The Life of Robert Stephenson...

life at Newcastle in comparative retirement. Naturally no man was more averse to the turmoil of public life; no man more prized the tranquillity of home. He had also become intensely fond of the mechanical part of his profession. His labours in the Newcastle factory had been attended with so much genuine pleasure, that he did not without reluctance give them up for a more ambitious career; and in his later years he repeatedly declared to his intimate companions the regret he felt at not having remained at Newcastle as a builder of locomotives, though he had risen to be the most successful civil engineer of his time.

The engineer wished to ascertain with accuracy the amount of the work before him. To effect this, before cutting a turf, he went over every inch of ground, and endeavoured to calculate the exact cost of every operation necessary for the accomplishment of his task. Hitherto, in laying down railways, engineers had been accustomed to do their work piecemeal, making a commencement, working up to difficulties, and then seeing how those difficulties should be overcome. In laying down the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, George Stephenson had at the outset of the undertaking only a general notion of the labour before him. The details were not considered till their consideration could no longer be deferred. Robert Stephenson saw that this plan of leaving each day to take care of its own evils was little calculated for so vast an undertaking as the London and Birmingham line. If the 112 miles of the proposed railway between Camden Town and Birmingham were to be completed within four or five years, the works must be advanced at various points simultaneously, and the engineer-in-chief

must, at their commencement, have an accurate knowledge of their minutest details.

Robert Stephenson also resolved on making plans of every part of the entire line, with unprecedented minuteness and completeness of detail. He not only had a full survey made, showing every natural feature of the route, but prepared complete drawings for every work that was to be executed, in all its details, accompanied with full descriptions and specifications and accurate calculations of all the labour and material it would require. As each portion of the line was thus mapped out it was let to a contractor, who engaged to complete the work for a certain sum, and at the same time specified the exact sum charged for each portion of the contract. In those days there were no gigantic contractors, a contract for £100,000 being regarded as very large. Men who in he course of a few years made enormous fortunes were then modest speculators, and had not sufficient funds in hand to keep a regiment of navvies' at work for more than a month. The first contractors on the London and Birmingham line were paid monthly, and in facilitating these monthly payments the accuracy of the contract plans was of the greatest service. As the end of each month came round, the assistant-engineer appointed over each division of the line marked out the exact quantity of work each contractor had accomplished, and for that quantity payment was made.

It is difficult to give the reader any adequate idea of the labour expended on these plans; for they had not only to be made with the greatest attention to accuracy, every separate calculation relating to them being three or four times verified, but when they were made they had

to be multiplied. The original contract drawings, signed by the engineer-in-chief and the contractor, were preserved as documents of legal testimony; and of each of them three copies were made one for the use of the committee, one for the engineer-in-chief, and one for the assistant-engineer superintending the district in which the work was situated. The entire line, as far as contracts were concerned, was divided into thirty separate divisions, each requiring distinct drawings, estimates, and specifications. All these works, with two or three unimportant exceptions, were let to various contractors between May 1834 and October 1835. From these data it may be seen that the demands on Robert Stephenson's drawing establishment were very heavy. It was calculated that, for eighteen months, as many as thirty drawings per week, each requiring two days' work from one pair of hands, were turned out from the engineer-in-chief's office.'

Robert Stephenson was fortunate in having good subordinates. Reserving a district, extending nine miles from Maiden Lane, Camden Town, for his own especial supervision, he divided the remaining 103 miles into four districts, each district having an assistant-engineer to superintend it, and each assistant-engineer being supported by a staff of three sub-assistants. For For purposes of construction the line was thus apportioned

District No. I.

This district, reserved for the engineer-in-chief's especial personal supervision, extended from Camden Town for about nine miles, and on its completion comprised the Camden Town station, the Primrose Hill tunnel, the tunnel under Kensal Green, and the bridge over the River Brent. The principal engineer of this district, under Mr. Stephenson, was John

Birkinshaw, who was assisted by Mortimer Young, whose place was subsequently filled by Timothy Jenkins.

District No. II.

Assistant-engineer G. W. Buck; sub-assistant engineers, Mr., now Sir J. Charles Fox, F. Young, and Capt. Cleather, R.S.C. This district, extending from Harrow to Tring (23 miles) conIcluded with the Watford tunnel.

District No. III.

Assistant-engineer, John Crossley; sub-assistant engineers, S. S. Bennett, E. Jackson, J. Gandell, and M. Farrell. This district, extending from Tring to Wolverton (22 miles), included the Tring cutting and the Wolverton viaduct.

District No. 1V.

Assistant-engineer, Frank Forster, who (on his succeeding to, the post of assistant-engineer of District No. V.) was succeeded by G. H. Phipps; sub-assistant engineers, H. Lee, E. Dixon, C. Lean, and J. Brunton. This district, reaching over Wolverton and Kilsby (24 miles), included the Kilsby tunnel.

District No. V.

Assistant-engineer, Thomas Longridge Gooch, who (on his appointment to be the chief-engineer of the Manchester and Leeds Railway) was succeeded by Frank Forster; sub-assistant engineers, John Reid, B. L. Dickenson, M. Monteleagre, R. B. Dockray, and Lieut. P. Lecount, R.N. Extending from Kilsby to Birmingham: this district had for its principal works the Avon and Lawley Street viaducts.

The foregoing table assigns more than three subassistant engineers to the three last districts. There were, however, only three sub-assistants acting on any one district at the same time.

Robert Stephenson's first drawing office, whilst he was preparing the contract plans, was a small cottage standing on land which the Company purchased, near the point where the railroad passes under the Edgeware Road. This modest tenement was soon found to be too small for the

engineer's purpose. Luckily the Eyre Arms Hotel, St. John's Wood, was just then vacant. The Company hired it for their engineer's use, and 'the great room,' familiar to many of the London public as a place of assemblage for lectures, soirées, and political business, was speedily furnished with drawing-tables and peopled with between twenty and thirty draughtsmen. Amongst the gentlemen employed at the Eyre Arms was Mr. G. P. Bidder, who recently filled the office of President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Eventually the line was let out in the manner indicated by the following table: