PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
As a railway is an embodiment of engineering and mechanical
science applied to land transportation, it follows that its efficiency
depends largely upon the degree or amount of skill applied to
the service of any particular line or system. The entire combination
of expedients is the outgrowth of centuries of scientific inquiry,
ingenious investigations, and expensive practical tests. In early
railway construction the knowledge relating to many details was
comparatively limited, and in numerous cases lack of means prevented
the adoption of the best methods that had been suggested. There
was, besides, a great scarcity of trained assistants and of useful
mechanical appliances, as well as of capital. The railway was
but imperfectly understood, even by those who were best informed
in 1830, and for some years later. One of the ablest and most
celebrated of the civil engineers who entered into useful and
prolonged service at an early day, said to the writer that he
looked back with amazement, not unmingled with consternation,
at the density of his own ignorance when he first began to assume
heavy responsibilities. The pioneers have recounted many incidents
illustrative of the deficiencies and drawbacks under which they
labored. Strictly speaking there were no railway civil engineers,
and no thoroughly competent representatives of dozens of distinct
and complicated pursuits and professions which have since been
developed, and which each require elaborate special training.
The entire profession of civil engineering is of comparatively
modern origin, and in the United States when railway construction
commenced, two of the principal directions in which reliable assistants
were sought and found were among men who had gained experience
in locating canals, or men skilled as military engineers, either
through instruction gained at West Point, or connection with various
descriptions of governmental works. The canal operations which
had preceded railway construction were of great service in training
civil engineers and contractors; and a custom adopted of permitting
officers of the United States army to temporarily enter into the
service of railway companies without forfeiting their positions,
materially increased the supply of available talent of a high
order. Training as land Surveyors also proved useful, and the
American faculty of rapidly becoming expert in new fields of effort,
helped materially to advance raw recruits into useful leaders.
But for sometime there was a great scarcity even of instruments
and implements which would now be considered indispensable, as
well as of thoroughly trained men adapted to all intricate or
difficult branches of railway construction and operation, From
the outset, and largely up to the present day, one emergency or
requirement after another was developed, which could only be fully
met by means or measures for which there was no clearly defined
precedent, and railway men of all grades were subjected, to an
immense extent, to the necessity of learning their most valuable
lessons in the stern school of rugged experience.
So far as theories had been developed, they were often more
likely to be fallacious than correct. A notable instance of this
is furnished by the title given to the main track and appurtenances.
It is styled
A PERMANENT WAY,
partly in harmony with the idea that the structure would, by
the free use of stone and iron, be imperishable. Experience soon
demonstrated that of all descriptions of roads ever constructed,
railways exceed all others in exacting requirements for incessant
supervision and constant repairs. In one of the frequent legislative
investigations of modern periods, a manager of an important western
railway was told that his company was spending entirely too much
money in keeping its road-bed in order, and that its patrons were
unnecessarily subjected to onerous charges for this purpose. He
replied that constant endeavors were made to keep down such expenses.
He was then asked what would be the result if these expenses were
very greatly reduced, to which query he replied that in a comparatively
short time they would have no railway.
Another prominent idea, which has proved to be erroneous, but
which was probably founded on previous experience with the turnpikes
that were seriously injured or worn out by heavy wagons, was that
it was very desirable that
LOCOMOTIVES AND CARS SHOULD BE AS LIGHT AS POSSIBLE.
It was only by slow degrees that advances were made in increasing
the weight of rolling stock, but they have been so steady and
continuous on every progressive line that they form a leading
feature of new developments. At the outset, as in all subsequent
stages, conflicting views, variations in amount of available capital,
or the requirements of anticipated traffic, and other causes,
led to the adoption of diverse mechanical systems, but all were
more or less imperfect to an extent which can scarcely be appreciated
by those whose conceptions of a railway are based on familiarity
with first-class lines of the present day. For such ideals, tinder-box
cars, puny locomotives, strap rails, and pine-board stations,
with their natural accompaniments, must be substituted by those
who want to form correct impressions of primitive lines.
DIFFERENT PLANS OF CONSTRUCTION
were tried on different roads, and frequently on different
sections of the same road.
The highest state of development is probably represented by
the best style of construction used on the Philadelphia and Columbia
Railway, inasmuch its it was built by the state of Pennsylvania,
and suffered less from impecuniosity, at the time of construction,
than any contemporaneous enterprise. Of the tracks of this line,
which was completed in 1834, and portions of which were opened
for travel in 1832, Mr. W. Hasell Wilson, who was employed as
one of the assistant engineers in surveying and constructing it,
in his instructive notes on the Internal Improvements of Pennsylvania,
says:
"The length of the road (which had a double track) being
81-six-tenths miles, there were 163-two-tenths miles of single
track, exclusive of sidings and crossings, of which 6 miles were
laid with granite sills plated with flat iron bars, 2½
inches in width by five-eighths of an inch in thickness; 18 miles
with wooden string pieces plated in a similar manner; 2 miles
with stone blocks and edge rails, having stone sills extending
across the track at intervals of 15 feet; and 137-two-tenths miles
with stone blocks and edge rails, having wooden cross-ties intermediate,
except on some of the embankments, where the edge rails were secured
to cross-ties supported on longitudinal mud-sills. The English
gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches was adopted for this road, and
the tracks were placed 4 feet 6 inches apart. The granite sill
track, which was similar to that laid on the eastern portion of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and in regard to the permanency
and efficiency of which great expectations had been formed, proved
an entire failure. Although the sills were bedded on a stratum
of broken stone one foot in depth well rammed, it was found impracticable
to keep them either to an even surface or to gauge, and after
a very short period of use, the iron bars began to work loose,
curling up at the ends and forming what were termed 'snake heads.'
