To get over this
difficulty, it was occasionally the practice to insert into a line of
rails, in a siding, a pair of wheels, with their tops level with that
of the rails so that the engine wheels could run upon the rims. Then,
the locomotive being fixed to prevent it from moving off the pair of
wheels thus endways, it was put into revolution, its driving wheels
bearing, as already stated, upon the rims of the pair of wheels in the
rails, and thus the engine worked its feed-pumps without interfering
(by its needless running up and down the line) with the traffic. It
should have been stated, that at this time there was no link motion,
no practical expansion of the steam, and that even the reversal of the
engine had to be effected by working the sides by hand gear, in the
manner in use in marine engines. When the British Association
originated, although the Manchester and Liverpool Railway had been
opened for a year, there is no doubt that the 300 members who then
came to this city found their way here by the slow process of the
stage-coach, the loss of which we so much deplore in the summer and in
fine weather, but the obligatory use of which we should so much regret
in the miserable weather now prevailing in these islands.
In 1881, we know that railways are everywhere inserted.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42