the invention of the centre rail, we present the following
historic _resumé_. The first patent taken out for its application was
on the 30th of September, 1830, jointly by Messrs. Charles B. Vignoles,
the eminent English engineer, and Ericsson, the Swedish engineer,
the gentlemen who constructed the first monitors and marine engines
to be driven by means of heated air. On the 15th of October, 1840, a
patent was taken by Mr. Henry Pinkus, an English gentleman. On the
18th of December, 1843, Baron Seguier addressed a communication to
the Academy of Sciences in Paris, in which he proposed, as a means of
avoiding getting off the rails, the employment of a centre rail upon
all railways, the gradients of which were moderate and the speed upon
which was high. On the 5th December, 1846, a patent was taken out by
the Baron for this system, of which he described himself the inventor,
and of which he was at all events the very active promoter.[121] On the
13th July, 1847, a patent bearing upon the subject was taken out in
England by Mr. A. V. Newton.”
[Illustration: PATENT CENTRE-RAIL ENGINE.
FRONT ELEVATION.]
“On the 20th of January, 1863, Mr. Fell took out his first patent, and
on the 16th December, of the same year, his second, under the modest
title of ‘improvements in locomotive engines and railway carriages.’ In
neither of these patents did Mr. Fell attempt to appropriate to himself
the invention of the centre rail, but simply the means, both ingenious
and practical, by which he has succeeded in applying the principle of
additional adhesion.”
“Independent of the energy, perseverance, and straightforward practical
sense, of which he has given proof, in his long train of trials and
experiments, Mr. Fell’s principal merit, in our opinion, is that he
has understood, what theory entirely justifies, that locomotives with
additional adhesion are only applicable to steep gradients and slow
speed, because such engines are able to develop powerful means of
traction, without heavy additions to their weight.”
Early in 1863, Mr. Fell instituted experiments on a length of line
of 800 yards, laid out on his plan, upon the Cromford and High Peak
Railway, near Whaley-Bridge. The gauge was 3 feet 7½ inches, 180 yards
of the line were straight with a gradient of 1 in 13 (406 feet in the
mile); 150 yards with a gradient of 1 in 12 (440 feet in the mile);
with curves of _two chains and a-half each_. The centre rail was raised
seven and a-half inches above the surface of the two ordinary rails,
so as to be acted upon by the two horizontal wheels of the engine.
During the experiments, the first engine of the kind ever constructed,
and necessarily, from want of experience, unsatisfactory in many of
its details, working with a pressure of 120 lbs. to the square inch,
was always able to convey a load of twenty-four tons up the incline.
The maximum it succeeded in taking was thirty tons. Its dimensions
were as follows: diameter of cylinder, 12 inches; length of stroke, 18
inches; four wheels coupled, diameter 2 feet 3 inches; axles, 5 feet 3
inches apart. The weight of the engine fully loaded with coke and water
was sixteen tons. When the pressure was only brought to bear upon the
vertical wheels, the engine could not take more than a weight of seven
tons up the incline, but when the horizontal wheels acted combinedly
with the perpendicular, she took up twenty-four tons on the same day,
and under circumstances precisely similar in every respect, except as
regards the action of the horizontal wheels upon the centre rail.
These experiments were considered so satisfactory, that it was decided,
with the permission of the French Government, and for its information,
that they should be repeated upon a more extended scale upon the Mont
Cenis, with the condition made by Mr. Fell, that if the system were
found to be practicable, the authorities should grant the concession of
a portion of the roadway for a line to be laid down across the French
division of the mountain on the same terms as had already been agreed
to by the Italian Government for the Italian portion.
The experimental line was laid down between Lanslebourg and the
summit. It commenced at the height of 5,305 feet above sea level,
and terminated at the elevation of 5,820 feet. Its length was two
kilometres all but forty-four yards, or an English mile and a quarter.
Gauge, 3 feet 7½ inches. Its mean gradient was 1 in 13, the maximum
was 1 in 12; it had two curves of 44 yards each, and others, the most
favourable of which was 125 yards. It will thus be seen that the line
was constructed in a manner, both as regards gradients and curves, to
subject the system to the severest tests. The experiments, which were
conducted in the presence of commissioners from England, France, Italy,
Austria and Russia, lasted from the end of February until the end of
May 1865, and it is a remarkable fact that the adhesion was found
during the period of snow better than could be expected in summer,
for when snow was swept off the rails, it left them dry, and under
favourable conditions; whereas, summer dust combined with moisture,
would render them comparatively greasy and slippery. Captain Tyler,
who was present at all the experiments on the part of the British
Government, calls special attention to this curious fact in his report.