The wooden track was also liable to the defect last mentioned,
and as the timber soon commenced to decay, it became unsafe, especially
for locomotives. In the course of a few years all of the flat
bar track was replaced by T rails
laid upon cross-ties. The edge rails, of which the greater portion
of the road superstructure was formed, were rolled of the Wigan
pattern, three and a half inches in depth, with the bottom and
top surfaces parallel, weighing 41¼ pounds per yard. Cast-iron
chairs of 15 pounds weight, were secured to the blocks or ties
placed three feet apart, and the rails secured in the chairs by
wrought-iron wedges, one on each side. The rails were at first
ordered in lengths of 15 feet for straight lines, and 9 feet for
curves, under the supposition that they would be too rigid to
adapt themselves to a curve; but it was very soon discovered that
they could without difficulty be forced into curved lines, and
that the longer the rail the more easily this could be effected;
consequently the 15-feet rails were taken for the curves, and
the 9-feet rails made use of on straight lines. Subsequently the
rails were all procured in lengths of 18 feet, and placed so as
to break joint, with a cross-tie every 9 feet. The rails, which
were procured from the Ebbw Vale Iron Works in Wales, cost upon
the wharf at Philadelphia prices ranging from $44½ to $50½
per ton. The iron was of such excellent quality that the old rails
remaining after the road came into possession of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company in the year 1857, was re-rolled into rods for
blacksmith purposes.
As the road was intended to be operated by horse power, and
so used for several years, the space between the rails of each
track was filled in with broken stone or gravel to form a horse
path."
Of the method employed in
CONSTRUCTING THE PORTAGE RAILROAD,
which was also a work of the state of Pennsylvania, commenced
in 1831, and opened in 1834, to form a connecting link between
canals east and west of the crest of the Allegheny mountains,
Mr. Solomon W. Roberts, who was one of the engineers, says:
"The laying of the first track and turnouts, with a double
track on the inclined planes, was contracted for on the 11th of
April, 1832. The rails used weighed about forty pounds per lineal
yard and they were rolled in Great Britain. The hauling of them
in wagons from Huntingdon, on the Juniata, was a laborious work.
The rails were supported by cast-iron chairs, weighing about thirteen
pounds each, the chairs being placed 3 feet apart from centre
to centre, with a wrought-iron wedge in each chair. In most cases
these chairs rested upon, and were bolted to, blocks of sandstone,
containing 3½ cubic feet each, and imbedded in broken stone.
These stone blocks were required to be 2 feet long, 21 inches
wide and 12 inches deep. They cost about 53 cents each. On high
embankments a timber foundation was used, with cross-ties and
mud sills, which stood much better than the stone blocks. On the
inclined planes, which were to be worked by means of ropes, flat
bar-rails were laid upon string-pieces of timber.
Great care was taken in the drainage of the road-bed, and a
large number of culverts and drains were built, there being 159
passages for water tinder the railroad. It was found, by experience,
that the track must be tied across with cross-ties, or it could
not be kept from spreading, and many such ties were put in between
the stone blocks. The attempt to construct a permanent railroad
track, containing no perishable material, was, in this case, a
failure. We were striving to build a great public work to endure
for generations, and, as it turned out, it was superseded by something
better in about twenty years."
Jonathan Knight, chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio,
in one of his publications in 1832, referred to the Columbia and
Philadelphia railroad as being built on the English plan, laid
with heavy English rail, "upon cast-iron chairs and stone
blocks, and it also includes inclined planes and their machinery,
and other very expensive work, and especially of bridges, having
to traverse the country across the streams. This railway is estimated
at $28,173 per mile. The construction is of the most expensive
character, and it has been planned with a view to great permanency,
and for the use of heavy locomotive engines."
Of the plan first tried on the
BALTIMORE AND OHIO,
a report on railways made by a committee of the New York legislature
in 1832, said:
"The most approved method of constructing railways is on
the plan adopted by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. A
line of road is first graded, free from short curves, and as nearly
level as possible. A small trench is then formed for each track,
which is filled with rubble stone, on which are laid blocks of
granite or other suitable stone (in the place of wood), which
will square about one foot, and of as great length as can be obtained.
The upper end and inner surfaces of each track are dressed perfectly
even, as well as the ends of the blocks at their joinings. Bars,
or plates of wrought iron, near an inch in thickness, are then
laid upon these blocks or rails, in a line with the inner surfaces,
and fastened to the stone with iron bolts or rivets, entering
about four inches in holes fitted to receive them, and at a distance
of about 18 inches. The distance between the two tracks, for the
wheels, should be about five feet."
As on most other important roads, various modes of construction
were adopted on the Baltimore and Ohio. In addition to the granite-sill
method, six miles of single track were composed of stone blocks
and wooden string pieces, and a considerable part of the line
rested on wooden sleepers (or ties).
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