Rambles on Railways :: CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XI.

PARIS TO ST. MICHEL—“ABOVE SEA-LEVEL”—THE HOLBORN VIADUCT—THE MONT CENIS RAILWAY.

If the reader will refer to page 16 ante, he will see that we left an imaginary travelling companion of ours, to refresh himself at one of the innumerable restaurants of Paris, whilst we were to employ the time in giving some account of the four greatest existing railways in Europe, and of the Pacific Union Railroad, now constructing across the continent of North America. But one thing has led to another, and descriptions which we had originally intended should only occupy some fifty or sixty pages, have grown to more than 200. We now revert to our original plan, which is, to take the reader, in the shape of an imaginary traveller, to the Mont Cenis Railway, and having given the best explanation of it in our power, to impart (apropos of the Tunnel of the Alps) the information we have recently collected about tunnels, ancient and modern, canal and railway, in Great Britain, and in other parts of the world. From the Alps, we shall proceed, by means of the existing railways, to the extreme south-eastern end of Italy, whence we shall cross over to Sicily, the most southern part of Europe to which railways extend. In this manner we propose to bring the present volume to a conclusion.

Taking place in the train of the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway, at the Mazas Station, built nearly opposite to Paris’s great prison of the same name, we travel on the main line, 275 miles, as far as Lamartine’s birthplace, Macon, forty-four miles short of Lyons, and 262 short of Marseilles, which is 537 miles from Paris. We must leave the detailed description of the route to Murray’s Hand Books, of which Hand Hooks in general we have recently said, and now repeat, that an experience of upwards of thirty years’ very frequent travelling in many parts of the continent enables us to state that, for lucid description, accuracy, and impartiality, they are the only English ones that completely merit the confidence of the public. Per contra, the omissions and inaccuracies met with in other so-called “Guides” are a source of continual annoyance and disappointment to the inexperienced continental traveller. To mention only one instance, a Hand Book which we were assured, at the office of its publication, was published in June 1866 (of course there is no date of publication on the title-page), is, with a few trifling alterations, a reprint of pages in stereotype published twelve or thirteen years previously, and the routes given to reach the country which it professes to describe are those that were in use, by ordinary road and by steam-boat, until railways, opened now between six and ten years, superseded them.

At Macon we turn off from the main line of railway to the left, and pass successively Bourg and Culoz, near to which was the boundary between France and Italy, until the “rectification of frontier” in 1859 transferred the line of demarcation to the summit of the Alps, and converted Niceois and Savoyards into Frenchmen. At Culoz there is a further separation of railway—one branch turns north-east to Geneva 45 miles—the other, formerly the Victor Emanuel Railway, but lately swallowed up by the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Company, continues direct into the Savoie Propre, and after passing Aix les Bains and Chambery, runs up the Valley of the Arq to St. Michel, at present the terminus of the lines in this direction. When the stupendous task of piercing the Alps is achieved, this line will be continued to Modane, twelve miles farther up the valley, where it will enter the great tunnel. The works on this length, as will be explained hereafter, will be exceedingly difficult and costly.

At St. Michel, the traveller at the present time has to exchange from the luxurious first-class carriage to the jolting, crowded, slow diligence. But very shortly he will only be called upon to move from the first-class carriage of the Mediterranean Company into the equally comfortable one of the Mont Cenis Railway, a specimen of which was exhibited at the recent Paris Exhibition. In this he will travel from St. Michel to Susa in less than half the time, and at a little more than half the expense of the journey en Diligence.

St. Michel is 146 English miles from Macon, 421 from Paris, 717 from London. The traveller who leaves London any morning of the week, at twenty-five minutes past seven, will (with a break of two hours in Paris) find himself at St. Michel at noon the following day, notwithstanding the fact, that the railway from Macon onwards is far from being a first-class one; its gradients are steep, its curves numerous and abrupt. Between Calais and St. Michel, including various ups and downs (for railways are subject to the fluctuations physically that man experiences bodily), the traveller has risen 2,493 English feet, but principally in the seventy-two miles and a-half from Culoz onwards. He has, in fact, completed more than a third of the total elevation he has to conquer, in order to be at the summit of the Mont Cenis Pass. This summit is 6,658 feet above the sea level at Calais and elsewhere.

“Above sea level!” What does this mean? We shall endeavour to illustrate; we shall therefore ask our reader to be so good as, in the first instance, to place himself, either in imagination or reality, exactly parallel with those at-one-time-considered impregnable fortresses at Albert Gate Knightsbridge, Malta, and Gibraltar, so called, because, for a long time, no one could be found to take them. The ice, however, was broken as regards one of them, Malta, by a monarch of former days—for the most part wrongly accused and unfairly deposed—the Railway King. He sold it to our “natural enemy;” it has, therefore, for many years, been in possession of France, as the residence of the French ambassador, and let us en passant express a fervent hope—long may it continue to be so. Gibraltar, less dignified, has, probably, not been less useful; it fell, however, through the fatal influence of gold; it has long been a tributary or branch of one of our leading joint stock banking establishments.

So much for our starting point, and now for the ground to be got over. It has just been stated that the summit of the Mont Cenis Pass is 6,658 feet above sea level.[114] Converted into terms which we can more readily appreciate for such lengths, it means one mile and a quarter with fifty-eight feet over for good measurement. Placing this distance on the flat instead of the perpendicular it represents the whole of the ground that intervenes between the whilom fortresses and the corner of Coventry Street and the Haymarket; that is, a person wanting to walk 6,658 feet on or nearly the level, must go over ground equal to that which we have named as between these two points of measurement. But when we come to ascend a height, be it great or small, only a few feet or a mountain, we know by a universal law that we cannot mount exactly perpendicularly. Even in the nearest approach to the upright straight rise—the ladder—we are obliged to have some slope in it. We therefore, in all ascents by steps must mount gradually, so gradually in fact that the place for placing the human foot is usually greater than the rise made at each step it takes forward. In ordinarily built houses of the usual proportions, the rise of a step in a staircase is seven inches, but what the foot steps on is eleven inches wide; consequently, for every seven inches that we rise we must go forward eleven inches. But this is not all: at every twelve or fourteen feet we must have breaks in the ascent—landings; therefore, for any height above twenty feet or so, the proportion between elevation and step forward is, as near as can be, one to three. Taken by this standard, a person wanting to rise 6,658 feet by means of staircases or steps, must be continually ascending for a length that measures not only from Albert Gate to the Haymarket; but a farther distance represented by Leicester Square, Cranbourne Street, Long Acre, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, Newgate Street, Cheapside, and to the Bank of England.

