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CARRIAGES ADAPTED

CHAPTER HI.

OF CARRIAGES ADAPTED TO RAIL-ROADS.

It is very obvious that the form of the car-riages will depend,, in a great measure, uponthe nature of the goods to be conveyed inthem; many kinds of goods requiring a dif-ferent sort of carriage. To attempt to giveplans of the different forms of carriages to beused upon Rail-ways would be an endlesstask; I shall, therefore, confine myself prin-cipally to the description of the wheels andaxles, or other parts, which the nature of theroad require should be always of the sameform and construction.

The carriages, or. as they were termed,“ waggons,” used in the first introduction ofRail-ways, were, and still remain, where em-ployed in conveying coals, the frustrum of apyramid, or in the shape of a hopper; beingmuch broader and longer at the top than atthe bottom: the Rail-roads almost universallydescending towards the depot, the fore-wheelswere made of greater diameter than the hind-