At the outset I must offer an apology for making use, throughout this pamphlet, of the first person. I do so partly for convenience of expression, and partly because almost all that I have to advance is derived from my own experience. In doing so I am far from desiring to undervalue the work of others in the same direction. I have, however, little hesitation in saying that, with the exception of the late Mr. Charles Spooner, the able Engineer of the Festiniog Railway, most of those, so far as I know, who are responsible for the design of plant for these small lines have been manufacturers whose productions, though often of fair workmanship, are clearly indicative of a failure to grasp many of the leading principles involved. This shortcoming is the natural result of a want of sufficient time for the consideration of details, and a consequent tendency to imitate established customs in regard to railway work which by no means apply with equal advantage to very narrow gauges, where the conditions involved are wholly different. This is especially true of small locomotive building, the specimens of which evidence in their design not only ignorance on important points, but also a deplorable absence of the sense of well-balanced proportion.

I venture to think that, in the twenty-five years during which I have devoted much of my time to the subject, I have succeeded in bringing to considerable perfection both permanent way and rolling stock suitable for these diminutive lines, and more especially the locomotives, which are probably, for their weight, the most powerful and flexible ever built to work by simple adhesion. Whether this conceit be well founded or no I leave to the judgment of those who may be at the pains to acquaint themselves with the details and result of my work, which has been undertaken wholly as a labour of love with the sole desire to promote improvement in what I believe to be an entirely special branch of engineering. I have never wasted my money on patents, and, so long as my designs are not imitated in a bungling manner, I am glad to see them made use of by anyone to whom they may be of service.

It must be understood that I do not here attempt to enter upon the comparative merits of narrow gauge railways generally, but merely to give particulars of what has come within my own experience. To facilitate a comprehension of the conditions under which I have worked, it will be well to explain that I make no pretension to be considered a professional engineer, and that I speak rather as a self-taught mechanic and surveyor.

My father possessed a beautiful Holtzappfel lathe, with elaborate tools for ornamental turning in wood and metal. As a boy of seven or eight I can recall watching him as he worked. At ten years old I was promoted to stand on a box and turn candlesticks, but, a year or two later, a few lessons—the only direct practical instruction I ever had—from an old fishing-rod maker in chasing metal screw-threads begot in me an ardent desire to construct machinery, particularly anything pertaining to railways, for which from my childhood I had an absorbing craze.

By my father’s kindness I, by-and-bye, fitted up a workshop in which the tools were driven by a half-horse steam engine; and at eighteen had completed my first locomotive, weighing 56 lbs., which, with a dozen or so of small wagons, made a fine show on some 40 yards of brass-railed permanent way of 4 in. gauge. Locomotive driving was my hobby when I went up to Cambridge, and many were the tips that I learned in my illicit journeyings on the footplate. The new degree of “Applied Science” had just made its appearance, in which, in 1871, I had the doubtful credit of appearing alone in the first class. Doubtful, because the papers were absurdly simple, and the examiners hardly educated beyond the bare theories of the mechanical processes; for it was long anterior to the days of Professor Stuart and his engineering laboratory, where, by-the-bye, I once remember seeing the “demonstrator” supervising the reduction of a 4 in. shaft on a stout 9 or 10 in. lathe by a young turner whose nervous and thread-like shavings would have ensured his speedy dismissal from any commercial machine-shop.

When I settled at Duffield in 1872, I at once began to put into practice the views I had formed in regard to the possibility of advantageously superseding horse traction, in cases where a traffic, though heavy, was wholly insufficient to justify a more costly railway, by a line of the narrowest and consequently the cheapest gauge compatible with safety. It is to a setting forth of the results of my experiments during the years that have since elapsed, that the following pages are devoted. My claim to a hearing is chiefly based upon having always been my own draughtsman, and, for my first two larger locomotives, also moulder, machinist, and fitter. Owing to the increasing number of experiments, and to other calls upon my time, assistance eventually became necessary, and, though I am still conceited enough to keep the more delicate manipulations in my own hands, so far as I can find time to execute them, it has gradually come about that I have seven or eight artisans in the little workshops. Practical acquaintance with every detail both in survey, design, and construction of narrow-gauge railways has given me something of a pull over the professional engineer. Thus it happens that, without the credit of any exceptional ability, I have had advantages that fall to few of acquiring information which I desire to lay before those who are interested in the rapid and economical transport of a moderate annual tonnage.

The first three sections of this pamphlet comprise a brief sketch of the purposes, origin, and construction of my own line. In Section IV. is given a detailed account of the construction, working, and cost of the similar line which I made to connect Eaton Hall with the Great Western Railway. Sections V., VI., VII., and VIII. are more technical, and may be passed over by those not interested in the mechanical details, although it is to the care that has been bestowed on these that my success is chiefly attributable. Section IX. deals, from such experience as I have acquired, with the conditions under which these small railways may be profitably installed. In Section X. I have appended a few further items of possible interest.