Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

MMMH CONVERSION OF GAUGE day, May 23, the usual service of trains was in operation, the conversion having been carried out in about thirty hours, without any accident whatever, and with a mini- mum of inconvenience to the travelling public —even the mails being conveyed by Great Western steamers between Plymouth, Fowey, OF G.W.R. MAIN LINE. 117 broad gauge would have been the remedy for some difficulties that to-day confront railway engineers, mechanical and civil; but standard- ization was essential. Brunel’s line was gone ; its results remain. It had demonstrated the advantages of rapid transit, and indicated what the locomotive could do. Had it not OLD BROAD GAUGE ROLLING STOCK AT SWINDON. and Falmouth, and distributed thence by special road vehicles. The cost of the alteration of lines, rolling stock, and incidental improvements exceeded £1,000,000 ; but a barrier to free transportation had been removed, and the way paved for doubling the line and providing the “ Cornish Riviera Express ” and other notable services, for which the Great Western line has since become famous. Many still believe that the been introduced, we might even to-day be jogging over the country in “ express ” trains timed at from thirty to forty miles an hour, instead of at the “ mile-a-minute ” standard set up by the broad gauge. Though the locomotive designer has token full advantage of the dimensions permitted by the narrow gauge, and has, notably in America, produced remarkably powerful engines, it is now a matter for regret that George Stephen-