Part 2 (1/2)
A train of carriages was attached to a locoine of the e Stephenson, in the following order:-(1) Locoineer and assistants; (2) tender with coals and water; next six wagons loaded with coals and flour; then an elegant covered coach, with the coons fitted up on the occasion for passengers; and, last of all, six wagons loaded with coals, es, exclusive of the engine and tender
Tickets were distributed to the number of nearly 300 for those whoons; but such was the pressure and crowd that both loaded and eers The signal being given, the engine started off with this ies In some parts the speed was frequently 12 miles per hour, and in one place, for a short distance, near Darlington, 15 ers was counted to 450, which, together with the coals, es, would a the procession, the engine, with her load, arrived at Darlington a distance of eight miles and three-quarters, in 65 ht ine arrived at Stockton in three hours and sevenstops, the distance being nearly 12 miles, which is at the rate of four miles an hour, and upon the level part of the railway the nuons was counted about 550, and several es on each side, so that the whole number could not be less than 600
EARLY RAILWAY COMPEtitION
The first Stockton and Darlington Act gave permission to all parties to use the line on payht work their own horses and carriages upon the railway and be their own carriers Mr Clepha account of the competition induced by the system:-”There were two separate coach co collisions sometimes occurred between the drivers-who found on the rail a novel element for contention Coaches cannot pass each other on the rail as on the road; and at the more ard public-house in Stockton (the Bay Horse, kept by Joe Buckton), the coach was always on the line beti patiently (or is in the mile; and when two coaches met, or two trains, or coach and train, the question arose which of the drivers o back? This was not always settled in silence As to trains, it caive way to loaded; as to trains and coaches, that the passengers should have preference over coals; while coaches, when they s a post was erected, and a rule was laid down that he who had passed the pillar o back At the Goose Pool and Early Nook, it was common for these coaches to stop; and there, as Jonathan would say, passengers and coachmen 'liquored' One coach, introduced by an innkeeper, was a co coaches, an approximation to the real railway coach, which still adheres, with e coach type One Dixon, who drove the 'Experiton and shi+ldon, is the inventor of carriage lighting on the rail
On a dark winter night, having coers, he would buy a penny candle, and place it lighted ast them, on the table of the 'Experiment'-the first railway coach (which, by the way, ended its days at shi+ldon, as a railway cabin), being also the first coach on the rail (first, second, and third class jaht in darkness”
CALCULATION AS TO RAILWAY SPEED
The Editor of _The Scotsed in researches into the laws of friction established by Vince and Coloumb, published the results in a series of articles in his journal in 1824 showing hoenty rounds, within the lis on this point that Mr Nicholas Wood alluded when he spoke of the ridiculous expectation that engines would ever travel at the rate of twenty, or even twelve miles an hour
ALARMIST VIEWS
A writer in the _Quarterly Review_, in 1825, was quite prophetical as to the dangers connected with railway travelling He observes:-”It is certainly some consolation to those who are to be whirled at the rate of 18 or 20 ine, to be told that there is no danger of being sea-sick while on shore, that they are not to be scalded to death, nor drowned, nor dashed to pieces by the bursting of a boiler; and that they need notof a wheel What can be more palpably absurd or ridiculous than the prospect held out of locoe coaches! We should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer thereve's Ricochet Rockets, as trust the at such a rate We will back old Father Thaainst the Woolwich Railway for any sum We trust that Parliament will, in all railways it ht or nine ree with Mr Sylvestor is as great as can be ventured on with safety”
PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION
On the third reading of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Bill in the House of Commons, The Hon Edward Stanley , a other reasons, that the railway trains worked by horses would take ten hours to do the distance, and that they could not be worked by loconantly denouncing the project as fraught with fraud and imposition He would not consent to see s' premises invaded, and ”how,” he asked, ”would any person like to have a railroad under his parlour ?What, he would like to knoas to be done with all those who had advancedturnpike-roads? What with those who es, after the fashi+on of their forefathers? What was to become of coach-makers and harness-makers, coach-masters and coachmen, innkeepers, horse-breeders, and horse-dealers? Was the House aware of the sines, passing at the rate of ten or twelve hing in the fields or grazing in the meadows could behold them without dismayIron would be raised in price 100 per cent, or, reatest nuisance, the most complete disturbance of quiet and coenuity of man could invent!”
SPEED OF RAILWAY ENGINES
At the present day it is aainst an act of Parlia passed in favour of the railway between Liverpool and Manchester Mr Harrison, who appeared on behalf of certain landowners against the scheine:-”When we set out with the original prospectus-I aallop, I know not at what rate, I believe it was at the rate of twelve miles an hour My learned friend, Mr Ada to Ireland, that soons to a division My learned friend says, that they would go at the rate of twelve miles an hour, with the aid of a devil in the for as a postillion upon the fore-horse, and an Honourable Me behind him to stir up the fire, and to keep it up at full speed But the speed at which these locoo has slackened; Mr Adao faster than five eant says, he should like to have seven, but he would be content to go six I will show you he cannot go six; and probably, for any practical purposes, I may be able to show, that I can keep up with him by the canal Now the real evidence to which you alone can pay attention shows, that practically, and for useful purposes, upon the average, and to keep up the rate of speed continually, theymore than four ine heels four feet in diaone six; but I will not admit, because, in an experiment or two, they ht ine has been driven at the rate of six, that this is the average rate at which they can carry goods upon a railroad for the purpose of coht to direct their attention, and to which the evidence is to be applied It is quite idle to suppose, that an experiment made to ascertain the speed, when the power is worked up to the greatest extent, can afford a fair criterion of that which an engine will do in all states of the weather In the first place, locoines are liable to be operated upon by the weather You are told that they are affected by rain, and an attempt has been ale of hich would affect the traffic on the Mersey, would render it i up the fire, or keeping up the pressure of the steam till the boiler is ready to burst I say so, for a scientific person happened to see a loco down an inclined plane, with a tolerable weight behind it, and he found that the strokes were reduced from fifty to twelve, as soon as the wind acted upon it; so that every gale that would produce an interruption to the intercourse by the canals, would prevent the progress of a locoe in that respect”
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN MAKING RAILWAY SURVEYS
Difficulties connected withsurveys of land were encountered fro dialogue on the subject took place in the Coeant Spankie was the questioner and George Stephenson was the respondent
_Q_ ”You were asked about the quality of the soil through which you were to bore in order to ascertain the strata, and you were rather taunted because you had not ascertained the precise strata; had you any opportunity of boring?”
_A_ ”I had none; I was threatened to be driven off the ground, and severely used if I were found upon the ground”
_Q_ ”You were right, then, not to attempt to bore?”
_A_ ”Of course, I durst not attempt to bore, after those threats”