commenced in 1863 and finished in 1869, but nearly half of the entire
length was constructed in 1868, and about 50 miles west of Ogden, the
remarkable engineering feat of laying 10 miles of railway in one day was
performed. It was thus accomplished: when the waggon loaded with the
rails arrived at the end of the track, the two outer rails were seized,
hauled forward off the car, and laid upon the sleepers by four men, who
attended to this duty only. The waggon was pushed forwards over these
rails, and the process of putting down the rails was repeated, while
behind the waggon came a little army of men, who drove in the spikes and
screwed on the fish-plates, and, lastly, a large number of Chinese
workmen, with pickaxes and spades, who ballasted the line. The average
rate at which these operations proceeded was about 240 ft. of track in
77½ seconds, and in these 10 miles of railway there were 2,585,000
cross-ties, 3,520 iron rails, 55,000 spikes, 7,040 fish-plates, and
14,080 bolts with screws, the whole weighing 4,362,000 lbs.! Four
thousand men and hundreds of waggons were required, but in the 10 miles
all the rails were laid by the same eight men, each of whom is said to
have that day walked 10 miles and lifted 1,000 tons of iron rails.
Nothing but the practice acquired during the four previous years and the
most excellent arrangement and discipline could have made the
performance of such a feat possible as the laying of eight miles of the
track in six hours, which was the victory achieved by these stalwart
navvies before dinner.
The line crosses the great American desert, distinguished for its
desolate aspect and barren soil, and so thickly strewn with alkaline
dust that it appears almost like a snow-covered plain. The alkali is
caustic, and where it abounds no vegetation can exist, most of the
surface of this waste being fine, hard grey sand, mixed with the
fragments of marine shells and beds of alkali.
The third great mountain range of the North American continent is
crossed by this line, at an elevation of 7,043 ft. above the sea level.
The Sierra Nevada, as the name implies, is a range of rugged wild broken
mountain-tops, always covered with snow. The more exposed portions of
the road are covered with snow-sheds, solidly constructed of pine wood
posts, 16 in. or 20 in. across: the total length of snow-sheds on the
Sierra Nevada may equal 50 miles. These sheds sometimes take fire; but
the company have a locomotive at the Summit Station, ready to start at a
moment’s notice with cars carrying tanks of water. The snow falls there
sometimes to a depth of 20 ft. in one winter; and in spring, when it
falls into the valleys in avalanches, sweeping down the mountain-sides,
they pass harmlessly over the sloping roofs of the snow-sheds. Where the
line passes along the steep flank of a mountain, the roofs of these
snow-sheds abut against the mountain-side, so that the masses of snow,
gliding down from its heights, continue their slide without injury to
line, or sheds, or trains. Where, however, the line lies on level
ground, or in a ridge, the snow-sheds are built with a strong roof of
double slope, in order to support or throw off the snow. From Summit
(7,017 ft.) the line descends continuously to Sacramento, which is only
30 ft. above the sea level, and 104 miles from Summit. About 36 miles
from Summit, the great American Canyon, one of the wildest gorges in the
Sierra Nevada range, is passed. Here the American River is confined for
a length of two miles between precipitous walls of rock, 2,000 ft. in
height, and so steep that no human foot has ever yet followed the stream
through this tremendous gorge (Fig. 53). A few miles beyond this the
line is carried, by a daring feat of engineering, along the side of a
mountain, overhanging a stream 2,500 ft. below. This mountain is known
as “Cape Horn,” and is a place to try the nerves of timid people. When
this portion of the line was commenced, the workmen were lowered and
held by ropes, until they had hewn out a standing-place on the shelving
sides of the precipice, along whose dizzy height, where even the agile
Indian was unable to plant his foot, the science of the white man thus
made for his iron horse a secure and direct road. (Fig. 54.)
