have been found to be more lasting, and conse- | weights descend, an indicator, at the side of each quently cheaper in the end. Within the last few years, the broad-gauge rails have been taken up, and only the narrow-gauge is now used. box, points either to E or F, to show how near the india-rubber reservoirs are to being either empty or full. The jets in the carriages are supplied by So far as the engines and carriages are con- means of a gas-pipe in communication with the cerned, but little need he said here. The former The former bags on the roofs, and extending from the back of are fine, powerful machines, specially designed by the vehicles themselves, while along the lower part Mr. Fowler, the engineer-in-chief; and they are of each portion of the train runs the main,' as it arranged either to exhaust the steam through the were, by which the bags are replenished from the chimney in the ordinary way, or else to condense gasometers established at either end of the line. it in tanks which are placed on either side of the The gasholders are kept charged with supplies from engine, and contain 1,000 gallons of water-a the neighbouring gas-works, and are so heavily supply sufficient for the double journey. The weighted that the elastic bags along the top of the carriages are extremely large and roomy vehicles, carriages can be filled (by means of 'hydrants' the united bodies being no less than forty feet long. and flexible tubes in connection with the gasThe first-class carriages are luxuriously fitted up, holders) in the short space of two or three minutes. and are constructed to carry sixty passengers; The light thus afforded to the passengers is so bright Underground London.] UNDERGROUND SIGNALS. 229 Railway News gives all that need be said on this subject : as to utterly remove all sense of travelling underground, and entirely dissipate that nervousness which the semi-obscurity of ordinary oil-lighted "We will suppose," says the writer of a clever railway carriages gives to the sensitive during their article upon "Underground Signals," in the publitransit through the tunnels on other lines." cation before mentioned, "the signal-man to be at From the rapid rate at which the trains are dis- Baker Street; on the down line he will have posses ENTRANCE TO THE CLERKENWELL TUNNEL FROM FARRINGDON STREET. (See page 227.) patched one after the other on this line, it will be readily conceived that the system of signalling must be one of the greatest exactitude in order to ensure perfect safety. The system, however, is so simple, and at the same time so certain, as "to require no exercise of skill on the part of the signal-man, but rather to bring the official working them down to the level of the unerring machine upon which he has to operate." The following extract from the sion of the line to the Edgware Road Station, on the up line possession of the length to Portland Road Station. In the front of each dial there is an opening, in which appears, as the case may be, the words 'Line clear' on a white ground, or, Train on line,' on a red ground. Below this are two keys, one red and one white, having over them corresponding words to those which appear in the opening on the face of the telegraph dial. Press the white key, and the words 'Line clear' are shown on the instruments; press the red key, and the words 'Train on line' appear. There is no movement of needles to the one side or the other, which may be liable to be mistaken; there is no sound of a bell, which may be misunderstood. The needle of the dial does not point to a communication which it wishes to make, but it carries on its back the actual message, and presents it to the sight of the person for whom it is intended. long time, in order to deprive it of every trace of sulphur and other objectionable exhalations. We have already seen how that the engines are specially constructed to exhaust the steam during the transit of the trains. By these means the engines may be said to "hold their breath," as it were, whilst travelling through these lower regions, and thus little or no foul sulphurous fumes are evolved from the chimney, nor waste steam discharged. One part of the line, nevertheless, from some cause or other, remained in which the foul air continued to cause annoyance and discomfort to passengers. Gower Street Station. Between these stations the arch of the railway tunnel is crossed nearly at right angles by the tube of the old Pneumatic Despatch Company. In a lucky moment the "happy thought" arose that this tube might be made subservient towards the removal of the foul air in the tunnel beneath, and the more efficient ventilation of the railway in its immediate vicinity. In 1874 this idea was most successfully worked out and practically applied in a very ingenious manner to the desired purpose by Mr. De Wylde, the engineer to the Pneumatic Despatch Company, who was materially assisted in his labours by Mr. Tomlinson, the engineer of the Metropolitan line. "Let us see how this system is carried into actual practice. A passenger train is about to start from Edgware Road on the up-line. The signal-man | This extended from the Portland Road to the presses down a key, which rings a bell at Baker Street to call attention. This bell has a conducting wire, entirely separated from that connected with the signalling instruments, so that no mistake can occur in the transmission of signals. The beats on the bell are made to describe the approaching train, whether it be a Metropolitan, Great Western, or Great Northern one. Having thus called attention, he presses down the red key, and at Baker Street is instantly shown the signal 'Train on line.' Baker Street replies by repeating the beats on the bell, and pegs down the key which corresponds to the signal shown. Edgware Road puts the signal to 'Danger,' to prevent any up-line train from following, and Baker Street keeps the signal pegged down until the train has not only reached him, but has actually passed out of the station. After the train has left Baker Street it is signalled on to Portland Road, just as it had previously been sent on from the Edgware Road. The Baker Street sends back to Edgware Road three beats on his bell, re-pegs his