John William Grover

“ It becomes impossible to institute any absolute comparison between roads and railways at speeds above 10 miles an hour, because such speeds are impossible on the former for any considerable distance. Again, the question of a gradient has to be noticed, for in the preceding remarks a level road and a level railway have only been considered. ”

“ Speed is the delinquent, and the cause of the loss of the great primary advantages: the vehicles on railways are propelled very fast; hence they involve great strength in their construction, and enormous weight in proportion to the paying load carried.
An old stage-coach, according to Nicholas Wood, weighed only 16 to 18 cwts., and would carry upward of 2 tons of paying passengers with their luggage, or about 4⁄10 of a hundred-weight of dead load to every hundred-weight of paying load. ”

“ Now, to sum up the combined advantages, therefore, of an engine on a level railway against a horse on a level common road at 10 miles an hour, we shall find that the former gives an economy over the latter of nearly 300 to 1; at 5 miles an hour, it would stand as 115 to 1 ”

“ Now, since the primary conception of the perfectly smooth, straight road, a great degeneracy has been of necessity taking place; with greatly increased demands, less capital than ever has been forthcoming ”

“ In talking about a passenger, with relation to a railway, one must not picture to one's self a respectable English country gentleman, riding perhaps some 14 stone, but some Homeric giant, magnified into prehistoric proportions, weightier than an ordinary Ceylonese elephant, and representing about 20 to 25 full sacks of coal, or 2+1⁄4 tons.—Abstract from Quarterly Journal of Science. ”