Francis Whishaw: Railways of Great Britain & Ireland

Marshall states that born London 13 July 1804 and died London 6 October 1856 aged 52. Civil engineer and author of The railways of Great Britain and Ireland, practically described and illustrated. London, 1840. 500pp.  Third son of John Whishaw, solicitor. Articled to James Walker. In 1832 he prepared drawings for the Holborn Viaduct in London. In 1835 he acted as assistant engineer under T,L. Gooch in preparing estimates for the Manchester & Leeds Railway. In 1837 he published his Analysis of Railways followed in 1840 by his Railways of Great Britain and Ireland for which he travelled 7000 miles to collect information. In 1837-40 he conducted experiments on the working of trains on gradients. In 1837 he invented a hydraulic telegraph, but the introduction of electric telegraph made it unnecessary. Became MICE 1834. Not in ODNB, but in Chrimes where Mike contributes a wonderful concise biography which even includes a record of his subject's involvement in a Perranporth to Truro railway proposal of 1830.

At the height of its confidence as a publisher David & Charles pursued an enlightened policy of reprinting the classic books published in the Victorian period. Whishaw and Tomlinson were made more widely available in this way and important public libraries (not Norwich nor Norfolk) wisely purchased copies of Whishaw which is a vital source of information about early railways which as the title makes clear covered most of Britain. C.R. Clinker contributed an introduction to the 1969 edition which demonstrates the significance of Whishaw and also indirectly illuminates his own significance and that of the publisher. Sadly, the 1969 version omits the tables of which gave the basic dimensions of most of the locomotives extant. This will have to be checked in a copy of the original work to ascertain whether this is a major flaw.

Clinker's Introduction to 1969 edition

The recent increase (KPJ remember this is 1969) in serious study of railway development and general history, has focussed attention on the necessity for consulting as many original documents and contemporary writings as are applicable to the subject under investigation. Authors who contributed to the spate of popular-style railway books which started towards the end of the nineteenth century and continued for some 25 years, apparently made very little of contemporary works we use today. A good deal of railway 'history' was founded on hearsay and the resulting fiction has bedevilled the subject ever since. One of the more important and reliable contemporary works, still not as well known as it ought to be, was Francis Whishaw's The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland; the first edition, dated 1840, appeared in December of that year and the second in 1842. Whishaw, a civil engineer, had already published a number of reports upon projected railways in Cornwall, Cumberland, Hertfordshire and elsewhere, and a book Analysis of Railways, engineering descriptions of lines projected in 1837-38. Later he became well known as the engineer of several railway schemes hatched during the 'Railway Mania' period, 1845-47.

The importance of the present volume lies in the wealth of detail it contains and the unimpeachable sources of the author's information, hence its reliability. A large proportion of the facts were obtained from personal inspection of nearly all the railways open or under construction, supplemented by information supplied by the chief officers of the companies, fellow engineers and others. The well known names amongst these are in themselves a reasonable guarantee of accuracy Peter Barlow, George Bidder, Henry Booth, Isambard BruneI, Peter Clarke, Richard Creed, Sir John Guest, John Hawkshaw, Captain Lawes, W.S. Moorsom, Charles Saunders, George and Robert Stephenson, Charles Vignoles, Nicholas Wood, to mention but a few.

The 58 railways described descend from the larger established companies like the Great Western and London & Birmingham to the small, but well known, Canterbury & Whitstable, and the little Bodmin & Wadebridge in its isolated obscurity. In each case the railway's principal features are described—general course, gradients, gauge, permanent way, earthworks, bridges, tunnels, stations, the carrying departments, locomotives, estimated and actual cost, management, revenue and expenditure.

It is hardly to be expected that a work dedicated, perhaps somewhat unusually, to 'The Railway Capitalists of the United Kingdom', will fail to comment upon supposed extravagance and shortcomings here and there. Thus Whishaw on one of the best known architects of the day:

The stations of the North Midland Railway have afforded Mr. Thompson, the architect, ample scope for the exercise of his talent, which is strikingly exhibited throughout the whole of the permanent buildings of this railway. But although highly estimating the elegantly chaste designs which characterise the architecture of the North Midland stations, we cannot but deplore the growing evil of expending large sums of money on railway appendages. Instead of cottage-buildings, which, for the traffic of most of the intermediate stopping-places on this line, would have been amply sufficient, we find the railway literally ornamented with so many beautiful villas, anyone of which would grace the sloping lawn of some domain by nature highly favoured.