Let us look at “above the level of the sea” in another light. The staircase height of each of the houses we have referred to is about sixty feet, a fatiguing ascension even for the lightest of us. The summit of the Mont Cenis Pass is exactly 111 times 60. The top of St. Paul’s Cathedral is 404 feet from the ground at St. Paul’s Churchyard. The summit of the Mont Cenis Pass is sixteen and a half times higher.

Elevation by steps is only available for man, and for man’s ever faithful, as well as for man’s doubtfully faithful, companions, the dog and the cat. They therefore are able to ascend and descend a staircase gradient of 1 in 2; not so all other useful and domestic animals—the horse, the mule, the sheep, and the cow can only go along a continuous roadway; the mountain goat can skip occasionally from rock to rock, but its normal step is that of the other animals we have just enumerated. Were the steps of a staircase covered over, say with boards, and the ascent made uniform, man could not ascend or descend a gradient of 1 in 2, 1 in 3, 1 in 4, and scarcely 1 in 5. He could not, in fact, ascend or descend the last-named gradient without having something beside him to hold on by. But the muscles of man’s legs, and the organisation of his feet, enable him, by one of the innumerable and beautiful arrangements of the all-provident Creator, to ascend elevations by steps with complete facility, and at any moment. The steepest gradient that a horse can ascend or descend for any distance with a load is 1 in 10; occasionally there are short slopes in roads, especially old ones, of 1 in 6 or 7, but they overtax muscular strength in which ever direction an animal is going. It is a good mountain road the gradient of which does not exceed 1 in 15, or 352 feet in a mile, excellent, if it be anything like 1 in 20, or 264 feet in a mile. A strong, well-fed English horse with a moderate load behind him, could trot up this latter gradient for a short distance, and then he would fall into a walking pace, but he would draw a heavier load and with less distress to himself if he be started at a walk and be never pressed out of it.

Being anxious to show by an illustration, which would be familiar to most persons, who are either resident in, or have visited London, what is a gradient, we applied for information to Mr. Wm. Haywood, the engineer of the Corporation of London, under whose direction the Holborn Viaduct and Embankment are now in course of construction. He has kindly and courteously furnished a diagram—a copy of which is annexed at the end of the volume, showing in minute detail the variations of gradient, from Staples Inn to opposite the Old Bailey and Giltspur Street. The total length from point to point is 2,202 feet, a little more than two-fifths of a mile. The steepest gradient is 1 in 15 (352 feet in the mile) for 86 feet, the next 1 in 18 (293 feet in the mile) for 257 feet, and 1 in 19 (278 feet in the mile) for 113 feet. These gradients are all on Holborn Hill, between Hatton Garden and Shoe Lane. The steepest on Snow Hill is 1 in 21 (251 feet in the mile) for 87 feet, and 1 in 24 (220 feet in the mile) for 312 feet. All these gradients will, however, in a year or so, be matters of history, for it is hoped that the Holborn Viaduct will be opened for traffic at the beginning of 1869.[115]

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It is, however, a misnomer to call it a viaduct. It is true that, by means of a massive construction, the opposite sides of a valley—at their summits more than two-fifths of a mile apart—are connected together on the level. But, in reality, the viaduct is a great metropolitan work, worthy of the Corporation of the City of London, which, although well abused by persons who do not understand its operations, is never-ceasing, to the extent of its means, in carrying out improvements within its limits. A list of the works and changes effected by the Corporation in the last thirty years would show that it has expended millions in altering the face of the City,[116] and in increasing facilities for traffic, especially at points of aggregation. The manner in which the new street that is to run from the Mansion House to Blackfriars Bridge, within City boundaries, is advancing, contrasts markedly with what is doing beyond them. According to present appearances, the City will have completed its work and opened its portion of the street for traffic about the time that the Metropolitan Board of Works will have made a fair start upon what it has to accomplish.

The next great work that the Corporation has to take in hand is the widening of the Poultry, infinitely more important, and more absolutely required, in the opinion of all people who frequent the City, than the widening of Newgate Street, upon which the Corporation is now engaged. The expense, of course, will be enormous, but it must be met—somehow: land to be paid for by the square inch; splendid constructions to come down; historic Bucklersbury to disappear; even the Mansion House will stop the way, and His Lordship will have to find residence either at the rear of Guildhall, as was suggested some short time ago, or elsewhere. Metropolitan fellow residents, metropolitan suburbanists, and inhabitants who dwell to the extent of six miles outside the Post-Master General’s twelve mile postal circle, you may all rest assured that the granite pillars you see at the eighteen mile distance post from London, on railway and roadway, on river bank and canal tow-path—the columns of Luxor of the Corporation—with inscriptions on them destined, in remote future times, to represent the hieroglyphics of ancient Anglia—will remain and be found among the few signs then extant, of the by-gone civilisation which the prophesied New Zealander is to make his musings upon. Of the London coal tax as of the river:—

“Rusticus expectat dum defluit amnis; at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis Ævum.”[117]

The tax exists ex necessitate rerum, and must continue notwithstanding fervescence frequent—always at boiling point—in Parochial Parliaments, with echoes occasional in that of St. Stephens.

By means of the Viaduct, as already said, the two summits of the valley will be connected together almost on the level. The roadway will be 80 feet wide. Commencing at the western end of Newgate Street, it will be carried in a straight line to Farringdon Street, occupying the whole of the space which recently formed Skinner Street, as well as the sites of several of the houses on that thoroughfare. It will include also a portion of the church of St. Sepulchre, the dismal bell of which tolls “the knell of parting day” to those miserable beings upon whom the law enacts terrible and life-destroying vengeance. From Farringdon Street the Viaduct is carried by a gentle curve to Hatton Garden, occupying the present roadway and the sites of the houses which formerly stood on the southern side of Holborn Hill. It will also occupy part of the churchyard of St. Andrew’s, Holborn.

At the entrance to St. Sepulchre’s Church a street from Farringdon Road will join the Viaduct on its northern side, and it is at this point that whatever little gradient there is on the Viaduct may be said to commence. From there to Farringdon Street it will be 1 in 153, or at the rate of 34 feet in the mile; from Farringdon Street to Hatton Garden, 1 in 143, or at the rate of 35 feet in the mile. For all purposes of traffic the Viaduct may therefore be said to be level.

The Viaduct in its formation will include vaultage beneath each footway for the accommodation of the future houses on either side of the roadway; outside these vaults will be a subway for the gas and water pipes, and between each subway, and forming the centre of the Viaduct, the roadway will be carried on a series of arches.

The general height of the subways will be about 11 feet 6 inches and their width 7 feet; they will be of brickwork, excepting where they are carried over the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway; there they will be of iron. In each subway provision is made for water, gas, and telegraph pipes, all of which will be so placed that their joints can be inspected, and repairs made without difficulty.

