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76 THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL. [March 1.1S6S. mile are under 6s. 4d., and taking the rate of freight at one penny per ton per mile, which it is believed is a correct average, we are able to estimate the paying load to each of those trains of 300 tons gross to be about seventy-six tons, or only 25 per cent., and thus we find that the number of trains per day must really be about 609, instead of 312. It is true that merchandize is composed of classes according to bulk and frailty, in many cases less than half a ton filling a wagon, and thus reducing the proportion of dead weight to paying load, but it is also true Fig. 3. 'Enlarged tranverse section of engine through bogie-pin. that in all such cases charges are made not only to pay for the full carrying weight of the wagon, but leaving ample margin to cover the risk of breakage in handling. The same balance- sheet shows that each net ton carried produces to the Company a sum of 4s 7 Id.,which at a penny per ton per mile gives the average distance of each ton carried to be 551 miles; we have therefore 609 engines and tenders running55| miles every working day. Follow ing this reasoning, let us see how doing away with the tender affects the question. Taking the tender to equal the weight of two loaded wagons, giving a net result of ten tons, and there being 609 in motion every day, it follows that their equivalent in net paying load would be about 6,000 tons carried per day 55,) miles, which at the same average rate of one penny per ton per mile gives the amount earnable from this source at .£1387 10s. per day, and for 313 working days—representing one year— £434,287 10s. We have been speaking of merchandise and mineral traffic only, but applying the same scrutiny to the figures of the passenger traffic (provided, of course, there were passengers to be carried), and substituting carriages for tenders of an equivalent weight, we should arrive at an income of a somewhat similar amount, both amounting to £868,575 per annum net earnings, equal to a dividend of over 3 per cent, on the ordinary share capital. It is well known that the cost of maintenance of tenders is fully as much, if not more, than that of the carriages or wagons which are suggested for substitution. The method of conducting passenger traffic yielding so little per train per mile, is of such importance, and the discrepany between remunerative and unremunerative weights hauled, is so irrational and glaring, that it deserves to be considered a lit tle more in detail. Still quoting from the London and North- Western Railway balance-sheet, it appears that the gross pro duce of 9,613,195 passengers is £1,280,507, or under 2s. 8d. per passenger. Taking the average rate for each at lid. per mile, this gives 21 miles as the distance travelled by each, whilst the gross earnings per mile of passenger trains are about 5s., which, at a like rate of Igd. per mile, shows that the average number of passengers per train per mile is 40 ; allowing for a consider able amount of luggage to each passenger, this number could not be estimated at more than four tons. Now four tons is neither more nor less than about one-twelfth of the weight of the locomotive engine and tender (the tender alone being about five times this weight), and taking the passenger trains at say 50 tons, the paying load will bear not more than one-twenty fourth part of the gross weight of each train. It is evident, therefore, that the paying is altogether out of proportion to the unpaying load, although it is admitted that on railways such as the London and North-Western, from the circumstances of the great length and numerous unprofitable branches, there must always exist a much larger proportion of dead to paying weight than is the case with lines with no such encumbrances. Now there is no reason whatever why the present disproportion should exist, or anything like it. This is no new subject with men who have given their serious and unprejudiced attention to it. I find that in 1849, Professor Gordon, an engineer of considerable eminence, expressed, in a very able pamphlet called “ Railway Economy,” similar views to those which I have advanced. In page 4, he says—“The existing railway machinery will be found to be monstrously dis proportionate to the useful effect produced in four-fifths of the number of times that the machine is put in action. And to this waste of power may be most justly attributed much of the pre sent embarrassment of railway companies.” The judicious despatch of trains, and the proportion of paying to unpaying loads, are two of the most important subjects con nected with railway management. These, however, could be grappled with at any time by a really competent man, so as to enormously increase the net result even with existing stock ; but there are the difficulties which always surround independent departmental control, exhibiting on all occasions a strange rm willingness to adopt any change which shall interfere with their preconceived opinions, or occasion trouble or thought in depart ing from a system which one is tempted to think has its own personal peculiar advantages. It seems never to have occurred to these gentlemen that in the discharge of their im portant duties, involving every consideration they can bring to them, in the interest of their employers, what a close relation there is between the question of the dead weight necessary to the efficiency of the traffic and the dividends to those who have entrusted them with their important functions. The Metropolitan Railway is, ■without exception, one of the greatest engineering triumphs of the age, being one of the cases where cost, it would seem, has been of secondary consideration ; but, certainly, its management cannot be commended, and time will not permit of dealing with the general question. The mag nitude of the traffic is evinced by the fact that during the half- year ending December, 1867, nearly twelve millions of passen gers were carried over the line by 348 trains on week-days and 212 on Sundays, averaging over 328 trains per day throughout the year. The distance run by each of these trains is under stood to be 4J miles, consequently the train miles per day are over 1,396. By dividing the actual number of passengers, 11,916,924, carried for the half-year, by the number of days in the same period, we obtain 65,298 passengers carried per day, which in 328 trains, is 198 passengers per train. This number of pas sengers per train for the entire distance run—say 4j- miles— would give an average of less than 47 passengers per mile. This, however, is not the case, because the gross earnings per train mile being under 9s. 4d., the amount chargeable per passenger per mile would require to be about 2-^d. This would be above the average rate charged. It is, however, impossible to find out from the companies’ balance-sheet what the real average is. To arrive at something like an average, I take 100 passengers, 50 single and 50 return journeys, from Moorgate-street to all stations, and divide these into 20 first-class, 30 second-class, and 50 third-class, which will give the average rate per passenger at 2 - 02d., and this divided into 9s. 4d. gives a little over 55 pas sengers per train per mile. The trains on this line are mostly composed of five carriages, weighing about 16 tons each, and one locomotive, weighing 42 tons, together 122 tons. Thus we have 122 tons of train weight to carry an average of 55 passengers, which at 14 to the ton is under 4 tons, being only one ton of paying load to 30 tons of dead weight. Some objection may be taken to this mode of dealing with figures. It .will be said the average number of passengers given to each mile cannot be con sidered as the exact number travelling that distance. This is no
