of lightning had gone by, we could not distinguish any one of the carriages. But what is the train? And how is it moved? We will endeavour to explain all this;-we have read, “When railroads were in their infancy, it was a puzzle bow to contrive means, not to make the "wheels of the carriage turn round but to make "them move onwards; for it was imagined that the "smoothness of the rails, would permit the wheels "to slip, and that thus though they would re they would not go on. Many ingenious cont trivances were made to overcome this imaginary difficulty, amongst others a most ingenious pair "of metal legs were to push the carriage onwards. "But at last it was found out that rails and "wheels were not so smooth faced to one "another, and there was friction enough between "them to let the carriages run. Then came the "question of how are the carriages to be moved? "Shall we pull them by hors? Or build 66 stationary engine houses and aul away with "ropes? Or drag by locomotives? The decision "on the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, the "earliest of the great railroads, was in favor of "locomotives, and so locomotives have become "the prime moving power on railroads." Locomotive engines are so named, because they possess the power of moving from place to place. They consist of a strong iron frame supported on four wheels, and a cylindrical boiler made of gnt,ce into a wrought iron plates, which is fixed to this carriage; the chimney is in the front and the furna, at the hinder end; tmoke and hot air a kidney through a number of "She" rass tubes whicken slumber the lower half of the bed, thich has nightly chimney, and which a municate additional heat ul bed, 3m enerate ous hody for half a cent steam; the cylinder in thng of pys, in facts vertical, ing through hills placed almost in every variety. The engineer stands on herizontal, and inclinecean carriage and by a long rod the hinder part of thifalve for admitting the steam moves the throttle ha into the cylinder, w hich regulates the motion and consequently the swing into the air and doing mispeed of the carriage, to prevent ignited fuel escalating is placed on the top of the chief, a wire net chimney. A carriage called the tender with coke or welsh coal, and water, is following the engine or the steamh carriage; this supplies the furnace and boiler with their necessary food; this engine will take twenty carriages, loaded with passengers with their luggage, at the rate of thirty miles an hour, if required, and with only common caution. there is little fear of accident. The carriages for passengers are of two kinds, those for the first class are fitted up beautifully with cushions and glass windows, they hold three persons on each side, and the seats are detached from each other, and on some rarroads they have a lamp inside for night travelling. The second class carriages are fitted with benches and are only covered at the Pot p. The place from where the train started, is toing red with a magnifice and commodious roof (the tralable apartments for passengers. endeavour t this If N The laced at the distance of seve puzzle by to contrive distance in other lines is fours of the carriage-nd are laid lengthways on continove onwards of wood, which we are told is a deviati of th other railroads, and for which innovation Mr. Brunel, the chief engineer met with a great deal of opposition. In going from Paddington to Slough, we saw more than fifty bridges, either over or under the line; the distance between London and Bristol is one hundred and twenty miles, and this gigantic work will cost about 50,000,000 of rupees when completed; the train carries more than six hundred passengers daily, but the number since has increased to three thousand, and the weekly receipt at present amounts to £2000 sterling In a commercial point of view, this railway will bring Ireland and London nearer each other, independent of the facility it will afford in conveying colonial produce from Bristol to the metropolis. A writer in speaking of railroads, thus describes them in the London Saturday Journal :-" You "bid your friend good night and fancy that "like yourself he will go to supper, and to bed, " and that next day he will revisit his accustomed "haunts, with beard neatly trimmed, and a clean "sweet neckcloth round his neck, but he, after 66 coolly giving you the countersign for the night, "walks to Euston Square, throws himself into a "carriage, and in the morning has tea and a kidney 66 at Liverpool; and while you have been slumber"ing on that faithful bed, which has nightly "received your precious hody for half a century, "he has been sweeping through hills, under bridges, over rivers, along valleys, in fact, quietly "going through adventures which exceed the "wildest of your dreams, now ploughing his way "in the darkness of a tunnel-now rushing be"tween walls of chalk, while high above aerial 66 bridges look like the perches of fairy land—now "rattling along a viaduct, while the placid stream "below still wanders at its own sweet will-now toiling onwards in a delightful valley, startling "the cattle asleep in the field, and almost scaring away the quiet church of the hamlet; the day "after your friend, who has been floated some five or eight hundred, or even a thousand miles of "hill and dale, takes his seat at his desk with a 66 66 66 66 provoking equanimity which would not have "been tolerated a few years ago if one had only "taken a half holiday and gone to Hornsey Wood "House; time was indeed, when the public were "used more frequently to walk, and Islington or "Primrose Hill constituted an excursion worth "talking about; time was when coaches had no "springs, and roads were full of ruts, and my Lord ? "Mayor's lumbering machine was the pink of "elegance and grandeur; time was when fair "ladies were carried in sedan chairs and could 66 modestly draw the curtains, lest the torches of the "link boys should glare too rudely on their beauty; "time was when the mail hobbled on a sorry nag, "and a miserable post boy was at once carrier and 66 guardian; time was when hackney coaches were "few, and the Thames watermen flourished, and "cabriolets were unknown, and omnibuses were "not. Aye, and time was, and that but yesterday, "when our level roads, our picturesque mail "coaches, and our country inns were thought the "summit of perfection, and made us the envy of "surrounding nations, and the admiration of the "world, but all that is passed or passing, for the inspiring blast of the guard's horn we have the "shrill whistle of the locomotive; for change of "horses, we have merely a supply of coke and 66 66 water, and for " John" the ostler, and " Mary" "the chambermaid, and "William" the waiter, "with cold beef, bread and cheese, and glasses of "ale; we have policemen and porters all as like 66 one another as peas, while the stomach has to “be stayed by a hasty stare at a station house, "above all, one sadly misses the driver, at once so "conceited and so cool, now praising his team, or "quizzing a passenger-now touching his hat for "the expected half crown, and sneering when it proves only a shilling. As for the scarlet 66 |