There are other points connected with the subject of railways, which fall so immediately under the article ROADS and HIGHWAYS, that we shall reserve what farther occurs to us, for insertion under that head, particularly what we have to say upon stone-railways and cast-iron tracks for ordinary carriages.
Explanation of Plate Figures 5, 6, and 7, Plate CCCCLXXVII. are intend ed to represent a railway-lock, applicable to conveying loads from one level to another, similar to the effect produced by lockage in inland navigation. This is ac complished by the revolution of the wheels alluded to in the foregoing article, over which pitch-chains work, on which the wagons are suspended, and so arc moved from a lower to a higher level, and vice versa. This apparatus may be impelled by the power of steam, water, or animal force, according to circumstances ; the axis of the pitch-chain wheels being in either case con nected with the impelling power, by means of wheel and pinion work of strength proportioned to the work. The railway-wagons, as before noticed, may either be set upon a platform fitted to the lock-machine, or they may simply be provided with two strong iron loops at tached to their opposite sides; the open parts of which having a downward direction so as to receive the corres ponding studs of the pitch-chains. These loops are fix ed towards the top of the wagon, that the points of sus pension may be as much as possible above the centre of gravity of the load, that it may become more stable when suspended upon the chain. Let us then suppose that a train of wagons has arrived at the bottom of the lock, when the horse is disengaged, and perhaps yoked to a common gin connected with the machinery at the top ; the first wagon is then pushed along the railway, till its loop range with the pitch-chains on each side, as shown in. Fig. 6. The machinery is now put in motion, and the first pair of studs are hooked into the loops of the wagon, which is imme diately suspended, and moved upwards along with the chains. The second wagon is in the same manner pushed forward and attached to the chains, and so of others till the whole are transferred from the one level to the other, as will be understood by examining the dia grams of Plate CCCCLXXVII. Figs. 5, 6, 7. At the top of the lock, Figs. 5 and 7, the wagons marked g have just been landed on the upper railway, while those marked ffff ff, Figs. 5, 6, and 7, are still attached to the pitch-chains ; the upper ones being about to be turned over the. axis of the machinery, still preserving their horizontal position, will in their turn be placed upon the projecting ends of.the upper rails marked c c'. The chains still continuing their revolution, the studs are disengaged from the loops of the wagon, which is thus left upon the upper rail without the assistance of the attendant, who with this apparatus has only to move the wagons to and from the machine. In the same manner a train of wagons is transferred from the higher to the lower level, the machine being worked in the reverse direction, that the studs of the chains may hook the wagons or the platform made to re ceive them at the top of the lock instead of the bottom.
It is also to be noticed, that in the descending load the impelling power requires to be kept in action only till two of the wagons have passed round the pitchwheels, when the application of friction with the common brake becomes necessary to regulate the de scent of the load.
In giving a technical description of this machine, Fig. 5, is a plan of a lock, which would of course fall to be excavated in a proper position on the line of road, agreeably to the section of the ground, so as to afford the necessary accommodation for the apparatus. This lock is lined with face-walls of masonry, marked A A A A. The perpendicular rise is here taken at twenty feet. B B is part of the lower railway with the wagons f K upon it. C C is the upper level, with a wagon g g upon it a a a a show the two wheels over which the pitch-chains pass, and b is their axis. C C is a spur wheel on the same axis, with its pillion d d mounted on the end of the horizontal shaft e, on which the brake wheel will fall to be mounted. Fig. 6. is an elevation of the masonry of the lock marked AA AA; letter C is the level of the upper, and B of the lower railway ; a a a a are the wheels on which the pitch chains revolve, b is their axis, c the spur-wheel, d the pinion mounted upon the horizontal shaft e, both marked in clotted lines, fff are the wagons supposed to be ascending or descending within the range of the lock, hhhh the pitch-chains, i i i i i i are the studs upon the chains by which the wagons are suspended ; the lower pair are seen entering the loops of the lower wagon f. , Fig. 7. is a longitudinal section of the ma sonry of the lock, A A A A' show the walls, B B the lower railway, with its end B' turned up, as a stop for the wagons at the proper position for hooking and suspending them upon the chains. CC' show the level of the upper railway, e a mark one of the pitch chain wheels. The spur-wheel, pillion, and lying shaft not appearing in this figure, f f f are the ascending or descending wagons, as in Fig. 6. g is a wagon on the upper railway, and k another upon the lower rail way. hhhhh h are the pitch-chains, the dotted part below being the track of the chains under ground. // show the rollers for guiding them. iiiiiare the loops in the wagons, into which the studs enter for suspending them to the chains. In practice, guide boxes for the chains are placed immediately below the level of the upper and lower railways, and upon each alternate link of the chain, a kind of bow of iron is formed, which passes through the guide-box, and keeps the chain in its proper position for hooking the studs into the loops of the wagons.
Authors who may he consulted :—Edgeworth on Rail roads; Wilkes on Railways; Report relative to various Lines of Railway, and Memorial relative to Opening the Great Valleys of Strathmore and Strathearn, by means of a Railway or Canal, by Robert Stevenson, Civil En gineer, printed at Edinburgh, 1821 ; Observations on tt General Railway, published in London, 1821 ; DescriI2 cription of a Railway upon a New Principle, by H. H. Palmer, Civil Engineer, London, 1823; Transactions of the Highland Society, vol. vi. Edinburgh, 1824.