Two engines were employed in the trials, the first that which had
been used on the High-Peak Railway experiments, and the second an
engine built specially for the service of the Mont Cenis Railway.
This latter was the engine principally employed, No. 1 being chiefly
used to supply the place of No. 2, when any trifling derangement in
its machinery required attention. It is intended that No. 2 shall
be used on the completion of the line over the pass, and it is the
engine by which the trial trip was accomplished on the memorable 26th
of August, 1867. When empty its weight is 13 tons, when loaded with
coke and water 17 tons 2 cwt. The horizontal wheels and the machinery
connected with them weigh 2¾ tons. The boiler is 8 feet 4 inches
long, 3 feet 2 inches diameter, and contains 158 tubes of 1½ inches
exterior diameter. Heating surface 600 feet. The cylinders, two in
number, 15 inches diameter, with 16 inches stroke, act at one and the
same time upon the two systems of wheels, four horizontal and four
perpendicular. Each system of wheels consists of four coupled, diameter
of each 2 feet 3 inches. The space between the centres of each pair of
perpendicular wheels is 6 feet 10 inches, that between the horizontal
wheels 2 feet 4 inches; maximum pressure of steam in the boiler 120
lbs. per square inch; effective pressure upon the piston 75 lbs. This
engine was a great improvement upon its predecessor. With engine No.
1, Captain Tyler, R.E., from whose Report to the Board of Trade the
foregoing particulars are taken, says that during the space of two days
he descended and remounted the experimental line six times. The train
behind it consisted of three waggons, with a total gross weight of 16
tons. The average of his experiments was as follows:—The first ascent
was made in 8 minutes 15 seconds, with a loss of 14 lbs. of steam,
and of 5½ inches in the gauge glass; the mean pressure of the steam
varied from 92 to 125 lbs. per square inch. The speed in each of the
experiments was greater, with the same load, than is proposed for the
express trains. The mean speed resulting from the figures above stated,
was at the rate of 13 kilometres, 300 metres per hour (8 English
miles), instead of 12 kilometres (7½ English miles), the highest speed
specified in the programme submitted to the French Government for
this part of the line. The weather was fine and calm, the external
rails were in very good condition; but the centre rail, as well as the
horizontal wheels were greasy, and consequently in a very unfavourable
condition for adhesion.
The results of Captain Tyler’s experiments with No. 2 engine were as
follows:—Although at the time that they took place she was not in the
best order, she was, nevertheless, able to ascend the incline, with
the same load as had been attached to engine No. 1, in 6¼ minutes, or
at the rate of 17⅓ kilometres (nearly 11 miles) an hour. This engine
besides possessing a greater amount of boiler-power, travelled more
steadily than No. 1; its machinery is more easily attended to, and the
pressure of the horizontal wheels upon the centre rail can be regulated
by the engine driver at pleasure, from the foot plate. The pressure
employed during the experiment was 2½ tons on each horizontal wheel,
or 10 tons altogether, but the pressure actually provided for, and
which may, when necessary, be employed is 6 tons upon each, or 24 tons
upon the four horizontal wheels. When this engine had ascended the
experimental line in 6¼ minutes, or at the rate of 17⅓ kilometres per
hour, the steam pressure in the boiler had fallen from 112 to 102½, and
3 inches of water in the gauge glass. The engine exerted, including the
resistance from curves, 195 horses power—nearly 12 horses power to each
ton of its own weight, or about 60 horses power in excess of what would
be required to take up the load of 16 tons, over the same gradient and
curves, at the rate of 12 kilometres per hour.
Captain Tyler finally reduced the pressure to 40 lbs. on the square
inch, that is to one-third of the maximum pressure, and when he had
done this, he found that the engine _alone_ could move on a gradient of
1 in 12; the resistance of waggons and carriages being proportionally
much less than that of a locomotive, the latter could _a fortiori_,
draw a train with a gross load three times its own weight, or 48 tons
upon the same gradient, the pressure of course being raised to 120 lbs.
to the square inch.
