Railway traffic

“ There seems to be no doubt but what the railroads can and do transport large quantities long distances quicker, better, and more efficiently than can be done on the highways. Highways may be considered as feeders of the railways. With good roads the zone from which the railway can profitably draw products for long distance or quantity transportation is widened, and again widened very materially when better roads allow the use of motors in place of horses. This, if no other railway interferes, means a larger grand total of traffic hauled. ”

“ But in spite of enormous capital accounts and consequent high freight, the traffic per mile of railway has so increased that it has actually overtaken the power of our Railways to deal with it. This is shewn by the fact that many are doubling their lines at enormous cost. Obviously under such conditions it would be economical to remove as much as possible of slow traffic from our Railways to enable them more easily to meet the growing and more remunerative passenger and fast traffic. ”

“ Where there are only two lines of rails to serve for the UP and DOWN service of a heavy passenger and goods traffic, it is imperative to restrict those lines as much as possible to the actual transit of trains, and not to block them by unnecessary occupation for shunting purposes. A goods train running a long distance collects waggons from many roadside stations, and at some of them several waggons will be taken on, to be forwarded to various and widely distant destinations. ”

“ Every one of the heavy works on a line, whether lofty bridges, long viaducts, or costly tunnels, not only enormously increase the original expenditure of the undertaking, but also entail large annual outlay in the necessary constant supervision and maintenance.
Each particular scheme will have to be discussed on its own individual merits. The heavy, high-speed passenger traffic line will suggest light gradients and easy curves, while on secondary lines and in thinly populated districts it may be prudent, for the sake of economy, to introduce sharper curves and heavier gradients. ”

“ A third cause of diversion of traffic is akin to the second; and concerns the practices in pro-rating. Much circuitous transportation is due to the existence of independent transverse lines of railway which may participate in the traffic only on condition that it move by an indirect route. This situation is best described by reference to the following diagram. Let us suppose traffic to be moving by two routes passing through [Pg 282] points B and C, and converging on A, which last-named point might be Chicago, St. Louis, New York or any other railroad centre. ”

“ There were also p. xi24,644 passenger-carriages, 9128 vans and breaks attached to passenger-trains, and 329,163 trucks, waggons, and other vehicles appropriated to merchandise. Buckled together, buffer to buffer, the locomotives and tenders would extend from London to Peterborough; while the carrying vehicles, joined together, would form two trains occupying a double line of railway extending from London to beyond Inverness.
A notable feature in the growth of railway traffic of late years has been the increase in the number of third-class passengers, compared with first and second class. ”

“ Private motor-cars may appear to have deprived the railways of a good deal of their passenger traffic, and they certainly constitute a most material and much-appreciated increase in the facilities now available for getting about the country. It must, however, be remembered that a very large proportion of the journeys taken in them would probably not be made at all if the motor-car did not exist, and if such journeys had to be made by train instead. The actual diversion of traffic from the railway only occurs when journeys which would otherwise be made by rail are made by motor, in preference. ”

“ The next step will be taken by the railway companies, or by the local authorities, when it becomes obvious that there is much more profit in motor traffic than there ever was in catering for the public by means of vehicles drawn by horses. Each important railway station will have its diverging lines of motor-traffic for the convenience of passengers, some of them owned and managed by the same authority as the railway line itself. ”

“ Hence a further problem in the railway world of recent years has been how to adjust traffic arrangements to commercial conditions based on the now established requirements of the British trader for small consignments at frequent intervals, and yet secure for the railways themselves the advantage of economical loading. ”

“ The amount of traffic it is possible to convey between certain points in a given time may thus be wholly controlled by the physical conditions of the railway concerned, and such conditions may be incapable of modification by the railway staffs, in case of a sudden emergency, however great their desire to do everything that is in their power. ”

“ If there is one point more fully established than another in the practice of Railways, it is that the inconvenience occasioned by a break upon a line of through-traffic, occasioned by want of uniformity of gauge, is of such a serious description as to detract most materially from the advantages of Railway communication. ”

“ And with the growth of population the difficulty of running sufficiently frequent trains became almost insuperable.
Apart from these particular necessities, the general features of railway economics point to the supreme advantage of increasing the volume of traffic in every possible way. In a railway, as in a tramway, the preponderating item is the cost of construction and maintenance; and unless a certain minimum of traffic is carried, the most economical working in the world will not secure a profit. ”

“ One horse on a local railway would therefore draw as much as ten on a common road, perhaps more. But even this gives a great advantage over the common road. Horses, in the room of the heavy locomotives now in use, would effect great saving, in carrying a limited amount of traffic, in working, as well as in the repairs of the permanent way. Should the traffic of these local lines increase much, it may then become advisable to put on light locomotives equal to the duty. ”

“ Then mixed trains of passengers and merchandise began to run; and the result was that the railway company found it necessary to take the entire charge and working of the traffic. In course of time new coaches were specially built for the better accommodation of the public, until at length regular passenger-trains were run, drawn by the locomotive engine,—though this was not until after the Liverpool and Manchester Company had established this as a distinct branch of their traffic. ”

“ The working of trains is too expensive to allow of any profit being derived from the traffic conveyed.'
The announcement of these truths brings us to the consideration of a new and cheaper kind of railway system. It will naturally occur to every one that there are towns and districts which might find a paying traffic for some species of thoroughfare superior to what is afforded by a common road. A road is a general pathway on which so many cart-loads of stones are laid down to be ground to mud annually, at great labour to horses, and no small pain and loss of time and money to passengers. ”

