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XXXVI. METROPOLITAN RAILWAY STATIONS.

In the course of our work we have had frequent occasion to illustrate the general magnitude of the metropolis and of all that belongs to it; but few items in this mighty whole give so vivid an idea of what London truly is as is furnished by its Railway Termini-those gates of the world through which we have only to pass, put on our wishing (or travelling) cap, and the thing is done; we are presently either roaming among the sublime mountains of Wales or Scotland-following with antiquarian interest the route of Henry the Fifth's invading French army, viá Southampton-looking for the samphire on Shakspere's cliff at Dover; or, if we are in a great hurry, whirling away on the other side of the Channel to Paris or Cologne, towards Italy or Vienna, towards Siberia or Timbuctoo. And apparently, before many years, all destinations will be about the same as regards the hour occupiedyour only mode of measuring-or as regards the comfort and safety with which they may be reached. For, seriously, it would be as idle to sit down now satisfied that travelling has reached its climax, as it would have been when the first of those excellent coaches started which reached York from London in a week, God willing. One's health, no doubt, requires that there should be a little interval between shaking hands with friends at parting in London, and doing the same with others on meeting at Brighton; but really the amount of that interval promises to depend upon some such considerations only.

The revolution which the metropolitan railways have wrought in our locomotive capabilities sinks into comparative insignificance when we contemplate the revolution they must yet work in mental and moral phenomena-blending together more and more intimately all countries and peoples, all religions, philosophies, feelings, tastes, customs and manners, through the agency of the great social harmoniser, personal converse. We shall hardly be able to speak much longer of mere visitors to and from London, but of London going to see the country, the country coming to see London-of London running over to inquire how all goes on in Paris, Paris returning the compliment in the same way: already we perceive eleven hours is the allotted time for passing from London to Paris. Through a great portion of Europe the same kind of communications are preparing; and we may, in short, almost anticipate the time when we shall make as little fuss about the tour of the world as of a tour through the Isle of Wight; when we shall talk of London, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, and so on, as of so many stages for refreshment-a little longer, certainly, than those of a stage coach, but still more nearly akin to them than to anything else.

We now propose to notice first and briefly some of the more striking individual features of our metropolitan railways; and then to devote the remainder of our paper chiefly to a view of the economy of a metropolitan station—a subject of considerable interest, and not entirely without novelty to general readers.

EUSTON STATION.

This will perhaps ever remain the most important and most remarkable railway station in the British dominions. At no other, London Bridge excepted, do so many passengers alight and depart; at no other are tickets issued to so many places; at no other do the striking features of the railway system display themselves so forcibly.

Most persons are now aware that the London and North-Western Railway, the metropolitan terminus of which is at Euston Square, is a collection of many different railways, which, by amalgamation, leases, and purchases, have gradually come under one management. The London and Birmingham, the Grand Junction, the Manchester and Birmingham, and the Liverpool and Manchester, all great companies, and all having branches running out of their main lines, amalgamated in 1846; and in the subsequent period of five years many new branches have been made, and many purchases and leasings effected. The result is that the Company has now control over more than 500 miles of railway, besides supplying working power for many hundred additional miles. It has under its ownership lines from Preston in the north to London in the south; from Oxford in the south-west to Leeds in the north-east ; from Peterborough in the east to Liverpool in the west. For all this extensive network, the Euston terminus is the great station.

When this terminus was first formed a small number of houses in Seymour Street and streets adjacent were purchased; but the necessary extensions of recent years have led to the purchase of an immense amount of house property, and the station now occupies a compact area. Almost every vestige of the original station has been removed, except Mr. Hardwick's Doric entrance; for it was found impossible to engraft the new buildings conveniently on the old, and therefore the station has been almost entirely rebuilt. The entrance is certainly a remarkable one. It is not opposite the centre of the station; it does not accord in architectural style with any other part of the building; and it renders no more service than does the marble arch at Cumberland Gate. It must depend, therefore, for its character, on its merits as an isolated structure; but these merits are certainly great. The entrance is a kind of lofty gateway, like the entrance to a temple, flanked by smaller iron gates. Without putting forth any particular claims to originality, this work has the merit of exhibiting the Grecian Doric upon a scale before unattempted in modern times, and far exceeding that of the generality of ancient examples. The columns are eight feet six inches in diameter; owing to their being of such large dimensions they are not made solid throughout, but have a hollow core. The structure is upon the plan of a Greek propylæum; that is, it forms a covered entrance, open at both ends, surmounted by a pediment. The height to the top of the pediment is 70 feet.

