The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP. XXIX.] ALTERATION OF THE GAUGE. 355
only for passenger traffic and for the local accommodation of the
largest towns, Mr. Stephenson foresaw and foretold that uni-
versal adoption of them in all places for the conveyance both of
goods and passengers which the iron-road system has since at-
tained ;
and he accordingly prepared the railways under Ms con-
trol for the eventual receipt of traffic from the cross roads and
the by roads, as well as from the main roads of the kingdom.
When Mr. Brunei projected the Great "Western line, he fixed
upon a broader gauge ; but he adopted a narrower view of the
subject of railway extension than Mr. Stephenson had done. He
assumed that the country would be divided into railway districts,
under a sort of railway Heptarchy, each having little intercourse
with the other, and adopting its own gauge according to circum-
stances. Mr. Brunei was an ingenious designer, and fond of
doing things on a large scale, whether in forming railways or
building a steam-ship. Unlike Mr. Stephenson, who, though
no less bold in his original conceptions, adhered to opinions once
formed with remarkable tenacity, and even seemed to acquire a
certain fixity of ideas which precluded the consideration of plans
at variance with his own,—Mr. Brunei was ever looking forward
to indefinite and continual improvement ; he was restive under
any restraint on invention, and could brook no limit to change.
His railways were to be broader, his locomotives larger, and the
speeds to be attained by them were to surpass those on all other
railways. But even the speed of locomotives would not satisfy
his ambition; and in their stead he would have a system of
gigantic pneumatic tubes, along which trains of travellers were
to be flashed with the speed of lightning. Mr. Stephenson was
not so venturous, but, as events proved, he was wiser. His lo-
comotives and his railways had alike been carefully designed ;
and he had so well adapted them to the practical purposes for
which they were intended, that they held their ground amidst
the brilliant inventions and improvements of the new school of
engineers ; and to this day they remain in all respects very much
as he left them.
Mr. Stephenson was examined as a witness in favour of the
Great Western Railway Bill ; but the subject of an alteration
in the gauge of the line had not then been mooted. It was in