. Our iron roads: their history, construction and administration . o miles and a half, and is crossed bythree bridges of three arches, besides a smaller bridge. Itsaverage depth is forty feet; for a quarter of a mile it is fifty-seven feet deep; 1,500,000 cubic yards of chalk were removedin its excavation by horse runs, and they form an embankmentto the north six miles long and thirty feet high, besides vast spoil banks of superfluous material. BIRKETT CUTTING. 117 Roade cutting is a mile and a half long, and in some placessixty-five feet deep, cut through clay and hard rock. Constantpumping w
. Our iron roads: their history, construction and administration . o miles and a half, and is crossed bythree bridges of three arches, besides a smaller bridge. Itsaverage depth is forty feet; for a quarter of a mile it is fifty-seven feet deep; 1,500,000 cubic yards of chalk were removedin its excavation by horse runs, and they form an embankmentto the north six miles long and thirty feet high, besides vast spoil banks of superfluous material. BIRKETT CUTTING. 117 Roade cutting is a mile and a half long, and in some placessixty-five feet deep, cut through clay and hard rock. Constantpumping was necessary. The contractors gave the work up,and the company had to take it in hand. Steam-engines wereset to pump, locomotives to draw, and 800 men and boys todig, wheel, and blast, and 3,000 barrels of gunpowder were used. Two other cuttings are deserving of special notice. The oneis the Birkett cutting, a little south of Birkett tunnel, abouttwo miles and a half south of Kirkby Stephen on the Settleand Carlisle line. It is of rock, and has been made through. BARON WOOD CUTTING. what is known as the Great Pennine Fault. It passes throughshale, mountain limestone, magnesian limestone, grit, slate, iron,coal, and lead ore in thin bands, all within a hundred yards. The most curious combination, remarked Mr. Crossley, Ihave ever seen. In the same side of the hill the strata riseup from a horizontal position till they are not far from per-pendicular. The other is on the same railway somewhat south ofArmathwaite. The line runs through a long ancient forest, calledBaron or Barren Wood, in some places thickly timbered withoak and ash, fir and beech ; and in others covered with brush- i i s OUR [RON ROADS. I .miI bracken. A heavy cutting then runs through thewood for a distance o( nearly a mile ; the hill slopes 150 feet tothe waters edge. Here, among beautiful views, arc the re-markable reeks that raise, for perhaps 100 feet, their shatteredand fretted summits, and form the entranc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1883
