THE Prince of Wales every spring sends his
hunters from Sandringham to Windsor for change of air; but in England,
as a rule, less aristocratic animals have to do without an annual
outing as best they may. Not so, however, in Scotland. In the fall of
the year tens of thousands of the small Highland sheep from Skye and
Stornoway are landed at Strome Ferry, and carried by the Highland
Railway to the warm belt of rich country lying along the shores of the
Moray Frith. There, to the great contentment of the Moray and
Nairnshire farmer, they cat his turnips and manure his fields till
spring comes round again, and they can return once more to their
mountain pastures. The railway rate is sixpence per double mile for a
truck-load of, say, fifty sheep; or, roughly, half a farthing per
head. The Caledonian has a somewhat similar traffic, though on a
smaller scale, from the Perthshire hills, and also viaA Oban from
Argyll and the Western Islands to the low ground of Forfar and
Kincardinc, and even as far south as the Lothians.
But by no means
all the Highland sheep provide themselves with return tickets. In or
about the month of October each year there is an enormous exodus
southwards. Dalwhinnie alone sometimes sends away 20,000 sheep within
a few weeks, a large proportion of them going to the Carlisle market.
Talking of markets, the July wool market at Inverness is of a somewhat
remarkable character. Not a pound of wool is shown, for the best of
reasons, namely, that it is still growing on the backs of the sheep
perhaps a hundred miles away; but at this market the bulk of the
Highland clip for the year is sold. Moreover, in many instances, the
sheep themselves as well as their fleeces are sold in their absence,
the price in either case being settled simply by the reputation of the
flocks of the different breeders. To the lay mind it seems not a
little strange that, if home-grown wool can be dealt with in this
summary fashion, in the case of colonial wool for the London sales, it
is found necessary, in order to permit of sampling every individual
bale, to cart or lighter it all up from the docks to the neighbourhood
of the sale-room in the heart of the City, and then cart it away again
to the railway station on its road to the West Riding or the Stroud
manufacturer.
This spring the sheep and cattle traffic from the
'West Highlands was largely swollen by exceptional circumstances. The
grass on the East Coast farms grew so luxuriantly that the farmers
were at a loss what to do with it, and bought great numbers of
Highland cattle to eat it down. One great market for these latter is
at the Muir of Ord, a point a few miles south of Dingwall, where the
Skye line [The Skye line is the usual name for
the branch which runs across Ross-shire from Dingwall to Strome Ferry.
It is of course named—on the same principle which induced the sanguine
promoters of the railway from Aberystwith to Pencader to christen
their road the "Manchester and Milford "—because it is the natural
route to the Island of Skye. But the first time I heard it, having no
opportunity of seeing the spelling, I thought it was a mere nick-name,
analogous to the Michigan "Air" line, or the "Nickel Plate" Railway.]
diverges from the main road to the north. I was there one day last
June, and was watching a mob of them being coaxed and driven into the
railway trucks. All of a sudden up drove two long, low, narrow,
covered carts, and from out of the carefully padded interior there
stepped two yearling bulls of the black polled-Angus breed. They were
beautiful little creatures, well worthy to take a prize at the Windsor
Agricultural Show to which they were bound, and when their clothing
was removed—for they were as tenderly cared for as any racehorse—their
coats shone like satin; but by the side of those noble savages, the
Highland cattle, with their straight sharp horns and their bright eyes
gleaming through the shaggy masses of red hair, they looked about as
much out of place as a couple of palefaces in evening dress would have
looked in the midst of a party of Indian braves.
To make up for the
unusually large cattle traffic there was a considerable falling off in
the West Highland herring fishery. In 1888 the weight of fish caught
was over 7000 tons ; last spring the amount was but little over 4000.
In 1888 steam carriers, which took the fish as far south as Fleetwood,
entered for the first time into competition with Strome Ferry and
Oban, and as there was plenty of fish for all three routes, they did
well enough; but last spring their owners were probably forced to the
reluctant conclusion that, taking the rough with the smooth, railway
rates may not be so much too high after all. To add to the Fleetwood
association's disappointment, after their boats had been taken off,
the fish that according to all precedent ought to have come to be
caught in May and June, did come later on in September and October;
and the fish trucks, that in the earlier months were standing idle by
hundreds at Strome Ferry, then had a busy enough time of it.
