The Iron Ways, Bridges, Rails & Rolling Stock, Cheap Transit Combined With Steam Farming: Or, Agriculture Self-Protected

The Iron Ways, Bridges, Rails & Rolling Stock, Cheap Transit Combined With Steam Farming, Or, Agriculture Self-Protected by Jethro Pym. This reprint presents an 1850 Westminster Review article on railway progress, transport infrastructure, and the social economics of railway development. The piece lays out mechanical, commercial, and moral conditions essential to railway prosperity, arguing for efficient drainage, durable substructures, and rails designed to withstand heavy rolling loads; it emphasizes proper rail joints, heavy vs. light wheels, and the need for engines with a low center of gravity and lighter trains to reduce wear and waste of power. It surveys bridge forms—from tubular and bow-string to cast-iron girders and lattice structures—and praises Robert Stephenson while critiquing Admiralty constraints that hampered ambitious designs. The author then advances a broad economic program: frequent, light trains; parallel lines for passengers and goods; and cheap landowner-initiated lines that connect farms to markets, thereby advancing agriculture. He champions light locomotives, modular rolling stock, and frequent service as the path to cheaper transit, while urging reform of railway governance and a shift of capital toward productive, widely shared improvements. It also documents experimental locomotives such as the Enfield steam carriage and the Cambridge locomotive, with empirical performance data and cost analyses.