The mode of construction of sewers, drains, and street gullies is such that it will never be necessary to break up the surface of the Viaduct to repair or cleanse them.

Farringdon Street will be crossed by a cast-iron bridge of an ornamental character. It will be in three spans, supported by piers, one row being on the outer edge of each footway. These piers, as well as the outer abutment piers, are to be formed of polished granite. The height of the bridge next to the curb stones will be 16 feet, and in the centre the minimum height will be 21 feet, considerably more than sufficient for the traffic. At each corner of this bridge flights of steps will be constructed for pedestrians to pass between the upper and the lower levels. These will be enclosed in stone structures, ample light and ventilation being given to them.

Shoe Lane, now at its northern end but 14 feet wide, is to be increased to 30 feet in width, and to be continued northwards, under the Viaduct, to a new street which is to be formed from the corner of Hatton Garden to Farringdon Road. A complete net-work of streets is to extend from the Viaduct to all the existing adjacent streets, and as at the place at which Holborn ends and the Viaduct commences several of these streets concentrate, with the view to remedying the inconvenience which would arise from a too limited area for traffic; and to add to the character of the work in an architectural point of view, Mr. Haywood has formed at this point a large circus 180 feet in diameter. This open space will, in addition to its other advantages, afford an opportunity for architectural display that we are sure will be judiciously availed of.

The magnitude of the work may be represented, in one shape, by the number of bricks required for its construction. From seventeen to eighteen millions, of which rather more than two-thirds are in the actual viaduct, and somewhat less than one-third in the constructions connected with the side streets. Of course these amounts are independent of what will be used in the houses and buildings to be erected hereafter. These will be millions in their numbers also.

Of gradients in reference to railways we speak hereafter.

The distance from St. Michel to Susa is 78½ kilometres—48¾ English miles. It is divided into two portions nearly equal in distance, but very different as regards gradient. For the first half of the distance the road continues to follow the valley of the Arq for twenty-five miles up to the village of Lanslebourg, which is situated at the foot of the Mont Cenis Pass, and here commences the second portion of the route forming the passage of the mountain.

Before proceeding farther we had better state that a French metre is equal to 3 feet 3·371 inches; consequently, 1,000 metres (or a kilometre) are equal to 1093·6389 English yards; an English mile is 1760 yards or 1609·31 French metres; 100 kilometres are 62¼ English miles; but a rough conversion of kilometres into English miles can always be made by multiplying the number of the former by 5 and dividing by 8; vice versÂ to convert English miles into kilometres—multiply the number of the former by 8 and divide by 5.

In the 25 miles, or 40 kilometres, extending from St. Michel to Lanslebourg, there is only a rise of 670 metres, or 1,994 English feet. The steepest gradient is for 2½ kilometres (1½ miles) just beyond Modane at the French entrance of the great Tunnel of the Alps, of which we shall speak presently, the rise is 1 in 19, or 278 feet in the mile; and beyond Bramans, five miles farther, there is a rise of 1 in 20, or 264 feet in the mile, for 2 kilometres. The remaining gradients are as follows—1½ kilometre, 1 in 47; 8½ kilometres (5¼ miles) 1 in 60; 4½ kilometres (nearly 3 miles) 1 in 100; 7½ kilometres (4¾ miles) 1 in 108. In fact, with the exception of 4 kilometres (2½ miles) post-horses go at the trot over the whole distance between St. Michel and Lanslebourg. It is at this latter place that the real elevation of the pass commences, and the traveller who wishes to see a considerable portion of the ascent that is before him, can do so by taking a look out of the comfortless-looking, but, in reality, comfortable Hotel Imperial, the ground-floor of which is occupied as a refreshment room for passengers, and by Messieurs les EmployÉs de la Douane Imperiale de la France. The frontier which separates France from Italy is exactly at the summit of the pass, and it is 10,500 metres or 6? miles from Lanslebourg. In these 6? miles it is necessary to mount 2,171 feet, or at the continuous rate of 350 feet in the mile. The gradient is consequently 1 in 15 in the whole of these 6? miles. From the summit to L’Hospice, 4? kilometres along the bank of the Cenis Lake, which yields capital trout six months in the year, and is frozen over for the other six, the gradient falls 1 in 25, or 211 feet in the mile. There is a short length of 3 kilometres to the Posting House of La Grande Croix, with a gradient of 1 in 60, or 88 feet in the mile. The severest gradient on the whole pass is in the next 10 kilometres (6¼ miles), 1 in 14, or 376 feet to the mile; and from Molaretta to Susa, 10? kilometres (6½ miles), it is not much better, being 1 in 15, or 350 feet in the mile. There is a difference in the comparative elevations above the sea, of St. Michel and Susa of 715 feet, Susa being the lower of the two. Consequently, the Italian side of the pass is more precipitous than the French, for, whereas the total rise from St. Michel to the summit (a distance of 31 miles) is 4,165 feet, the descent from the summit to Susa (a distance of 18 miles) is 4,880 feet; in fact, the descent of the mountain only terminates as the town is entered. Of course, what are ascent and descent when going from France to Italy are reversed when coming in the opposite direction.

Mr. John Fell,[118] a gentleman about whom we have now to speak, has been occupied during many years of his life in the construction of railways and other works in Italy, being associated in several of them with Mr. Thomas Brassey, the eminent contractor, and other English gentlemen, among whom may be mentioned Mr. William Jackson, now M.P. for North Derbyshire. Connected with the laying out and subsequent construction of the magnificent railway between Pistoja and Bologna, by which the Apennines are traversed and overcome by the locomotive, Mr. Fell’s attention was directed to the mighty cost of construction of this railway, as well as of that across the Soemmering and of the Giovi Incline, by means of which last-named, Genoa obtains railway connection with all parts of the Italian system. Reasoning and reflecting, Mr. Fell’s mind was, by a most happy incidence, brought to bear upon the effect that would be developed if the adhesion of the locomotive were increased by the application of horizontal wheels to a third or intermediate rail. But, in order to understand and to appreciate the full force of this conception, it is necessary to explain that the power or motive force of a locomotive is derived from two sources—the amount of steam evaporated and the amount of adhesion, or, as it is familiarly called, “bite,” that the wheels have on the rails. If a railway were completely level, it would only be necessary, in the construction of engines for working it, to make them with as little weight of material as possible, consistent with the strength and solidity required for their complete efficiency. But as a railway on, or very nearly on, the level, does not exist, it is necessary, in building engines, to give them such weight as, in addition to their steam power, will ensure them efficient adhesion upon the railway. On railways with favourable gradients the additional weight of engine is trifling; but exactly in proportion as gradients become unfavourable, so has it been found necessary to increase the weight of engines. Mr. Fell’s system increases adhesion without increasing the weight of the engines,[119] except to the very trifling extent of that appertaining to the four horizontal wheels, and the machinery connected with them. These horizontal wheels—two on each side of the engine—are made to rotate along the sides of the centre rail by identically the same steam that operates upon and causes the rotation of the perpendicular wheels upon the upper surface of the two ordinary rails. In this fact is contained the whole secret of the extraordinary development and marvellous increase of power which are obtained by the introduction of the centre rail, combined with the action of the horizontal wheels upon it.[120]

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A CENTRE RAIL ENGINE AND TRAIN ASCENDING A GRADIENT OF 440 PER MILE WITH A CURVE OF 44 YARDS.