Those who remember the station in its old form will know that within the Doric gateway there was an ante-court, bounded on two sides by a low range of booking offices. But the whole of these have been removed; the court-yard has been enlarged; the offices on the east and west are walled off; while the north side is occupied by the new booking and other offices, the most splendid of the kind, perhaps, in the world. Entering by a number of doorways, around which are troops of porters ready to assist passengers arriving with their luggage, we find ourselves in a vestibule, or corridor, paved with tesselated tiles, made by Minton of Stoke. It was well to select the new station as a theatre for testing this material; but the friction of so many thousands of feet has already given a very dusky hue to the colours of the floor. Within this corridor is the great hall-a room which none but a great Company would be daring enough to build. It never fails to strike with astonishment those passengers who visit it for the first time. It receives all the down or out passengers -from the first-class express to the humble "Parliamentary;" all enter this hall before entering the booking or pay offices. The hall is large and lofty, and decorated in a style of considerable splendour. On the south are the entrance passages from the vestibule just spoken of; on the east and west are the doors to the booking-offices and other rooms, with a narrow gallery of communication above. On the north side

is an elegant double staircase, leading to the committee and other rooms in which the directors and their servants assemble. Near the corners of the room, just below the ceiling, are bas-reliefs, representing some of the principal towns served by this railway, such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, &c., in symbolic or emblematic form. In the centre of the hall is a refreshment table of singular form: a circular ring, laden with refreshments, around the exterior of which the passengers can make their small purchases prior to the starting of a train. The size, style, cleanliness, order, and general arrangement of this noble hall, are certainly worthy of the great Company whose revenues alone could bear the charge, and whose amount of business could render such a place necessary. The decorative features were a little complained of by some of the cautious shareholders on the score of expense; but the objections have died away.

From this splendid hall doors lead on the right and left to the booking-offices, which are so large and well arranged that two or three trains can be dispatched almost simultaneously without confusion. The principal offices are on the right or east; and these lead to the departure platform, which has existed from the first, but which has undergone repeated extensions and improvements. The left, or western booking-offices, lead to a newer departure platform, which has been rendered necessary to accommodate the growing traffic of the line. The offices and side railway for the parcels department are still further westward, occupying the entire side of a street. The arrival platform (for all or most of the trains arrive at a platform of immense length) is on the east of the railway; and beyond this is a stand at which omnibuses and cabs take their rank when a train is about to arrive. All the passenger arrangements are comprised within a compact block of buildings, bounded by Seymour Street on the east, and Whittlebury Street on the west; but northward of this there is a very large space occupied by carriage-sheds, repairing-shops, storehouses, and other buildings necessary to the maintenance of the working stock of the railway. One of these buildings is a smith's shop, with sixteen forge fires ranged round a central shaft, which has a somewhat ornamental appearance given to it: the building contains lathes, boring machines, punching and screw-cutting engines, and much other apparatus, worked by a steam-engine of 16-horse power.

After leaving this station northward, we find four lines of rail extending through a deep cutting to the Camden goods station. This cutting had to be made through a somewhat treacherous soil; and the sides are bounded by lofty brickwork of immense thickness, pierced here and there with drain-pipes. But even this did not suffice; the engineer found that the walls showed indications of bulging in, and they have, consequently, been braced across the top with iron girders of enormous size and strength. The vastness of this bricked cutting is well seen from certain points near the Hampstead Road.

CAMDEN STATION.

This station, one of the largest in the kingdom, is the goods station for the NorthWestern Railway. It extends to within a short distance of the Primrose Hill tunnel, and is reached from Euston Square by a continuous ascent. The Euston Station occupies twelve acres, but this at Camden Town covers a much larger area. The arrangements for a locomotive department, a carriage department, and a goods department, are here carried out on an immense scale, but there is no passenger When the railway was first formed the passenger terminus was here; but as this is remote point (although not so far as the Paddington terminus from the centre of the metropolis), it was resolved to incur the vast additional expense of extending

station.

the line to Euston Square. The Birmingham and the Great Western lines approach very near together in the immediate vicinity of Kensal Green; and it was thought that if a short junction were made at that spot the Euston Station might accommodate both companies. This idea had some influence in determining the plan of four lines of rails from Camden Town to Euston Square; but whatever may have been the views of some of the parties, ten or twelve years ago, the junction has not been made; and each of the two great termini has as much traffic as it can conveniently manage. When the extension was first formed, landowners' scruples prevailed to such an extent as to forbid the use of locomotives on the part of the line south of Camden Town, and Mr. Stephenson had, therefore, to devise means to bring the trains to Euston Station by other means. He laid down an endless rope from Camden to Euston Station, worked by a steam-engine; by this rope the trains were drawn up the incline, whereas the descent was sufficient to enable them to come in the opposite direction by the force of gravity alone. For many years the arrangements were thus conducted, but great delays and expenses were consequent upon the system ; and the Company afterwards succeeded in obtaining permission to bring their locomotives to Euston Square. They are kept there, however, only for a short time, and in such numbers only as are necessary for trains about to start; for the depôt is at Camden Town. So frequent, nevertheless, are the arrivals and departures of trains, that the hissing locomotive is heard nearly all day long in the northern part of the Euston terminus.