The Newcastle & Carlisle Company is castigated in a description of Hexham station: .

The station-building, which is of rustic design, is on a level with the rails, and detached from the sheds. These defects are exhibited in all the stations along this line; passengers having to pass from the carriages to the station-house are exposed to every kind of weather.

Similarly, the Northern & Eastern for its waste of money on 'erecting expensive buildings at every intermediate station'.

The wealth of detail is quite remarkable. Here, in addition to the more usual statistics, measurements of locomotives and rolling stock, etc., are to be found the comparative cost of various classes of quickset hedges (which the ignorant might suppose were of one class only!), the dimensions of permanent way contractors' lineside tool chests on the London & Birmingham, wages of coke and water-fillers on the Bodmin & Wadebridge, and so on.

After the main body of the book come particulars of experiments undertaken to show the everyday work performed by different classes of locomotive on varying gradients. The results of these experiments appeared also in tabulated form in the Appendix of the original edition, but have been omitted here, as have the tables of locomotives of 24 principal English and Scottish companies and 15 abroad, and various parliamentary material. A particularly valuable feature of the engravings at the end of the book is a sheet of 84 rail sections, reference to these being by number in the textual description of each railway.

Although Whishaw has been known to some railway historians and used, by them as a work of reference, increasingly so in recent years, its scarcity is probably, in some measure, responsible for neglect by a wider range of users. It is true that a difference of opinion exists as to certain dimensions the Bodmin & Wadebridge carriages mentioned on page 37 and some of the tabulated locomotives are cases in point but this is a contemporary record and, except where reliably disproved, should surely be treated as a work with a high accuracy rating. To quote the reviewer in the Railway Times of January 2, 1841: 'It is a work of immense labour and research-very clearly and methodically arranged most exact and circumstantial in all its details rich in original and authentic information generally honest, impartial, and judicious in its praise and censure embellished to profusion with splendid engravings. . . . '

Contents (railways described): (alphabetization was Whishaw's). It also needs to be emphasised that the contributions vary immensely in length
Arbroath and Forfar Railway
Ardrossan and Johnston Railway
Aylesbury Railway
Ballochney Railway
Birmingham and Derby Junotion Railway
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway
Bishop Auckland and Weardale Railway
Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway
Bolton and Leigh Railway
Brandling Junction Railway
Canterbury and Whitstable Railway
Chester and Birkenhead Railway.
Chester and Crewe Railway
Clarence Railway
Dublin and Kingstown Railway
Durham Junction Railway
Durham and Sunderland Railway
Dundee and Arbroath Railway
Dundee and Newtyle Railway
Eastern Counties Railway
Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
Edinburgh and Newhaven Railway
Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway
Glasgow, Paisley, and Ayr Railway
Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock Railway
Grand Junction Railway
Great North of England Railway
Great Western Railway
Hull and Selby Railway
Lancaster and Preston Railway
Leeds and Selby Railway
Leicester and Swannington Railway
Liverpool and Manchester Railway pp. 186-217
London and Birmingham Railway
London and Blackwall Railway
London and Brighton Railway
London and Croydon Railway
London and Greenwich Railway
London and South-Western Railway
Manchester and Birmingham Railway
Manchester and Bolton Railway
Manchester and Leeds Railway
Midland Counties Railway
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway pp. 334-51.
Newcastle and North Shields Railway pp. 351-69
Northern and Eastern Railway pp. 369-67.
North Midland Railway pp. 367-79
North Union Railway
Paisley and Renfrew Railway
Sheffield and Rotherham Railway
Slamannan Railway
South-Eastern Railway
Stockton and Darlington Railway
Stockton and Hartlepool Railway
Whitby and Pickering Railway
Ulster Railway
York and North Midland Railway

The following is a reproduction of the section on the Ardrossan and Johnstone Railway which was selected not because of is early position in the alphabet, but because of its brevity, and because KPJ has known this line for a long time and has traversed it relatively recently. Whishaw's description is still accurate in the 21st century, although traction has changed from the recently displaced horse of Whishaw's time to electric multiple units, although KPJ knew steam in the form of the LMS 2P class, through Inter City diesel multiple units, and raibuses to modern EMUs. The pound sign was not used in Whishaw, but rather a lower case "l": the £ sign has been substituted.