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But before we go farther, let us endeavour to settle a question of priority as regards this invention or discovery, and we are able to do so all the more easily through the information furnished by Monsieur P. Desbriere at page 61 of his Etudes sur la Locomotion au Moyen du Rail Central, Contenant la relation des expÉriences entreprises pour la traversÉe du Mont Cenis. Paris 1865.

“Claims having been recently started,” says M. Desbriere, “as to the priority of the invention of the centre rail, we present the following historic resumÉ. The first patent taken out for its application was on the 30th of September, 1830, jointly by Messrs. Charles B. Vignoles, the eminent English engineer, and Ericsson, the Swedish engineer, the gentlemen who constructed the first monitors and marine engines to be driven by means of heated air. On the 15th of October, 1840, a patent was taken by Mr. Henry Pinkus, an English gentleman. On the 18th of December, 1843, Baron Seguier addressed a communication to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, in which he proposed, as a means of avoiding getting off the rails, the employment of a centre rail upon all railways, the gradients of which were moderate and the speed upon which was high. On the 5th December, 1846, a patent was taken out by the Baron for this system, of which he described himself the inventor, and of which he was at all events the very active promoter.[121] On the 13th July, 1847, a patent bearing upon the subject was taken out in England by Mr. A. V. Newton.”

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“On the 20th of January, 1863, Mr. Fell took out his first patent, and on the 16th December, of the same year, his second, under the modest title of ‘improvements in locomotive engines and railway carriages.’ In neither of these patents did Mr. Fell attempt to appropriate to himself the invention of the centre rail, but simply the means, both ingenious and practical, by which he has succeeded in applying the principle of additional adhesion.”

“Independent of the energy, perseverance, and straightforward practical sense, of which he has given proof, in his long train of trials and experiments, Mr. Fell’s principal merit, in our opinion, is that he has understood, what theory entirely justifies, that locomotives with additional adhesion are only applicable to steep gradients and slow speed, because such engines are able to develop powerful means of traction, without heavy additions to their weight.”

Early in 1863, Mr. Fell instituted experiments on a length of line of 800 yards, laid out on his plan, upon the Cromford and High Peak Railway, near Whaley-Bridge. The gauge was 3 feet 7½ inches, 180 yards of the line were straight with a gradient of 1 in 13 (406 feet in the mile); 150 yards with a gradient of 1 in 12 (440 feet in the mile); with curves of two chains and a-half each. The centre rail was raised seven and a-half inches above the surface of the two ordinary rails, so as to be acted upon by the two horizontal wheels of the engine. During the experiments, the first engine of the kind ever constructed, and necessarily, from want of experience, unsatisfactory in many of its details, working with a pressure of 120 lbs. to the square inch, was always able to convey a load of twenty-four tons up the incline. The maximum it succeeded in taking was thirty tons. Its dimensions were as follows: diameter of cylinder, 12 inches; length of stroke, 18 inches; four wheels coupled, diameter 2 feet 3 inches; axles, 5 feet 3 inches apart. The weight of the engine fully loaded with coke and water was sixteen tons. When the pressure was only brought to bear upon the vertical wheels, the engine could not take more than a weight of seven tons up the incline, but when the horizontal wheels acted combinedly with the perpendicular, she took up twenty-four tons on the same day, and under circumstances precisely similar in every respect, except as regards the action of the horizontal wheels upon the centre rail.

These experiments were considered so satisfactory, that it was decided, with the permission of the French Government, and for its information, that they should be repeated upon a more extended scale upon the Mont Cenis, with the condition made by Mr. Fell, that if the system were found to be practicable, the authorities should grant the concession of a portion of the roadway for a line to be laid down across the French division of the mountain on the same terms as had already been agreed to by the Italian Government for the Italian portion.

The experimental line was laid down between Lanslebourg and the summit. It commenced at the height of 5,305 feet above sea level, and terminated at the elevation of 5,820 feet. Its length was two kilometres all but forty-four yards, or an English mile and a quarter. Gauge, 3 feet 7½ inches. Its mean gradient was 1 in 13, the maximum was 1 in 12; it had two curves of 44 yards each, and others, the most favourable of which was 125 yards. It will thus be seen that the line was constructed in a manner, both as regards gradients and curves, to subject the system to the severest tests. The experiments, which were conducted in the presence of commissioners from England, France, Italy, Austria and Russia, lasted from the end of February until the end of May 1865, and it is a remarkable fact that the adhesion was found during the period of snow better than could be expected in summer, for when snow was swept off the rails, it left them dry, and under favourable conditions; whereas, summer dust combined with moisture, would render them comparatively greasy and slippery. Captain Tyler, who was present at all the experiments on the part of the British Government, calls special attention to this curious fact in his report.

Two engines were employed in the trials, the first that which had been used on the High-Peak Railway experiments, and the second an engine built specially for the service of the Mont Cenis Railway. This latter was the engine principally employed, No. 1 being chiefly used to supply the place of No. 2, when any trifling derangement in its machinery required attention. It is intended that No. 2 shall be used on the completion of the line over the pass, and it is the engine by which the trial trip was accomplished on the memorable 26th of August, 1867. When empty its weight is 13 tons, when loaded with coke and water 17 tons 2 cwt. The horizontal wheels and the machinery connected with them weigh 2¾ tons. The boiler is 8 feet 4 inches long, 3 feet 2 inches diameter, and contains 158 tubes of 1½ inches exterior diameter. Heating surface 600 feet. The cylinders, two in number, 15 inches diameter, with 16 inches stroke, act at one and the same time upon the two systems of wheels, four horizontal and four perpendicular. Each system of wheels consists of four coupled, diameter of each 2 feet 3 inches. The space between the centres of each pair of perpendicular wheels is 6 feet 10 inches, that between the horizontal wheels 2 feet 4 inches; maximum pressure of steam in the boiler 120 lbs. per square inch; effective pressure upon the piston 75 lbs. This engine was a great improvement upon its predecessor. With engine No. 1, Captain Tyler, R.E., from whose Report to the Board of Trade the foregoing particulars are taken, says that during the space of two days he descended and remounted the experimental line six times. The train behind it consisted of three waggons, with a total gross weight of 16 tons. The average of his experiments was as follows:—The first ascent was made in 8 minutes 15 seconds, with a loss of 14 lbs. of steam, and of 5½ inches in the gauge glass; the mean pressure of the steam varied from 92 to 125 lbs. per square inch. The speed in each of the experiments was greater, with the same load, than is proposed for the express trains. The mean speed resulting from the figures above stated, was at the rate of 13 kilometres, 300 metres per hour (8 English miles), instead of 12 kilometres (7½ English miles), the highest speed specified in the programme submitted to the French Government for this part of the line. The weather was fine and calm, the external rails were in very good condition; but the centre rail, as well as the horizontal wheels were greasy, and consequently in a very unfavourable condition for adhesion.

