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From the Railway Magazine, August 1898
UNDERGROUND electrical railways in the Metropolis have successfully passed the experimental stage, and within the next few years, deep down, under the busiest thoroughfares, London will be tunnelled in different directions by railways worked by electricity. This system of haulage will be seen in operation not merely upon lines which are already in course of construction, and on others that are in contemplation, but also, possibly, on the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways, which have hitherto relied upon steam.
Many advantages may be urged in favour of the electrical railway for underground purposes. Striking proof as to the gain in respect of initial outlay is afforded by the Waterloo and City Railway, the formal opening of which took place on Monday, July 11th, 1898, by the Duke of Cambridge.
More than half a century ago the directors of the London and South Western Railway Company recognised the necessity of carrying their chief terminus nearer 'the City than Nine Elms, and in 1846 they obtained an Act of Parliament which authorised them to make a line to London Bridge. Two years later another Act gave them power to erect at London Bridge a much larger station than had at first been intended; but differences of opinion arose as to the advantages which such an extension would confer on the Company, and in 1849 the proposed railway was definitely abandoned. The decision then arrived at proved, in the light of subsequent events, a serious mistake, and the necessity of securing it connection with the City has ever since been recognized as of paramount importance.
Other companies had been much more fortunate in this regard. The South Eastern was not merely at Charing Cross on the west, but at London Bridge on the east, and likewise in the very heart of commercial London at Cannon Street. The London, Chatham and Dover—most fortunate, perhaps, of all—was at Victoria as well as at St. Paul's, Ludgate, and Holborn. The London, Brighton and South Coast was at Victoria and London Bridge, and the Great Eastern had pushed its capacious terminus into Liverpool Street. Various schemes for extension eastwards were from time to time considered by the directors of the London and South Western Railway, but all alike involved enormous outlay. It was found that a large tunnel like that of the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways would cost something like £5,000,000, while later inquiries showed that the construction of an overhead railway from Waterloo to the Royal Exchange would entail an expenditure of £3,600,000. The latter scheme would, of course, have necessitated the building of a bridge over the Thames, and grave doubts existed in the minds of some experts as to whether the total cost would not have far exceeded that sum. Happily, the Company has lost little by waiting.
The success of the City and South London Railway suggested the expediency of a deep electrical railway from Waterloo to the City, and by following the line of the main thoroughfares as closely as possible, disturbance of property has been entirely avoided, except at one particular point of the route. Hence the railway has been completed at about one-sixth or one-eighth the cost of earlier schemes, the share capital at present being limited to £540,000, with contingent loan power up to £180,000.
Mr. W. R. Galbraith, M.I.C.E., the consulting engineer of the London and South Western Railway, and Mr. J. H. Greathead, M.I.C.E., were appointed the engineers of the new line; Mr. H. H. Dalrymple-Hay, A.M.I.C.E., acting as resident engineer. Mr. Greathead died during the construction of the line, and his place was taken by Professor Alexander H. W. Kennedy, who has designed the whole of the electrical work.
The works were entered upon in June, 1894, by Messrs. Mowlem, who began by driving: a timber pile staging in the Thames, immediately over the site of the proposed tunnels, on the Surrey side, a short distance above Blackfriars Bridge. Shafts were made through the bed of the river to the level of the railway, by forcing steel cylinders 45 feet long into the clay to a depth of 15 feet below the bed of the river, and by brickwork, formed by the process of under-pinning, to a further depth of 26 feet. These shafts were completed without any difficulty, and proved of inestimable advantage in the making of the railway, inasmuch as they not only allowed the whole of the excavated material to be brought to the surface and taken away in barges, to be deposited on the Dagenham Marshes, but, at the same time, enabled the contractors to avoid cartage altogether. Iron, cement, bricks, and the other materials required for the completion of the tunnels were in the same way conveyed by water, and during construction there was consequently no interference whatever with the traffic of the streets —an advantage which must be accounted as of great public importance, considering the very busy character of the district under which the railway passes. The working shields were delivered in sections, and put together at the-bottom of the shafts, two afterwards operating in the direction of the Mansion House, and two going towards Waterloo, the simultaneous rate of progress being about 10 feet per day of finished tunnelling. Each tunnel is formed of cast-iron segments, joined together, the separate sections, 20 inches long, being connected by turned bolts, an inch in diameter.
Leaving Waterloo by a somewhat sharp curve, the two tunnels enter York Road at a depth of only 18 feet below the surface, but from that point begin to fall rapidly towards the river, and cross Waterloo Bridge Road only three or four inches underneath the main sewer of the London County Council. On quitting Stamford Street, a short distance from Blackfriars Road, it was, in Hatfield Street, necessary to carry the tunnels under the only private property which the line affects, and here an easement had to be obtained with respect to a few small dwelling houses. The Thames is traversed in a northeasterly direction, the tunnels emerging below the Victoria Embankment, immediately in front of the Royal Hotel. A depression was found in the clay on which the Victoria Embankment stands, and as the line of the Metropolitan District Railway Company crossed on a covering of only 6 feet of clay, the engineer of that Company, under a clause in the Act of Parliament, required the engineers of the Waterloo and City Railway to work by compressed air, as an additional security against subsidence. The steps which consequently had to be taken—by the construction of air locks—delayed the works for nearly a couple of months, but such was the vigour thrown into the undertaking by Messrs. Mowlem and Co. that by the middle of July, 1895, the depression had been left behind, and it was again possible to dispense with compressed air.