Fish
and cattle traffic not only comes in rushes and by fits and starts,
but also, needless to say, must be worked, when it does come, with the
utmost promptitude. The endeavour to do so over long stretches of
single line without delaying the rest of the traffic has given rise to
one or two interesting developments of what is probably the most
perfect method of single-line working, that which is known as Tyer's
Electric Tablet System. Elsewhere I have described that system
fully, and pointed out its superiority over the ordinary method of
staff and ticket. Suffice it here to say that the line is divided into
sections ; that to every section there is assigned a set of metal
tablets with the name of the section engraved upon them; and that no
train is permitted to pass over any section unless one of the
corresponding tablets is in the driver's possession. When the section
is unoccupied, the whole of the tablets, and when a train is in it,
all except the one in the driver's possession, arc kept in boxes at
either end, which are securely locked by an electric current. Now the
Callander and Oban line mounts a steep incline for the first two miles
after leaving Oban, and then runs down an equally abrupt incline on
the further side, to Connal Ferry station, four miles away, where the
tablet is exchanged for one bearing the name of the succeeding, Connal
Ferry to Taynuilt, section. Up the incline the trains often need the
assistance of a "bank" engine, which is detached at the top, and
returns by itself—or to use the technical phrase, 'light "—to Oban.
There would, therefore, be a possibility that a down train, starting
from Connal Ferry as soon as the up train had passed, might catch this
engine up and run into it before it got back home. To obviate this
risk, there has been introduced, in addition to the tablet, which is
carried in the ordinary way by the train engine, a staff not unlike a
small policeman's truncheon, which is given to the driver of the
"bank" engine. This staff forms a part of the electric lock which
closes the tablet-boxes, and the result is therefore that, till the
"bank" engine has got back to Oban, and returned its staff to the box
at that end, it is impossible for the signalman at Connal Ferry to get
a tablet out of his box, so as to send forward a down train which may
be waiting there. Another and more amusing, except perhaps for the
station-masters, if less ingenious, modification is this. A fish or
cattle boat may arrive at Oban after the line is closed for the night,
and it may be desirable to send f6rward its cargo immediately.
Arrangements have therefore been made by which the act of closing and
locking the door of the booking office at intermediate stations
diverts an electric circuit through a bell placed in the
station-master's bedroom, a current can therefore at any moment be
sent along the line, which will ring the bells and warn the
station-masters to get up and make the necessary arrangements for
working the coming train.
One of the chief disadvantages of the
tablet system is found in the fact that it is necessary to stop or at
least to slacken speed at the various stations to exchange tablets. It
is true that on some lines, in order that they may be exchanged the
more speedily, the tablets are hung on wire rings of perhaps a foot in
diameter, through which driver and signalman respectively thrust their
arms as the train runs by. But this plan is certainly not free from
risk. I have never heard of any accident actually happening, but it is
at least conceivable that a man might be knocked down insensible by a
disc of metal a couple of pounds in weight striking him on the head,
that his arm might almost be pulled out of the socket, or even that he
might be dragged under the wheels of the train. On the Great North of
Scotland, where the tablet system is in use on the newly opened Buckie
Extension, the locomotive superintendent has accordingly devoted much
time and thought to the construction of an apparatus which should
exchange tablets automatically, much in the same fashion as the
travelling post-office apparatus exchanges mailbags. I had the
opportunity of seeing the new invention at work on the second day of
its performance in public some time last May, and being on the engine
could watch its action closely. Everything worked without a hitch,
even the driver expressed his approval—and it is no small triumph to
win the approval of an engine-driver to new-fangled innovations—and I
have since heard that six months' experience has only confirmed the
first impressions.
Briefly, the apparatus consists of an iron post
some five feet in height, standing at one end of the platform, just
far enough back from the rails to clear in safety the engine and
carriages of a passing train. From the side of the engine, a little
above the foot-plate, a corresponding arm, which can be drawn back,
and even altogether removed when not in use, projects level with the
top of the platform post. Both post and arm have sticking out on
either side of them what looks something like a pair of exaggerated
tuning-forks, and the two pairs of course correspond with one another
except that their action is reversed. For the pair fixed on the post
has strong jaws facing the approaching train to receive and grasp
firmly the tablet which it brings, while the jaws on the other side
are much more lightly constructed, and hold but loosely the tablet
which the train will have to pick up. The arm on the engine, on the
other hand, has for the same reason the jaws in front strong, while
those behind are weak. Imagine then a train approaching the station. A
tablet, enclosed in a square envelope of stout india-rubber, is placed
both by engine-driver and signalman in the weak, that is the delivery,
fork. The engine reaches the post, its projecting arm sweeps over the
top, a sharp click is heard, the delivery forks are empty while the
two receiving forks have each safely caught their tablet, which a
moment later is extracted from their tightly clenched jaws by the help
of a strong brass disgorger. As I saw the apparatus at work, when
everything was new and the operators unfamiliar with their duties, the
speed of the train was reduced on each occasion to some 15 to 20 miles
an hour. But now that further experience has been gained, the exchange
is daily made at what is practically full speed. One point more must
just be added. Mr. Manson has refused to patent his invention, and it
may be adopted freely by any company that wishes to do so. No
pecuniary interests of his own, so he quietly replied when I asked the
reason, should delay for one hour the introduction of an apparatus
which he hoped would tend to protect railway servants from risk of
injury in the discharge of their duties.