ARDROSSAN AND JOHNSTONE RAILWAY.

THE narrow gauge of 4 feet 6 inches has till recently been in general use in Scotland. Among the railways so constructed may be numbered that which runs from the harbour of Ardrossan through Saltcoats to Kilwinning. This railway, which has hitherto been entirely worked by horses, was constructed by the authority of an Act of Parliament obtained in the session of 1827. The whole of the main line has lately been remodelled,. with improved gradients and heavier rails; the gauge of way being altered to correspond with the Ayrshire Railway, which in this respect is the same as most of the English lines.

COURSE OF RAILWAY. Commencing on the west side of the harbour of Ardrossan, the line keeps parallel with that side for about ten chains; and thence, taking a very quick turn, follows a direction about east by south, crossing part of the harbour, and passing close to the Firth of Clyde, and between it and the corner of Princes Street, with a curve of 460 feet radius; thence passing by the old castle, and recurving with a radius of about 1600 feet, for a length of half a mile; thence continuing, with a curve of about three quarters of a mi1e radius, through Saltcoats; again nearing the sea within 3 chains, and taking a general direction of about east by north through Stevenston parish, passing near Dubbs and Todhills, just beyond which the Doura Branch diverges to the east;. the main line continuing to the west of Cranberry Moss, and terminating by a junction with the Ayrshire Rai1way to the west of Kilwinning. The Doura Branch, leaving the main line, takes a course nearly east, passing under the Ayrshire Railway, at a distance of about 47 chains from the point of divergence, and half a mile beyond crossing the Garnock water, and curving with a radius of about 12 chains; thence taking a north-eastern direction for half a mile further, and recurving with a radius of about 15 chains, proceeds to its crossing of the Lugton water; beyond which the Fergus Hill Branch diverges to the left, the Doura Branch continuing by South Fergus Hill and Milburn; the course from the last divergence to opposite Milburn being in a direction east by south. From opposite Milburn, with a curve of about 12 chains radius, the line turns again into a north-eastern direction, and terminates at Doura coal-pit.

INCLINATIONs. In the main line there were thirteen planes, commencing at Ardrossan harbour: the first being level; the next descending at the rate of 1 in 588; the third rising at 1 in 320; then succeeding the following inclinations, viz. 1 in 3181, 1 in 1100, 1 in 1564, 1 in 2260, the eighth plane being level; the remaining five planes inclining at the rates respectively of 1 in 620, 1 in 700, 1 in 5862, 1 in 240, ascending; and lastly, 1 in 171, also ascending; the eastern being about 45 feet above the western terminus; and the whole length of main line being about 5 miles 42 chains. By the alteration the planes are reduced in number to seven. The ratios of inclination are as follows, commencing at Ardrossan harbour:First, level; second, 1 in 588; third, level; fourth, 1 in 400; fifth, level; sixth, 1 in 240; and seventh, 1 in 200: the two latter planes ascending; and the united lengths of level planes amounting to three miles. Thus, in point of inclinations the line is much improved. The inclinations of the Doura Branch, which, at its commencement, inclines for rather more than a mile at the rate of 1 in 400, vary from 1 in 59 to 1 in 4866; the worst planes are 1 in 59, 1 in 73, and 1 in 78, ascending respectively towards Doura, which is about 77 feet higher than the point of divergence from the main line. The length of this branch is 3 miles 49 chains. The Fergus Hill Branch, which terminates also at a coalpit, ascends from the Doura Branch at the rates respectively of 1 in 97, 1 in 67, 1 in 48, and 1 in 173: its whole length being about 43 chains.

