wide-gauge Railway, of
laying down an extra rail, or pair of rails, on the narrow gauge, inside
the principal rails, which would, in fact, obviate none of the objections
to the accumulation of slow mineral trains upon the main passenger line,
and would allow of no access by lateral tramroads, without cutting up the
main line by crossings. It is represented also that the waggons of the
wide gauge are, from their greater weight and size, ill adapted for the
purposes of the mineral traffic.

The arrangement in question, of an additional double line of rails, is
equally proposed by the line from Birmingham to Shrewsbury, _via_ Dudley
and Wolverhampton, which traverses the same mineral district, and must be
considered as, to a great extent, identified with the Tring or London and
Birmingham scheme.

The case of the Shrewsbury line, as compared with the competing scheme of
the Grand Junction Company, which stops at Wolverhampton, depends very
much on the same arguments, of the importance of opening up the
Staffordshire mineral field by Railway communication, which have been
already adduced in favour of the Tring line; and the objections to it on
the part of the Canal and other interests are of the same description.
The arrangements proposed for supplying the local wants of the district
are also of the same nature, and the plans and sections of the two lines
correspond, so that the portion between Dudley and Wolverhampton is
common to the two; the understanding being that, if both are sanctioned
by Parliament, this portion is to be made by the Shrewsbury Company, and
used on equitable conditions by the other Company.

The Great Western scheme, on the other hand, introduces a different gauge
and different arrangements, and adopts a different line between Dudley
and Wolverhampton, so that its existence is hardly compatible with that
of the Shrewsbury scheme.

For the reasons stated we are therefore of opinion that, for the purpose
of accommodating the great mineral district of Staffordshire, the
combined scheme of the Tring and Shrewsbury lines is preferable to any
other that has been proposed.

The Tring scheme is equally superior for the local accommodation of
Kidderminster, Stourbridge, and Stourport, to which it gives better
stations, by pursuing a lower level along the bottom of the valleys, and
it admits of more easy extension towards Leominster, Ludlow, and the
West. Between Worcester and London it accommodates, a