RAMBLES ON RAILWAYS.
With Maps, Diagrams, and Appendices
BY
SIR CUSACK P. RONEY,
B.A. TRIN. COLL. DUB., L.R.C.S.I.
LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON.
1868.
All Rights Reserved.
PREFACE.
Just as the Author was completing the last of the following pages,he was seized with very serious illness. It has delayed theirproduction two months beyond the time originally advertised.Meanwhile, several changes have taken place, which, though not ofmuch importance, may be briefly referred to. Thus, Mr. AnthonyTrollope, mentioned at page 104 as amongst the literary men connectedwith the Post Office, has, since that page was printed off,ceased to be an officer of the department.
Some trifling errors must also be mentioned; thus, at note ofpage 211, the length of Australian railways is stated at 480 miles,whereas it should have been 669, as set forth at page 307. Page212; it is stated that the Euston portico is not used by anybody,whereas empty cabs, having set down their fares, go through it.Page 359; the name of the Secretary of the Palestine Fund is“Grove” not “Groves.” Page 390, line 27; the St. John’sWood Railway terminates at 1 mile and 1,320 yards from BakerStreet, and then the Hampstead Extension will commence witha gradient of 1 in 27. Page 423, line 11; for “Lowe” read“Love.”
The most important correction to be made has reference topages 149 and 150, relating to the railway capital raised, trafficreceipts, and net earnings for 1865. When the words in thetext were written the complete returns of the Board of Tradehad not been published, and the Author assumed that the debentureand preferential capital was greater in amount than it really[iv]is. The reader is, therefore, requested to take the subjoinedanalysis of the railway capital of the United Kingdom, extractedfrom the City article of the Times, of October 29th, 1867, ascontaining an exact statement of the several portions into whichthat capital was divided on the 31st of December, 1865, and tosubstitute it for the statements in the text as given in the beforementioned pages. If the traffic accounts, as published by therailway companies, be really correct, and that capital has not beenimproperly charged with items that should, in reality, be attributableto revenue, the dividends on unguaranteed capital arebetter, as a whole, than the Author assumed them to be.
“The complete railway returns of the Board of Trade for theyear ended the 31st of December, 1865, have just been printed.They are full and elaborate, and would furnish excellent meansfor estimating the prospects of the enormous property involved,were it not for the drawback of their being issued so longafter the period to which they refer. The leading features ofthe tables now presented may be summarised as follows:—Atthe end of 1865 the total ordinary capital of the railwaysof the United Kingdom was £219,598,196. Of this total£183,450,460 was represented by companies paying dividends,and