[Illustration:
FIG. 54.—“_Cape Horn._”
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 55.—_Snow Plough._
]
These lines of railway, connecting Omaha with Sacramento, are remarkable
evidences of the energy and spirit which characterize the Anglo-Saxon
race in America. The men who conceived the design of the Central Pacific
Railroad, and actually carried it into effect, were not persons
experienced in railway construction; but five middle-aged traders of
Sacramento, two of whom where drapers, one a wholesale grocer, and the
others ironmongers, believing that such a railway should be made, and
finding no one ready to undertake it, united together, projected the
railway, got it completed, and now manage it. These gentlemen were
associated with an engineer named Judah, who was a sanguine advocate of
the scheme, and made the preliminary surveys, if he did not plan the
line. The line is considered one of the best appointed and best managed
in the States; yet the project was at first ridiculed and pronounced
impracticable by engineers of high repute, opposed by capitalists, and
denounced by politicians. An eminent banker, who personally regarded the
scheme with hopefulness, would not venture, however, to take any stock,
lest the credit of his bank should be shaken, were he known to be
connected with so wild a scheme. And, indeed, the difficulties appeared
great. Except wood, all the materials required, the iron rails, the
pickaxes and spades, the waggons, the locomotives, and the machinery had
to be sent by sea from New York, round Cape Horn, a long and perilous
voyage of nine months duration, and transhipped at San Francisco for
another voyage of 120 miles before they could reach Sacramento. Add to
this that workmen were so scarce in California, and wages so high, that
to carry on the work it was necessary to obtain men from New York; and
during its progress 10,000 Chinamen were brought across the Pacific, to
work as labourers. Subscriptions came in very slowly, and before 30
miles of the line had been constructed, the price of iron rose in a very
short time to nearly three times its former amount. At this critical
juncture, the five merchants decided to defray, out of their own private
fortunes, the cost of keeping 800 men at work on the line for a whole
year. We cannot but admire the unswerving confidence in their enterprise
displayed by these five country merchants, unskilled in railway making,
unaided by public support, and even discouraged in their project by
their own friends. The financial and legal obstacles they successfully
surmounted were not the only difficulties to be overcome. They had the
engineering difficulties of carrying their line over the steep Sierra, a
work of four years; long tunnels had to be bored; one spring when snow
60 ft. in depth covered the track, it had to be removed by the shovel
for 7 miles along the road; saw-mills had to be erected in the
mountains, to prepare the sleepers and other timber work; wood and water
had to be carried 40 miles across alkali plains, and locomotives and
rails dragged over the mountains by teams of oxen. The chief engineer,
who organized the force of labourers, laid out the road, designed the
necessary structures, and successfully grappled with the novel problem
of running trains over such a line in all seasons, was Mr. S. S.
Montague. The requirements of the traffic necessitate not only solidly
constructed iron-covered snow-sheds, but massive snow-ploughs to throw
off the track the deep snow which could in no other way be prevented
from interrupting the working of the line. These snow-ploughs are
sometimes urged forward with the united power of eight heavy
locomotives. Fig. 55 represents one of these ploughs cleaning the line,
by throwing off the snow on to the sides of the track. The cutting
apparatus varies in its arrangements, some forms being designed to push
the snow off on one side, some on the other, and to fling it down the
precipices; and others, like the one represented, are intended merely to
throw it off the track.
[Illustration:
FIG. 56.—_The first Steam Railroad Train in America._
]
Sacramento is 1,775 miles from Omaha, and is connected with San
Francisco by a line 139 miles long. At San Francisco, or rather at
Oakland, 1,911 miles from Omaha and 3,212 miles from New York, is the
terminus of the great system of lines connecting the opposite shores of
the vast North American continent. San Francisco, situated on the
western shore of a bay, is connected with Oakland by a ferry; but the
railway company have recently constructed a pier, which carries the
trains out into the bay for 2¼ miles. This pier is strongly built, and
is provided with a double set of rails and a carriage-road, and with
slips at which ships land and embark passengers, so that ships trading
to China, Japan, and Australia can load and unload directly into the
trains, which may pass without change from the shores of the Pacific to
those of the Atlantic Ocean. San Francisco is a marvellous example of
rapid increase, for the population now numbers 170,000, yet a quarter of
a century ago 500 white settlers could not be found in as many miles
around its site. The first house was erected in 1846, and in 1847 not a
ship visited the bay, but now forty large steamships ply regularly,
carrying mails to China, Japan, Panama, South America, Australia, &c.,
and there are, of course, hundreds of other steamers and ships.