EARTHWORKS, BRIDGES, &c. The earthworks are light throughout. On our view of the main line, in Sept. 1839, we counted three bridges over the railway, six level road-crossings, and four level field or occupation-crossings, and five traverses. The original width of land was 28 feet, but by the alteration it is increased to 32 feet. The average cost of the land was about £100 per acre. The gauge is increased from 4 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 8 inches; and the intermediate space for the double way, which hitherto extended for a distance of 3 miles from the Ardrossan terminus, is 6 feet. The original rail is of fish-bellied form, and weighs only 28 lbs, to the lineal yard; but heavier rails have been laid down for the main line throughout (see Plate III. fig. 2) : the bearings of rails are 3 feet, and the rails are set in chairs in the usual way. The old rails were supplied at 12 a ton; the new 56 lbs. rails were contracted for at £11 10s. per ton, by Messrs. Kendrick and Co., of the Vorteg Ironworks, Newport, South Wales. The new chairs weigh from 18 to 19 lbs. each. The freestone blocks at present in use are of small size, and cost 9d. each. The new blocks are 2 feet square and 9 inches thick; the price is 2s. each, or 8d. per cubic foot. The fencing consists of posts and two rails, and of stone walls, 4 feet 6 inches high and 18 inches thick. The price of the latter is stated to be 6s. 6d. per superficial yard. The gates, which shut across the railway at level road-crossings, are of light bar-iron, hung between stone piers. This plan is much adopted in Scotland, and is by far the most economical mode in districts where coal, iron, and stone, are abundant. In cuttings, the side-drains are constructed of stone, and covered with flags.

TRAFFIC, CARRIAGES, &c. The present traffic on this line consists chiefly of coals and passengers. The amount of coals from the Eglington coal-field is stated to be about 80,000 tons per annum; and the average number of passengers, for the three years ending September 1839, about 31,000 annually. There are about 440 wagons in use on this line, which belong to the coal-proprietors. The weight of a wagon, including wheels, is 1 ton 14 cwt. and the complement of coal in each 42 cwt. The gross load is, therefore, 3 tons 16 cwt. The carriages hitherto used on this line were drawn by horses; each carriage holding twenty-four passengers, viz. sixteen inside and eight outside. The length of the body, which is in two compartments, each holding eight passengers, is 8 feet 10 inches; the width, 6 feet; and the height, 5 feet 3 inches. The outside seats are on the same level as those within; the one being in front, and the other behind: these seats are each 13 inches wide. The whole length of the carriage, from end to end of the sole, is 14 feet 2 inches; the wheels are four in number, each 2 feet 6 inches diameter: the weight of each pair of wheels is 7 cwt. These carriages, although of unsightly appearance, are of useful form for a railway worked by horses; but not suited for high velocities, on account of the outside seats. The cost of these carriages is stated to be £50 each. Previously to November 1838, the passenger's fare was at the rate of one penny per mile; but was raised in consequence of the Government duty to 8d. per six miles, or 1.333d. per mile.

ANNUAL COST. Mr. Moffat, the engineer of this line, states the annual cost of keeping the way in order to be £50. a-mile. There are twe1ve waymen employed in this service, each at 13s. a-week; besides these, there are two watchmen, each at 12s. a-week: two collectors, each at £45 per annum; two coach-drivers, each at 13s. a-week; and a stable-keeper, at 14s. a-week. The main line from Kilwinning to Ardrossan now forms, as it were, a branch of the Ayrshire Railway. Two locomotive engines, on Bury's construction, have been ordered of Messrs. Barr and M'Nabb of Paisley, to work this part of the line; they have 12-inch cylinders and 18-inch stroke, and do not exceed 8 tons in weight. The cost of each, including tender, is £1150. The number of passengers travelling on this line in the year 1838 amounted to 33,415, or at the rate of nearly 107 per diem (exclusive of Sundays); the receipts for which period, including parcels, &c., amounted to £590. 17 s. 6d.

PLATE II.

The figures on this Plate are to illustrate the mode of working a railway by Whishaw's Reciprocating System, and consist of a diagram shewing the situation of the terminal and intermediate stations with respect to each other; a plan of a terminal station and depot suitedI~ C. arrying on a very extensive and mixed traffic; a plan of a principal intermediate exchange~?tion; and transverse sections of a cutting, embankment, bridge, and tunnel.

PLATE III.

The sections of no fewer than eighty-four wrought-iroH rails belonging to British and foreign lines are shewn in this Plate; and most of them are particularly referred to in the body of the work.

PLATE IV.

Elevations of four different kinds of engines, viz. Victoria, belonging to class C, at work on the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (see page 5).
A small goods-engine, Orion, belonging to class D D 1, calculated for a nearly level line: 13-inch cylinders, 16-inch stroke; wheels, 4 feet 2 inches in diameter; gross weight, 9 tons 6 cwt. ; net weight, 8 tons 1 cwt.
A passenger-engine, Phoenix, built by Messrs. Edington and Son, of Glasgow, and belonging to class E. (The design of the chimney is altered to a more modern shape than that of the Phoenix.)
A large goods-engine, Albert, belonging to class E E: cylinders, 15 inches; stroke, 18 inches; four coupled wheels, of 4 feet 7 inches diameter, gross weight, 12 tons; net weight 10½ tons.