After skirting the St. Paul's Station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, the line runs immediately in front of it, under the centre of Queen Victoria Street. It has not been deemed necessary to introduce any intermediate stopping-place after leaving Waterloo, and the journey to the City can be performed in four minutes, the maximum speed of the electrical engines employed being calculated at 25 miles per hour. The tunnels were driven towards the City from the Victoria Embankment at the highest possible speed, namely, about 10 feet per day; and in February, 1897, the excavation reached the City terminal Station, which is situate between Queen Street and Bucklersbury, within a very short distance of the Mansion House.
In the direction of Waterloo, from the shafts sunk through the bed of the Thames, the line had to be carried up hill, and, passing out of the London clay, it penetrates the overlying ballast, which is heavily charged with sub-soil water. The process of cutting was nevertheless perfectly simple, the method pursued being the same as that adopted by the late Mr. J. H. Greathead in the construction of the first electric underground railway in the Metropolis, the City and South London, extensions of which, both north and south, are in active progress. Along the line of Stamford Street the system of timbering was carried out with the Greathead shield, but at Cornwall Road the tunnels were entirely in ballast, and great difficulty was experienced here in holding back the water.
When this section of the line had been passed, a new system of tunnelling was introduced for the first time, with complete success, and the credit which attaches to the interesting experiment belongs to Mr. Dalrymple-Hay, the resident engineer. It was necessary to carry the tunnels between the piers supporting the viaduct of the South Eastern Railway Cannon Street and Charing Cross line, which crosses York Road, within a short distance of the general offices of the London and South Western Company, and at this point no timbering was possible beyond the actual line of tunnelling. The hooded shield, designed by Mr. Hay for the purpose, admirably served the purpose in view.
Mr. Dalrymple-Hay made this problem a work of love, and took an immense amount of trouble, with the result that the hooded shield was driven exactly under the arch of the South Eastern viaduct at Waterloo, in spite of the fact that a sharp curve had to be faced and that the cutting was on a falling gradient.
THE WATERLOO AND CITY RAILWAY
UNDERGROUND electrical railways in the Metropolis have successfully passed the experimental stage, and within the next few years, deep down, under the busiest thoroughfares, London will be tunnelled in different directions by railways worked by electricity. This system of haulage will be seen in operation not merely upon lines which are already in course of construction, and on others that are in contemplation, but also, possibly, on the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways, which have hitherto relied upon steam.
Many advantages may be urged in favour of the electrical railway for underground purposes. Striking proof as to the gain in respect of initial outlay is afforded by the Waterloo and City Railway, the formal opening of which took place on Monday, July 11th, 1898, by the Duke of Cambridge.
More than half a century ago the directors of the London and South Western Railway Company recognised the necessity of carrying their chief terminus nearer 'the City than Nine Elms, and in 1846 they obtained an Act of Parliament which authorised them to make a line to London Bridge. Two years later another Act gave them power to erect at London Bridge a much larger station than had at first been intended; but differences of opinion arose as to the advantages which such an extension would confer on the Company, and in 1849 the proposed railway was definitely abandoned. The decision then arrived at proved, in the light of subsequent events, a serious mistake, and the necessity of securing it connection with the City has ever since been recognized as of paramount importance.
Other companies had been much more fortunate in this regard. The South Eastern was not merely at Charing Cross on the west, but at London Bridge on the east, and likewise in the very heart of commercial London at Cannon Street. The London, Chatham and Dover—most fortunate, perhaps, of all—was at Victoria as well as at St. Paul's, Ludgate, and Holborn. The London, Brighton and South Coast was at Victoria and London Bridge, and the Great Eastern had pushed its capacious terminus into Liverpool Street. Various schemes for extension eastwards were from time to time considered by the directors of the London and South Western Railway, but all alike involved enormous outlay. It was found that a large tunnel like that of the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways would cost something like £5,000,000, while later inquiries showed that the construction of an overhead railway from Waterloo to the Royal Exchange would entail an expenditure of £3,600,000. The latter scheme would, of course, have necessitated the building of a bridge over the Thames, and grave doubts existed in the minds of some experts as to whether the total cost would not have far exceeded that sum. Happily, the Company has lost little by waiting.
The success of the City and South London Railway suggested the expediency of a deep electrical railway from Waterloo to the City, and by following the line of the main thoroughfares as closely as possible, disturbance of property has been entirely avoided, except at one particular point of the route. Hence the railway has been completed at about one-sixth or one-eighth the cost of earlier schemes, the share capital at present being limited to £540,000, with contingent loan power up to £180,000.