The question of single-line
working naturally recalls us to the Ayrshire and Wigtownshire, with
its thirty miles of line all single, of which mention was made in the
first chapter. This plucky little company, which may be taken as the
single exception proving the rule that in Scotland the small
undertakings have all been amalgamated into fair-sized systems, has a
curious history. Its raison d'étre was the construction of a line from
Girvan in South Ayrshire, the terminus of the Glasgow and South
Western, to Chafloch, where a junction was made with the Portpatrick
and Wigtownshire, so affording direct access from Glasgow to Stranraer
and Portpatrick. The line was duly made, but at the cost of £600,000,
a sum ridiculously disproportionate not only to the necessary expense
of construction but also to the possible returns of the traffic. For
though the country at either end is fertile enough, the Ayrshire and
Wigtownshire itself runs through a desert. Mile after mile there is
scarcely a sign of life, unless it be the wooden labels hung at
intervals along the telegraph wires to give notice to the grouse not
to fly too high. If the line was to live at all, it would have to
exist not by local but by through traffic. And that was hardly to be
obtained at prices which would more than pay for working expenses over
so heavy a road.
From the very first the line was in difficulties.
It was worked by the Glasgow and South Western, and the South Western
gave it a service which in its proprietors' opinion only starved the
line, but which the South Western in their turn declared could not be
given by them except at a loss. More than once the line was closed
altogether. Finally the Court of Session ordered it to be sold out and
out for what it would fetch. The only railway in the neighbourhood,
except the South Western itself, is the Wigtownshire and Portpatrick,
which is the joint property of the South Western, the Midland, the
Caledonian, and the North Western. The joint board agreed not to bid,
and then it was supposed that the South Western would be able to buy
the line almost at its own price. How much exactly it offered, I
cannot say. I was told £150,000 on authority which I should have
supposed conclusive, had I not been assured by another gentleman who
ought to have been equally well informed that the bid was only
£100,000. Be that as it may, to everybody's surprise, a private
syndicate of London capitalists bid £155,000, got the line at the
price, and what is more, determined to work it themselves. From the
energy with which they have undertaken their task, it is even possible
that, with so small a capital, they may be able to work it at a fair
profit. In that case, the South Western, which sooner or later is
almost certain to have to buy the line, will need to offer a
considerable advance on £150,000.
Meanwhile the task is
unquestionably an uphill one. It is true that Portpatrick is a harbpur
with a history, as it was in former times the route by which the mails
were sent to Ireland ; and hereafter perhaps, if, after finishing the
Channel Tunnel and his improved Eiffel Tower, Sir Edward Watkin has
time to turn his attention to the subject, it may rise to fame as the
starting-point of the new Irish Tunnel to Donaghadee; but at the
present moment it is little better than a fishing village. In fact the
whole place struck me, when I saw it, as very much like a large-scale
model. There was a toy harbour with a toy breakwater in front, with
the stump of a toy lighthouse upon it. Close beside, the walls of a
deserted cottage might have been made by a very slight stretch of
imagination to do duty for the ruins of a miniature castle while, to
complete the illusion, the postman, who came to the station to fetch
Her Majesty's mails, was a small boy who wheeled away one tiny
mail-bag on a child's go-cart.
Stranraer of course is on a different
scale from this, and is a place with a considerable Irish trade; At
the present moment a new steamer for the cross-channel service to Lame
is being built by Denny of Dumbarton, which is to be not unlike the
fine new Ostend boats, and is to maintain a speed of eighteen knots an
hour. But the traffic of the Stranraer route is to the East of
Scotland and to England, in fact to anywhere rather than to Glasgow.
From Glasgow to Belfast the goods traffic naturally goes by sea
throughout, and for the portion which does come to Stranraer both the
Glasgow and South Western and the Caledonian have roads of their own,
though longer, round by Dumfries; while passengers prefer to join the
boats which sail from Ardrossan or Greenock, rather than take a long
4nd tedious railway journey, followed by a sea passage and then a
second change into a train. Moreover, the boats leave Stranraer early
in the morning to suit the arrival of the London night-mails, so that
Glasgow passengers would need to reach Stranraer over-night, for an
attempt that has more than once been made to start an express about 6
A.M. from Glasgow has had to be abandoned for lack of support. Last
summer Messrs. Burns, the steamship owners who have monopolized the
Glasgow Belfast route for more than half a century, put on a splendid
new steamer of 4000 horse-power specially for passenger traffic, by
which it was possible, leaving Glasgow at 8 in the morning, to be in
Belfast by 1.45 P.M., and on the return journey, leaving Belfast at 3
P.M., to reach Glasgow at 9.40. So the natural result is that, for all
its energy, the little Ayrshire and Wigtownshire cannot do much with
the through Irish traffic.