“ In the matter of passenger traffic, while people of means may prefer to make such journeys as that from London to Scotland in their own motor-car, the railway will continue to form both the cheaper and the quicker means of travel for the great bulk of the population as distinct from private car-owners, whose number must needs be comparatively small.
It is in respect to urban and suburban traffic that motor-vehicles have their best chance of competing with the railways on any extensive scale ”

“ It may be, moreover, observed that this extent of traffic, however great, affords no adequate idea of the vast trade which will arise to feed this line, when in full operation,—with all the important advantages of a completed railway, and of a systematic conduct of business. ”

“ Block-Telegraph Signalling.—However complete the outdoor signals and interlocking at any station, they can only control the movement of trains within their range, and something more is requisite to ensure the safe working of the traffic over the long lengths of line between stations. For some years a time-interval was allowed for the working of trains following one another on the UP and DOWN lines of a double line railway, no train being allowed to leave a station sooner than a fixed number of minutes after a previous train had started in the same direction. ”

“ This arrangement avoids the necessity of any switches, and prevents any accidents which would arise from a misplaced switch. Each set of trains is effectually kept to its own line of rails. With proper signalling or pilot working, the double-line traffic can be worked over the single-line bridge without difficulty. The writer has adopted the above arrangement in many cases when renewing double-line bridges or viaducts where the width for traffic working has been restricted to half of the bridge. ”

“ Congestion of traffic upon the direct line is a rare condition in our American experience. Few of our railways are over-crowded with business. Their equipment may be overtaxed, but their rails are seldom worked to the utmost. Yet the phenomenal development of trunk line business since 1897 sometimes makes delivery so slow and uncertain that shippers prefer to patronize railways less advantageously located, even at the same rates. The congestion on the main stem of the Pennsylvania railway between Pittsburg and Philadelphia is a case in point. ”

“ That point has almost been reached when traffic can be delivered in England from the heart of Belgium at 5s. per ton, as compared with 10s. and 12s. per ton for railway transport between the Midlands and the metropolis. The real question now is—Can nothing be done to remedy this state of things, not in a spirit of hostility to the [11] railways, which may have done their best, but with a view to the preservation and increased development of British trade and industry? The nation is either hopelessly at the mercy of railway boards, or it is not. ”

“ Assuredly there will be fights of a very complicated sort at first, but once one of these specialised lines is in operation, it may be that some at least of the railway companies will hasten to replace their flanged rolling stock by carriages with rubber tyres, remove their rails, broaden their cuttings and embankments, raise their bridges, and take to the new ways of traffic. ”

“ One constantly came upon those costly overhead cross-over places, where one set of lines is carried right over the top of another set at a junction, so that continuous traffic going one way shall not be checked by traffic coming in from the side and proceeding in the opposite direction—a plan seldom adopted at our most important railway centres. ”

“ The condition of many of our great freight terminals is still one of difficulty and results in imposing, large costs on the public for inward-bound freight, and on the railways for outward-bound freight. Owing to the growth of our large cities and the great increase in the volume of traffic, particularly in perishables, the problem is not only difficult of solution, but in some cases not wholly solvable by railway action alone. ”

“ In the country what is most wanted is an increase in transport facilities between existing railways and outlying districts, the traffic from which would not be sufficient to justify the construction of branch lines of ordinary railway. ”

“ For such a line the additional cost, and the extra distance caused by a detour of a mile or more, will be of far less importance than the interruption in the train service arising from a serious reduction in speed or taking on assistant engines. On many railways abroad there are very interesting examples of long detours of several miles, carefully studied out to obtain greater length and easier gradients, resulting in the construction of lines over which the traffic can be worked without necessitating auxiliary engine-power. ”

“ But indeed it is the result of accidental impediments, of avoidable difficulties that we travel to-day on rails.
Railway travelling is at best a compromise. The quite conceivable ideal of locomotive convenience, so far as travellers are concerned, is surely a highly mobile conveyance capable of travelling easily and swiftly to any desired point, traversing, at a reasonably controlled pace, the ordinary roads and streets, and having access for higher rates of speed and long-distance travelling to specialized ways restricted to swift traffic, and possibly furnished with guide-rails. ”

“ Relatively little serious damage was done, but the fact that traffic had often to be or worked under difficulties, the reduced lighting generally maintained throughout the more vulnerable parts of the country, and the congestion which followed each cessation of traffic constituted serious hindrances to railway working. ”

“ Moreover, such a system would admit of that secular progress in engines and vehicles that the stereotyped conditions of the railway have almost completely arrested, because it would allow almost any new pattern to be put at once upon the ways without interference with the established traffic. ”

“ It is evident that the rail which would last for very many years under the small traffic, would have a very short life under the frequent traffic. Hence the reason why it is found expedient to give a large increase of material in the heads of rails carrying the heavy, constant train service of many of our main lines. ”

“ In the first place the route of a railway must be governed by commercial considerations. Unless it be quite short, it can scarcely ever be planned simply to connect its two terminal points, without regard to the intervening country; in Order to be of the greatest utility and to secure the greatest revenue it must be laid out with due consideration of the traffic arising at intermediate places, and as these will not usually lie exactly on the direct line, deviations from straightness will be rendered necessary. ”