A very important, and we believe an unexpected feature of the Fell
system was immediately developed in the experiments; M. Desbriere calls
special attention to it. The centre rail not only aids the train in
going round curves, but also adds largely to its safety. Each vehicle
is provided with four horizontal pulleys, each of about eight inches
diameter, playing around vertical axes fixed upon the frame of the
vehicle, and placed two and two at each of its extremities, and on
each side of the centre rail. By the tightening of these pulleys,
the flanges of the wheels, instead of gliding along the outer rails,
press strongly against them, and thus the train is able to overcome
curves unaccomplishable by any other means. This arrangement of parts
also renders it impossible for either engine or vehicles to get off
the line; all the more important, seeing that by the terms of the
concession, the portion of the roadway ceded to Mr. Fell is, for the
most part, on the outside, that is, the side nearest to the precipice,
the bottom of which is, in many places, eleven or twelve hundred feet
deeper than the roadway.
Before proceeding to extract from the Reports of the French
Commissioners to their government their opinions upon the Fell system,
it is desirable to give some general deductions which Captain Tyler
makes from what he witnessed, as bearing upon the important general
question of railways over mountain passes.
Hitherto the immense cost of the construction of such railways, and
the immense cost of working them, have proved all but an effective
barrier to their adoption. The cost of construction divides itself into
two portions, and we will illustrate our meaning in the following
manner:—Let us take A and B as the bases respectively on each side of a
mountain. Were we to take these two points and to measure the interval
between them, according to the every day application of the words “as
the crow flies,” we must first take our crow perpendicularly up from
A, to the exact height of the highest point which a person would be
obliged to ascend, in order to cross the mountain, and then having
drawn our imaginary tape to the point perpendicularly above B, we have
the distance between them “as the crow flies.” But this distance in
no way represents the actual distance that a person has to trudge up
the mountain, and then to trudge down again in order that he may get,
_matériellement et physiquement_, from one side of it to the other. The
road which he has gone along can only be constructed with gradients
that man and beast can accomplish. Exceed those gradients and the road
might as well not be constructed. 1 in 12, or 440 feet in an English
mile, is about as much as ought to, or, indeed, can be accomplished in
this way. Yet, even to attain a mountain road with this gradient, it
is necessary to make a great many turns and twists, to tunnel here, to
raise an embankment there, to span a gorge sometimes several hundred
feet deep with a bridge built between two projecting craigs at opposite
sides of the ravine, whilst other bridges, of almost adamantine
strength, and hundreds of feet in length, are often barely sufficient
to resist the giant force of the torrents that dash along the gorge,
and at times rise to within a few inches of a bridge’s level. And when
the road is finished, at the heavy cost which all such works involve,
and traffic is brought upon it, its length is very different from what
it would have been if it could simply have been climbed up the mountain
by the shortest and straightest possible way, and then been brought
down again in the same manner. Still greater will be the difference
between it and what our friend the crow accomplishes in the flight we
have just referred to.
The experience acquired by our engineers tells us that the very maximum
gradient an engine on the ordinary principle can climb up is 1 in
25, or 211 feet in a mile, but this can only be for a few yards, and
with what is known, in locomotive language, as “a good run at it.” On
the Sœmmering, as has already been stated, the average gradient on
the north side is 1 in 47, or 111 feet in a mile; on the south side
1 in 50, or 105 feet in the mile; yet these gradients, favourable
as they are, compared with the gradient of an ordinary roadway over
a high mountain pass, could only be obtained at a cost of £98,000 a
mile. Equally costly was the Giovi incline, constructed to surmount
the Apennines near to Genoa. The worst gradient on it for a short
distance is 1 in 29, or 160 feet in a mile; its best 1 in 50, or 106
feet in a mile. The ruling gradient of the beautiful railway over the
Apennines between Pistoja and Bologna is 1 in 40, or 132 feet to the
mile. The distance from Pistoja at the foot of the mountain on the east
to Poretta at the foot of the mountain on the west, by the old road,
is 25 “_chiliometres_” (kilometres), a little more than 15½ English
miles, but in order to obtain for the railway the average gradient of
