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FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION The methods of financing railway enterprises, both new projects and existing lines, have been influenced very largely by the attitude of the See also:state and of municipal authorities. See also:Railways may be built for military reasons or for commercial reasons, or for a See also:combination of the two. The Trans-Siberian railway was a military See also:necessity if See also:Russia was to exercise dominion throughout See also:Siberia and maintain a See also:port on the Yellow See also:Sea or the Sea of See also:Japan. The See also:Union Pacific railroad was a military necessity to the See also:United States if the authority of the See also:national See also:government was to be maintained in the Far See also:West. The cost of such ventures and the detailed methods by which they are financed are of relatively small importance, because they are not required to See also:earn a See also:money return on the investment. To a less degree, the same is true of railways built for a See also:special instead of a See also:general commercial See also:interest. The See also:Baltimore & See also:Ohio railroad was built to protect and further the commercial interests of the See also:city of Baltimore; the See also:Cincinnati See also:Southern railway is still owned by the city of Cincinnati, which built the See also:line in the 'seventies for commercial See also:protection against See also:Louisville, Ky. From a commercial point of view such ventures are differentiated from railway projects built for general commercial reasons because they do not depend on their own See also:credit. The government, national or See also:local, furnishes the borrowing See also:power, and makes the best bargain it can with the men it designates to operate the line. Where a railway is built for general commercial reasons, however, it must furnish its own credit; that is to say, it must convince investors that it can be worked profitably and give them an assured return on the funds they advance. The state is interested in the commercial railway venture as a See also:matter of public policy, and because it can confer or withold the right of eminent domain, without which the railway builder would be subjected to endless annoyance and expense. This govern-See also:mental See also:sanction has been obtainable only with difficulty, and after the exercise of numerous legal forms, in See also:Great See also:Britain and on the See also:continent of See also:Europe. In the United States, on the other See also:hand, it has been obtained with considerable ease. In the earlier years of See also:American railway See also:building, each project was commonly the subject of a special See also:law; then special See also:laws were in turn succeeded by general railway laws in the several states, and these in turn have come to be succeeded in most parts of the See also:country by See also:jurisdiction vested in the state railway See also:commission. Each of these changes has tended to improve the existing status, to legitimize railway enterprise, and to safe-guard See also:capital or investment. The laws regulating See also:original outputs for capital were strictly See also:drawn in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe; in See also:America they were drawn very loosely. As a result it has been far easier for the American than for the See also:European railway builder to take See also:advantage of the speculative See also:instinct in obtaining money. Instead of the borrowing power being restricted to a small percentage of the See also:total capital, as in European countries, most of the railway mileage of America has been built with borrowed money, represented by bonds, while stock has been given freely as an inducement to subscribe to the bonds on the II theory that the bonds represented the cost of the enterprise, and the stock the prospective profits. As a natural result weak railway companies in the United States have frequently been declared insolvent by the courts, owing to their inability in periods of commercial depression to meet their acknowledged obligations, and in the reorganization which has followed the shareholders have usually had to accept a loss, temporary or permanent. The situation in Great Britain has been wholly different. The See also:debt in that country is relatively small in amount, and is not represented by securities based upon hypothecation of the See also:company's real See also:property, as with the American railway See also:bond, resting on a first, second or third See also:mortgage. But See also:British See also:share capital has been issued so freely for See also:extension and improvement See also:work of all sorts, including the costly requirements of the See also:Board of