3-047-057 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Plan of the military narrow-gauge railway, 1872. 'Mr. J. B. Fell, the inventor of the system,...explained the plan and working of this military field railway. The experimental line is more than one mile in length...the working plans were prepared and the engine built by Messrs. Manning, Wardle, and Co.,...The loads were varied, some being of hay or straw, others of flour in sacks and pork in barrels, or of shot and shell; others carried a number of soldiers. The passenger-trains were run over the line at a speed of twenty miles an hour, mixed trains at fifteen miles an hour, and goods-trains at an average speed of ten miles an hour. The maximum attained with passengers only was thirty miles per hour...There was no perceptible oscillation of the structure, and the vibration was no greater than is usual in iron or timber railway bridges...Upon gradients of 1 in 100...a single train can carry provisions for one day for an army of 30,000 men, or forage for six regiments of cavalry of 420 horses each...a single line of railway would carry 1000 tons, and a double line 3000 tons, of war material and provisions per day, which would furnish supplies for a larger army than England is ever likely to have occasion to place in the field'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.