more work, and the horses improved in condition; whereas formerly the horses grew worse in condition.”* It is stated in the "Treatise on the Horse," published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, as an unparalleled instance of the power of the horse, that one horse drew on the Surrey railroad, near Croydon, twelve waggons loaded with stones, each waggon weighing about three tons, a distance of six miles, with apparent ease, in one hour and forty-one minutes. On the Penrhyn railway, in Caernarvonshire, two horses draw twenty-four waggons one stage six times per day, which carry twenty-four tons each journey, or one hundred and forty-four tons per day. This railway is six miles and a quarter in length, and is divided into five stages; it falls at the rate of one in ninety-six, and has three inclined planes. In speaking of the horses employed upon the Backworth and Killingworth railways, Mr. Wood says, "the horses are extremely powerful. The average resistance with the loaded carriages is 42 pounds, and with the empty carriages, 189 pounds, giving a mean of 115 pounds: they Mr. Storey's Report; Wood on Railways, page 303. traverse the distance backwards and forwards most frequently eight times a day, making nineteen miles. This may be taken as the maximum performance of horses, and will show the resistance which a very powerful horse is capable of overcoming occasionally." The expense of constructing railways depends upon the nature of the ground they are made over, and the purpose for which they are intended. In many situations, where the trade is altogether a descending one, and water scarce, they are preferable to canals, and may be constructed cheaper; but for general traffic over a wide extent of country, they do not afford as cheap a means of conveyance as canals. In some instances, railways have been constructed for 1000l. per mile, but in others, the Manchester and Liverpool, for instance, the expense per mile has exceeded 30,000l. It is stated in the Quarterly Review, No. LXII. p. 363., that the general average of a number of railroads, some tram-rails, others edge-rails, some of cast iron, others of wrought iron, of upwards of 500 miles extent, is as nearly as possible 4000l. per mile, allowing them a double set of tracks; and the writer very justly remarks, "From the imperfections of these old railroads we may extend the average to 5000l. per mile." Mr. Tredgold estimates the annual repair of a railroad at 5571. per mile. Mr. Stephenson estimated the cost of making a railroad from London to Birmingham, at 2,500,000l., or 21,756l. per mile; but other engineers have calculated the total expense at about 3,500,000l., or at 30,400l. per mile. The annual expense of keeping a railroad in repair depends much upon the velocity with which the waggons are drawn over it. Mr. Walker, in his Report to the Directors of the Manchester and Liverpool Railroad, states, "that, as the speed with engines is greater than with horses, the injury is greater in case of any irregularity." It has been well ascertained, that railroads on which horses are employed are always found in much better order and repair than those on which locomotive engines are used. The relative expense of transporting goods upon canals, railways, and common roads, may be estimated as follows:- From various observations which have been made on the work actually performed by horses on several railways, it may be assumed, that the greatest effect produced by horses is twelve tons gross, drawn over a space of twenty miles per day; and, as the waggons employed on railways are generally one-third of the gross weight, the net weight of the goods carried will be eight tons over twenty miles per day, by one horse, or 160 tons over one mile, at the average velocity of two miles per hour. The expense may be taken at twopence per ton per mile. On canals, one horse will draw a boat containing twenty-five tons of goods, over a space of sixteen miles per day, at the speed of two miles and a half per hour: this is equivalent to 25x16-400 tons of merchandise carried over one mile per day, or two and a half times as much as on a railway. The actual expense of transporting goods by canal, is only one halfpenny per ton per mile, including boat-hire, steersman, wages, and horse power. * In Scotland and Ireland, where the roads are made with broken stones, and where the practice is to use one-horse carts, the work which horses perform may be taken at 25 cwt. exclusive of the cart. But in England, where waggons are used, • This has been the regular charge on the Ellesmere Canal for some years, and is now introduced on the Oxford canals, and several others. and the roads are not so hard, the work of horses may be taken at 15 cwt. In the latter case, the average cost is about ninepence per ton per mile, including the wear and tear of the carts, and the wages of the drivers. In some parts of the country the cost is sixpence per mile, but in other parts, as near London, it is one shilling. The expense of carrying goods by locomotive engines on railways much exceeds that on canals or on railways with horses. Since the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, locomotive engines have been very much improved. On that line of railway, goods are carried at from eight to ten miles per hour for 4 d. per ton per mile, and passengers are carried at the same speed from Manchester to Liverpool, or vice versa, for 3s. 6d., and in the first class of carriages, with a velocity of from fifteen to twenty miles per hour, for 78. The locomotive engines cost, in the first instance, from 600l. to 1000l.; the waggons for goods, about 40l.; and the carriages for passengers, about 2001. each. The locomotive engines are able to draw immense loads, but they are extremely expensive. The annual expense |