The descriptions we have given of only two lines of railway may suffice
to show that the modern engineer is deterred by no obstacles, but boldly
drives his lines through places apparently the most impracticable. He
shrinks from no operations however difficult, nor hesitates to undertake
works the mere magnitude of which would have made our forefathers stand
aghast. Not in England or America alone, but in almost every part of the
world, the railways have extended with wonderful rapidity; the continent
of Europe is embraced by a network of lines; the distant colonies of
Australia and New Zealand have thousands of miles of lines laid down,
and many more in progress; the map of India shows that peninsula
traversed in all directions by the iron roads; and in the far distant
East we hear of Japan having several lines in successful operation, and
the design of laying down more. In connection with such works, at home
and abroad, many constructions of great size and daring have been
designed and erected; many navigable rivers have been bridged, and not
seldom has an arm of the sea itself been spanned; hundreds of miles of
embankments and viaducts have been raised; hills have been pierced with
innumerable cuttings and tunnels, and all these great works have been
accomplished within the experience of a single generation of men, and
have sprung from one single successful achievement of Stephenson’s—the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, completed and opened in 1830. We in
England should also have pride in remembering that the growth of the
railways here is due to the enterprise, industry, and energy of private
persons; for the State has furnished no funds, but individuals, by
combining their own resources, have executed the works, and manage the
lines for their common interest and the public good. It is said that the
amount of money which has been spent on railways in Great Britain is not
far short of 500 millions of pounds sterling. The greatest railway
company in the United Kingdom is the London and North-Western, which
draws in annual receipts about seven millions of pounds; and the total
receipts of all the railway companies would nearly equal half the
revenue of the State.
[Illustration:
FIG. 57.—_Railway Embankment near Bath._
]
[Illustration:
PLATE VI.
MOUNT WASHINGTON INCLINED TRACK.
]
_INCLINED RAILWAYS._
The construction of railways over lofty ranges of mountains will be
found illustrated by the brief notices in other pages of the Union
Pacific line in the United States, and of the St. Gothard railway over
the Alps. In such cases, the track has been to a great extent carried
over the spurs or along the sides of the mountains, so that such
inclines might be obtained as the ordinary locomotive was capable of
ascending. The expensive operation of tunnelling was resorted to only
where sinuous deviations from the more direct route involved a still
greater expenditure of initial cost, or a continual waste of time and
energy in the actual working of the line. Sometimes winding tracks,
almost returning by snake-like loops on their own route, as projected on
the map, were required in order that the ascent could be made with an
incline practicable for the ordinary locomotive. In the earlier
development of railways, there were to be met with cable inclines, where
the traction of the locomotive had to be superseded or supplemented by
that of a rope or chain wound round a drum actuated by a stationary
steam-engine. The more powerful locomotives of the present day are able
to mount grades of such inclination that the employment of cable
traction is no longer requisite, except in but a few cases. Railways had
carried passengers about in all parts of the world for many years before
the engineer addressed himself to the problem of easily and quickly
taking people up heights of steep and toilsome ascent, sought generally
for the sake of the prospect, etc. Such, at least, has been the object
of most of the inclined railways already constructed, but to this their
utility is by no means limited, and as their safety and stability has
been proved by many years of use, they may find wider applications than
the gratification of the tourist and pleasure-seeker.
The toothed rail or rack which was formerly supposed necessary to obtain
power of traction on rails has been already mentioned (p. 101), and as
early as 1812 such a contrivance appears to have been in use in England,
near Leeds, the invention of a Mr. Blenkinsop. This mode of traction
received no development or improvement worthy of notice until Mr. S.
