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Railways of the World, Cassell's Vol 1 by Fred A Talbot Hard Cover
Cassell's Railways of the World Vol 1 by Fred A Talbot
with numerous illustrations in photogravure & Halftone
Hard Cover
240 pages
Copyright ?
THIS edition is specially prepared for subscribers
CONTENTS
" ATLANTIC," THE STORY OF THE203
" BOOSTER," THE LOCOMOTIVE 84
BUILDING AND REBUILDING OF THE KINZUA VIADUCT, THE175
COMING OF THE " TEN-WHEELER," THE182
CROOKEDEST RAILWAY IN THE WORLD, THE 65
DRIVING AND DOUBLING THE WORLD'S LONGEST TUNNEL126
ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE CLASSIFICATION112
FAMILY OF LOCOMOTIVES, THE 21, 48, 151
FAMOUS EXPRESSES:
1. BRITISH92
2. CANADIAN 2I0
FIGHTING THE SAND-SEAS OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER 103
FIRING THE LOCOMOTIVE MECHANICALLY 218
GREAT NORTH ROAD OF STEEL, THE3, 58
INDIA, THE RAILWAY INVASION OF 72, 140
KINZUA VIADUCT, THE BUILDING AND REBUILDING OF THE 175
LAST LINK IN THE INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY OF EUROPE, THE 191
LOCOMOTIVE " BOOSTER," THE 84
MOVING 35,000 TONS OF COAL A DAY 163
RAILWAY INVASION OF INDIA, THE72, 140
SAND-SEAS OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER, FIGHTING THE103
SINGLE-LINE RAILWAYS 231
STORY OF THE " ATLANTIC," THE203
" TEN-WHEELER," THE COMING OF THE 182
TRAIN OPERATION BY WIRELESS15
WHERE THE SNOW-PLOUGH WORKS IN SUMMER 32
WIRELESS, TRAIN OPERATION BY15
WORLD'S LONGEST TUNNEL, DRIVING AND DOUBLING THE 126
LIST OF PLATES
THE HARROGATE PULLMAN, LIMITED FACING PAGE
THE LEEDS AND BRADFORD EXPRESS 64
HOW THE GREAT INDIAN PENINSULA RAILWAY CROSSES THE JUMNA RIVER BETWEEN CAWNPORE AND BANDA79
GIANT ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE OF THE SWISS FEDERAL RAILWAYS HAULING THE SIMPLON EXPRESS 115
THE ISELLE PORTAL OF THE SIMPLON TUNNELI-9 A GIANT EXPRESS LOCOMOTIVE OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC 155
GIGANTIC COAL TRAIN ON THE NORFOLK AND WESTERN RAILWAY 167
THE SCOTCH EXPRESS 184
TYPICAL VIADUCT ON THE GREEK LONGITUDINAL RAILWAY 199
THE NORTH CORNWALL CORRIDOR EXPRESS 216
FOREWORD
Since the columes of Railway Wonders of the World were published ten years ago the girdling of the globe with steelways has continued apace; while the railway situation, as a whole, has undergone a main dramatic transformation. The gridirons of steel, enmeshing the various countries, were conceived, planned, financed and built by many hands. A score of miles of line were contrived here to satisfy local needs; a hundred miles were built there to connect two trading centres; while a thousand miles were laid somewhere else to constitute the great artery of communication between isolated communities. Each was elaborated as a separate entity to have an independent existence.
The days of frantic railway-building, however, by self-contained private interests have passed for ever. The great systems have extended their tentacles on every hand to absorb the lesser roads in their advance. Consolidation and amalgamation are in active progress, and by the absorption of these fragmentary steel-ways, "zones of influence " are being created. The grouping process is bringing about the extinction of many lines, the names of which were household words; their achievements in settlement and the general up-building of the community are in danger of becoming obscured, if not actually lost to memory.
The general acceptance of the policy of "community of interests " is not only destroying individuality, but is slowing down new construction in the more settled territories. Even when we turn to the lesser developed parts of the world we find that the railway invasion is being conducted according to carefully prepared programmes. Haphazard speculative construction is giving way to rigid system : the interests of the whole are being considered rather than the requirements of the few. While this tendency is depriving railway conquest of its picturesqueness it is bestowing manifold advantages in other directions. It is contributing to the wider recognition of standardization in all matters pertaining to the laying-out and operation of the world's railways.
The Inevitable Circle
As in construction so in operation. There is an eternal struggle between the engineering, motive power and traffic forces of every railway. The first-named plans and designs to meet the desires of the last-named, the arbiter of motive power supplying the wherewithal to satisfy the needs of both. Traffic, growing, persistently calls for more and more effort to move the overland commerce of the world economically, and the locomotive engineer responds, but he can only provide the power at the cost of weight. This, in turn, is governed by the physical standard of the road, and so we find the engineer being compelled to ease his grades and to open his curves, to lav a more substantial track, and to build heavier bridges. So railway development has settled down to movement round the inevitable circle.
Throughout the world the established railways are passing through the exacting process of reconditioning and overhaul. The engineer is striving to forge ahead, but is being pressed by his colleague charged with locomotive responsibilities, under the unrelenting stress imposed by traffic. Millions are being poured out in the struggle; hundreds of miles of line are being abandoned or so completely replotted and rebuilt as to constitute new construction.
The adventurous side of blazing the trail for the rail and construction is encountered only in the newer lands. These, however, are being opened up at such a pace as to leave the pathfinder little scope for the gratification of his pioneering ambitions. Furthermore, the accumulation of knowledge, based upon experience, renders the railway conquest of even a new country less thrilling and exciting than it was fifty years ago, although Nature is still able to provide ample measure of sensational adventure, and to spring mines of surprise.
The locomotive is also passing through a wonderful evolution. The engine which hauls the contemporary "Limited," or the ponderous train of merchandise, has little in common with that contrived by George Stephenson a hundred years ago. The locomotive has not only been carried to almost inconceivable limits in dimensions, weight, power and speed, but has been transformed into a highly efficient, albeit complex, machine.
The amazing change in the steam locomotive has been primarily due to the bold bid made by its young rival, electricity, for supremacy in haulage upon the railways of the world. Less than a decade ago there was every indication that the new force would altogether usurp steam ; we appeared to be at the parting of the ways; the steam locomotive was declared to be condemned to obsolescence.
The Steam Locomotive
However, the mechanical engineer rose to the occasion and to such magnificent purpose that to-day we have locomotives in steam equalling in power the greatest giants of electricity. In its perfection avail has been made of many far-reaching innovations, such as the "booster," providing a substantial reserve of effort for emergency use; the mechanical stoker, the oil-burner, and compressed air for the manipulation of the indispensable adjuncts to the modern machine. As the result the steam locomotive has been re-invigorated, and to such a degree as to relegate the question of extensive main-line electrification, except in countries abounding in waterpower, to the background for many years to come.
The present volumes continue the story of amazing achievement, stirring conquest, marvellous development and startling performance set forth in the previous work, "Railway Wonders of the World." The magnitude of the world's railway network renders the subject well-nigh inexhaustible, inasmuch as every single system is endowed with its individual romance.
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