The distance of the two engines from each other was 2315 yards, the upper end whereof is a steep inclined plane, 323 yards long, up which the carriages were drawn by the Ayton engine; and the remaining portion, which is 1992 yards, which had previously been worked by ten powerful horses, the ascent of it being 651 feet, but not a regular acclivity. The engine at the lower end was for the purpose of drawing loaden waggons up an inclined plane extending 387 yards in the contrary direction, or towards the colliery. The two engines, in addition to their former work, have been made to reciprocate with each other over the whole length of the horse road (which has considerable curves and irregularities) according to the mode described in the foregoing specification upon the second, third, and fourth stages.
Six loaden waggons, coupled together, carrying the same number of New castle chaldrons, or 15 tons 18 cwt. of coals, pass upward at a speed of 10i feet per second, or 7 miles an hour, with the greatest ease and certainty, affording a despatch by no means derived previously from the use of animal power. The two extremities being visible to each other, are furnished with flags, to give alternate signals of the readiness of the waggons to proceed. When the atmosphere is hazy, and the flags cannot be seen, signals are made by drawing forward the rope three or four yards with the engine, at that end which the waggons are intended to go, and which is instantly perceived at the other end. And in the dark, (for the work is daily prosecuted during five or six hours' absence of light during this period of the year,) signals are given by a fire kept up at each end for lighting the workmen, which is shut from, or opened to, the view of the opposite extremity by means of a door. A person accompanies the waggons constantly, seated in a chair fixed securely upon the fore end of one of the soles of the leading waggon of the set, which is easily removed from one to another. The use of such attendant is to disengage the hauling rope from the waggons by means of a spring catch, in the event of any sudden emergency, such as the breaking of a wheel or rail, or the hazard of running down any object, the stage in question lying over a common. Frio tion wheels of cast-iron, weighing 14 lbs. each, having an axis of malleable iron, turned in a lathe, and weighing 1 lb. and running upon a frame of oak, are placed eight yards asunder, on the straight parts of the way, and five yards from each other along the curves. For the latter purpose they are put into
frames of iron and wood, which allow of an inclined position to am: angle. The requisite inclination of the wheel, or that which is best suited to the cur vature of the road, is soon found out road-wrights. The greatest devia tion from a vertical line found necessary in the present case, was 45 degrees. The angle properly adapting the leaning friction-wheel, is that which allows of neither an upward or downward stress of the rope, but which presents the wheel in such a manner as that the strain of the rope shall be in a line at right angles with the axis. The friction-wheels are 11 inches diameter, with a groove 21 inches deep, opening from a narrow bottom to 41 inches at the top. The inclining wheels have a cast-iron horn projecting 5 inches from the frame at its under side, to receive and guide the rope into the groove. The wheels are all made to run upon oak bearings, and are greased once every day ; they act well, and run in the lightest possible manner, occasioning a friction incredibly small when their number, (350,) and the length and weight of ropes, are consi dered; for in order to preserve and keep safe the ropes, they are both housed every night, the last set of loaden waggons being drawn up without the tail or passive rope, and in the morning that rope being first conveyed upwards with a single empty waggon Q horse, which performs the task without difficulty at the common working pace of 21 miles per hour.
In the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Highland Society, are some very interesting papers Mr. Scott, of Ormiston, which are descriptive of several ingenious methods of overcoming ascents on railroads by means of animal power ; they are, for the most part, unsuited to the scale of operations contemplated in the great lines of public railroad now forming in all parts of the kingdom ; but in branch communications from one line to another, and for facilitating the traffic and intercourse of adjacent towns and villages with the main lines, as well as the formation of private railroads, where economy of con struction is of primary importance, some of the suggestions of Mr. Scott appear to be deserving of attentive consideration. Under these impressions we shall make a few extracts from those papers, for the information of our readers.