The results of Captain Tyler’s experiments with No. 2 engine were as follows:—Although at the time that they took place she was not in the best order, she was, nevertheless, able to ascend the incline, with the same load as had been attached to engine No. 1, in 6¼ minutes, or at the rate of 17? kilometres (nearly 11 miles) an hour. This engine besides possessing a greater amount of boiler-power, travelled more steadily than No. 1; its machinery is more easily attended to, and the pressure of the horizontal wheels upon the centre rail can be regulated by the engine driver at pleasure, from the foot plate. The pressure employed during the experiment was 2½ tons on each horizontal wheel, or 10 tons altogether, but the pressure actually provided for, and which may, when necessary, be employed is 6 tons upon each, or 24 tons upon the four horizontal wheels. When this engine had ascended the experimental line in 6¼ minutes, or at the rate of 17? kilometres per hour, the steam pressure in the boiler had fallen from 112 to 102½, and 3 inches of water in the gauge glass. The engine exerted, including the resistance from curves, 195 horses power—nearly 12 horses power to each ton of its own weight, or about 60 horses power in excess of what would be required to take up the load of 16 tons, over the same gradient and curves, at the rate of 12 kilometres per hour.

Captain Tyler finally reduced the pressure to 40 lbs. on the square inch, that is to one-third of the maximum pressure, and when he had done this, he found that the engine alone could move on a gradient of 1 in 12; the resistance of waggons and carriages being proportionally much less than that of a locomotive, the latter could a fortiori, draw a train with a gross load three times its own weight, or 48 tons upon the same gradient, the pressure of course being raised to 120 lbs. to the square inch.

A very important, and we believe an unexpected feature of the Fell system was immediately developed in the experiments; M. Desbriere calls special attention to it. The centre rail not only aids the train in going round curves, but also adds largely to its safety. Each vehicle is provided with four horizontal pulleys, each of about eight inches diameter, playing around vertical axes fixed upon the frame of the vehicle, and placed two and two at each of its extremities, and on each side of the centre rail. By the tightening of these pulleys, the flanges of the wheels, instead of gliding along the outer rails, press strongly against them, and thus the train is able to overcome curves unaccomplishable by any other means. This arrangement of parts also renders it impossible for either engine or vehicles to get off the line; all the more important, seeing that by the terms of the concession, the portion of the roadway ceded to Mr. Fell is, for the most part, on the outside, that is, the side nearest to the precipice, the bottom of which is, in many places, eleven or twelve hundred feet deeper than the roadway.

Before proceeding to extract from the Reports of the French Commissioners to their government their opinions upon the Fell system, it is desirable to give some general deductions which Captain Tyler makes from what he witnessed, as bearing upon the important general question of railways over mountain passes.

Hitherto the immense cost of the construction of such railways, and the immense cost of working them, have proved all but an effective barrier to their adoption. The cost of construction divides itself into two portions, and we will illustrate our meaning in the following manner:—Let us take A and B as the bases respectively on each side of a mountain. Were we to take these two points and to measure the interval between them, according to the every day application of the words “as the crow flies,” we must first take our crow perpendicularly up from A, to the exact height of the highest point which a person would be obliged to ascend, in order to cross the mountain, and then having drawn our imaginary tape to the point perpendicularly above B, we have the distance between them “as the crow flies.” But this distance in no way represents the actual distance that a person has to trudge up the mountain, and then to trudge down again in order that he may get, matÉriellement et physiquement, from one side of it to the other. The road which he has gone along can only be constructed with gradients that man and beast can accomplish. Exceed those gradients and the road might as well not be constructed. 1 in 12, or 440 feet in an English mile, is about as much as ought to, or, indeed, can be accomplished in this way. Yet, even to attain a mountain road with this gradient, it is necessary to make a great many turns and twists, to tunnel here, to raise an embankment there, to span a gorge sometimes several hundred feet deep with a bridge built between two projecting craigs at opposite sides of the ravine, whilst other bridges, of almost adamantine strength, and hundreds of feet in length, are often barely sufficient to resist the giant force of the torrents that dash along the gorge, and at times rise to within a few inches of a bridge’s level. And when the road is finished, at the heavy cost which all such works involve, and traffic is brought upon it, its length is very different from what it would have been if it could simply have been climbed up the mountain by the shortest and straightest possible way, and then been brought down again in the same manner. Still greater will be the difference between it and what our friend the crow accomplishes in the flight we have just referred to.

The experience acquired by our engineers tells us that the very maximum gradient an engine on the ordinary principle can climb up is 1 in 25, or 211 feet in a mile, but this can only be for a few yards, and with what is known, in locomotive language, as “a good run at it.” On the Soemmering, as has already been stated, the average gradient on the north side is 1 in 47, or 111 feet in a mile; on the south side 1 in 50, or 105 feet in the mile; yet these gradients, favourable as they are, compared with the gradient of an ordinary roadway over a high mountain pass, could only be obtained at a cost of £98,000 a mile. Equally costly was the Giovi incline, constructed to surmount the Apennines near to Genoa. The worst gradient on it for a short distance is 1 in 29, or 160 feet in a mile; its best 1 in 50, or 106 feet in a mile. The ruling gradient of the beautiful railway over the Apennines between Pistoja and Bologna is 1 in 40, or 132 feet to the mile. The distance from Pistoja at the foot of the mountain on the east to Poretta at the foot of the mountain on the west, by the old road, is 25 “chiliometres” (kilometres), a little more than 15½ English miles, but in order to obtain for the railway the average gradient of 1 in 40 we have just mentioned, it has been necessary to extend the distance from 25 chiliometres to 40, equal to 25 English miles. Each of these 40 chiliometres has cost 1,000,000 francs, or £40,000, making the total cost of the railway independent of the special rolling stock for working it, £1,600,000, or at the rate of £64,000 a mile. If at the time that Mr. Fell was engaged in connection with the construction of this very fine work, he had had his ideas matured respecting the centre-rail system, and that consent had been given to the line being laid down in accordance with it, the distance to traverse would have only been 15½ English miles; many expensive works would have been avoided, and the total cost of the line would not have exceeded £400,000—probably it would have been considerably less. Another matter worthy of consideration is, that this Apennine Railway consumed eleven years in its construction. Not very protracted, considering that there are nearly 7 miles of tunnels (39 in number), of which 23 are on the ascent from Pistoja, and 16 on the descent to Poretta. The longest is 1? mile, the second longest 1? mile, the length of the others is pretty nearly equal. Nearly one-eighth of what is not tunnel is bridge or viaduct; some of the latter across ravines 300 to 400 feet long, and nearly 180 feet high. They are, in fact, double viaducts, one built on the top of the other, and reminding one of the two tiers of guns of an old-fashioned two-decker. According to the testimony of M. Desbriere, Mr. Fell would have accomplished an equally efficient railway on or through the pass in a couple of years. He would have had no tunnels, unless when, occasionally, he might want to get by a short cut through a projecting ledge of rock or mountain instead of round it, and, as to bridges and viaducts, a twentieth part of those now existing would have amply sufficed him. Before quitting this subject, we would observe that Captain Tyler sets down the difference between the length of a mountain road with gradients of 1 in from 12 to 15 as one-half that of a roadway with gradients of 1 in 40. In practice, however, it will probably be found that the difference will hardly be so great—but there can be no doubt of its not being less than as 3 to 5.

