“If any alterations be intended in the water level of any canal, or in the level or rate of inclination of any turnpike road, public carriage road or railway, which will be crossed by the line of railway, then the same shall be stated on the said section, and each alteration shall be numbered; and cross sections in reference to the said numbers, on a horizontal scale of not less than one inch to every three hundred and thirty feet, and on a vertical scale of not less than one inch to every forty feet, shall be added, which shall show the present surface of such canal, road or railway, and the intended surface thereof when altered; and the greatest of the present and intended rates of inclination of such road or railway shall also be marked in figures thereon; and where any public carriage road is crossed on the level, a cross section of such road shall also be added; and all such cross sections shall extend for two hundred yards on each side of the centre line of the railway.”
“Wherever the extreme height of any embankment, or the extreme depth of any cutting, shall exceed five feet, the extreme height over or depth under the surface of the ground shall be marked in figures upon the section; and if any bridge or viaduct of more than three arches shall intervene in any embankment, or if any tunnel shall intervene in any cutting, the extreme height or depth shall be marked in figures on each of the parts into which such embankment or cutting shall be divided by such bridge, viaduct or tunnel.”
“Where tunnelling, as a substitute for open cutting, or a viaduct as a substitute for solid embankment, is intended, the same shall be marked on the section.”
“When a railway is intended to form a junction with an existing or authorized line of railway, the gradient of such existing or authorized line of railway shall be shown on the deposited section, and in connection therewith, and on the same scale as the general section, for a distance of eight hundred yards on either side of the point of junction.”
Besides the information thus written on the plan, it is useful to the engineer, though not prescribed, to have the levels of important points either written or shown by means of contour lines, especially when the plan is to be used in selecting a line of railway. The results of trial pits and borings may also be written on the plan, and the estimated cost of each part of the work placed opposite to its position on the paper.