This would be bad enough, but worse remains behind. There is a
considerable amount of agricultural produce, cheese more especially,
sent from the neighbourhood of Stranraer to the Glasgow market. Of
this, if it were a case of railway competition only, the Ayrshire and
Wigtownshire ought to get a fair share. But here the coasting steamers
step in and carry off the traffic by offering prices which a railway,
and especially one working over heavy gradients, cannot afford to
take. Considering all these disadvantages the energy and enterprise
which the little line displays is worthy of high commendation. It has
recently bought some excellent new carriages, and its best train runs
from Dunragit to Girvan, with four intermediate stops and a long
"set-back" into Girvan station, 32 miles in the level hour. Travelling
by this train the other day, I had a good opportunity of seeing how
hard a commercial undertaking will work for a dividend. A farmer was
very anxious to send a horse by it to a station at which the train was
not booked to stop. It was pointed out to him that to take the
horse-box would delay the train at least five minutes, as the engine
would have to draw it away on to the other line, and then come back
and couple up to the carriages. But the man persisted in urging his
request. So finally the horse-box was attached at the tail of the
train, a second brake-van being placed behind it for safety's sake,
and the one horse and the two vehicles were hauled off to New Luce and
there detached. The farmer was satisfied, and the Ayrshire and the
Wigtownshire was richer by perhaps five shillings. If every crown is
as hardly earned, there should not be many people to grudge the new
proprietors their modest i- per cent, of dividend. Let those who look
forward to a millennium of State-owned railways—a body which seems to
be increasing in numbers in Great Britain at present, though curiously
enough in Germany, after a decade's experience of State-ownership, the
trend of public opinion in all the other way—say whether Government
officials would be likely to give their subjects equal facilities.
In the first of the magazine articles upon which this book is based it
was stated that "in universal and ubiquitous competition is to be
found the keynote of the Scotch railway system." This statement has
since been taken by one of the Scotch chairmen as the text of his
discourse at the half- yearly meeting of his shareholders, so perhaps
it may now be considered as having received an official imprimatur.
From that competition there flow naturally two results. On the one
hand the companies are driven to do their utmost to economize in
working their traffic. The average proportion of the gross earnings
absorbed in working expenses is only about 47 per cent, in Scotland as
against something like 52 per cent. in England. One instance in which
economy has been effected that must be patent to every traveller in
Scotland, is to be found in the abolition of second-class.
Second-class carriages still run all over the Highland line, and on
the East Coast and West Coast through trains to and from England. But
elsewhere they have practically ceased to exist. A year or two back
they disappeared from the Edinburgh and Glasgow expresses; last summer
they were given up on the "coast" trains from Glasgow. The Great North
has, it is true, not abandoned second-class, but that is for the best
possible reason—it never had any. We have lately been told on good
authority that Sir James Allport, though he only succeeded in
abolishing second-class on the Midland in 1875, urged upon the
Sheffield board the propriety of adopting such a policy as far back as
1850. Whether it was from Sir James that the Great North learnt
wisdom, probably no one now alive can say, but the fact is certain
that the line has never possessed any second-class carriages.
Whether, however, their former habit of charging what practically were
second-class fares for ordinary third-class accommodation was an
improvement on the usual practice is a different question. From a
"Bradshaw" only ten years old one can see that from Aberdeen to Banff,
65 miles, the first-class fare was los., third-class 7s. 2d.,
"government" 4s. 9½d.; to Boat of Garten, 101 miles, the charges were
17s. 6d., 12s. 6d., and 8s. 5d. respectively. In those days there was
only one "government" train each way in the 24 hours, and as it took 7
hours and 20 minutes over its 100 miles, it did not much exceed its
parliamentary minimum of 12 miles an hour. Needless to say, nowadays,
almost all over the kingdom—the most conspicuous and least justifiable
exception with which I am acquainted is to be found on the Wye Valley
section of the Great Western system - "parliamentary" and
"third-class" are convertible terms, and any passenger who knows the
distance he is going to travel knows, not always the minimum, but
certainly the maximum number of pence he will have to pay.
But to
come back to the abolition of second- class, for my own part I can
scarcely doubt that the Scotch companies have done wisely. No doubt
they have sacrificed a portion of the fares of the passengers who
formerly went second and now travel third, but in return they have
done a good deal to simplify and to lighten their trains. And this is
a very serious matter. The question is often discussed as though it
were merely one of dividing a train into two or three subdivisions. In
fact a main line train is as a rule composed of portions for, say,
four different places, and on each portion the company is expected to
provide accommodation for ordinary passengers, for smokers, and
latterly also for ladies, of all three classes. Thirty- six
subdivisions in all, or a good long train, even if one compartment
apiece was all that was required. Strike out second-class, and you
reduce your possible subdivision at one blow from thirty- six to
twenty-four.
