THE

EASTERN COUNTIES

Railway

ILLUSTRATED

GUIDE.

London: Printed by

JAMES TRUSCOTT, NELSON SQUARE.

1851.

INTRODUCTION.

N common with so many other projects of which 1851 is the fruitful parent, the idea of this little Publication is suggested by the Exhibition. It is hoped incidentally to render it an auxiliary to that great gathering, by familiarising some few thousands then visiting London for the first time with the leading features of a most interesting and important district of England, particularly those from abroad, and, still more especially, foreigners approaching our Metropolis by the new route between the Suffolk Coast and the North of Europe. Eschewing any pretensions to originality of view or novelty of treatment, the main design has been so to popularise the ordinary topographical data as, with the assistance of the engraver, to afford the hasty reader a more truthful and effective reflex of the scene traversed than has been yet attempted in respect to any other Railway. The price, it will be observed, is such as to render it a very slight pecuniary addition even to the most economic excursionist trip; and it is hoped that its contents, nearly equivalent to a volume of a novel, may reconcile the purchaser to the outlay when its immediate purposes in connection with the journey have been accomplished.

When commenced, it was intended to confine this Guide to the Main, or Norwich Line, and to devote another volume to the Colchester Line. But such arrangement being dependent on the then proposed Eastern Counties' amalgamation with the Eastern Union, East Anglian, and Newmarket Lines-the whole of the Railway towns within which territory were to have been described—and the negociations on that head having been abandoned, the annexed pages treat only of the region known as the Eastern Counties proper; hence the necessity of the sudden compression of matter prepared for much wider limits will explain the seeming disproportion between the two divisions of the book, and the undue brevity with which some of the branches have been disposed of. It is probable that the classification alluded to will be adopted hereafter; but the order at present adopted renders necessary the introduction here of the annexed statistical particulars. The half-yearly Report presented to the Shareholders of the Eastern Counties Railway on the 4th January last, affords at once a remarkable illustration of the vast extent of English commercial operations, and of the illimitable resources of British enterprise and capital. The reader, especially if he be a foreigner, will at once be impressed with the immense magnitude of these modern undertakings, when he is told that this Company-though there are others of greater magnitude-has spent in the formation of its various lines the really gigantic capital of £12,998,207. 2s. 2d., and that it possesses 326 miles of railroad, over which 1,734,390 persons were carried in the six months ending January 4th, 1851. The classification and revenue arising from this one and three-fourths of a million of passengers were as follow:—

;

Giving a total amount of £201,480. 19s. 2d.; in addition to which the Company received for the carriage of parcels £15,392. 12s. 6d.; goods, including coals, &c., £140,172. 158. ; cattle, £19,818. 14s. 5d.; mails, £8,591. 14s. Id. Forming, with other minor sources, a revenue of £400,552. for half a year, or an annual income of upwards of £800,000—an income much larger than that of many a Continental State. This was accompanied by an expenditure of £225,347. 178., distributed as follows:-Locomotive Expenses, £82,587. 13s. 4d.; Maintenance of Way, £34,871. 5s. 3d.; Miscellaneous Working Expenses, £86,461. 1s. 8d. Rates and Taxes, £12,869. 78. 7d.; Government Duty, £8,558. 9s. 2d.; Total, £225,347. 17s.: leaving a profit of £175,204. 6s. 11d. on the half-year's work; which balance, nevertheless, was only sufficient to yield a very small dividend available to the original shareholders; but the prospect of a better result is encouraging. Among many other entries of a trivial nature, it will be found that 9331 tons of coke were consumed by the passenger engines, or about 26 lbs. for each mile run, of the value of 34d.; while, to propel a goodstrain the same distance, a consumption of 48 lbs. of coke was necessary, of the value of 6d. The total cost of coke for the six months was £23,501. 7s. 6d. ; and the number of miles run by engines 1,208,204. It also appears, that the depreciation consequent upon an engine running one mile is equal to about 44d.; and on carriages, the average depreciation on the same distance is about 24d. The yellow composition the traveller has frequently seen being served out to the axles of the carriages (formed of tallow, palm oil, &c.), costs, in conjunction with the oil to lubricate the joints of the engine, the noble sum of £2707. 138. 11d.; while the water to supply the insatiable thirst of the locomotives is charged at no less than £1039. 14s. 11d.—a consumption of the pure beverage that must afford much delight to the disciples of Father Matthew. Gas, too, is put down at £2072. 14s. 7d., and clothing for guards, porters, &c. £992. 8s. 6d. The working and repairing of the electric telegraph cost the very moderate amount of £1020. 9s., which, considering the immense number of messages transmitted, and the great facility it affords for the transaction of the Company's business, is a sum incredibly small, when compared with the advantages resulting. Many other facts regarding the statistics of the line will be met with in the following pages, which it is hoped will not be uninteresting to the reader.