RAILWAY By the term RAILWAY is understood a road formed by laying distinct tracks of timber, iron, or stone, for wheel carriages. In the construction of railways, stone is more particularly applicable to common roads, and the use of timber is now almost laid aside, while iron is very generally employed.
When we consider the great proportion of labour which is unavoidably spent in the carriage of the neces saries and conveniencies of civilized life in all its varied forms, we at once see the importance of every measure tending to facilitate and improve commercial intercourse. All are aware of the benefit which Great Britain has de rived from her inland navigation; such, however, are the difficulties and expense of canal operations, that another substitute for the common road has long been sought after by the public. The attention of the engineer has accordingly been of late much directed to the construc tion of railways; a mode of communication which will be found more simple and economical in all its details than the canal. Perhaps this cannot be better shown than by a general comparison of the work performed under simi lar circumstances, by both modes of traffic. Indepen dently of the difficulties so often experienced in procur ing a full and regular supply of water, the expense of a canal, calculated for boats of about thirty tons bur den, may, at a rough estimate, be taken at the rate of from 6000/. to 9000/. per mile; while a railway with two sets of iron tracks, capable of working with three tons,_ may be estimated at from 3000/. to 5000/. per mile. These sums might respectively be quoted in a still greater disproportion in favour of the railway sys tem; but we deem it sufficient in this place to say, that, in similar situations, it will in no case exceed one-half the expense of the navigable canal. In contrasting the utility of these modes of conveyance, we may assume, that the great object aimed at in both is to avoid the effects of friction on the undulating line of draught of the common road When a more perfect system of interior communication came first to be sought after, it was extremely natural to have recourse to the deepen ing of rivers, and afterwards to the at Oficial canal ; a roadway, if we may be allowed the expression, which is equally removed from the asperities of the highway, and the adverse currents of the river. The canal has, notwithstanding, the disadvantages of a resisting me dium to contend with, acting against the draught in the inverse ratio of the velocity of the boat.
The speed of canal carriage must always be limited by the destruction which rapid motion occasions to the banks. In this respect railways have great advantages ()% .canals; for where the rails are strong, and the wagons light, the rapidity of conveyance may be con ceived to keep pare with the impelling power of steam. The value of the economy of dme is measured and proved by the vast exertions used and sums expended in Britain to accommodate the public, and the ample harvest reaped by those who best fulfil its wishes in this respect. In this commercial country the economy of
time and /lower is felt to be the same thing; and the numerous carriages established in England to convey goods at shred, shows that the value of rapid conveyance is not confined to passengers alone. From the obstacles above mentioned, then, however managed or improved, we can never much increase the present rate of motion on canals, which must ever form a slow mode of con veyance, independently of its other disadvantages.
The facility with which temporary railways may be laid for short distances from manufactories, granaries, and other works, to communicate with great public lines of railway in their neighbourhood, is another ad vantage belonging to the railway system; for the ex pense of a canal branch would, in almost all cases, be much greater than any temporary or private object could repay; while branch railways would, when in general use, become readily saleable after the local ob ject was obtained, and the principal expense incurred would, in many situations, be metely that of laying and forming them into a road. When branch railways are connected with canals, much labour is lost in loading and unloading, besides damage occasioned by these operations to the articles conveyed. Canals capable of floating sea-born vessels must always afford great fa cilities to commerce, and promote the improvement of the districts through which they pass ; but it may be doubted whether, from the limits to a supply of water in almost all situations, and the impossibility of pro curing it in many, their great original cost, damage to adjoining lands, and interruption to the communi cations of property on their opposite banks, are not ob jections of a paramount nature, which lead us to con clude that they cannot compete with railways in con venience, economy, and remuneration for the capital embarked in their construction. The general intro duction of steam vessels in the coasting trade will render many of the present ship canals less useful in proportion as their breadth and size of locks are inca pable of receiving steam vessels constructed for the open sea. Railways, again, will benefit by every im provement in the use of the steam engine, may be used in all situations where any mode of conveyance is possible, and in practice give about double the de spatch of canal conveyance, without increasing. the working power. Indeed, the anticipation of a speedy adoption and general use of steam conveyance on rail ways of iron and stone, would seem at present for more natural, and likely to be soon realised, than was ima gined hut a very few years ago, owing to the projected revolution now going on by the use of steam in the coasting trade.