The Camden Station is remarkable both for its vastness and the extensive operations there conducted. When a train arrives, and the services of the locomotive can be dispensed with, it is drawn over a cavity or fire-pit, and the red hot fuel is raked out into the pit, and is quenched with cold water. The driver "blows off" the steam occasionally, to clean the boiler; and there is a weekly removal of the sediment which collects within the boiler. The engine is transferred to the engine-shed, where it is examined all over, and the lamps removed for examination and cleaning; the foreman of the fitters examines after the driver, the superintendent after the foreman; and if either one detects a defect which had escaped the notice of his subordinate, the latter is fined. There are coke ovens at the station, to furnish a portion of the large supply of coke required; and there is one spot where coke is kept red hot during day and night, to be shovelled into the fire-places of locomotives when wanted, in order to save time. On commencing a journey, the locomotive obtains its supply of cold coke in the tender, and hot coke in the fire-place-a quantity from one to two and a half tons, according to the size and kind of engine. It then receives its water supply, usually enough for about 40 miles. The driver has a chronometer or good time-keeper; and he also has a time-bill given him by a clerk, in which he must enter the time at which he reaches each station. There are pilot or extra engines always in readiness at the Camden Station, with their steam up.

The following account was given to the Gauge Commissioners, in 1845, of the time occupied in unloading goods waggons at the Camden Station :-" At 1 P.M. 16 waggons arrived at the shed from Manchester, which were instantly commenced unloading, the men and the road waggons being in attendance purposely for them. These were all unloaded, and the contents of ten of them reloaded into the road waggons, in 1 hour and 40 minutes. From 1 to 2 o'clock there were 49 men employed at the work; and from 2 o'clock to 40 minutes past 2, 8 more men were employed, making 57. The loading consisted entirely of Manchester packs or bales, well packed and corded, and weighing from 1 to 4 cwt. each, which were all removed by cranes, two of the cranes being worked by engine power."

At the Camden Station, the goods warehouses, the coal depôts, the coke ovens and depôts, and the waggon repairing shops, are on the eastern side of the main line of rails, as are likewise the engine-houses for the goods trains; while on the western side are the engine-house for the passenger locomotives, and the shops for repairing locomotives. Northward of these buildings are workshops for the construction and repair of goods waggons, in which many of the tools are worked by steam power. There is also a massive polygonal building, planned to receive twenty-five goods locomotives; the walls are of great thickness, and in brickwork; the roof is mainly of cast and wrought iron. At the entrance are coke stores, engineers' waiting-rooms, and various offices. The finest buildings, however, at the Camden Station, are the passenger locomotive sheds; they are 400 feet long by 90 in width, and are planned to receive forty locomotives at a time. There are generally about twenty here in store, so necessary is it to have an available reserve of steam power. Large as are the resources of this great station, nothing is done here beyond such works as are requisite to maintain the locomotives in daily working efficiency; the heavier repairs being carried on at Wolverton.

At the Camden Station a junction has been made (although not yet in working order) with the Dock Junction Railway, of which we shall speak farther on.

The railway curves westward immediately after leaving the Camden Station, and passes through a deep cutting to the Primrose Hill tunnel. This tunnel is about 1120 yards in length; a ventilating shaft rises from near its centre. The eastern entrance to the tunnel has a somewhat imposing architectural character given to it; but the western is quite plain. At a distance of about three miles from this tunnel occurs the Kensal Green tunnel, 320 yards in length. The line next forms a junction with the West London Railway, to be noticed in a future page; and it afterwards enters the open country, where we will leave it.

PADDINGTON STATION.

The Paddington terminus of the Great Western or broad-gauge system is the least ornate of any in London. It has more the appearance of a range of warehousearches under a roadway, than of a metropolitan station of a railway which earns its £20,000 per week. There is, however, no deficiency of interior accommodation.

This grand undertaking, which has many features distinguishing it from all others, consisted in the first instance of a railway of 118 miles from London to Bristol. Branches to Windsor, Oxford, Basingstoke, Hungerford, Gloucester, &c., have raised this length to about 250 miles. The Company has also acquired more or less control over every mile of the broad-gauge system, either by purchase, leasing, or working contracts, viz. the Bristol and Exeter, the South Devon, the South Wales, the Wilts and Somerset, the Gloucester and Cheltenham, the Birmingham and Oxford, the Oxford and Wolverhampton, &c.

Mr. Brunel, the engineer of all the broad-gauge railways, introduced two very important changes into railway practice-an extension in the width of the gauge, and a new mode of laying down the rails. This latter was the use of continuous timber bearings beneath the rails, instead of the stone blocks or the cross sleepers employed on other lines: these continuous bearings have since been employed on some of the other lines. But the gauge is the more important point. The national rail-gauge (so to speak) is four feet eight inches; but Mr. Brunel thought that many advantages would be gained by making the gauge fifty per cent. greater this he has accomplished against all difficulties, financial and parliamentary. We believe it is pretty generally admitted that the travelling public are satisfied with the broad gauge; but the at