324 AUQUST1880. ON THE DOCKS AND RAILWAY APPROACHES AT BARROW-IN-FURNESS. - BY MR. F. C. STILEMAN,- OF LONDON. The title of this paper was adopted from. a suggestion of the Secretary, with the omission of one word-the epithet " new " : the reason for this omission being that the whole of the Town, Docks, and Railway at Barrow-in-Furness are new, the Act of PaTliament incorporating the Furness Railway having been passed in 1844, the Dock Act in 1863, and the Town having been incorporated in 1867. The Author has had the privilege of being professionally connected with most of the engineering works of the town, and of watching its rise and progress from the time of its foundation. As a pupil of the late Mr. J. R. McClean, he was instructed to find his way to Barrow, the means of doing so not being recorded in Bradshaw, and to set out the railway between Barrow and Pie1 to Dalton and Eirkby. The contract for this portion of the railway was taken by Messrs. John and William Tredwell in 1844. The line was opened in June 1846, for the carriage of iron ore and slate, which was shipped from a small T headed wooden pier erected by the Railway Company at Rabbit Hill Point, about the site of the present Barrow station. At this time the mineral owners would not undertake to guarantee the Railway Company a traffic of 75,000 tons of iron ore per annum; but soon after the opening of the line a great development of the iron ore traffic took place, and this quantity wafi increased fourfold. By degrees the railway system has been developed, and various other lines have been absorbed, now forming together the Furness Railways, which run from Lancaster. vi& Carnforth, to Barrow and Whitehaven, and combine business with pleasure traffic, the latter to Windermere and Coniston lakes. The requirements of this district now demand Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF VIRGINIA on June 4, 2016 AUGUST1880. BARROW DOCHS. 325 quick communication with London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds, which is supplied by the express through trains of the London & North Western and the Midland Railway. In Fig. 1, Plate 33, is shown a general plan of the railway approaches, docks, and sea highway; and Fig. 2, Plate 34, is a larger plan of the docks, together with the chief features of the town of Barrow. The first harbour authorities (the Barrow Harbour Commissioners) were constituted under the Act of 1848. The powers therein granted becoming inadequate to the rising port, the Commissioners’ authority was enlarged in 1855, and became vested in the Furness Railway Company in 1863; and by the same Act power was also given to construct docks. The construction of the docks then authorised, situate between Bh~owand Barrow Island, was let in 1865 to Messrs. Brassey and Field. The docks have been named after the two Dukes, Devonshire and Buccleuch, the chairman and deputy- chairman of the Furness Railway ; and were formally opened on the 19 September 1867 with great public enthusiasm. The Devonshire and Buccleuch docks have together a water area of 65 acres. Their length is 5500 feet, and width 500 feet, with a clepth of 24 feet. They are entered through a basin 500 feet in length by 150 feet in width, worked by a pair of double-skinned wrought-iron gates, 60 feet wide in the clear, and by a wrought-iron caisson. Adjoining and parallel with the basin is a graving dock, capable of taking a vessel of 5500 tons burthezl. The north side of the Devonshire dock was allocated to traffic in grain, jute, &c., and the shipment of steel rails and h*matite pig iron; the principal portion of the south side being reserved for, and now used by, the Barrow Shipbuilding Company and the timber trade : whilst the Buccleuch dock was more particularly reserved for the shipment of iron ore and timber, a trade generally carried on in 8 smaller class of vessels. Under these circumstances the entrance between the two docks was made 40 feet wide, or 20 feet less in width than the entrance into the basin. In 1872 the railway company obtained an Act authorising an extension of their docks, which was completed and opened in May of 2D Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF VIRGINIA on June 4, 2016 326 BARROW DOUES. AUGUST1880, last year. This extension, called the Ramsden dock, has been named after the managing director of the Furness Railway ; and the Author trusts it will be a lasting tribute to the energy of Sir James Ramsden. The access to this