1 in 40 we have just mentioned, it has been necessary to extend the
distance from 25 chiliometres to 40, equal to 25 English miles. Each
of these 40 chiliometres has cost 1,000,000 francs, or £40,000, making
the total cost of the railway independent of the special rolling stock
for working it, £1,600,000, or at the rate of £64,000 a mile. If at
the time that Mr. Fell was engaged in connection with the construction
of this very fine work, he had had his ideas matured respecting the
centre-rail system, and that consent had been given to the line
being laid down in accordance with it, the distance to traverse would
have only been 15½ English miles; many expensive works would have
been avoided, and the total cost of the line would not have exceeded
£400,000—probably it would have been considerably less. Another matter
worthy of consideration is, that this Apennine Railway consumed eleven
years in its construction. Not very protracted, considering that there
are nearly 7 miles of tunnels (39 in number), of which 23 are on the
ascent from Pistoja, and 16 on the descent to Poretta. The longest is
1⅞ mile, the second longest 1⅝ mile, the length of the others is pretty
nearly equal. Nearly one-eighth of what is not tunnel is bridge or
viaduct; some of the latter across ravines 300 to 400 feet long, and
nearly 180 feet high. They are, in fact, double viaducts, one built on
the top of the other, and reminding one of the two tiers of guns of an
old-fashioned two-decker. According to the testimony of M. Desbriere,
Mr. Fell would have accomplished an equally efficient railway on or
through the pass in a couple of years. He would have had no tunnels,
unless when, occasionally, he might want to get by a short cut through
a projecting ledge of rock or mountain instead of round it, and, as to
bridges and viaducts, a twentieth part of those now existing would have
amply sufficed him. Before quitting this subject, we would observe that
Captain Tyler sets down the difference between the length of a mountain
road with gradients of 1 in from 12 to 15 as one-half that of a roadway
with gradients of 1 in 40. In practice, however, it will probably be
found that the difference will hardly be so great—but there can be no
doubt of its not being less than as 3 to 5.
Taking the question of working expenses, we know that on the Sœmmering,
on the Giovi, and on the Pistoja lines, the weight of the engines is
about fifty-five tons, and that on the Sœmmering and the Giovi the
cost per train mile is 6s. 2d. _down_ the pass as well as up it, while
the average cost on the ordinary portions of the lines is under 3s. a
mile; and so oppressive is the working cost of goods trains over the
Sœmmering felt to be, and with such uncertainty are the trains, but
especially the goods trains, worked over the pass, that before the
end of the present year, a railway between Vienna and Trieste will be
opened, with a detour of 110 miles, and it is by this roundabout line
that the immense and continuously increasing goods traffic between the
interior of Austria and its great naval and commercial sea port, will
eventually be conveyed to it.
Captain Tyler, whilst instituting a comparison between the cost of the
construction and working of the Mont Cenis Over-ground Railway with
these costs upon the railway through the Great Tunnel of the Alps,
calls especial attention to the fact that the former is only laid down
on a road-bed already in existence, as a temporary (that is if we can
accept temporary as an exact translation of _provisoire_) line, whilst
that through the tunnel is permanent. But keeping this point in view,
the report of Mr. James Brunlees, C.E., the distinguished engineer
of the Mont Cenis Railway Company, shows its cost to be (including
the necessary engines and other rolling stock) a little under £8,000
a mile, whilst he asserts that the Tunnel line will probably cost,
including interest at 6 per cent, during construction, but _not_
the cost of special engines and other rolling stock, £7,000,000, or
£140,000 a mile. As the cost of the tunnel and its accessories is dealt
with subsequently at full length, we need only here remark that Captain
Tyler considers the cost of an over-ground _permanent_ Fell line, laid
down on an already existing Alpine roadway, with the ordinary 4 feet
8½-inch gauge, and with curves of radii varying from 150 to 180 yards,
should not exceed three times the cost of the present provisional road,
or about £21,000 a mile. We are disposed to concur completely in this
estimate, provided the additional width that it would be necessary
to give to the roadway could be obtained by excavating from the
_inner_ side of the road, and not by widening it on its outer side—the
side of the precipice—for this latter could only be effected by the
construction of numerous solid and very expensive abutments in masonry,
requiring great tact, nicety and judgment in their adjustment.