Marsh constructed, in 1866, a railway ladder—for so it may be called—for
the ascent of Mount Washington in the United States. In this case there
was a centre rail formed of iron, angle iron laid between and parallel
to the metals on which ran the wheels of the carriages. In this centre
rail angle irons were connected by round bars of wrought iron, which the
teeth of a pinion of the locomotive engaged, so that a climbing action,
resembling somewhat that of a wheel entering on the successive rounds of
a ladder, was produced, and in this way an ascensive power was obtained
sufficient to overcome gravity, the gradient not much exceeding a rise
of one foot in three at any point (12 vertical to 32 horizontal). This
railway was completed in 1869, and for more than a quarter of a century
it has carried thousands of tourists to the summit of Mount Washington
without a single fatal accident. This system of ascending mountains was
soon adopted in Europe with certain improvements, for in 1870 an
inclined railway was constructed to the summit of the Rigi, in which a
system of involute gearing was substituted for the ladder-like rounds of
Mr. Marsh. A certain vibratory action, due to the successive engagements
of the teeth in the central rack, which was somewhat disagreeable for
passengers, was soon afterwards obviated in the Abt system, in which two
racks are used, with the teeth of one opposite the spaces of the other,
and a double pinion provided, so that greater uniformity in the acting
power is obtained. With certain modifications in detail, such as
horizontal instead of vertical pinions, this system has been largely
adopted wherever cables have been dispensed with. In the inclined
railway by which Mount Pilatus, near Lucerne, is now ascended,
horizontal teeth project from both sides of a centre rail, and these are
engaged by horizontal pinions. The incline here is very steep, being in
places nearly 30 degrees; teeth perpendicular to the plane of the
incline would have offered a less margin of safety than those on the
plan actually adopted. In some places, as among the Alps, and more
particularly in South America, there are railways in which the ordinary
mode of traction and that with the rack are combined; that is, where the
gradient exceeds the ordinary limit, a central rack-rail is laid down,
on approaching which the engineer slackens his speed, and allows
pinions, moved by the locomotive, to become engaged in the double rack,
by which he slowly climbs the steep ascent until a level tract is
reached which permits of the ordinary traction being resumed.
[Illustration:
FIG. 57_a_.—_Train Ascending the Rigi._
]
Instead of climbing the inclines by rack-work rails, there is another
system which offers great advantages for economy in working, and one
generally resorted to where the incline can be made in one vertical
plane. This is the balanced cable, in which the gravitation force of a
descending car or train is utilised to draw up, or assist to draw up,
the ascending car or train. These cars are attached to the ends of a
cable which passes round a drum at the top of the incline, and means are
provided, according to circumstances, so that the drum may be turned, or
its revolutions controlled by brakes. When there is a water supply at
the upper end of the incline, a simple and economical mode of working
the cable is available; for all that is necessary is to provide each car
with a water-tank capable of being rapidly filled and emptied. The upper
car is made the heavier when required, by filling its tank with water,
when it raises the lower car, and on itself arriving at the bottom, the
water is discharged before the load to be taken up is received.
[Illustration:
FIG. 57_b_.—_At the Summit of the Rigi._
]
Many inclined railways are now in operation in various parts of the
world, as at Mount Vesuvius, where two of the slopes have a combined
length of 10,500 feet; at Mount Supurga and at Mount San Salvatore there
are others. At Burgen-stock in Switzerland there is one having a slope
57 feet vertical to 100 feet horizontal. These are cable inclines; but a
rack is also used with a pinion regulated by a friction-brake to avoid
accident, in case of the cable parting. The largest inclined railway in
America is at the Catskill Mountains, where an ascent of 1,600 feet is
made in a horizontal distance of 6,780 feet. In this a novel plan has
been adopted for compensating the varying weight that has to be moved,
for it is obvious that at the commencement the load at the top of the
incline has to raise not only that at the bottom, but the whole weight
of the cable also, equal to 35,000 pounds of wire rope, and again after
the middle point has been passed, the descending power is constantly
increasing, while the load being raised is diminishing. Now, in order
that the engine may work with more uniform effect, the engineer has not
made the incline a straight line, but with the slope lightest at the
bottom and gradually increased towards the top, so that the line is
really a curve in the vertical plane, and has at every point just the
inclination required for balancing the weight of the wire cable, as this
shifts from the one track to the other. Instead of a rack pinion and
brake to control a too rapid descent from any accident, the cars are
provided with clutches, which are automatically thrown out on wooden
guard-rails, when a safe speed is exceeded. Inclined railways have also
been constructed to the summit of Snowdon, in North Wales, and to that
of the Jungfrau, in Switzerland.
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
PLATE VII.
PIKE’S PEAK RAILWAY, ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 58.—_The Great Eastern at Anchor._
]
STEAM NAVIGATION.