It may be said: Why not then abolish first-class also,
for it pays, if Mr. Findlay's figures may be relied on, even worse
than second? The answer is here, not that it is theoretically wrong,
but that it is practically impossible. It would be not a reform but a
revolution, and no company dare lead the way. The great iron-masters,
or coal-owners, or manufacturers, who found themselves suddenly
compelled to travel third-class, would avenge themselves for the
discomfort by sending tens of thousands of pounds' worth of traffic by
the rival line. Besides, as long as society in Great Britain is
organized as it is, it must be admitted that most people would find it
incongruous, if Lord Salisbury for instance had to travel between
King's Cross and Hatfield in a third-class compartment. With
second-class passengers there are no such difficulties. They are
neither distinguished nor influential, and as long as
compartments—third as well as first—are reserved for ladies travelling
alone, the only class likely to be in any way inconvenienced by the
change is amply protected.
The other result of competition may be
said to be the concession of advantages and facilities even beyond
those to which we are accustomed on the most liberal lines in England.
For instance, to meet the steamboat competition, passengers are
carried every Tuesday and Friday—not in summer only, but all the year
round—from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, 16o miles, for 7s. 6d. Over a large
part of the country return tickets are issued every Saturday at very
little more than single fares for the double journey. The minimum time
for which an ordinary return ticket is available is one month, very
frequently six months are allowed. From Glasgow to the north the
ordinary return fare is only a single fare and a quarter. Then for the
southern part of the country, where return fares are calculated on the
basis of a fare and a half, there is the peculiarly Scotch institution
of "Guest tickets." Holders of season-tickets, say between Glasgow and
Largs or Moffat, can obtain batches of return tickets for the use of
their families or friends coming to stay with them at a single fare
and a quarter.
Here are some samples of liberal treatment within my
own personal knowledge. A gentleman the other day took a monthly
season-ticket from Glasgow to the sea-side. Two days after the ticket
was issued he was taken ill, and it was over three weeks before he was
able to return to business. He stated the fact to the company, which
at once consented to cancel the ticket, and hand him back the money
less the ordinary return fare for the two days on which it had
actually been used. Some years since, coming down from England by the
night-mail, a party of three, of whom I was one, missed the connection
from Kilmarnock to Ayr, owing to the unpunctuality not of the Scotch
but of the English company; and consequently we reached our
destination about two hours late. More out of curiosity to see what he
would say than for any other reason, I wrote to the general manager of
the Glasgow and South Western, at that time an entire stranger to me,
and laid my grievance before him. Next day a reply was despatched,
expressing regret that the station-master at Kilmarnock had not sent
us forward "special" at once, and stating that orders had been given
that this course should always be adopted in future. It ought to be
added that in this instance (as also in the two following) the traffic
is entirely non-competitive.
As for children, the liberality with
which they are treated is almost ridiculous. I remember a gentleman
going with his wife, two nurses, and six children, ranging in age from
twelve down to three, to spend the day at a place twenty miles away
With the full approval of the responsible officials, though the
company had a right to charge for seven, he took four tickets for the
entire party. Again, a boy of fourteen at school in Edinburgh came
down to stop from Saturday to Monday with his people at their house in
the country, some sixty miles away. He tendered half a guest-ticket to
the collector, but it was promptly returned, with the remark that his
father was a season-ticket holder and that was quite sufficient.
School children indeed make use of the railway in Scotland to a much
larger extent than is the case in England. It is impossible not to
notice the numbers of them who come into the country towns every
morning and go back again to their homes in the afternoon. No doubt,
however, this is due to the Scotch preference of a day-school over a
boarding-school education, quite as much as to the liberality of the
railway companies.
In one respect Scotland is distinctly in advance
of England. Two of the leading companies have begun to experiment in
heating their carriages by methods less primitive than the universal
English hot-water tin. On the Glasgow and South Western the waste heat
from the roof-lamps of the carriages is the agent employed. Above the
flame of the lamp is fixed a miniature wrought-iron boiler, connected
by two small pipes with a reservoir placed below the seat. The hot
water from the boiler is forced down into the reservoir, whence it
drives out the cooler water before it, and sends it up to the roof to
supply its place. In fact, with the exception that in this instance
the kitchen fire is placed, after the fashion now usually adopted in
the most luxurious ménages, on the top floor, the system is merely
that which is adopted for the supply of hot water in every modern
house. The system in use on the Caledonian makes use on the other hand
of the waste steam of the engine —or rather of so much of it as
escapes from the cylinder of the Westinghouse brake-pump. Iron pipes,
connected between the coaches by pieces of old worn-out india-rubber
brake-hose, run from end to end of the train. In each compartment
there is, under the seat and connected with the train pipe, a pipe
four inches in diameter which serves as a radiator. To allow the
water, as it condenses, to escape, a tiny hole is made in the bottom
of the bend of each of the india-rubber connections. This system has
now been in use for some time on several of the Glasgow suburban
trains, and the only objection I have heard made to it is, that
passengers ought to have the power of shutting off the steam when they
please, as the carriage often gets unpleasantly hot.