Captain Tyler concludes his report to the Board of Trade as follows:—
“As the results of my observations and experiments, I have to report,
in conclusion, that this scheme for crossing the Mont Cenis is, in my
opinion, practicable, both mechanically and commercially, and that the
passage of the mountain may thus be effected, not only with greater
speed, certainty, and convenience, but also with greater safety than
under the present arrangements. Few would, in the first instance,
either contemplate or witness experiments upon such steep gradients
and round such sharp curves on the mountain side, without a feeling
that much extra risk must be incurred and that the consequences of a
fractured coupling or a broken tire, or a vehicle leaving the rails,
would on such a line be considerably aggravated.
“But there is an element of safety in this system of locomotive
working which no other railway possesses.
“The middle rail not only enables the engine to surmount, and to draw
its train up these gradients, but also affords a means of applying
any required amount of extra brake power for checking the speed,
or for stopping any detached vehicles during the descent, and it
further acts by the use of horizontal guiding wheels on the different
vehicles as a most perfect safeguard, to prevent engines, carriages
or waggons from leaving the rails, in consequence either of defects
in the bearing rails or of failure in any part of the rolling stock.
The safest portions of the proposed railway ought indeed, under proper
management, to be those on which, the gradients being steeper than 1
in 25, the middle rail will be employed.
“There is no difficulty in so applying and securing that middle
rail, and making it virtually one continuous bar, as to preclude the
possibility of accident from its weakness or from the failure of its
fastenings, and the only question to my mind is whether it would not
be desirable still further to extend its application to gradients
less steep than 1 in 25. It would apparently be advantageous to do
so, not only for the sake of obtaining increased adhesion with less
proportional weight, and therefore economical traction, but also with
a view to greater security, especially on curved portions of the line.”
The French Imperial Commission ordered to be present at Mr. Fell’s
experiments, consisted of M. Conte, ingénieur en chef des Ponts et
Chaussées de France, as President, with MM. Bochet, ingénieur en chef
des mines, Guinard, ingénieur des Ponts et Chaussées, and Perrin,
ingénieur des mines, as his colleagues. These gentlemen completed a
voluminous and elaborate report of thirty-one pages of printed matter,
accompanied by drawings, with the following “conclusions”:—
“From the experiments which have been described, and which the
Commission has judged unnecessary to continue any further, and from
the different verifications which it has made, the Commission has
arrived at the conviction:
“First.—That the system of traction proposed by Mr. Fell is applicable
for the passage of Mont Cenis, with the engines of the type which
worked at the last trials.
“Second.—That this system presents no danger as regards the public
security on steep inclines and on sharp curves, since, on the
contrary, the existence of the centre-rail furnishes a guarantee
against getting off the rails, and at the same time a powerful means
of stopping the trains.
“Third.—That, with the exception of some points of detail, the study
of which has not been made, but which present no serious difficulty,
this system may from the present time be considered as applicable
to the crossing of the mountain. That, with regard especially to
the working of the line during the winter season, the covered ways
proposed by Mr. Fell will be sufficient to secure the regularity of
the service.
“Fourth.—That there is no absolute incompatibility, in consequence
of the vicinity of the railway and the ordinary road, one to the
other, provided that proper protective works be erected to effectually
separate them.”
We cannot conclude our notice of the part which was taken by France in
the trials on the Mont Cenis without referring to the fact, that the
Emperor Napoleon took a warm interest in this subject, and it is owing
to the intervention of His Majesty that, not only was the portion of
the Mont Cenis roadway granted to Mr. Fell for his experiments, but
subsequently the concession, under the terms of which the line across
the mountain has been constructed. His Majesty expressed an opinion
several years ago, that increased adhesion, and thereby increased
power, would be obtained for engines, by the adoption of a third or
centre rail, along the sides of which additional wheels would be run.
An engine was actually constructed in France, at the instance of Baron
Seguier, to illustrate the system; but the third rail was found useless
at high speeds, and with flat gradients. When, however, Mr. Fell
propounded the plan of centre rail for slow speed and steep gradients,
the conviction of His Majesty was, that Mr. Fell was right. Hence, he
afforded him his gracious patronage and support; without them, Mr. Fell
would probably have had difficulties, even greater than he now has to
contend with, in bringing his invention into practice.