PLATE V.

Elevation of an engine (class E) and tender, constructed by Messrs. Robt. and Wm. Hawthorn, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who have acquired great celebrity by the improvements they have effected in locomotive engines. For the proportions of this engine, see Table XIII. of Foreign Locomotives, in the Appendix, No. 245 (maker's number). The tender is furnished with a compound lever-brake, by which each wheel is doubly locked—a most important improvement for the effective working of railways having third-class gradients.
In Messrs. Hawthorn's modern engines, the greatest improvement is the mode adopted of working the slide-valves by a simple combination of levers, whereby eccentrics are entirely dispensed with, and the lead of the slide regulated with the greatest precision, so as to produce, when required, the maximum effect of the propelling power of steam.

PLATE VI.

Elevations of four engines, viz. the London and Birmingham passenger-engine (class E 1); and merchandise-engine (class EEl )-see Table XI. of British Locomotive Engines, in the Appendix; the American engine England, built at Philadelphia, and working on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (see page 29), belonging to class F; the Novelty engine, belonging to class B, furnished with Stephenson's gearing, and calculated for railways which are nearly level: 12-inch cylinders, 18-inch stroke, driving-wheels 5 feet in diameter, bearing-wheels 3½ feet in diameter; the net weight being 13¾ tons.

PLATES VII., VIII., and IX.

Longitudinal and transverse sections, and details of the working-parts of a locomotive engine belonging to class A. In Plates 7 and 8, the same letters of reference answer for those parts which are shewn in both sections. \ E is the fire-box divided cross-wise by a water-channel towards the bottom, in order to obtain a larger amount of heating surface than usual. X X, the grate-bars. I, the fire-box door. a a a, tubes extending through the boiler to the smoke.box, at the other end of the engine, by which communicative heat is imparted to the water (in the boiler) by which they are surrounded. H, the steam-dome, which, with the funnel-pipe G, tends to prevent the steam being admitted to the cylinders in an impure state, or what is usually called priming. This takes place to a considerable extent in engines where the entrance to the steam-pipe is but little elevated above the surface of the water, as the steam, in such case, enters the cylinders charged with a considerable proportion of water. F, the regulator by which the steam is admitted into the steam-pipe f, leading to the steamchamber above the cylinder A. j m, the front and hind steam-ports by which the steam is admitted first in front, and then behind the piston n. k, the waste-port. T, the slide-valve, which is moved by the gearing shewn in Plate IX. Fig. 2; leaving the cylinders, the steam escapes by the blast-pipe M into the chimney R. The blast-pipe is considered one of the greatest improvements that have been effected in the locomotive engine; for by it a continual blast is produced through the fire by the air rushing up from under the grate-bars, and by the boiler-tubes into the chimney-box to supply the vacuum formed by the condensation of the steam as it issues from the top of the blast-pipe at every stroke of the piston. The blast-pipe rests on and is bolted to a breeches-pipe (see Plate 8), which communicates with the steam-chambers 88. By means of the piston-rod 0 (which passes through a stuffing-box in front of the cylinder), the coupling r, and the crank u, motion is given to the cranked axle of the driving-wheels. t t, axles of the four bearing wheels. 0, the feed-pipe from tank of tender to the boiler. K, the man-hole by which the boiler is examined. b, the safety..valve; and Q, the spring-balance for shewing the amount of pressure of the steam within reach of the engine-driver. L, the safety-valve without reach of the engine-driver. c, the steam-whistle, which is shewn on a larger scale in Fig. 6, Plate IX. i, cock for emission of steam from the cylinder when required. P, cock for the emission of water from the cylinder. W, the plough for removing impediments from the surface of the rails. N, buffet' of the caniage-frame. q, the coupling-chain. The general proportions of this engine are as follows:14-inch cylinders; IS-inch stroke. Boiler, 45 inches in diameter. Ninety-one tubes of2 inches external diameter, and S feet in length. Fire-box, 39 inches long, 42 inches high above grate-bars towards the tubes, and 46 inches high towards the fire-door; width, 42 inches. Average height of water-channel, 19 inches; width, 4! inches, and lengtb, 42 inches. Height of chimney above smokeibox, 6 feet 3 inches; diameter, 15 inches; steam-passage induction-pipe 3 inches in diameter, eduction-pipe 41 inches in diameter; blast-pipe, 3 inches in diameter; driving-wheels, 5 feet 6 inches in diameter; bearing wheels of 3 feet S inches diameter.