Taking the question of working expenses, we know that on the Soemmering, on the Giovi, and on the Pistoja lines, the weight of the engines is about fifty-five tons, and that on the Soemmering and the Giovi the cost per train mile is 6s. 2d. down the pass as well as up it, while the average cost on the ordinary portions of the lines is under 3s. a mile; and so oppressive is the working cost of goods trains over the Soemmering felt to be, and with such uncertainty are the trains, but especially the goods trains, worked over the pass, that before the end of the present year, a railway between Vienna and Trieste will be opened, with a detour of 110 miles, and it is by this roundabout line that the immense and continuously increasing goods traffic between the interior of Austria and its great naval and commercial sea port, will eventually be conveyed to it.

Captain Tyler, whilst instituting a comparison between the cost of the construction and working of the Mont Cenis Over-ground Railway with these costs upon the railway through the Great Tunnel of the Alps, calls especial attention to the fact that the former is only laid down on a road-bed already in existence, as a temporary (that is if we can accept temporary as an exact translation of provisoire) line, whilst that through the tunnel is permanent. But keeping this point in view, the report of Mr. James Brunlees, C.E., the distinguished engineer of the Mont Cenis Railway Company, shows its cost to be (including the necessary engines and other rolling stock) a little under £8,000 a mile, whilst he asserts that the Tunnel line will probably cost, including interest at 6 per cent, during construction, but not the cost of special engines and other rolling stock, £7,000,000, or £140,000 a mile. As the cost of the tunnel and its accessories is dealt with subsequently at full length, we need only here remark that Captain Tyler considers the cost of an over-ground permanent Fell line, laid down on an already existing Alpine roadway, with the ordinary 4 feet 8½-inch gauge, and with curves of radii varying from 150 to 180 yards, should not exceed three times the cost of the present provisional road, or about £21,000 a mile. We are disposed to concur completely in this estimate, provided the additional width that it would be necessary to give to the roadway could be obtained by excavating from the inner side of the road, and not by widening it on its outer side—the side of the precipice—for this latter could only be effected by the construction of numerous solid and very expensive abutments in masonry, requiring great tact, nicety and judgment in their adjustment.

Captain Tyler concludes his report to the Board of Trade as follows:—

“As the results of my observations and experiments, I have to report, in conclusion, that this scheme for crossing the Mont Cenis is, in my opinion, practicable, both mechanically and commercially, and that the passage of the mountain may thus be effected, not only with greater speed, certainty, and convenience, but also with greater safety than under the present arrangements. Few would, in the first instance, either contemplate or witness experiments upon such steep gradients and round such sharp curves on the mountain side, without a feeling that much extra risk must be incurred and that the consequences of a fractured coupling or a broken tire, or a vehicle leaving the rails, would on such a line be considerably aggravated.

“But there is an element of safety in this system of locomotive working which no other railway possesses.

“The middle rail not only enables the engine to surmount, and to draw its train up these gradients, but also affords a means of applying any required amount of extra brake power for checking the speed, or for stopping any detached vehicles during the descent, and it further acts by the use of horizontal guiding wheels on the different vehicles as a most perfect safeguard, to prevent engines, carriages or waggons from leaving the rails, in consequence either of defects in the bearing rails or of failure in any part of the rolling stock. The safest portions of the proposed railway ought indeed, under proper management, to be those on which, the gradients being steeper than 1 in 25, the middle rail will be employed.

“There is no difficulty in so applying and securing that middle rail, and making it virtually one continuous bar, as to preclude the possibility of accident from its weakness or from the failure of its fastenings, and the only question to my mind is whether it would not be desirable still further to extend its application to gradients less steep than 1 in 25. It would apparently be advantageous to do so, not only for the sake of obtaining increased adhesion with less proportional weight, and therefore economical traction, but also with a view to greater security, especially on curved portions of the line.”

The French Imperial Commission ordered to be present at Mr. Fell’s experiments, consisted of M. Conte, ingÉnieur en chef des Ponts et ChaussÉes de France, as President, with MM. Bochet, ingÉnieur en chef des mines, Guinard, ingÉnieur des Ponts et ChaussÉes, and Perrin, ingÉnieur des mines, as his colleagues. These gentlemen completed a voluminous and elaborate report of thirty-one pages of printed matter, accompanied by drawings, with the following “conclusions”:—

“From the experiments which have been described, and which the Commission has judged unnecessary to continue any further, and from the different verifications which it has made, the Commission has arrived at the conviction:

“First.—That the system of traction proposed by Mr. Fell is applicable for the passage of Mont Cenis, with the engines of the type which worked at the last trials.

“Second.—That this system presents no danger as regards the public security on steep inclines and on sharp curves, since, on the contrary, the existence of the centre-rail furnishes a guarantee against getting off the rails, and at the same time a powerful means of stopping the trains.

“Third.—That, with the exception of some points of detail, the study of which has not been made, but which present no serious difficulty, this system may from the present time be considered as applicable to the crossing of the mountain. That, with regard especially to the working of the line during the winter season, the covered ways proposed by Mr. Fell will be sufficient to secure the regularity of the service.

“Fourth.—That there is no absolute incompatibility, in consequence of the vicinity of the railway and the ordinary road, one to the other, provided that proper protective works be erected to effectually separate them.”