See also:Trade, that a situation has been reached where the return on the outstanding securities tends to diminish See also:year by year. Although this fact will not in itself make the companies liable to any See also:process of reorganization similar to that following insolvency and See also:foreclosure of the American railway, it is probable that reorganization of some sort must nevertheless take See also:place in Great Britain, and it may well be questioned whether the position of the transportation See also:system of that country would not have been better if it had been built up and projected on the experience gained by actual earlier losses, as in the United States. Thus the characteristic defect in the British railway organization has been the tendency to put out new capital at a See also:rate faster than has been warranted by the See also:annual increases in earnings. The American railways do not have to See also:face this situation; but, after a See also:long See also:term of years, when they were allowed to do much as they pleased, they have now been brought sharply to See also:book by almost every See also:form of constituted authority to be found in the states, and they are suffering from increased See also:taxation, from See also:direct service requirements, and from a general tendency on the See also:part of regulating authorities to reduce rates and to make it impossible to increase them. Meantime; the purchasing power of the See also:dollar which the railway company receives for a specified service is gradually growing smaller, owing to the general increases year by year in See also:wages and in the cost of material. The railways are prospering because they are managed with great skill and are doing increasing amounts of business, though at lessening unit profits. But there is danger of their reaching the point where there is little or no margin between unit See also:costs of service and unit receipts for the service. It will probably be inevitable for American railway rates to trend somewhat upward in the future, as they have gradually declined in the past; but the process apparently cannot be accomplished without considerable See also:friction with the governing authorities. The attitude of the courts is not that the railways should work without See also:compensation, but that the compensation should not exceed a See also:fair return on funds actually expended by the railway. This is in line with the provisions in the Constitution of the United States regarding the protection of property, but the difficulty in applying the principle to the railway situation lies in the fact that costs have to be met by averaging the returns on the total amount of business done, and it is often impossible, in specific instances, to secure a rate which can be considered to yield a fair return on the specific service rendered. Hence losses in one See also:quarter must be compensated by gains in another—a process which the law, regarding only the gains, renders very difficult.
The growth of railways has been accompanied by a See also:world-wide tendency toward the consolidation of small See also:independent ventures into large See also:groups of lines able to aid one another in the See also:exchange of See also:traffic and to effect See also:economics in See also:administration and in the See also:purchase of supplies. Both in See also:England and in America this process of consolidation has been obstructed by all known legislative devices, because of the widespread belief that competition in the See also: When Mr E. H. See also:Harriman died he exercised direct authority over more than 5o,000 m. of railway, and the tendency of all the great American railway systems, even when not tied to one another in See also:common owner-See also:ship, is to increase their mileage year by year by acquiring tributary lines. The smaller company exchanges its stock for stock of the larger system on an agreed basis, or sells it outright, and the bondholders of the absorbed line often have a similar opportunity to exchange their securities for obligations of the See also:parent company, which are on a stronger basis or have a broader See also:market. Similarly in Great Britain there is a tendency towards combination by mutual agreement among the companies while they still preserve their independent existence. Table XVIII. shows the paid-up capital, See also:gross receipts, See also:net receipts and proportion of net receipts to total paid-up capital on the railways of the United See also:Kingdom for a See also:series of years. Year. R See also:Miles. Route apital. Gross Net Net tot Capital. Receipts. Receipts. Capital 1878 17,333 £698545,154 £62,862,674 £29,673,306 4.25 1888 19,812 864,695,963 72,894,665 35,132,558 4.06 1898 21,659 1,134,468,462 96,252,501 40,291,958 3'55 1899 21,700 1,152,317,501 