The coals, when brought above ground, had next to be laboriously dragged by means of horses to the shipping staiths on the Tyne, several miles distant. The adoption of a tram-road, it is true, had tended to facilitate their transit; nevertheless, the haulage was both tedious and expensive. With the view of economizing labor, Stephenson laid down inclined planes where the nature of the ground would admit of this expedient being adopted. Thus a train of full wagons let down the incline by means of a rope running over wheels laid along the tram-road, the other end of which was attached to a train of empty wagons placed at the bottom of the parallel road on the same incline, dragged them up by the simple power of gravity. But this applied only to a comparatively small part of the road. An economical method of working the coal-trains, instead of by means of horses--the keep of which was at that time very costly, in consequence of the high price of corn--was still a great desideratum, and the best practical minds in the collieries were actively engaged in trying to solve the problem. In the first place, Stephenson resolved to make himself thoroughly acquainted with what had already been done. Mr. Blackett's engines were working daily at Wylam, past the cottage where he had been born, and thither he frequently went[37] to inspect the improvements made by Mr. Blackett from time to time both in the locomotive and in the plate-way along which it worked. Jonathan Foster informed us that, after one of these visits, Stephenson declared to him his conviction that a much more effective engine might be made, that should work more steadily and draw the load more effectively.