Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY
but at the ferry between Granton and Burntisland there is
an ingenious contrivance perfected by Sir Thomas Bouch
in 1S51, under which goods trains are sliipped and un-
shipped at any state of the tide on large steamers built
for the purpose. A movable platform, level above and
diagonal below, is raised or lowered on a sloping face to
the necessary level, and from it flying booms in pairs
carry the rails forward to meet the stern of the vessel.
The steamers used are large and broad, and are built
with separate engines for each paddle, so as to leave the
centre of the deck free to receive waggons on several
lines of rails over its whole length. The movable plat-
form is raised or lowered by steam, and the waggons, in
trains of five or six, are run on and off by chains
worked by the stationary engine. The first vessel, the
Leviathan, built by Napier of Glasgow, is still in use,
but other and larger ' floating railways ' have since been
built. With the exception of such slight accidents as
are perhaps inevitable in working such a system, it has
been used daily in all weathers, and with unqualified
success during the whole period since it was con-
structed. A project to adapt the same system at
Queensferry was made in 1861 by Bouch, but was not
carried out, and then efforts were directed towards
bridging the two rivers. Those works are so inti-
mately associated with the engineer who first devised
them that their story may best be told in the words
of the memoir of that distinguished engineer, pub-
lished by the Institution of Civil Engineers after his
death in 18S0 :—
'After the floating railway, already described, had
come into operation, Mr Bouch's attention was drawn
to the desirability of having a more direct connection
between the north and south of Scotland, by carrying
uninterrupted railway communication across the two
estuaries of the Forth and the Tay. Taking the Forth
first, besides laying out the scheme for a railway ferry
at Queensferry, he projected the Glasgow and North
British railway, plans for which were lodged in 1864,
and in which it was proposed to cross the estuary by a
fixed bridge. This was proposed to be 3 miles long,
and was to extend from the south side to a point called
the Stacks, about a mile above Charleston on the Fife
shore, the piers consisting of wrought-iron cylinders
supported on a wide base on the silt bottom of the river.
An experimental pier for this bridge was prepared and
partly sunk to its place, attracting much attention
amongst professional men at the time. The bridge was
to have been 125 feet above high-water level, and five
of its spans were to have been 500 feet each, to cross
the fairway of the river. After considerable progress
had been made with the experimental pier, the project
was abandoned, on the failure of Mr Hodgson's policy
as chairman of the North British railway. The question
of bridging the Forth was, however, not lost sight of by
Mr Bouch, who in 1S73, after the Tay Bridge had been
begun, projected a design of a much bolder character.
He removed the point of crossing to Queensferry, where
the width was much reduced, but the depth much in-
creased. Taking advantage of the island of Inchgarvie,
in the middle of the estuary, as a foundation for a
central pier, he proposed to cross the deep-water channels
on each side by two spans of 1600 feet each, elevated
160 feet above high-water line. Each span was to be
supportoil by suspension chains, having a deflection of
373 feet, the stiffening necessary for railway traffic being
provided by tie-rods and strong lattice girders. The
piers were formed of cast-iron columns, strongly braced,
and their total height from the foundation was upwards
of 600 feet. The advantages promised by this scheme
were so great that the several railway companies, both
English and Scotch, who were interested in the traffio
on the eastern side of the kingdom, eagerly professed
their willingness to support it, if it were practicable :
but on account of the unexampled boldness of the
design, tliey stipulated tliat it should be submitted to the
opinion of some of the highest engineering authorities
in the kingdom. Accordingly a committee of four
.eminent engineers, Sir John Hawkshaw, Messrs "W. H.
NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY
Barlow, G. P. Bidder, and T. E. Harrison, was ap-
pointed for the purpose ; and at their suggestion an
elaborate investigation of the proposed design, in full
theoretical and practical detail, was undertaken by Mr
W. H. Barlow and Dr AVm. Pole, assisted on some
points by the Astronomer Koyal, Sir G. B. Airy. Their
report was given on the 30th June 1873, and it was
so favourable that the four referees pronounced an
unqualified approval of the plan. They said : " It
affords us great satisfaction to be able to give our
sanction to a work of so imposing a character, and
to express our high approval of the skill, scientific
research, and practical knowledge which have been
brought to bear upon the elaboration of this interest-
ing %vork."
' Some years elapsed, in consequence of financial diffi-
culties, before the scheme took a practical shape, but in
1878 a company was formed, the contracts for the Forth
Bridge were let, and on the 30th September in that
year the works were formally begun.
'Although Mr Bouch had, as early as 1849, expressed
his determination to bridge both estuaries, it was not
till 1863 that the first proposal for a Tay Bridge was
made public, and not till July 1870 that the bill for
this pm-pose received the royal assent. As originally
designed, the Tay Bridge differed in some of its details
from the scheme ultimately carried out. As eventually
built, the bridge was within a few yards of 2 miles long :
it consisted of eighty-five spans, namely, seventy -two in
the shallow water on the north and south sides varying
from 29 to 145 feet ; and thirteen larger spans over the
fairway channel, two of these being 227 feet, and eleven
245 feet wide. "The rails rested on the upper members of
the girders generally, but on the lower members of the
thirteen large spans. The system of wrought-iron
lattice girders was adopted throughout, Mr Bouch
adhering to the form of construction which had been
successfully employed in other works designed by him.
The piers were originally intended to be of brickwork,
but after the fourteen nearest the south shore had been
thus erected, the fifteenth showed a failure of the
anticipated foundation, which led to the abandonment
of brick and the introduction of iron. In the lesser
piers the group of pillars consisted of four of 12 inches
diameter, and for the larger spans six pillars were used,
disposed in two triangular groups of three each, and
stiffened with cross bracing. After many vicissitudes
and delays caused by unexpected difficulties in carrying
out the work, the line was completed continuously from
shore to shore on the 22nd of September 1S77, after which
date there was a heavy ballast traffic across the river, test-
ing the carrying power of the bridge in a satisfactory way.
The inspection of the work by Major-General Hutchin-
son, R.E., on behalf of the Board of Trade occupied
three days, and on the 31st of May 1878, the bridge was
opened with much ceremony and rejoicing, the engineer
being presented with the freedom of the town of Dundee.
Traflic on the bridge was at once begun, and a direct
service of traius from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Aber-
deen was organised, saving much time and inconvenience
by the abandonment of the ferry crossiug and the
double change of conveyance it involved. The improve-
ment was fully appreciated by the public, and in June
1879 the Queen crossed the bridge on her journey south-
wards from Balmoral. As a mark of royal approval of
the striking achievement of the engineer, the Queen
commanded the attendance of Mr Bouch at Windsor,
and on the 26th of June 1879, he received the honour of
knighthood.
' The traffic was continued uninterruptedly till the
evening of Sunday the 28th of December 1879, when a
violent hurricane arose, and during the passage of a train
from Edinburgh across the bridge, the central portion feU.
into the river, carrying with it the entu-e train and its
load of about seventy passengers, all of whom lost their
lives. An inquiry was instituted by the Board of
Trade into the circumstances of the accident, the
evidence showing much conflict of opinion as to its
cause. There could be no doubt, however, of the
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