101,667,065 41,576,378 3.61 1900 21,855 1,176,001,890 104,801,858 40,058,338 3.41 1901 22,078 1,195,564,478 106,558,815 39,069,076 3.27 1902 22,152 1,216,861,421 109,469,720 41,628,502 3.42 1903 22,435 1,235,528,917 110,888,714 42,326,859 3'43 1904 22,634 1,258,294,681 I I 1,833,272 42,660,741 3.39 1905 22,847 1,272,600,935 113,531,019 43,466,356 3.42 1906 23,063 1,286,883,341 117,227,931 44,446,077 3'45 1907 23, 1 08 1,294,065,662 121,548,923 44,939,729 3'47 1908 23,205 1,310,533,212 119,894,327 43,486,526 3.32 A similar comparison (Table XIX.) can be made for the United States of America, See also:statistics See also:prior to the See also:establishment of the Inter-state See also:Commerce Commission being taken from Poor's See also:Manual of Railroads as transcribed in government reports. Year. Route Issued Gross Net Percent Net to ' Miles. Capital. Receipts. Receipts.t capital. 1878 81,747 $4,772,297,349 $490,103,351 $187,575,167 3.93 1888 156,114 9,281,914,605 960,256,270 301,631,051 3.25 1898 190,870 10,818,554,031 1,269,263,257 407,018,432 3'76 1899 194,336 11,033,954,898 1,339,655,114 435,753,291 3'95 1900 198,964 1 1,491,034,96o 1,519,570,830 509,289,944 4.43 1901 202,288 11,688,147,091 1,622,014,685 540,140,744 4.62 1902 207,253 12,134,182,964 1,769,447,408 598,206,186 493 1903 213,422 12,599,990,258 1,950,743,636 634,924,788 5.04 1904 220,112 13,213,124,679 2,024,555,061 623,509,113 4'72 1905 225,196 13,805,258,121 2,134,208,156 679,518,807 4.92 1906 230,761 1 4,570,421,478 2,386,285,473 774,051,156 5.31 1907 236,949 *16,082,146,683 2,649,731,911 820,254,887 5.10 1908 237,3891 16,767,544,827 2,393,805,989 651,561,587 3.88 * Includes $145,321,601 assigned to other than railway property, but earning net receipts. t After taxes; to compare with British figures. $ This figure should be received with caution. The Interstate Commerce Commission made certain accounting changes this year. (R. Mo.) CONSTRUCTION Location.—An ideal line of railway connecting two terminal points would be perfectly level and perfectly straight, because in that See also:case the resistance due to gradients and curves would be eliminated (see § See also:Locomotive Power) and the cost of See also:mechanical operation reduced to a minimum. But that ideal is rarely if ever attainable. In the first place the route of a railway must be governed by commercial considerations. Unless it be quite See also:short, it can scarcely ever be planned simply to connect its two terminal points, without regard to the intervening country; in See also:order to be of the greatest utility and to secure the greatest See also:revenue it must be laid out with due See also:consideration of the traffic
arising at intermediate places, and as these will not usually See also:lie exactly on the direct line, deviations from straightness will be rendered necessary. In the second place, except in the unlikely event of all the places on the selected route lying at the same See also:elevation, a line that is perfectly level is a See also:physical impossibility; and from See also:engineering considerations, even one with See also:uniform gradients will be impracticable on the See also:score of cost, unless the See also:surface of the country is extraordinarily even. In these circumstances the constructor has two broad alternatives between which to choose. On the one hand he may make the line follow the natural inequalities of the ground as nearly as may be, avoiding the elevations and depressions by curves; or on the other he may aim at making it as nearly straight and level as possible by taking it through the elevations in cuttings or tunnels and across the depressions on embankments or See also:bridges. He will incline to the first of these alternatives when cheapness of first cost is a desideratum, but, except in unusually favourable circumstances, the resulting line, being full of See also:sharp curves and severe gradients, will be unsuited for fast See also:running and will be unable to accommodate heavy traffic economically. If, however, cost within reasonable limits is a secondary consideration and the intention is to build a line adapted for See also:express trains and for the See also:carriage of the largest See also:volume of traffic with See also:speed and See also:economy, he will lean towards the second. In practice every line is a See also:compromise between these two extremes, arrived at by carefully balancing a large number of varying factors. Other things being equal, that route is, best which will serve the See also:district most conveniently and secure the highest revenue; and the most favourable combination of curves and gradients is that by which the annual cost of conveying the traffic which the line will be called on to carry, added to the annual interest on the capital expended in construction, will be made a minimum.