The Caledonian
locomotive and carriage works at St. Rollox are, however, busied with
matters much more serious than carriage heating. Merely as engineering
shopsthey are well worth a visit. They are not perhaps quite the
finest belonging to any railway company in Great Britain—that proud
position probably belongs to the still newer shops of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire at Horwich —and of course they are by no means the
largest; but compared to places such as Crewe or Doncaster, which
consist of the gradual accretions of well-nigh half a century, their
spaciousness and general convenience is instantly visible. Strangely
enough, the most famous Caledonian engine-.-some people might say the
most famous engine at present running in Great Britain—the wonderful
No. 123, which, week in, week out, for nearly two years, has taken the
Carlisle-Edinburgh express up the Beattock "bank," with its gradient
of i in 75 or 80 for io miles, at a speed which most lines would term
express along a dead level—was not built at St. Rollox at all, but by
the well-known private firm of Neilson, though of course to the
designs of the Caledonian locomotive superintendent. Hitherto,
moreover, the type has not been repeated, and No. 123, with her 7-foot
single drivers, remains so far alone in her class. Mr. Drummond's new
engines are all "4-coupled;" but if he expects them to surpass the
performance of their predecessor, he must be an unusually sanguine
man.
I was behind her the first time that the West Coast went from
London to Edinburgh in 8 hours. She was booked to cover the 100 miles
from Carlisle in 112 minutes, and the railway servants themselves
declared that the, thing was impossible. But she did it in 104, and
went up the 10 miles from Beattock Station to Beattock Summit in 14
minutes, spite of a check at the signal half-way up which brought our
speed down to some 15 miles an hour. Three days later, according to
some most careful observations which have been furnished to me by a
gentleman who went down for the purpose of recording the speed, the
run was made from start to finish in 102 minutes 33 seconds. At the
top of the incline, after 6 miles of I in 75, the train was still
going at the rate of 37 miles an hour. On both days the load was the
same, between 75 and 8o tons. Another day, long after the excitement
of the great "Race" was over, and when the Edinburgh and Glasgow
carriages were worked once more on the same train, I was on the
footplate, when she took a train of ten coaches for several miles on
end at an average speed of 65 miles an hour, not down hill but along
the level. On this occasion we stopped at the foot of the incline for
a "pilot," and including this stop, the 10 miles took 15 minutes. Now
that the respective possibilities of West Coast and East Coast routes
are being somewhat keenly canvassed, it is perhaps worth while to
point out that the disadvantage to the West Coast caused by the
existence of this climb of 1000 feet, as compared with a similar
distance over perfectly level line, cannot at the outside be estimated
at more than 5 minutes. A disadvantage it is, and must remain
unquestionably, but not a disadvantage. so overpowering that it cannot
be abundantly compensated elsewhere in the course of a run of 400 or
500 miles. [Sir John Fowler's extraordinary
appeal to the Board of Trade, to order the West Coast to throw up the
sponge and surrender at discretion to their Forth Bridge rivals, makes
it only fair to add that even on the East Coast it is not all plain
sailing. The speed over the Tay Bridge is limited at present to 25
miles an hour. If this precaution is thought right now, will it become
unnecessary next summer? Again, will trains run over the Forth Bridge
at full speed from the first? If not, here we have the Beattock bank
fully compensated for already. If they do, does Sir John Fowler think
that it will be the duty of the West Coast officials to invoke the aid
of the Board of Trade to protect East Coast passengers from the
terrible risk that they will be unwittingly incurring?]
There
are already a good many of the new type of express engine, with
4-coupled 6 feet 6 inches driving-wheels and a 4-wheeled bogie in
front, at work on the line, and they are constantly put to most severe
tests; for no line, take it for all in all, hauls as heavy trains over
as bad a road at higher speed than does the Caledonian. Not only their
power but their endurance is constantly tested, for it has latterly
become an everyday thing for the same engine to run right through, for
the whole 240 miles, between Aberdeen and Carlisle. So much so indeed,
that recently this was done even in the case of the Queen's special.
