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Marvels of Railways, The By Archibald Williams Hard Cover 1924
The Marvels of Railways By Archibald Williams
Hardbound NAMEPLATE on inside front cvover
249 Pages
Pub. 1924
Contents Page
IntroductionI
Chap.
I. How The Midland Railway Came Into Being .18
Ii. The Great Western Railway; Or, The Struggle Of The Gauges35
Iii. The Building Of The Canadian PacificRailway.53
Iv. What The Canadian Pacific Railway Has Done For Canada68
V. The First Of The Transcontinentals85
Vi. The Highroad To Orange Land96
Vii. A Few More Facts About The U.S.A. RailRoads . Iii
Viii. The Railway As Conqueror. 129
Ix. Mountain Railways 153
X. Fighting The Snow. 164
Xi. How Life Is Protected : I. In The Signal-Box .174
Xii. How Life Is Protected : 2. Brakes .190
Xiii. Accidents And The Breakdown Train200
Xiv. Indian Railways .215
Xv. The Railway Surveyor And Engineer . 235
List Of Illustrations
A Mighty Locomotive .. Frontispiece
Two Powerful Breakdown Cranes . To Face Page 4o
The Entrance To The Rockies (Canadian Pacific Railway) .
Drifting Sand Across Railway Track
A Cutting On The Railway Over The Brunig Pass
In The Californian Snow-Sheds .
The Thirsk Accident On The N.E.R. .
The Bridge Over The Gorge Below The Victoria Falls (Cape To Cairo Railway).
Romance of Modern Locomotion
A pulley-wheel squeaks ; something has moved-the wooden arm in the distant signal. A mild excitement seizes us. We have seen the sight many a time before, but it never palls, this passing of the great express with its burden of precious human lives.
Far in the distance is a moving speck of white, which, as we gaze, expands into long tresses of snowy vapour, swept by the breeze across the emerald of the landscape. Every now and then the rattle of the train is wafted to our ears, dying down as some obstacle intervenes. She is round the curve, heading straight for us at sixty miles an hour, kept from a disastrous plunge into the banks and hedges by the inch-deep flanges of the wheels. Were but an axle to snap, or a rod to part-then what destruction But before the half-fear has clearly shaped itself the express is on us, enveloping the bridge in its hot breath ; and when the air is free again we see the red end of the guard's van twinkling down the rails half a mile away. The show is over ; the semaphore arm rises, moved by an unseen power ; and we are left to our thoughts.
This scene is being enacted in all quarters of the globe ; watched by the eyes of all the peoples of the earth. Let us give rein to our imaginations, and follow in spirit the express, no longer restricted by distance, but the World's Express, pursuing its headlong course across the continents. It passes now through well populated regions where snug dwellings nestle among the trees, and speak of peace and
prosperity. Now it traverses the depths of dark forests, rising threateningly on either side as though eager to step across the narrow lane cleft through them. It climbs the steep pathway blasted in the mountain side ; slides into the darkness of the tunnel where men bored and hewed for many a long month ; thunders beside the impetuous stream ; and emerges into the vast expanses of the rolling prairie. Now it crosses the hot plains of India, or the snow-clad steppes of Siberia. Here the Celestial watches it with placid eye ; there the antelope flies affrighted by its approach. It knows no impediment. A river would bar the way-a huge bridge spans the river with a network of timber or steel ; an avalanche hurls itself upon the intruder-a snow-shed reduces the sliding mass to impotence ; a great bog spreads its quaking surfaces before it-deep-driven piles pierce it to firmer ground. The express careers along, over the path that has been cunningly prepared by the engineer. Now and then Nature gets a blow fairly home, with fire or flood or earthquake ; but Man is soon on the spot, clearing and renewing : in a few days the track is open again, and the Express rolls on.
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