Cuttings and Embankments. —A cutting, or cut, is simply a See also:trench dug in a See also: The slopes of the sides vary according to the nature of the ground, the amount of moisture See also:present, &c. In solid See also:rock they may be See also:vertical; in See also:gravel, See also:sand or common See also:earth they must, to prevent slipping, rise r ft. for r to ra or 2 ft. of See also:base, or even more in treacherous See also:clay. In soft material the excavation may be performed by mechanical excavators or " See also:steam navvies," while in hard it may be necessary to resort to See also:blasting. Except in hard rock, the See also:top width of a cutting, and therefore the amount of material to be excavated, increases rapidly with the See also:depth; hence if a cutting exceeds a certain depth, which varies with the particular circumstances, it may be more economical, instead of forming the sides at the slope at which the material of which they are composed will stand, to make them nearly vertical and support the See also:soil with a retaining See also:wall, or to See also:bore a See also:tunnel. An See also:embankment-See also:bank, or fill, is the See also:reverse of a cutting, being an artificial See also:mound of earth on which the railway is taken across depressions in the sttrface of the ground. An endeavour is made so to plan the See also:works of a railway that the quantity of earth excavated in cuttings shall be equal to the quantity required for the embankments; but this is not always practicable, and it is sometimes advantageous to obtain the earth from some source See also:close to the embankment rather than 'incur the expense of hauling it from a distant cutting. As embankments have to support the See also:weight of heavy trains', they must be uniformly See also:firm and well drained, and before the line is fully opened for traffic they must be allowed See also:time to consolidate, a process which is helped by running construction or See also:mineral trains over them. An interesting case of embankment and cutting in combination was involved in See also:crossing Chat See also:Moss on the See also:Liverpool & See also:Manchester railway. The moss was 41 m. across, and it varied in depth from lo to 3o ft. Its general See also:character was such that See also:cattle could not stand on it, and a piece of See also:iron would sink in it. The subsoil was composed principally of clay and sand, and the railway had to be carried over the moss on the level, requiring cutting, and embankingfor upwards of 4 in. In forming 277,000 cub. yds. of embankment 670,000 yds. of raw See also:peat were consumed, the difference being occasioned by the squeezing out of the See also:water. Large quantities of embanking were sunk in the moss, and, when the engineer, See also:George See also:Stephenson, after a See also:month's vigorous operations, had made up his estimates, the apparent work done was sometimes less than at the beginning of the month. The railway ultimately was made to See also:float on the See also:bog. Where embankment was required drains about 5 yds. apart were cut, and when the moss between them was dry it was used to form the embankment. Where the way was formed on the level, drains were cut on each See also:side of the intended line, and were intersected here and there by See also:cross drains, by which the upper part of the moss was rendered dry and firm. On this surface hurdles were placed, 4 ft. broad and 9 long, covered with See also:heath, upon which the See also:ballast was laid.
Bridges.—For conveying small streams through embankments, channels or culverts are constructed in See also:brickwork or See also:masonry. Larger See also:rivers, canals, roads, other railways and sometimes deep narrow valleys are crossed by bridges (q.v.) of See also:timber, See also:brick, See also: Such train ferries are common in America, especially on the Great Lakes, and exist at several places in Europe, as in the Baltic between See also:Denmark and See also:Sweden and Denmark and See also:Germany, and across the Straits of See also:Messina. Gradients.—The gradient or grade of a line is the rate at which it rises or falls, above or below the See also:horizontal, and is expressed by stating either the horizontal distance in which the See also:change of level amounts to r ft., or the amount of change that would occur in some selected distance, such as Too ft., r000 ft. or r in. In America a gradient of I in See also:loo is often known as a I % grade, one of 2 in Too as a 2% grade, and so on; thus a 0.25% grade corresponds to what in England would be known as a gradient of I in 400. The ruling gradient of a See also:section of railway is the steepest incline in that section, and is so called because it governs or rules the maximum load that can be placed behind an See also:engine working over that portion of line. Sometimes, however, a sharp incline occurring on an otherwise easy line is not reckoned as the ruling gradient, trains heavier than could be drawn up it by a single engine being helped by an assistant or " bank " engine; sometimes also " momentum " or " velocity " grades, steeper than the ruling gradient, are permitted for short distances in cases where a train can approach at full speed and thus surmount them by the aid of its