When I was last at St. Rollox, some six months back, a batch of six of
these engines, with 18-inch cylinders and 26-inch stroke, was under
construction. They were alike in every particular except this, that
two were to work at a boiler pressure of 150 lbs., two at 175 lbs.,
and two at 200 lbs.—this last a pressure that has never hitherto, as
far as I am aware, been adopted for locomotives. For Mr. Drummond, who
is no believer in "compounds," shares with Mr. Johnson of the Midland
the opinion, that the unquestioned economy of fuel shown by engines of
this type is due not to the principle of compounding, but to the
higher steam-pressure at which they are usually worked. Another novel
feature which they possess is a sanding apparatus, worked not by
steam, which is said to be liable to condense and so clog the pipes,
but by a jet of compressed air from the Westinghouse pump. These
engines have also exceptionally large steam- ports, that so the
back-pressure of the escaping steam, which at extreme speeds mounts up
very rapidly till it finally absorbs almost the whole power of the
engine, may be reduced to a minimum. They have just left the shops
within the last month or two, and those who are interested in
locomotive progress will watch their future performances with
interest. If there are not abundant opportunities of doing so in the
course of the coming summer, at least the Scotch public will be much
disappointed of their present expectations.
Compressed air is turned
to another use at St. Rollox, namely, to help the men in the foundry
to make the moulds for their castings. By the force of compressed air
the two sides of a casting- box are brought together in a fraction of
the time that was needed under the old hand system ; while the turning
of a tap on a flexible pipe from the air reservoir sends all the
particles of loose sand away in an instant and spares the moulder much
unnecessary puffing and blowing.
Adjoining the locomotive shops
there is an establishment which, though its like must exist on every
railway, has not hitherto, as far as I am aware, won for itself a
place in railway literature, and that is the grease factory. The
importance of this establishment is perhaps hardly what it was a few
years back, for on passenger carriages grease is rapidly being
superseded by oil; for goods and mineral trucks, however, it is still
indispensable. The reason for the difference depends on the difference
of the work required. Oil is a more perfect lubricant than grease, and
therefore renders the friction less when the train is actually
running. On the other hand, it is much thinner and less viscous, so
that, when the wheel is at rest, it is squeezed out and allows the
axle-box to come down hard upon the axle, while grease would have left
a film between. In other words, with grease the friction at the first
start is much less. Now goods trucks start and stop much oftener than
passenger carriages; they stand still for a much longer time ; and
what is still more important, a goods engine is habitually loaded to
its full power, and therefore has as much as it can do to set its
train in motion, Consequently for goods trucks grease still holds the
field, and for the use of its 45,000 goods trucks the Caledonian
railway manufactures some 600 or 700 tons of grease per annum.
The
ingredients consist of palm-oil, soap, soda, tallow, and a small
quantity of an extremely fluid white oil which looks not unlike the
finest castor- oil. They are turned in by barrow-loads at a time into
a huge boiler. This boiler is jacketed with steam, and the inner
lining is perforated, so that jets of live steam can be admitted all
round. More water is added to bring the mixture to the proper
consistency—thicker or thinner according to the weather and the time
of year—and then the whole is made to boil freely, after which it is
drawn off into shallow vats and left for a day or two, to cool and
harden. Finally it is dug out, placed in casks, and sent away down the
line to the different goods and mineral depots.
It was mentioned
above that the Caledonian is the owner of 45,000 trucks. Perhaps it
would not be wrong to imagine that its shareholders have no reason to
rejoice in the fact. Theoretically there can be no question that the
railway companies ought to own the trucks which work over their line.
The system of private ownership of railway waggons, says the great
American authority, Professor Hadley, 'gives to English freight trains
a disreputable appearance which contrasts almost ludicrously with the
solid excellence of the line and buildings. An uninstructed observer
might readily suppose that the companies had spent all their money on
the permanent way, and having nothing left for equipment, were
tottering on the verge of hopeless bankruptcy." Mr. Hadley further
declares, and it would be difficult to contradict him, that the system
"is inconvenient to both railroads and shippers. The shippers complain
of damage and detention of cars; the railways complain of waste of
space and power; and both parties have good ground for their
complaints." He might have added that it is highly dangerous to the
public safety. Spite of inspection and repairs as frequent and as
thorough as railway companies, with competitors on either side
hungering for their traffic, dare to enforce, one or two private
traders will always persist in sending over the railway waggons,
which, if they had been the property of the railway company, would
have found their way to the scrap-heap years before. Ninety-nine times
when these waggons break down no harm is done, except that the line is
blocked and the traffic disorganized, but the hundredth time the
break-down comes when a passenger train is passing on the opposite
line, and a terrible disaster is the natural result.
Professor
Hadley ascribes the long continuance of this indefensible system to
"English conservatism," and "the inertia of English business habits."