On the 4th of November, 1865, “NAPOLEON, _par la Grace de Dieu et la
Volonté Nationale_, EMPEREUR DES FRANÇAISES,” authorised, by Imperial
Decree, the construction and working of a locomotive line between
St. Michel and the frontier of Italy (the summit of the pass) until
“the opening of the tunnel of the Alps” for traffic. Of this very
indefinite period and of the tunnel itself we shall have to speak
presently. In the meantime, let it be stated that the Emperor’s decree
was accompanied by a _Cahier des Charges_ (Table of Conditions), in
which, in addition to the usual conditions as affecting railways in
France, are contained several specially appropriate to this very
special railway. Of these, the only ones that interest the general
public set forth the prices that are to be charged for the conveyance
of goods and passengers. Each of the latter travelling in a _coupé_
is to pay 27 francs, or about 5¼d. an English mile; other first-class
passengers, 25 francs, or about 5d. a mile; second class, 22 francs,
or about 4½d. a mile; third class, 18 francs, or 3¾d. a mile; children
under three years of age, free; between three and seven, half-price;
above seven, full fare. It will be seen from this tariff, how small is
the difference between the charge for the highest and lowest classed
passengers. The transit for goods by passenger trains is at the rate of
£3. 1s. 6d. a ton, or 1s. 2½d. a ton a mile; by goods train £1. 12s.,
or about 7½d. a ton a mile.
The works of the railway were commenced on the 1st of May, 1866. It
was expected that they would be finished in twelve months, but various
circumstances have intervened to prevent the realisation of this
intention; the chief, the floods of September 1866, on the French side
of the mountain, when the waters rising higher than was ever known
before, committed wholesale devastation, not only upon the works of
the company executed up to that time, but upon the ten miles of the
already opened railway between St. Jean de Maurienne and St. Michel,
as well. The devastation extended from Termignon within seven miles of
Lanslebourg to St. Jean, a distance of twenty-eight miles. The Paris,
Lyons and Mediterranean Company has repaired the ten miles of railway
between St. Jean de Maurienne and St. Michel. The works of the roadway
from St. Michel, eighteen miles, to Termignon have been repaired and
their strength added to, by the French Government at an expense of
about £80,000. The French Government has also recognised the claim
of the Fell Railway Company to consideration, by agreeing to repay
two-thirds of the cost of reinstating its works as they were previous
to the floods, so that practically the company has incurred through
them a direct money loss of not more than from £3,000 to £4,000. It
has, however, sustained a heavy loss from not being opened to carry
the immense traffic which has crossed the pass during the spring, and
summer of the present year.
The railway is laid, not altogether but principally, on the outer side
of the roadway. The sleepers are transverse, three feet apart, to which
the outer or ordinary rails are fixed by bolts or nails. The line is
fenced off from the portion of the roadway to be used for ordinary
horse traffic, (the greater portion of which will disappear on the
opening of the railway) by means of substantial posts and rails. The
railway, in passing from one side of the roadway to the other, crosses
it thirty-three times, one more than half the number of these crossings
(seventeen) are on the roadway, where it is practically on the level.
The crossings are therefore of the ordinary character, such as are seen
in England and on the Continent; but inasmuch as the top of the centre
rail, which is laid upon and fastened to continuous balks of timber
bolted on to the transverse sleepers, is 9 inches higher than the outer
or ordinary rails, it has been found necessary to arrange that when the
roadway is open as a crossing, at those parts at which the centre rail
is in use, it shall be lowered, so that it shall not be higher than the
two outer rails. This is effected by a _mechanique_ extremely simple
in its action, moved by means of a lever, just as a pointsman moves
his points at an everyday railway station. One movement of the lever
depresses the centre rail, into a hollow made expressly to receive it,
to the level of its _confrères_, and when it is necessary to elevate
it again so as to place it in apposition with the centre rails at each
side of the crossing, one movement of the lever raises it, and then it
forms continuous centre rail just as completely as if there had not
been any lever beside it to elevate or to depress it.
There has scarcely been a portion of the roadway which has not been
widened. In most places it has only been to the extent of a yard or
a little more, but the heaviest works in connection with the road it
has been found necessary to execute have been at its sharp turns or
zig-zags, and in passing along the villages which are studded along the
entire length of the pass; for it must not be supposed that it runs
through a barren, uncultivated, and unfrequented district, inhabited
only by the goatherds, or occasionally dwelt in by the chamois hunter.
So far is this from being the case, that there is a well-to-do
population of at least 25,000 along the pass, the well-made, robust,
and hardy male portion of which has often been the means of saving
human life during the snows and storms of winter, with a devotion and
an indifference to personal risk or consequences, not exceeded in any
other district, along the whole length of the Alpine ranges.