momentum. An incline of r in 400 is reckoned easy, of r in 200 moderate and of r in roo heavy. The ruling gradient of the Liverpool & Manchester railway was fixed at r in coo, excepting the inclines at Liverpool and at Rainhill See also:summit, for working which special See also:provision was made; and I. R. See also:Brunel laid out the Great Western for a long distance out of London with a ruling gradient of 1 in 1320. Other the See also:radius, expressed in chains (1 See also:chain=66 ft.), in America See also:engineers, however, such as See also:Joseph See also:Locke, cheapened the by stating the See also:angle subtended by a chord loo ft. long; the measurements in both methods are referred to the central line of the track. The radius of a 1-degree See also:curve is 5730 ft., or about 861 chains, of a 15-degree curve 383 ft. or rather less than 6 chains; the former is reckoned easy, the latter very sharp, at least for See also:main lines on the See also:standard See also:gauge. On some of the earlier See also:English main lines no curves were constructed of a less radius than a mile (8o chains), except at places where the speed was likely to be See also:low, but in later practice the radius is sometimes reduced to 40 or 30 chains, even on high-speed passenger lines. When 'a train is running See also:round a curve the centrifugal force which comes into See also:play tends to make its See also:wheel-flanges See also:press against the See also:outer See also:rail, or even to capsize it. If this pressure is not relieved in some way, the train may be derailed either (I) by " climbing " the outer rail, with injury to that rail and, generally, to the corresponding wheel-flanges; (2) by overturning about the outer rail as a See also:hinge, possibly without injury to rails or wheels; or (3) by forcing the outer rail outwards, occasionally to the extent of shearing the spikes that hold it down at the curve, thus spreading or destroying the track. In any case the details depend upon whether the vehicle concerned is an engine, a See also:wagon or a passenger See also:coach, and upon whether it runs on See also:bogie-trucks or not. If it is an engine, particular See also:attention must be directed to the type, weight, arrangement of wheels and height of centre of gravity above rail level. In considering the forces that produce derailment the total See also:mass of the vehicle or locomotive may be supposed to be concentrated at its centre of gravity. Two lines may be drawn from this point, one to each of the two rails, in a See also:plane normal to the rails, and the ends of these lines, where they meet the rails, may be joined to See also:complete a triangle, which may conveniently be regarded as a rigid See also:frame resting on the rails. As the vehicle sweeps round the curve the centre of gravity tends to be thrown outwards, like a stone from a horizontal See also:sling. The vertical: pressure of the frame upon the outer rail is thus increased, while its vertical pressure on the inner rail is diminished. Simultaneously the frame as a whole tends to slide horizontally athwart the rails, from the inner towards the outer rail, urged by the same centrifugal forces. This sliding See also:movement is resisted by placing a check rail on the inner side of the inner rail, to take the lateral thrust of the wheels on that side. It is also resisted in part by the conicity of the wheels, which converts the lateral force partly into a vertical force, thus enabling gravity to exert a restoring See also:influence. When the lateral forces are 'too great to be controlled " climbing " occurs. Accidents due to See also:simple climbing are, however, exceedingly rare, and are usually found associated with a faulty track, with " plunging " movements of the locomotive or vehicle, or with a " tight gauge " at curves or points. From consideration of the rigid triangular frame described above, it is clear that the " overturning " force acts horizontally from the centre of gravity, and that the length of its See also:lever See also:arm is, at any instant, the vertical distance from the centre of gravity to the level of the outer rail. This is true whatever be the tilt of the vehicle at that instant. The restoring force exerted by gravity acts in a vertical line from the centre of gravity; and the length of its lever arm is the horizontal distance between this vertical line and the outer rail. If therefore the outer rail is laid at a level above that of the inner rail at the curve, over-turning will be resisted more than would be the case if both rails were in the same horizontal plane, since the tilting of the vehicle due to this " superelevation " diminishes the overturning moment, and also increases the restoring moment, by shortening in the one case and lengthening in the other the lever arms at which the respective forces See also:act. The amount of superelevation required to prevent derailment at a curve can be calculated ' under perfect running conditions, given the radius of curvature, the weight of the vehicle, the height of the centre of gravity, the distance between the rails, and the speed; but great experience 1 See The Times Engineering Supplement (See also:August 22, 1906), p. 265. cost of construction by admitting long slopes of I in 8o or 7o. One of