The Boiler Programme.

In our May issue some particulars were given regarding thirty-one new boilers on order for locomotives. The following are the details:

Ten class Ab, Wab, Ws, and Q boilers have been ordered, six for renewal of boilers in “Q” class engines, and four as spares.

Ten class “A” boilers are being obtained, eight for renewal and two spares to facilitate repairs.

Two class “X” are also being obtained in order to avoid holding engines too long in the shops while the present boilers are being fitted with new combustion chambers, fireboxes, and super-heaters.

Two class U, Ua, and Uc boilers.

Three class B, Ba, Bb, and We. Two of these will be used for re-boilering class B locomotives and one is spare to facilitate boiler repairs.

Four class Ub (Baldwin) boilers.

This programme has been extended by the ordering of twenty additional boilers, viz, one Ub (Baldwin), two Wg, Ww, ten Wf, and seven Ab, Wab, Ws, Q. All these new boilers are superheated. Grouping of the classes has been made to indicate that the boilers are interchangeable in the classes grouped.

No provision has been made (in view of the intention to reduce the number of classes of engines in service on the railways) for future re-boilering—except to use one or two new boilers previously made and on hand-of the following classes of locomotives:-“D,” “F,” “Fa,” “J,” “K,” “L,” “La,” “M,” “N,” “Na,” “Nc,” “Oa,” “Ob,” “Oc,” “P,” “R,” “S,” “T,” “Ub,” (Brookes), Ud, V, W, Wa, Wb, Wd, Wh and Wj.

New Workshops.

Lines for serving the site of the Hutt Valley Locomotive Shops are being put down, and preparation for the levelling are now in progress.

The clearing of the site for the Addington Workshops and the removal of the necessary buildings is being pushed ahead with. The new tarpaulin shop has been completed and will soon be ready for occupation.

The removal of old buildings and the clearing of the site for the Hillside Workshops is progressing satisfactorily.

Workshops Machinery.-Orders for the first year's requirements have been placed and specifications for the second year's quota are now being prepared. It is expected that these will be available for issue about the end of August.

Workshops Electrification.-At Petone-with the exception of one steam boiler-the change over to electrical operation is now completed. At Hillside, Invercargill and East Town tenders for the equipment have not yet closed.

Rolling Stock.-Four bogie wagons and twenty-four four-wheeled wagons have been completed at the workshops, and arrangements are in hand to build twenty-one brakevans for the South Island Main Line and branches.

Rail Cars.-The Edison Battery Car has been completed. A trial was made on 17th June between Christchurch and Lyttelton. The car ran satisfactorily. Certain alterations which the Clayton car required have been carried out. The car is now ready for service.

Fuel Saving.
Effect of Economy in the use of Coal.

The cumulative benefit of small economies is perhaps nowhere more strikingly evident than in fuel saving. The following particulars should prove interesting to those in whose hands finally rests the power to conserve fuel by the exercise of wise economy:-

Coal costs £2/3/- per ton.

The New Zealand Railways use 326,824 tons per annum.

Our coal bill is thus £702,671.

If every locomotive burnt 1 lb. of coal less for every mile it ran, the Department would use 5,852 tons less per year, or save £12,582.

Will every engineman help his Department to get this economy?

I extend pity to no man because he has to work. If he is worth his salt he will work. I envy the man who has a work worth doing and does it well. There never has been devised, and there never will be devised any law which will enable a man to succeed save by the exercise of those qualities which have always been the prerequisites of success, the qualities of hard work, of keen intelligence, of unflinching will.-Theodore Roosevelt.

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In all lives there is a crisis in the formation of character. It comes from many causes, and from some which on the surface are apparently trivial. But the result is the same; a sudden revelation to ourselves of our secret purposes, and a recognition of our perhaps long shadowed, but masterful conviction.-Benjamin Disraeli.

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Self-respect is the corner stone of all virtue. -Herschel.

Improvements on Passenger Trains
New Emergency Brake

There has been a considerable amount of discussion from time to time appearing in the press suggesting the introduction of communication cords on the trains of the New Zealand Railways, similar to those supplied on express service in Great Britain. The difference in construction and make up between the New Zealand and British types of passenger rolling stock has presented in the past a serious obstacle to the introduction of a safety measure of this nature. Now, however, the Chief Mechanical Engineer (Mr. G. S. Lynde) has introduced a simple and effective method whereby passengers may, in emergency, stop trains by means of an emergency application of the Westinghouse brake.

In each passenger car compartment there is being fitted up an emergency brake cock. This is enclosed in a box with a thin glass front. In emergency the glass may easily be broken by the passenger, and the turning of the cock applies the brake just as effectively as an application by the enginedriver could do.

Near the box is placed a notice reading as follows:-

To stop train in extreme emergency break glass and turn lever down. Penalty for improper use £10.

The emergency train stop cocks are connected to the train brake pipes, which extend from the engine to the last vehicle on the train. When the emergency cock lever is pulled down the compressed air in the train brake pipe escapes and this causes the Westinghouse brake to apply, instantaneously and with its full force, to the whole train. It is also intended to introduce a form of communication cord into sleeping cars of the transverse compartment type.

It is anticipated that the occasions upon which there will be any necessity for using the new facilities for applying the emergency brake will be extremely rare, but nevertheless it stands as a complete safeguard to meet just such occasions as those for which it is introduced.

Luck means rising at six o'clock in the morning, living on a dollar a day if you earn two, minding your own business and not meddling with other people's. Luck means appointments you have never failed to keep, the trains you have never failed to catch.- Max O'Rell.

A Situation Retrieved

Suggestions and Inventions
Commendations.