We cannot conclude our notice of the part which was taken by France in the trials on the Mont Cenis without referring to the fact, that the Emperor Napoleon took a warm interest in this subject, and it is owing to the intervention of His Majesty that, not only was the portion of the Mont Cenis roadway granted to Mr. Fell for his experiments, but subsequently the concession, under the terms of which the line across the mountain has been constructed. His Majesty expressed an opinion several years ago, that increased adhesion, and thereby increased power, would be obtained for engines, by the adoption of a third or centre rail, along the sides of which additional wheels would be run. An engine was actually constructed in France, at the instance of Baron Seguier, to illustrate the system; but the third rail was found useless at high speeds, and with flat gradients. When, however, Mr. Fell propounded the plan of centre rail for slow speed and steep gradients, the conviction of His Majesty was, that Mr. Fell was right. Hence, he afforded him his gracious patronage and support; without them, Mr. Fell would probably have had difficulties, even greater than he now has to contend with, in bringing his invention into practice.

On the 4th of November, 1865, “Napoleon, par la Grace de Dieu et la VolontÉ Nationale, Empereur des FranÇaises,” authorised, by Imperial Decree, the construction and working of a locomotive line between St. Michel and the frontier of Italy (the summit of the pass) until “the opening of the tunnel of the Alps” for traffic. Of this very indefinite period and of the tunnel itself we shall have to speak presently. In the meantime, let it be stated that the Emperor’s decree was accompanied by a Cahier des Charges (Table of Conditions), in which, in addition to the usual conditions as affecting railways in France, are contained several specially appropriate to this very special railway. Of these, the only ones that interest the general public set forth the prices that are to be charged for the conveyance of goods and passengers. Each of the latter travelling in a coupÉ is to pay 27 francs, or about 5¼d. an English mile; other first-class passengers, 25 francs, or about 5d. a mile; second class, 22 francs, or about 4½d. a mile; third class, 18 francs, or 3¾d. a mile; children under three years of age, free; between three and seven, half-price; above seven, full fare. It will be seen from this tariff, how small is the difference between the charge for the highest and lowest classed passengers. The transit for goods by passenger trains is at the rate of £3. 1s. 6d. a ton, or 1s. 2½d. a ton a mile; by goods train £1. 12s., or about 7½d. a ton a mile.

The works of the railway were commenced on the 1st of May, 1866. It was expected that they would be finished in twelve months, but various circumstances have intervened to prevent the realisation of this intention; the chief, the floods of September 1866, on the French side of the mountain, when the waters rising higher than was ever known before, committed wholesale devastation, not only upon the works of the company executed up to that time, but upon the ten miles of the already opened railway between St. Jean de Maurienne and St. Michel, as well. The devastation extended from Termignon within seven miles of Lanslebourg to St. Jean, a distance of twenty-eight miles. The Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Company has repaired the ten miles of railway between St. Jean de Maurienne and St. Michel. The works of the roadway from St. Michel, eighteen miles, to Termignon have been repaired and their strength added to, by the French Government at an expense of about £80,000. The French Government has also recognised the claim of the Fell Railway Company to consideration, by agreeing to repay two-thirds of the cost of reinstating its works as they were previous to the floods, so that practically the company has incurred through them a direct money loss of not more than from £3,000 to £4,000. It has, however, sustained a heavy loss from not being opened to carry the immense traffic which has crossed the pass during the spring, and summer of the present year.

The railway is laid, not altogether but principally, on the outer side of the roadway. The sleepers are transverse, three feet apart, to which the outer or ordinary rails are fixed by bolts or nails. The line is fenced off from the portion of the roadway to be used for ordinary horse traffic, (the greater portion of which will disappear on the opening of the railway) by means of substantial posts and rails. The railway, in passing from one side of the roadway to the other, crosses it thirty-three times, one more than half the number of these crossings (seventeen) are on the roadway, where it is practically on the level. The crossings are therefore of the ordinary character, such as are seen in England and on the Continent; but inasmuch as the top of the centre rail, which is laid upon and fastened to continuous balks of timber bolted on to the transverse sleepers, is 9 inches higher than the outer or ordinary rails, it has been found necessary to arrange that when the roadway is open as a crossing, at those parts at which the centre rail is in use, it shall be lowered, so that it shall not be higher than the two outer rails. This is effected by a mechanique extremely simple in its action, moved by means of a lever, just as a pointsman moves his points at an everyday railway station. One movement of the lever depresses the centre rail, into a hollow made expressly to receive it, to the level of its confrÈres, and when it is necessary to elevate it again so as to place it in apposition with the centre rails at each side of the crossing, one movement of the lever raises it, and then it forms continuous centre rail just as completely as if there had not been any lever beside it to elevate or to depress it.

There has scarcely been a portion of the roadway which has not been widened. In most places it has only been to the extent of a yard or a little more, but the heaviest works in connection with the road it has been found necessary to execute have been at its sharp turns or zig-zags, and in passing along the villages which are studded along the entire length of the pass; for it must not be supposed that it runs through a barren, uncultivated, and unfrequented district, inhabited only by the goatherds, or occasionally dwelt in by the chamois hunter. So far is this from being the case, that there is a well-to-do population of at least 25,000 along the pass, the well-made, robust, and hardy male portion of which has often been the means of saving human life during the snows and storms of winter, with a devotion and an indifference to personal risk or consequences, not exceeded in any other district, along the whole length of the Alpine ranges.

As regards deviations, the railway winds to the back of the villages of St. Michel, Modane, Bramans, Termignon and Lanslebourg, on the French side of the mountain, but, on the Italian side, there is only one inhabited place at which it is necessary to keep in the background, and that is at Susa. By means of this deviation the connection with the Alta-Italia Railway is effected. Both lines unite together at the existing Susa station at which there is the mixed gauge of 3 feet 7½ inches, the width of the Mont Cenis Railway, and 4 feet 8½ inches, the width of the Italian railway system, which is also the width of the French railways as well as of our own, with the exception of the Great Western. But even the Great Western, in order to come within the comity of the railway world as established in England, has had to succumb, and by means of a third railway, to become “narrow” as well as “broad” gauge. Owing to the difference of gauge, transhipment both of passengers and their luggage, and of goods must take place at St. Michel as well as at Susa.