As regards deviations, the railway winds to the back of the villages
of St. Michel, Modane, Bramans, Termignon and Lanslebourg, on the
French side of the mountain, but, on the Italian side, there is only
one inhabited place at which it is necessary to keep in the background,
and that is at Susa. By means of this deviation the connection with
the Alta-Italia Railway is effected. Both lines unite together at the
existing Susa station at which there is the mixed gauge of 3 feet 7½
inches, the width of the Mont Cenis Railway, and 4 feet 8½ inches,
the width of the Italian railway system, which is also the width of
the French railways as well as of our own, with the exception of the
Great Western. But even the Great Western, in order to come within
the comity of the railway world as established in England, has had to
succumb, and by means of a third railway, to become “narrow” as well
as “broad” gauge. Owing to the difference of gauge, transhipment both
of passengers and their luggage, and of goods must take place at St.
Michel as well as at Susa.
Of the deviations, or rather the prolongations or extensions of the
railway, to avoid sharp turns or zig-zags, there are four between
Lanslebourg and the summit. At all these zig-zags, as we know in our
experience of turns in hilly or mountain roads, the gradient is always
steeper than at other parts; but the deviations of the Cenis, by
taking sweeps carried through eight little tunnels in the mountain,
the longest of which is 105 metres, the shortest 40, and by increasing
the actual distance three to four times what it is by the roadway,
curves of larger radius and lighter gradient are obtained. The total
length of these tunnels is 505 metres. On the Italian side there are
ten deviations, and they would have been nearly double that number,
had not the railway, instead of following the existing road at a part
called _les Echelles_, about five miles from the summit, reverted to
the old road which had been abandoned in consequence of the prevalence
of avalanches along it in winter. Whilst the new road is undoubtedly
superior for carriages to the old one, the latter is better suited
for a railway, in consequence of their being no zig-zags upon it; but
_en revanche_ for this advantage, it has been necessary to cover the
line over. 600 metres of this covering are massive and solid masonry,
upon which avalanches will impinge, as they are hurled from the rocks
above into the abyss beneath. In addition, there will be, hereabouts,
1,200 metres of covered way, of which we shall speak immediately.
There are several other places on the Italian side of the mountain
at which protection against avalanches must be afforded by means of
similar galleries. Their total length will be 1,480 metres, or about
140 yards less than a mile, and with this amount all the Engineers
seem to agree (notwithstanding the assertion of Mr. Crawford, M.P., to
the contrary) that the railway will be completely protected from the
avalanche danger. But snow is the cause of inconvenience as well as
of danger. If snow would be satisfied to remain quietly when it falls
on _terra firma_, the snow-plough on the engines and the shovels of
a few permanent-way men would speedily send it off the line without
trouble or delay; but snow is invariably accompanied, especially in
these elevated regions, with high winds, and these cause drifts. There
is an almost undeviating rule as regards drifts, and it is that a drift
of this year will find its way to, practically, the same spot that it
was at last year, the previous year, and the year previous to that
also, and it will be at the same spot next year, the following year,
and so on _ad infinitum_. Hence it is necessary, on the Mont Cenis, to
protect the railway by means of covered ways, in addition to protecting
them from avalanches by galleries. The covered ways are constructed,
combinedly, of wood and of timber. They require to be sufficiently
strong to resist the effects of high winds or _tourmentes_, and the
weight of snow that may fall or drift upon them. By means of them the
line will be kept quite free from snow exactly at those points where,
without them, its greatest accumulations would have taken place. They
are obviously only required high up the pass—the first, on the French
side, of 450 metres long, will be at a very exposed angle of the road,
about 400 feet from the summit. At and about the apex of the pass the
covered ways will be about 5,000 metres, or a little more than 3 miles
in length, not exactly continuous, but very nearly so. Upon the greater
part of the plateau which extends along the Cenis Lake and nearly to
_les Echelles_, covering will be unnecessary, the effect of the wind
being to sweep the plain comparatively clear of snow, which becomes
deposited in the angles of the hills that form the somewhat distant
background of the panorama. Proceeding downwards on the Italian side,
there will be the 1,200 metres of covered way on the old road parallel
to _les Echelles_, already mentioned, and about 1,200 metres more
farther down, freedom from serious snow-drifts not being obtained on
the Italian side of the mountain until at an elevation of about 4,000
feet above sea level. That point passed, the softness and glow of the
Italian climate become perceptible, not only by one’s own sensations,
but because we witness the effects of the atmosphere from the crops and
trees that surround us. The line of demarcation, beyond which cereals
will not grow, is higher on the southern than on the northern aspect;
suddenly we come upon the walnut and the sweet chesnut, and we have
not proceeded more than a mile or so, when a turn of the road near to
Mollaretta, 3,795 feet above the level of the sea, brings us upon the
grape, growing in beautiful festoons, and yielding fruit that is said
to make good and vigorous wine. But the highest point at which the vine
can be cultivated on the French side of the pass—and that not always
successfully, for in cold seasons the crops do not come to complete
maturity—is St. Michel. Yet St. Michel is only 2,493 feet above the
level of the sea, or 1,300 feet lower than Mollaretta.