red key, presses down a white key, which shows 'Line clear.' The signal is acknowledged, the white key pegged down by the signal-man at Edgware Road, who thus takes possession of the line up to Baker Street. When the train has left Portland Road Station, Baker Street is signalled to, just as Edgware Road had been, and the up-line is clear to the next station. And so the work goes on from station to station throughout the day, and trains may run with safety at intervals of two minutes, whereas, without these signals, it would not have been possible to run more frequently than every quarter of an hour.” The question of ventilation of the Underground Railway gave rise to considerable discussion at the time of the formation of the line, and, indeed, long afterwards, and various means were adopted by which that "vexed question" could be set at rest. Instead of the coal used on ordinary lines the company have used coke made from the best and finest Durham coal, and burnt in the ovens for a very From the above description of the Underground Railway, it will be at once perceived that there is scarcely any part of London or any of its outlying districts which cannot now be reached by rail, and by trains that are arriving and departing every few minutes. The Metropolitan Railway is, indeed, a mighty underground undertaking, by which, in half an hour, the heart of the City is reached with comfort and safety from Hammersmith or Notting Hill, Kensington or Brompton, and nearly all round London. Travelling seems to have reached its climax, when what was half a day's journey twenty years ago is done now in a quarter of an hour-for it requires but some such interval of time as that between shaking hands with friends in parting at the Mansion House, and doing the same with others on meeting in Camden Town. Metropolitan Railway service appears to be capable of almost indefinite extension. There are now six companies which are exclusively devoted to the metropolitan railway traffic-the Metropolitan, the Metropolitan District, the Metropolitan and St. John's Wood, the North London, the East London, and the London, Chatham, and Dover. The The "District Railway" owns nearly half of the whole line, and has the advantage, in one respect; its portion of the stations being all open to the daylight, and the tunnels not so frequent. Its terminal Underground London.] METROPOLITAN DISTRICT RAILWAY. station, the "Mansion House," within a few minutes' walk of the Exchange, the Bank, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the heart of the City, is a handsome, light, commodious building, spanned with an iron and glass roof. The space is necessarily somewhat cramped in a spot where land is said to be more valuable than anywhere else in the world. There are only three lines of rails, and the same number of platforms; but although, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., thirteen trains run in and out every hour, this is found sufficient accommodation, even when there is an unusual pressure of business; and occasionally three trains have entered the station, discharged their passengers, been re-filled, and supplied with gas, in six minutes. On leaving the Mansion House Station, the line passes westward along under Queen Victoria Street, to Blackfriars Bridge, where there is a station, which, although the platforms are considerably below the level of the outer roadway, is open to the light of day. In the neighbourhood of Blackfriars Bridge, the railway is crossed by a tramroad for the conveyance of coals from the river to the works of the City Gas Company; and nearly at the same point the subway of the Embankment rises to the surface. The low-level sewer crosses obliquely beneath the railway; and the Fleet Ditch also crosses beneath it at right angles, previous to joining the low-level sewer. The "Fleet" formerly opened and discharged its contents into the river under the first arch of the bridge. At various points of the railway sewers pass beneath it to enter the low-level main sewer; and the summits of these sewers, as originally constructed, would rise somewhat above the permanent It was, of course, impossible to lower them, and the difficulty was surmounted by giving a depressed shape to portions that pass under the line. The original sewers presented elliptical sections, with the major axis vertical, and the new portions have their major axis horizontal. In this way the necessary area is preserved, and the line is only so far interfered with that the sleepers are carried over the sewers on a bridge of iron plates. The railway itself is drained by a barrel-drain along the "sixfoot" space, and this drain is carried below each sewer and back to its former level by four rectangular bends. The original opening of the Fleet Ditch was immediately to the westward of Blackfriars Bridge, and under the management of the Board of Works its new opening has been made beneath the bridge. Beneath the station it was found necessary, at the construction of the works, to lower the level and contract the area of the diversion of the Fleet which had to be made, by 231 which it emptied its contents into the river on the east side of the bridge; for this purpose another diversion was made to the eastward of the first, leaving it to the north, and re-entering it at the south of the station. When this was completed, the portion of the first diversion that passed under the station was converted into a barrel-drain by iron tubing seven feet in diameter; and then the second diversion was closed. The low-level sewer at first passed beneath the barrel-drain, but was eventually connected with the Fleet channel, so as to relieve the latter of some portion of the contents. The tramroad to the City gas-works passes under the roadway of the Embankment, and over the railway; and the subway of the Embankment is also carried over the railway. Close by Blackfriars Station, in Earl Street, nearly equal difficulties were encountered on a smaller scale, from the number of gas-pipes, water-pipes, and other channels that crossed the line near together, and at all possible levels. These pipes, however, have all been re-arranged in a regular and orderly manner. The difficulty of