dock affords a second way into the entire system of docks; it is through a basin 900 feet in length by 250 feet in width, having an area of 8 acres, into a lock 700 feet long by 100 feet wide, and nearly 2 acres in area ; and thence into the Ramsden dock and basin of 56 acres of water area. Besides this a further area of 200 acres has been enclosed for the Cavendish dock and quays. The minimum width of the entrance to these docks is 100 feet. The outer cills are placed 6 feet lower than those of the Devonshire basin ; while those at the upper end of the lock, or second entrance to the docks, are at the same level with the cills of the Devonshire basin. The masonry of the basins, lock, and docks is built of red sandstone, chiefly obtained from Hawcoat quarry, 14 mile distant. In the construction of the basin and quay walls a large amount of concrete has been used in various proportions, the most usual being 1 part of hydraulic mortar made from Aberthaw pebbles, and 6 parts of gravel or shingle, taken from the southern end of Walney Island. In Figs. 3 to 5, Plate 35, are shown sections of these walls. In tidal work, the excavation for the foundations, where trenched, was removed by buckets and skips, and the concrete was put in position by the same means. Concrete was also passed down through telescopic wrought-iron tubes ; but it was found that the cement floated to the top of the tube, and this plan was ultimately abandoned in favour of the skips. The invert of the lock is built of blue Flintshire bricks ; the cills, hollow quoins, and copings of Cornish granite. The slopes of the outer embankments, reclaiming the land for the site of the docks, are at 2 to 1, and are pitched with 12-in. sandstone pitching laid on 12 in. of clay puddle, the interstices being filled with broken stone. This mode has also been adopted for some of the inner slopes. As trade requires it, jetties will be built out to the foot of the-inner slope for vessels to lie alongside. The foundations proved very variable; some of the walls, especially a great part of the outer Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF VIRGINIA on June 4, 2016 -4CGUSE 1880. BARROW DOCKS. 327 channel wall, are erected on piles and flooring, as shown in Fig. 3, Plate 35 ; other portions have piles driven as a sheeting in front of the masonry. Amongst other means used for excavating the dock, the steam navvy was successfully employed ; its employment in stiff clay and gravel is very economical, saving much cost in getting, The work done by a 10 horse-power “nawy” per day was 600 to 800 cubic yards filled into wagons. The basin and dock gates are of wrought iron, segmental in form, and struck to a radius of 75 ft. 6 in., with a versed sine of 21 ft. The sea gates are plated to a greater height than the others, so as to exclude the equinoctial tides from the docks. Each leaf of these gates is 57 feet in length, measured on the arc. The framing consists of H-shaped built ribs, placed horizontally at various heights according to the water-pressure they have to sustain, and connected at five points by vertical frames, similar in shape to the ribs. At the back of each alternate rib is fixed a horizontd lunette frame, tied and braced vertically at the five upright frsmee. At the back of the gate, and attached to the framing at every point of intersection, are two diagonal bars, supporting and bracing together all the framing of the gate. The main ribs are plated on the outside up to the water level of the dock. The heel and mitre posts and the clapping cills are of greenheart timber. The centre of the heel post is set slightly eccentric with the centre to which the hollow quoin is worked; so that in opening the gate the heel post is at once freed from the masonry. The pivot, and the top and bottom shoes of the heel posts, are of cast steel. The gate is anchored back to the masonry by a wrought-iron strap, passing through a massive cast-iron anchor plate, which is built into the masonry and secured by long wrought-iron ties. Each gate is provided with one cast-steel roIIer, 2 ft. 6 in. diameter, placed 47 ft. 6 in. from the heel post, and carried by a vertical shaft having adjusting keys at the top. The weight of one sea gate, 57 ft, long and 36 ft. high, is 107 tons; and the gross weight, including the pivot, anchor plate, straps, roller-path, &c., is 127 tons. Each gate is provided with a single chain attachment for opening and closing, and with four sluices acting in pairs.