------------------+---------------------------+---------------------- | Speed to first stopping | | station. | Weight of train. +-------+--------+---------+-------+---------+----- | | | Average | | | Train. | | | speed-- |Engine |Carriages| | | |miles per| and |and vans,| |Station|Distance| hour. |tender.| empty. |Total ------------------+-------+--------+---------+-------+---------+----- | | miles | | tons. | tons. | BROAD GAUGE TO WEST OF ENGLAND: | | | | 9.0 Paddington to |Reading| 36 | 47 | 67 | 149 | 216 Plymouth | | | | | | 11.45 do. |Swindon| 77¼ | 53 | 67 | 104 | 171 | | | | | | NARROW GAUGE TO THE NORTH| | | | | 10.0 Paddington to|Reading| 36 | 39.2 | 60 | 190 | 250 Birkenhead | | | | | | 4.45 do. |Oxford | 63½ | 48.8 | 60 | 129 | 189 ------------------+-------+--------+---------+-------+---------+----- [Illustration: FIG 2.--GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.] The narrow gauge trains are worked by two classes of engines. The first is a single engine with inside cylinders 18 in. diameter, 24 in. stroke. The driving wheels are 7 ft. diameter, and the leading and trailing wheels 4 ft. The frames are double, giving outside bearings to the leading and trailing axles, and outside and inside bearings to the driving axle; this arrangement gives a very steady running engine, and insures, as far as can possibly be done, safety in case of the fracture of a crank axle. The frames are 15 inches deep, of BB Staffordshire iron. The wheel base is, leading to driving wheels, 8 ft. 6 in; driving to trailing wheels, 9 ft.; total, 17 ft. 6 in. The boiler is of Lowmoor iron, 10 ft. 6 in. long and 4 ft. 2 in. outside diameter. The grate area is 17 square feet, and the heating surface is, tubes, 1,145½ square feet; fire-box 133 square feet; total, 1,278½ square feet. The boiler pressure is 140 lb. on the square inch, and the tractive power per lb. of mean pressure in cylinders, 92 lb. The weight in full working order is, engine, leading wheel, 10 tons; ditto driving wheels, 14 tons; ditto trailing wheels, 9 tons 10 cwt.; tender, with 40 cwt. coal and 2,600 gals. water, 26 tons 10 cwt.; total, 60 tons. These engines are extremely simple, but well proportioned, and are a very handsome type, and their average consumption of coal, working trains averaging ten coaches, is about 24.87 lb. per mile. The standard coupled passenger express engine on the narrow gauge has inside cylinders 17 in. diameter and 24 in. stroke; the coupled wheels are 6 ft. 6 in. diameter,