The total length during which the trains of the Mont Cenis Railway
will not be “_en plein air_,” will be 11,113 metres, about 6¾ miles,
scattered over 18 miles of distance, but in no case will the light of
heaven be shut out, as both in the galleries and in the covered ways
there will be openings for its admission, as well as for that of air,
which openings can, however, be closed if the direction of drifting
snow be towards them. As the average length of the eight tunnels is
only 70 yards, it is obvious that the maximum of darkness in them,
while the sun is above the horizon, will be twilight.
There will be four intermediate passenger stations—one only first
class—at Lanslebourg, the half-way house, and as already mentioned,
the place at which the ascent of the mountain on the French side
commences. The other French stations are at Modane, and Bramans—on the
Italian side only one—a place which will be rather an engine-watering
than a passenger station.
Having constructed our line, or rather we should say, having done our
possible to make our readers understand how it is constructed, the next
obvious proposition is how to work it.
Previous to the experiments of 1865, Mr. Fell gave a programme to both
the French and Italian Governments of the manner in which he proposed
to carry the traffic on the line when opened. Considering that three
trains per day in each direction would be sufficient, at all events for
the existing traffic, he divided his service into two for passengers,
one of which should also carry goods, and one for goods only. The train
conveying passengers without goods, should also be the mail train, and
he proposed that its weight, exclusive of engine, should not exceed 16
tons. The speed of this train to be about 11½ miles an hour including
stoppages; the mixed train to weigh 40 tons, but its speed not to
exceed 7 to 8 miles an hour; the goods train to weigh 48 tons, and its
speed to be 6 miles an hour. When Mr. Fell submitted these proposals,
he estimated a certain weight for each of his engines, and each of
his carriages and waggons, but unfortunately the weight of all three
has been much exceeded in the construction of the rolling stock. The
engines instead of weighing about 17 tons each, as expected, will weigh
upwards of 21 tons, and there is a corresponding increase in the weight
of the vehicles. The consequence is that although these additional
weights do not affect the question as to the power of trains to cross
the mountain, it very materially affects a most important point—that
of proportion between dead, and paying and productive weight. It is
obvious that the problem of adhesion being solved by the addition
of the centre rail, every pound added unnecessarily to the weight of
the engine increases dead weight, without affording the corresponding
benefit of carrying increased weight that brings profit and benefit to
the shareholders. In this respect, the case between the Fell engine and
the case of an ordinary engine for ascending a steep gradient is, that
with the former additional weight is an incubus—an _impedimentum_—a
break put upon the power of the engine without the slightest
counterpoising or balancing advantage, whereas the ordinary engine, by
increased weight, adds to its power, at all events to some extent, by
the additional adhesion it obtains. It is therefore to be regretted
that in laying down the plan for these engines, this most essential
point was not more carefully—we might almost say more jealously—looked
after. The same point bears, though in a less important degree, upon
the weight of the carriages and waggons, for it is obvious that if
a vehicle weighing, say, 3 tons (we take the figure at random) will
carry safely, efficiently, and without strain upon any part of it, a
given load, any weight beyond 3 tons is surplusage—not only unnecessary
but most injurious. If anything tarnish the success of the Mont Cenis
Railway, it is more likely to be from this cause than from any other
that we are acquainted with, as the fact is undoubted that the weights
are much in excess of what are required for the tractive power of the
engines or for the safe conveyance of the loads that will be placed in
the carriages and waggons behind them.[122]