Of the deviations, or rather the prolongations or extensions of the railway, to avoid sharp turns or zig-zags, there are four between Lanslebourg and the summit. At all these zig-zags, as we know in our experience of turns in hilly or mountain roads, the gradient is always steeper than at other parts; but the deviations of the Cenis, by taking sweeps carried through eight little tunnels in the mountain, the longest of which is 105 metres, the shortest 40, and by increasing the actual distance three to four times what it is by the roadway, curves of larger radius and lighter gradient are obtained. The total length of these tunnels is 505 metres. On the Italian side there are ten deviations, and they would have been nearly double that number, had not the railway, instead of following the existing road at a part called les Echelles, about five miles from the summit, reverted to the old road which had been abandoned in consequence of the prevalence of avalanches along it in winter. Whilst the new road is undoubtedly superior for carriages to the old one, the latter is better suited for a railway, in consequence of their being no zig-zags upon it; but en revanche for this advantage, it has been necessary to cover the line over. 600 metres of this covering are massive and solid masonry, upon which avalanches will impinge, as they are hurled from the rocks above into the abyss beneath. In addition, there will be, hereabouts, 1,200 metres of covered way, of which we shall speak immediately. There are several other places on the Italian side of the mountain at which protection against avalanches must be afforded by means of similar galleries. Their total length will be 1,480 metres, or about 140 yards less than a mile, and with this amount all the Engineers seem to agree (notwithstanding the assertion of Mr. Crawford, M.P., to the contrary) that the railway will be completely protected from the avalanche danger. But snow is the cause of inconvenience as well as of danger. If snow would be satisfied to remain quietly when it falls on terra firma, the snow-plough on the engines and the shovels of a few permanent-way men would speedily send it off the line without trouble or delay; but snow is invariably accompanied, especially in these elevated regions, with high winds, and these cause drifts. There is an almost undeviating rule as regards drifts, and it is that a drift of this year will find its way to, practically, the same spot that it was at last year, the previous year, and the year previous to that also, and it will be at the same spot next year, the following year, and so on ad infinitum. Hence it is necessary, on the Mont Cenis, to protect the railway by means of covered ways, in addition to protecting them from avalanches by galleries. The covered ways are constructed, combinedly, of wood and of timber. They require to be sufficiently strong to resist the effects of high winds or tourmentes, and the weight of snow that may fall or drift upon them. By means of them the line will be kept quite free from snow exactly at those points where, without them, its greatest accumulations would have taken place. They are obviously only required high up the pass—the first, on the French side, of 450 metres long, will be at a very exposed angle of the road, about 400 feet from the summit. At and about the apex of the pass the covered ways will be about 5,000 metres, or a little more than 3 miles in length, not exactly continuous, but very nearly so. Upon the greater part of the plateau which extends along the Cenis Lake and nearly to les Echelles, covering will be unnecessary, the effect of the wind being to sweep the plain comparatively clear of snow, which becomes deposited in the angles of the hills that form the somewhat distant background of the panorama. Proceeding downwards on the Italian side, there will be the 1,200 metres of covered way on the old road parallel to les Echelles, already mentioned, and about 1,200 metres more farther down, freedom from serious snow-drifts not being obtained on the Italian side of the mountain until at an elevation of about 4,000 feet above sea level. That point passed, the softness and glow of the Italian climate become perceptible, not only by one’s own sensations, but because we witness the effects of the atmosphere from the crops and trees that surround us. The line of demarcation, beyond which cereals will not grow, is higher on the southern than on the northern aspect; suddenly we come upon the walnut and the sweet chesnut, and we have not proceeded more than a mile or so, when a turn of the road near to Mollaretta, 3,795 feet above the level of the sea, brings us upon the grape, growing in beautiful festoons, and yielding fruit that is said to make good and vigorous wine. But the highest point at which the vine can be cultivated on the French side of the pass—and that not always successfully, for in cold seasons the crops do not come to complete maturity—is St. Michel. Yet St. Michel is only 2,493 feet above the level of the sea, or 1,300 feet lower than Mollaretta.

The total length during which the trains of the Mont Cenis Railway will not be “en plein air,” will be 11,113 metres, about 6¾ miles, scattered over 18 miles of distance, but in no case will the light of heaven be shut out, as both in the galleries and in the covered ways there will be openings for its admission, as well as for that of air, which openings can, however, be closed if the direction of drifting snow be towards them. As the average length of the eight tunnels is only 70 yards, it is obvious that the maximum of darkness in them, while the sun is above the horizon, will be twilight.

There will be four intermediate passenger stations—one only first class—at Lanslebourg, the half-way house, and as already mentioned, the place at which the ascent of the mountain on the French side commences. The other French stations are at Modane, and Bramans—on the Italian side only one—a place which will be rather an engine-watering than a passenger station.

Having constructed our line, or rather we should say, having done our possible to make our readers understand how it is constructed, the next obvious proposition is how to work it.

Previous to the experiments of 1865, Mr. Fell gave a programme to both the French and Italian Governments of the manner in which he proposed to carry the traffic on the line when opened. Considering that three trains per day in each direction would be sufficient, at all events for the existing traffic, he divided his service into two for passengers, one of which should also carry goods, and one for goods only. The train conveying passengers without goods, should also be the mail train, and he proposed that its weight, exclusive of engine, should not exceed 16 tons. The speed of this train to be about 11½ miles an hour including stoppages; the mixed train to weigh 40 tons, but its speed not to exceed 7 to 8 miles an hour; the goods train to weigh 48 tons, and its speed to be 6 miles an hour. When Mr. Fell submitted these proposals, he estimated a certain weight for each of his engines, and each of his carriages and waggons, but unfortunately the weight of all three has been much exceeded in the construction of the rolling stock. The engines instead of weighing about 17 tons each, as expected, will weigh upwards of 21 tons, and there is a corresponding increase in the weight of the vehicles. The consequence is that although these additional weights do not affect the question as to the power of trains to cross the mountain, it very materially affects a most important point—that of proportion between dead, and paying and productive weight. It is obvious that the problem of adhesion being solved by the addition of the centre rail, every pound added unnecessarily to the weight of the engine increases dead weight, without affording the corresponding benefit of carrying increased weight that brings profit and benefit to the shareholders. In this respect, the case between the Fell engine and the case of an ordinary engine for ascending a steep gradient is, that with the former additional weight is an incubus—an impedimentum—a break put upon the power of the engine without the slightest counterpoising or balancing advantage, whereas the ordinary engine, by increased weight, adds to its power, at all events to some extent, by the additional adhesion it obtains. It is therefore to be regretted that in laying down the plan for these engines, this most essential point was not more carefully—we might almost say more jealously—looked after. The same point bears, though in a less important degree, upon the weight of the carriages and waggons, for it is obvious that if a vehicle weighing, say, 3 tons (we take the figure at random) will carry safely, efficiently, and without strain upon any part of it, a given load, any weight beyond 3 tons is surplusage—not only unnecessary but most injurious. If anything tarnish the success of the Mont Cenis Railway, it is more likely to be from this cause than from any other that we are acquainted with, as the fact is undoubted that the weights are much in excess of what are required for the tractive power of the engines or for the safe conveyance of the loads that will be placed in the carriages and waggons behind them.[122]

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