Thanks Robert. It seems early railway history goes largely
ignored, at least in online forums. It seems such a simple
question to ask "When did transverse railway sleepers come into
common use" but I'm blowed if I can come up with a meaningful
answer. I know the London-Birmingham line was laid with stone
blocks, as I believe was the London-Croydon Railway, but when were they relaid in the 'modern' fashion?
Our subterranean incline from 1809 is buried under a 60 ft deep
chalk spoil tip, and can only be entered by cave divers. Even
that is denied now as there are access problems to the site.
Divers report lengths of edge rails in the shaft, but cannot say
whether they were dumped down the shaft or are in situ. There
are no lines in situ in the underground galleries, flooded or
otherwise.
Dry workings a few miles away do have Plate Rails in situ, and
are laid with their flanges outwards, at a gauge between flanges
of 36 inches.
If our 'sleeper' props in the flooded gallery are indeed re-used from a railway, their length suggests at least standard gauge line use. the galleries themselves are rarely wide enough to admit a standard-gauge size wagon, so I doubt these props are derived from a local underground tramway. The nearby limeworks
was served by a private spur from the London-Brighton Railway from the 1840s, and this spur ran very close to our incline
shaft.
Further thoughts are always welcome, such as directions to a
Railway History Online Forum?
|