gauge. The tools and machinery for constructing coalwaggons and locomotives were formed with this gauge in view. The Wylam waggon-way, afterwards the Wylam plate-way, the Killingworth railroad, and the Hetton railroad, were all laid down on this gauge. Some of the earthwaggons used to form the Stockton and Darlington road were brought from the Hetton railway; and others which were specially constructed were formed of the same dimensions, these being intended afterwards to be employed in the working of the traffic.

As the time for the opening of the line approached, the question of the Tractive Power to be employed was warmly discussed. At the Brusselton incline, fixed engines must necessarily be made use of; and the designs for these were completed by Robert Stephenson in 1824, previous to his departure for Columbia, in South America. With respect to the mode of working the railway generally, it was decided that horses were to be largely employed, and arrangements were made for their purchase. The influence of Mr. Pease also secured that a fair trial should be given to the experiment of working the traffic by locomotive power; and three engines were ordered from the firm of George Stephenson and Co., at Newcastle, and were accordingly put in hand forthwith, in anticipation of the opening of the railway. These were constructed after Mr. Stephenson's most matured designs, and embodied all the improvements in the locomotive which he had contrived up to that time. No. 1 engine, the "Active," which was first delivered upon the line, weighed about eight tons. It had one large flue or tube through the boiler, through which the heated air passed direct from the furnace at one end, lined with fire-bricks, to the chimney at the other. The combustion in the furnace was quickened by the adoption of the steam-blast into the chimney. The heat raised was sometimes so great, and was so imperfectly ab

stracted by the surrounding water, that the chimney became almost red-hot. These engines, when put to the top of their speed, were found capable of running at the rate of from twelve to sixteen miles an hour; but they were better adapted for the heavy work of hauling coal trains at low speeds-for which, indeed, they were specially constructed— than for running at the higher speeds afterwards adopted. Nor was it contemplated by the directors as possible, at the time when they were ordered, that locomotives could be made available for the purposes of passenger travelling. Besides, the Stockton and Darlington Railway did not run through a district in which passengers were ever likely to constitute any considerable portion of the traffic.

We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by Mr. Stephenson during the progress of the works towards completion, and his mingled hopes and doubts (though his doubts were but few) as to the issue of this great experiment. When the formation of the line near Stockton was well advanced, Mr. Stephenson one day, accompanied by his son Robert and John Dixon, made a journey of inspection of the works. His son, as we have said, was about to set out for South America, having received an appointment to superintend some mining operations in Columbia, respecting which there was then a large amount of speculation on foot. His health also had recently suffered through the closeness of his application to work and study; and his father, hoping that he might derive benefit from the change of climate, encouraged him to undertake the charge which was offered him. On the day in question the party reached Stockton, and proceeded to dine at one of the inns there. After dinner, Mr. Stephenson ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a bottle of wine, to drink success to the railway. John Dixon remembers and relates with pride the utterance of the master on the occasion. "Now lads," said he to the two young men, "I

will tell you that I think you will live to see the day, though I may not live so long, when railways will come to supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country — when mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the Great Highway for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties that will have to be encountered; but what I have said will come to pass as sure as we live. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years' successful experiment at Killingworth." The result, however, outstripped even the most sanguine anticipations of Stephenson; and his son Robert, shortly after his return from America in 1827, saw his father's locomotive generally adopted as the tractive power on railways.

The Stockton and Darlington line was open for traffic on the 27th of September, 1825. An immense concourse of people assembled from all parts to witness the ceremony of opening this first public railway. The powerful opposition which the project had encountered, the threats which were still uttered against the railway by the road trustees and others, who declared that they would yet prevent its being worked, and perhaps the general unbelief as to its success which still prevailed, tended greatly to excite the curiosity of the public as to the result. Some went to rejoice at the opening, some to see "the bubble burst;" and there were many prophets of evil who would not miss the blowing up of the boasted Travelling Engine. The opening was, however, auspicious. The proceedings commenced at Brusselton Incline, about nine miles above Darlington, when the fixed engine drew a train of loaded waggons up the incline from the west,

and lowered them on the east side. At the foot of the incline, a locomotive was in readiness to receive them, Mr. Stephenson himself driving the engine. The train consisted of six waggons loaded with coals and flour; after these was the passenger coach, filled with the Directors and their friends, and then twenty-one waggons fitted up with temporary seats for passengers; and lastly came six waggon-loads of coals, making in all a train of thirty-eight vehicles. The local chronicler of the day went almost out of breath in describing the extraordinary event: "The signal being given," he says "the engine started off with this immense train of carriages; and such was its velocity, that in some parts the speed was frequently 12 miles an hour; and at that time the number of passengers was counted to be 450, which together with the coals, merchandise, and carriages, would amount to near 90 tons. The engine, with its load, arrived at Darlington, a distance of 83 miles, in 65 minutes. The six waggons loaded with coals, intended for Darlington, were then left behind; and, obtaining a fresh supply of water and arranging the procession to accommodate a band of music, and numerous passengers from Darlington, the engine set off again, and arrived at Stockton in 3 hours and 7 minutes, including stoppages, the distance being nearly 12 miles." By the time. the train reached Stockton, there were about 600 persons in the train or hanging on to the waggons, which must have gone at a safe and steady pace of from 4 to 6 miles an hour from Darlington. "The arrival at Stockton," it is added, "excited a deep interest and admiration."

The working of the line then commenced, and the results were such as to surprise even the most sanguine of its projectors. The traffic upon which they had formed their estimates of profit, proved to be small in comparison with the traffic which flowed in upon them that had never been taken into account. Thus, what the company had principally relied

upon for their profit was the carriage of coals for land sale at the stations along the line, whereas the haulage of coals to the seaports for exportation to the London market, was not contemplated as possible. When the bill was before Parliament, Mr. Lambton (afterwards Earl of Durham) succeeded in getting a clause inserted, limiting the charge for the haulage of all coal to Stockton-on-Tees, for the purpose of shipment to one halfpenny per ton per mile; whereas a rate of fourpence per ton was allowed to be taken for all coals led upon the railway for land sale. Mr. Lambton's object in enforcing the low rate of one halfpenny was to protect his own trade in coal exported from Sunderland and the northern ports. He believed, in common with everybody else, that the halfpenny rate would effectually secure him against any competition on the part of the Stockton and Darlington Company; for it was not considered possible for coals to be led at that low price, and the proprietors of the railway themselves considered that to carry coals at such a rate would be utterly ruinous. The projectors never contemplated sending more than 10,000 tons a year to Stockton, and those only for shipment as ballast; they looked for their profits almost exclusively to the land sale. The result, however, was as surprising to them as it must have been to Mr. Lambton. The halfpenny rate which was forced upon them, instead of being ruinous, proved the vital element in the success of the railway. In the course of a few years, the annual shipment of coal, led by the Stockton and Darlington Railway to Stockton and Middlesborough, exceeded five hundred thousand tons; and it has since far exceeded this amount. Instead of being, as anticipated, a subordinate branch of traffic, it proved, in fact, the main traffic, while the land sale was merely subsidiary.

The anticipations of the company as to passenger traffic were in like manner more than realised. At first, passengers