Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

CONVERSION OF GAUGE OF G.W.R. MAIN LINE. 115 A DIFFICULT PIECE OF WORK—ALTERING THE POINTS AT PLYMOUTH. and finally, with a third lift, placed the two rails at the proper narrow gauge distance apart. This was naturally quite on straight stretches of midday on the Saturday ready for were to keep the rails true to gauge, and for the final pack- ing of the ballast. But where curved the alteration was a a simple expedient line. Indeed, by long lengths were the tie-rods that Difficulties on Curves. the track was more difficult matter. The outer or inner rail, as the case might be, in a curved broad gauge line was longer or shorter than would be the case on a narrow gauge, as the two gauges gave arcs of circles described at different radii; hence much cutting, exact fitting, and testing were necessary. This was a feature I of a great part of the work, as the railway through South Devon and Cornwall is notorious for its many curves. The men, therefore, were constantly cutting a piece from one rail, or substituting a longer length for another. Now, cutting a rail in a workshop with every facility for doing so is simple enough, but on the stretch of line un- Cutting dergoing conversion the work ~ had to be done with cold chisel and sledge-hammer—a very different matter. To cut a single rail occupied several men for half an hour or longer—quite a considerable period, having regard to the time in which the entire work had to be done—and unless the measurement had been most carefully made, the task of cutting might be completed only to find that an extra inch must be removed.