Mr. W. R. Galbraith, M.I.C.E., the consulting engineer of the London and South Western Railway, and Mr. J. H. Greathead, M.I.C.E., were appointed the engineers of the new line; Mr. H. H. Dalrymple-Hay, A.M.I.C.E., acting as resident engineer. Mr. Greathead died during the construction of the line, and his place was taken by Professor Alexander H. W. Kennedy, who has designed the whole of the electrical work.
The works were entered upon in June, 1894, by Messrs. Mowlem, who began by driving: a timber pile staging in the Thames, immediately over the site of the proposed tunnels, on the Surrey side, a short distance above Blackfriars Bridge. Shafts were made through the bed of the river to the level of the railway, by forcing steel cylinders 45 feet long into the clay to a depth of 15 feet below the bed of the river, and by brickwork, formed by the process of under-pinning, to a further depth of 26 feet. These shafts were completed without any difficulty, and proved of inestimable advantage in the making of the railway, inasmuch as they not only allowed the whole of the excavated material to be brought to the surface and taken away in barges, to be deposited on the Dagenham Marshes, but, at the same time, enabled the contractors to avoid cartage altogether. Iron, cement, bricks, and the other materials required for the completion of the tunnels were in the same way conveyed by water, and during construction there was consequently no interference whatever with the traffic of the streets —an advantage which must be accounted as of great public importance, considering the very busy character of the district under which the railway passes. The working shields were delivered in sections, and put together at the-bottom of the shafts, two afterwards operating in the direction of the Mansion House, and two going towards Waterloo, the simultaneous rate of progress being about 10 feet per day of finished tunnelling. Each tunnel is formed of cast-iron segments, joined together, the separate sections, 20 inches long, being connected by turned bolts, an inch in diameter.
Leaving Waterloo by a somewhat sharp curve, the two tunnels enter York Road at a depth of only 18 feet below the surface, but from that point begin to fall rapidly towards the river, and cross Waterloo Bridge Road only three or four inches underneath the main sewer of the London County Council. On quitting Stamford Street, a short distance from Blackfriars Road, it was, in Hatfield Street, necessary to carry the tunnels under the only private property which the line affects, and here an easement had to be obtained with respect to a few small dwelling houses. The Thames is traversed in a northeasterly direction, the tunnels emerging below the Victoria Embankment, immediately in front of the Royal Hotel. A depression was found in the clay on which the Victoria Embankment stands, and as the line of the Metropolitan District Railway Company crossed on a covering of only 6 feet of clay, the engineer of that Company, under a clause in the Act of Parliament, required the engineers of the Waterloo and City Railway to work by compressed air, as an additional security against subsidence. The steps which consequently had to be taken—by the construction of air locks—delayed the works for nearly a couple of months, but such was the vigour thrown into the undertaking by Messrs. Mowlem and Co. that by the middle of July, 1895, the depression had been left behind, and it was again possible to dispense with compressed air.
After skirting the St. Paul's Station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, the line runs immediately in front of it, under the centre of Queen Victoria Street. It has not been deemed necessary to introduce any intermediate stopping-place after leaving Waterloo, and the journey to the City can be performed in four minutes, the maximum speed of the electrical engines employed being calculated at 25 miles per hour. The tunnels were driven towards the City from the Victoria Embankment at the highest possible speed, namely, about 10 feet per day; and in February, 1897, the excavation reached the City terminal Station, which is situate between Queen Street and Bucklersbury, within a very short distance of the Mansion House.
In the direction of Waterloo, from the shafts sunk through the bed of the Thames, the line had to be carried up hill, and, passing out of the London clay, it penetrates the overlying ballast, which is heavily charged with sub-soil water. The process of cutting was nevertheless perfectly simple, the method pursued being the same as that adopted by the late Mr. J. H. Greathead in the construction of the first electric underground railway in the Metropolis, the City and South London, extensions of which, both north and south, are in active progress. Along the line of Stamford Street the system of timbering was carried out with the Greathead shield, but at Cornwall Road the tunnels were entirely in ballast, and great difficulty was experienced here in holding back the water.
When this section of the line had been passed, a new system of tunnelling was introduced for the first time, with complete success, and the credit which attaches to the interesting experiment belongs to Mr. Dalrymple-Hay, the resident engineer. It was necessary to carry the tunnels between the piers supporting the viaduct of the South Eastern Railway Cannon Street and Charing Cross line, which crosses York Road, within a short distance of the general offices of the London and South Western Company, and at this point no timbering was possible beyond the actual line of tunnelling. The hooded shield, designed by Mr. Hay for the purpose, admirably served the purpose in view.
Mr. Dalrymple-Hay made this problem a work of love, and took an immense amount of trouble, with the result that the hooded shield was driven exactly under the arch of the South Eastern viaduct at Waterloo, in spite of the fact that a sharp curve had to be faced and that the cutting was on a falling gradient.