This perhaps is scarcely an adequate explanation. The evil—and it must
be remembered that, in the case of a large and prosperous coal or iron
company working its trucks over the line of a small, poverty-stricken
railway company, it is not an evil at all—can only be stopped by
general and compulsory legislation. No single railway dare promote a
Bill to banish private waggons off its line altogether. The thing must
be done universally or not at all. It is not enough merely to offer to
buy up the traders' waggons. This the Midland set to work to do some
ten years back and allocated a million pounds of capital to the
operation. But the result has not been over- encouraging. They have
bought a great many, and, if they were not to offend their customers,
they had sometimes not to be too critical about the prices. Then they
had to spend almost as much as would have built new waggons in putting
the old ones into thorough repair. The Caledonian, which followed in
the Midland footsteps, has had a yet more disappointing experience.
The traders, having disposed of their old waggons at a very
satisfactory price, forthwith proceeded to spend the money in the
purchase of new ones; so that the day when the company will own and be
responsible for all the stock which runs on its line seems to he just
as far off as ever.
There is another charge, which is yet more
frequently brought by American writers against our railway management
in this country, and that is the size of our goods waggons. If they
held 30 tons as in America, instead of 5 or 10 as is the custom here
(so we have been constantly assured of late in railway newspapers by a
gentleman who appears to hold a brief for the American system), we
should be able to work our traffic for many millions less per annum
than is spent at present. It may be so, but, before the change is
made, it might be well that we should be informed how it is proposed
to manipulate a truck 36 feet long built with steel tubular
framing—some people have been rude enough to describe it as
gas-piping-when it comes to hoisting it on board a vessel, as is the
custom in Glasgow, in order to tip its contents straight into the
hold. At St. Rollox, at least, the feat is believed to be impossible.
Not that they are by any means wedded to the old idea of a
four-wheeled truck. On the contrary they have built a considerable
number of trucks of a much larger size. These run on six wheels, two
of which are fixed to the frame in the middle, while the remaining
pairs are on bogies at either end. The weight is something under io
tons, the capacity about 15 tons, and the length 26 feet; Beyond this
size, say the Caledonian authorities, it is not profitable to go under
our insular conditions:
But we have dwelt perhaps too much on
Caledonian specialities. Let it, however, be said in excuse, that a
writer can only describe what he has the opportunity of describing;
and, be the fault whose it may, I have seen more which merits
description on the Caledonian system than on that of its great rival.
Still, before this sketch is brought to a close, we must note one most
interesting point on the North British railway, an extremely ingenious
method of electric lighting. As already mentioned, that company has a
line, known as the City and District, running underground across the
heart of Glasgow. Some of the trains on it start from Edinburgh and
work right through as far as Helensburgh. For ten minutes they are in
darkness, for the rest of the three hours in the open day. The
carriages cannot be left unlighted for the ten minutes ; on the other
hand, it seems a gratuitous waste to keep lamps burning all the time.
Here is the system which has been devised in order to comply
economically with these conditions.
Through each of the three
Glasgow tunnels there is laid a centre rail, raised up 4½ inches above
the ordinary metals and insulated from contact with the ground. This
rail is kept charged with electricity, generated by the dynamos used
for the lighting of the Queen Street station, which stands over the
top of the underground railway. Underneath each carriage is an iron
pulley with a spring to keep it in contact with the rail. Originally
wire brushes were used instead of pulleys, but the points of the wires
were fused so rapidly that this had to be abandoned. The current is
led from the pulley through incandescent roof-lamps, then passes down
the wheels, and so returns along the ordinary rails. There are two
lamps in each compartment; in the first-class compartments both are
lit, in the third they are so arranged that, though only one is
lighted, if the one is broken or removed —and two or three are stolen
every week—the other is automatically thrown into circuit. It should
be added that the centre rail slopes up at either end very gradually
from the ground to its full height, to avoid a sudden jerk to an
advancing train, and that the cost, allowing for interest,
depreciation, &c., works out to about one penny per hour for each lamp
actually burning. In practice, they are found to burn on an average
about one hour per diem. The advantages of the system are obvious.
Each carriage is independent. Electrically lighted and oil-lighted
carriages can be mixed up together in the same train. The electric
lamps can at any moment be taken out and ordinary lamps substituted.
And last, but by no means least, neither guard nor driver—both of whom
have usually quite enough to do as it is— need to pay the smallest
attention to the matter.
Here these notes end. Having sketched what
seems of most general interest on the Scotch Railways as they are
to-day, it only remains for the writer to add that, to judge by
present indications, if a new edition should be called for twelve
months hence, it is highly probable that, to meet the altered
circumstances, a large portion of the book will have to be re-written.