Track
For the permanent way Brunel decided to use a light bridge rail continuously supported on thick timber baulks, known as "baulk road". Thinner timber transoms were used to keep the baulks the correct distance apart. This produced a smoother track and the whole assembly proved cheaper than using conventional sleepers for broad-gauge track, although this advantage was lost with standard- or mixed-gauge lines because of the higher ratio of timber to length of line. More conventional track forms were later used, although baulk road could still be seen in sidings in the first half of the twentieth century.
Read more about this topic: Great Western Railway
Famous quotes containing the word track:
“To most men, experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“The weary sun hath made a golden set,
And by the bright track of his fiery car
Gives token of a goodly day tomorrow.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“He who rides and keeps the beaten track studies the fences chiefly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)