PLATE IX.

Details of the working parts of a locomotive engine. Figs. 1, 3, and 4, details of the driving-wheel. Fig. 2, the gearing for working the slide-valves. Fig. 5, glass gauge for ascertaining the height of water in the boiler. Fig. 6, section of the steam-whistle. , Fig. 7, fire-box door. Figs. Sand 9, couplings. Fig. 10, angle-stay to secure the boiler to the carriage-frame. Fig. Il, the hand-pump. Fig. 12, sections of a six-wheel tender, shewing the tank, coke-floor, f~ed-pipe, &c. Fig. 13, the Stanhope lever-brake attached to the tender, for locking the three wheels on one side. at the same time. Fig. 14, cock to let off water from the cylinder. Fig. 15, the regulator.

PLATE X.

Elevations of the Great Western carriages (see description, page 153).

PLATE XI. Plans of Great Western carriages.

PLATE XII. Elevations and Plan of Grand Junction Railway carriages (see description, page 131). Four d co to

PLATE XIII. Plans, elevations, and sections of Birmingham and Gloucester Railway carriages (see description, page 27).

PLATE XIV. Birmingham and Gloucester Railway wagons, in plan and elevation.

PLATE XV. Diagrams to shew the duty performed by the engines on the Liverpool and Manchester, London and Birmingham, Grand Junction, and Great Western Railways-referred to in the account of Practical Experiments. Nine i]

PLATE XVI.

Details of permanent way, comparison of gauges, crossings, fixed points, slide-rails, fencing, gates, level crossing and gates, drainage, signals, water-column, wooden turn-table, mile-standards and gradientstandards. Diagram to illustrate the mode of working the Blackwall Railway (see description, page 265), and the disconnecting carriage-apparatus belonging to the same railway, fig. 45, in which a is the lever with the grip or tongue c, and b is the rope; when the carriage is to be let off, the lever is moved into the position shewn by the dotted lines, and the rope at once falls on to the sheeves. Fig. 47 shews the coupling for the carriages of the same railway. t: t

PLATE XVII.

Map of the United Kingdom, shewing distinctly the different lines of way completed or in progress, and those intended; and also the steam-boat tracks from various English ports to those of Ireland and France. 8 
EXPLANATION OF THE ADDITIONAL PLATES.
PLATE XVIII.
Four diagrams sbewing the lengths, summits, and general levels of the main English lines of Railway communication, the levels being reduced to the standard datum of Trinity high water, London. The first diagram exhibits the lengths, summits, &c., of the chain of Railways from Brighton to Lancaster, with the proposed extension to Carlisle. The second diagram shews the lengths, &c. of the chain of Railways from Southampton to Darlington, with the proposed extension to Newcastle. The third diagram comprehends the Railway chain from London to Bridgewater, with the proposed extension to Exeter. The fourth diagram comprehends the transverse chain from Liverpool to Hull. Note.-Tbe various Railways are distinguished from each other by different colours. The lengths are marked in miles and decimals of a mile, and The heights in feet and decimals of a foot.
PLATE XIX.
Nine different Railway wheels are represented in this Plate, drawn to a scale of three quarters of an inch to one foot; comprehending Losh's two patterns of wrought iron; Hawks', Bramah's, Cottam's, and Whishaw's, also of wrought iron; Warrington's, and another pattern of cast iron; and the Liverpool and Manchester wooden wheel. .\ 10..-...-

Note that the experiments were conducted to show that gradients did not necessarily affect train average speeds.
On Dundee and Arbroath Railway tests the weather was recorded: strong sea breeze on 13 September; sea breeze from east on 12 September. Sometimes the composition of the trains is revealing: one horse-box and two horses, three carriages on trucks on train from Stafford to Crewe on 14 October 1839. The average speeds were recorded to two decimal places. heavy rain on 14 September 1839.
Plates:
2-2-2: Class A: Great Western Railway. Plate 1. on , PLATES XX