“Wagon-ways constructed entirely of square wooden frames or rails, laid in two right lines on wooden sleepers, appear to have been in use at Newcastle so far back as the year 1671. The plan of cast-iron railways seems to have been originally introduced by the great Iron Company of Colebroke Dale in Shropshire, only about the year 1786, as an improvement upon the tram or wooden railway; and such are likely to be the benefits resulting from this discovery, that we doubt not, as this system develops itself, the name of the person who first conceived the idea will eagerly be sought after, and honour done to him, as to one of the greatest benefactors of his country. We might mention the name of the late Mr. Jessop, as the first engineer of eminence who seems to have introduced railways in the south. He was also the engineer for the magnificent works of his Grace the Duke of Portland in Scotland, connected with which there is a double railway from Kilmarnock to Troon, which is ten miles in length. The other railways in Scotland of any extent are those at the works of the Carron Company, Lord Elgin’s, Mr. Erskine of Mar’s, Sir John Hope’s, and other coal works. A public railway has also been projected from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Glasgow, an extent of country of about 125 miles; and an Act of Parliament has already been obtained for completing part of this track, viz., from Berwick to Kelso.
“A railway has the advantage of being formed at an average of one third perhaps of the expense of a navigable canal; and in many situations its first cost may even be compared with the expense of making a common road. The result is also favourable if we inquire into the comparative quantities of work done upon a canal and a level railway. Upon the canals in England, a boat of thirty tons burden is generally tracked by one horse, and navigated by two men and a boy. On a level railway, it may be concluded that a good horse managed by a man or lad will work with eight tons. At this rate the work performed on the railway by one man and a horse is more than in the proportion of one third of the work done upon the canal by three persons and a horse, if we take into account the more speedy rate of travelling and the facilities to general trade in loading and discharging, together with the difference of the first cost of a railway, which altogether give it in some cases a decided advantage over the navigable canal. If we compare the railway with the common road, it may be fairly stated that, in the instance of a level railway, the work will be increased in an eight or ten fold proportion. The best horse, indeed, with difficulty, works with three fourths of a ton on the common road, from the undulating line of its draught, but on a level railway it is calculated that he will work even with ten tons. But to increase the economy of the railway system still further, we have only to employ one man to work two horses.