finding room for all these requirements was extreme, as may well be imagined. A short piece of tunneling along the Victoria Embankment brings us to the Temple Station, which is the nearest outlet for the eastern parts of the Strand. Within the precincts of the Temple, as a precautionary measure against the interruption of legal studies by noise and vibration, the sleepers rest upon a layer of tan, six inches in thickness, placed immediately below the ballast. This plan had already been adopted, with good results, in the neighbourhood of Westminster Abbey, and the Benchers of the Temple made its employment one of the conditions of their approval of the line. The Embankment, beneath which the line passes on by Somerset House and Charing Cross (where there is another station) to Westminster Bridge, is, we need hardly say, one of the most successful pieces of engineering skill which this country has ever produced; but it was not effected without considerable risk and danger to surrounding property; indeed, owing to the undermining of the foundation of King's College, which adjoins Somerset House, the roof of the hall gave way, and fears were at one time entertained as to the safety of the building. Besides the railway tunnel there are other immense subways passing along it, some of which serve the purposes of the main drainage, the low-level sewer of the northern system, as we have already shown, passing this way in its course from Pimlico towards the east of London. The railway also passes under the first arch of Waterloo Bridge. For some portion of the distance between Charing Cross and Westminster Bridge the line is covered in by iron girders, placed obliquely, and connected by brickwork; this was so arranged in order to support a garden attached to the offices of the Board of Control. The distance from Blackfriars Station to Westminster Bridge Station is 2,200 yards, and the stations are very nearly equidistant. Instead of the semi-circular arched roof usually found in other tunnels, that in the Embankment is flat, formed of transverse iron girders placed about eight feet apart, with shallow brick arches between them, and supported on brick walls, about fourteen feet in height, the south of which is in contact with the concrete of the Embankment. suburbs. When the Metropolitan Company ob At Westminster there is a branch tunnel or sub-workmen themselves, and to hear from them what way which passes under the roadway at the foot of benefits they derived from the institution. Early as the bridge to the Houses of Parliament. In the was the hour, we found the platform all of a bustle construction of the tunnel between Westminster with men, many of whom had bass baskets in Bridge and the St. James's Park Stations, great their hands, or tin flagons, or basins done up in red difficulties presented themselves from the irregular handkerchiefs. Some few carried large saws under nature of the soil, but these were in the end sur- their arms, and beneath the overcoat of others one mounted; and in the course of the excavations at could just see a little bit of the flannel jacket worn this point quantities of bones of animals-supposed by carpenters, whilst some were habited in the grey to be those of the mammoth and other antediluvian and clay-stained fustian peculiar to ground labourers. animals—were unearthed. Another difficulty arose There was but little time for the arrangement of from the fear of the excavations weakening the plans with the general manager ere the whistle foundations of the Abbey. The line passes almost screamed, and we were thrust into a third-class close under the walls of St. Margaret's Church and compartment, which we found nearly filled with Westminster Abbey, and emerges into daylight plasterers, joiners, and labourers. close by Queen Anne's Gate, near the St. James's Park Station. The next station is Victoria, which is situated close to that of the Brighton and the London, Chatham, and Dover Railways. Leaving this station the line proceeds, by a short tunnel, under Eccleston and Ebury Streets, Pimlico, to Sloane Square, where there is a large and commodious station. A few minutes' ride next brings us to South Kensington Station, which, with its farstretching roof of iron and glass, is light and open. Here we may be said to have got clear of "underground London," for although the line passes on for some distance before it reaches Paddington, which we made our starting point, a considerable portion of it is open to the light of day. The stations passed before arriving at Praed Street, Paddington, are the Gloucester Road (whence there are branches to West Brompton, Addison Road, and Hammersmith); High Street, Kensington; Notting Hill Gate; Queen's Road, Bayswater. One feature of the Metropolitan and of the District Railway is the facility which it gives to working men who, through the demolition of small dwellinghouses in London, or from other circumstances, may have taken up their abode in the western "The subject of our mission was soon opened. All present agreed that the cheap and early trains were a great benefit to the operative classes. The labourer assured us that he saved at least two shillings a week by them in the matter of rent only. He lived at Notting Hill, and would have to walk six miles to and from his work every day if it were not for the convenience of the railway. He had two rooms now, almost in the open country, for the same price as he would have to pay for one in some close court in the heart of London, besides what he saved in medicine for his wife and family. A plasterer, who had to go all the way to Dockhead to his work, who was a fellow-passenger, took up the matter, and said that 'it was impossible to reckon up how much workmen gained by what is called the Workmen's Trains, especially if you took into account the saving in shoe-leather, the gain in health and strength, and the advantage it was for men to go to their work fresh and unfatigued by a long walk at the commencement of the day.' The plasterer, too, was great on the moral effects (it is astonishing how working men delight in the morality of a question), and urged, with some force, that the best thing in connection with such institutions was, |