the steepest gradients in England on an important line is the Lickey incline at See also:Bromsgrove, on the Midland railway between See also:Birmingham and See also:Gloucester, where the slope is i in 37 for two miles. The maximum gradient possible depends on See also:climatic conditions, a dry See also:climate being the most favourable. The 'theoretical limit is about 1 in 16; between I in 20 and r in 16 a steam locomotive depending on the See also:adhesion between its wheels and the rails can only haul about its own weight. In practice the gradient should not exceed r in 222f and even that is too steep, since theoretical conditions cannot always be realized; a wet rail will reduce the adhesion, and the gradients must be such that some paying load can be hauled in all weathers. When an engineer has to construct a railway up a hill having a still steeper slope, he must secure practicable gradients by laying out the line in ascending spirals, if necessary tunnelling into the hill, as on the St Gothard railway, or in a series of zigzags, or he must resort to a See also:rack or a See also:cable railway.
Rack Railways.—In rack railways a See also:cog-wheel on the engine engages in a toothed rack which forms part of the permanent way. The earliest arrangement of this See also:kind was patented by See also: The Locher rack, employed on the Mount See also:Pilatus railway, where the steepest gradient is nearly I in 2, is See also:double, with vertical teeth on each side, while in the Strub rack, used on the See also:Jungfrau line, the teeth are cut in the See also:head of a rail of the See also:ordinary Vignoles type. Cable Railways.—For surmounting still steeper slopes, cable railways may be employed. Of these there are two main systems: (i) a continuous cable is carried over two main drums at each end of the line, and the See also:motion is derived either (a) from the weight of the descending load or (b) from a motor acting on one of the main drums; (2) each end of the cable is attached to wagons, one set of which accordingly ascends as the other descends. The weight required to cause the downward motion is obtained either by means of the material which has to be transported to the bottom of the hill or by water ballast, while to aid and regulate the motion generally steam or electric See also:motors are arranged to act on the main drums, round which the cable is passed with a sufficient number of turns to prevent slipping. When water ballast is employed the water is filled into a tank in the bottom of the wagon or See also:car, its quantity, if passengers are carried, being regulated by the number ascending or descending: Curves.—The curves on railways are either simple, when they consist of a portion of the circumference of a single circle, or See also:compound, when they are made up of portions of the circumference of two or more circles of different radius. Reverse curves are compound curves in which the components are of contrary flexure, like the See also:letter S; strictly the term is only applicable when the two portions follow directly one on the other, but it is sometimes used of cases in which they are separated by a " tangent " or portion of straight line. In Great Britain the curvature is defined by stating the length of is required for the successful application of definite formulae to the problem. For example, what is a safe speed at a given curve for an engine, See also:truck or coach having the load equally distributed over the wheels may See also:lead to either climbing or overturning if the load is shifted to a See also:diagonal position. An See also:ill-balanced load also exaggerates " plunging," and if the See also:period of oscillation of the load happens to agree with the changes of See also:contour or other inequalities of the track vibrations of a dangerous character, giving rise to so-called " sinuous " motion, may occur. In general it is not curvature, but change of curvature, that presents difficulty in the laying-out of a line. For instance, if the curve is of S-form, the point of danger is when the train enters the contra-flexure, and it is not an easy matter to assign the best superelevation at all points throughout the double See also:bend. Closely allied to the question of safety is the problem of preventing jolting at curves; and to obtain easy running it is necessary not merely to adjust the levels of the rails in respect to one another, but to tail off one curve into the next in such a manner as to avoid any approach. to abrupt lateral changes of direction. With increase of speeds this matter has become important as an See also:element of comfort in passenger traffic. As a first approximation, the centre-line of a railway may be plotted out as a number of portions of circles, with intervening straight tangents connecting them, when the abruptness of the changes of direction will depend on the radii of the circular portions. But if the change from straight to circular is made through the See also:medium of a suitable curve it is possible to relieve the abruptness, even on curves of comparatively small radius. The smoothest and safest running is, in fact, attained when a " transition," " See also:easement " or " See also:adjustment " curve is inserted between the tangent and the point of circular curvature.
