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

CHAP. XXIX.] THE FAST ENGINEERS. 363
any other engineer, it provoked him to find that every improvement
which he made in it was neutralized by the steep gradients
which the fast school of engineers were setting it to overcome. On
one occasion, when Mr. Robert Stephenson stated before a Par-
liamentary Committee that every improvement which they were
making in the locomotive was being rendered virtually nugatory
by the difficult and almost impracticable gradients proposed upon
so many of the new lines, his father, on his leaving the witness
box, went up to him and said, " Robert, you never spoke truer
words than those in all your Ufe."
In the case of passenger lines, where the load is light, and
time an object of importance, short lines of comparatively heavy
gradients are practicable—thanks to the great power which Mr.
Stephenson and his son have given to the engine ; but when the
traffic consists, in any considerable proportion, of minerals or
merchandise, experience has amply proved the wisdom of Mr.
Stephenson's preference for level lines, though of greater
length.
But engineers were growing bolder, and ambitious to do
greater things. Among others, Dr. Lardner, who had originally
been somewhat skeptical about the powers of the locomotive, now
promulgated the idea that a railway constructed with rising and
falling gradients would be practically as easy to work as a line
perfectly level. Mr. Badnell went beyond him, for he held that
an undulating railway was even much better than a level one for
purposes of working.* For a time, this theory found favour,
and the " undulating system " was extensively adopted ;
but Mr.
Stephenson never ceased to inveigh against it ; and experience
has amply proved that his judgment was correct.
The engineers of the fast school were also becoming increas-
ingly sanguine about the speed of railway travelling. Dr.
Lardner considered that an average rate of a hundred miles an
hour might be attained by the locomotive upon a railway, though
he afterwards found cause to alter his opinion. Mr. Stephen-
son, who only a few years before was considered insane for sug-
gesting a speed of twelve miles an hour, was now thought behind
* Treatise on Railway Improvemente. By Mr. Richard Badnell, C. E.