For further See also:information see the following papers and the discussion's on them: " Transition Curves for Railways," by See also: Inst. C.E. vol. 176, part ii. Gauge.—The gauge of a railway is the distance between the inner edges of the two rails upon which the wheels run. The width of 4 ft. 82 in. may be regarded as standard, since it prevails on probably three-quarters of the railways of the globe. In See also:North America, except for small See also:industrial railways and some short lines for local traffic, chiefly in mountainous country, it has become almost universal; the long lines of 3 ft. gauge have mostly been converted, or a third rail has been laid to permit interchange of vehicles, and the gauges of 5 ft. and more have disappeared. A considerable number of lines still use 4 ft. 9 in., but as their See also:rolling stock runs freely on the 4 ft. 82 in. gauge and See also:vice versa, this does not constitute a break of gauge for traffic purposes. The commercial importance of such See also:free interchange of traffic is the controlling See also:factor in determining the gauge of any new railway that is not isolated by its See also:geographical position. In Great Britain railways are built to gauges other than 4 ft. 82 in. only under exceptional conditions; the old " broad gauge " of 7 ft. which I. K. Brunel adopted for the Great Western railway disappeared on the zoth–23rd of May 1892, when the main line from London to See also:Penzance was converted to standard gauge throughout its length. In See also:Ireland the usual gauge is 5 ft. 3 in., but there are also lines laid to a 3 ft. gauge. On the continent of Europe the standard gauge is generally adopted, though in See also:France there are many miles of 4 ft. 9 in. gauge; the normal See also:Spanish and Portuguese gauge is, however, 5 ft. 54 in., and that of Russia 5 ft. In France and other European countries there is also an important mileage of See also:metre gauge, and even narrower, on lines of local or secondary importance. In See also:India the prevailing gauge is 5 ft. 6 in., but there is a large mileage of other gauges, especially metre. In the British colonies the prevailing gauge is 3 ft. 6 in., as in See also:South See also:Africa, See also:Queensland, See also:Tasmania and New See also:Zealand; but in New South See also:Wales the normal is 4 ft. 8i in. and in See also:Victoria 5 ft. 3 in., communication between different countries of theAustralian See also:Commonwealth being thus carried on under the disadvantage of break of gauge. Though the standard gauge is in use in See also:Lower See also:Egypt, the line into the See also:Egyptian See also:Sudan was built on a gauge of 3 ft. 6. in., so that if the so-called Cape to See also:Cairo railway is ever completed, there will be one gauge from Upper Egypt to Cape See also:Town. In South America the 5 ft. 6 in. gauge is in use, with various others. Mono-Rail Systems.—The gauge may be regarded as reduced to its narrowest possible dimensions in mono-rail lines, where the weight of the trains is carried on a single rail. This method of construction, however, has been adopted only to a very limited extent. In the Lartigue system the train is straddled over a single central rail, elevated a suitable distance above the ground. A short line of this kind runs from Ballybunnion to Listowel in Ireland, and a more ambitious project on the same principle, on the plans of Mr F. B. See also:Behr, to connect Liverpool and Manchester, was sanctioned by See also:Parliament in 1901. In this case See also:electricity was to be the See also:motive-power, and speeds exceeding Too m. an See also:hour were to be attained, but the line has not been built. In the See also:Langen mono-rail the cars are hung from a single overhead rail; a line on this system works between See also:Barmen and See also:Elberfeld, about 9 m., the cars for a portion of the distance being suspended over the river See also:Wupper. In the system devised by Mr See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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