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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 4 (August 1, 1927)

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page 17

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Oil-Burning Locomotives.

The great coal shortage in Britain last year made it necessary for many of the railway companies to convert a portion of their locomotives to burn oil fuel. On the London, Midland, and Scottish, some of the famous express engines of the Prince of Wales class were so converted. The locomotives required but slight structural alterations to carry and to burn the oil, for which each engine had a storage capacity of from 800 to 1,500 gallons. The average consumption of oil worked out at 3 1/2 to 4 gallons per mile according to the type of engine and conditions of service.

Ash-Handling Plant.

One of the most interesting designs of ash-handling plant now utilised is found on the Northern Railway of France. Here, ashes from locomotives are dropped into sloping ash-pits, down which they slide into water tanks between each pair of tracks. Grabs worked by over-head gantry cranes lift the cleansed ashes from the tanks and transfer them into dump-cars, from whence they pass, as a general rule, to adjacent concrete-making works. Concrete is being utilised to an ever-increasing extent on the Franch railways, the most striking development being the new Nord passenger station at Lens, in the heart of the old war zone, which is being built entirely of ferro-concrete.

Tickless Time.

Although synchronised clocks are in use in several big businesses in the Dominion, including, amongst others, the principal railway offices at Auckland, it will probably be news to many people that time may be laid on for ordinary purposes in the same manner as electric light. Nearly all the electric power stations in this country are now equipped with a master clock or regulator, and anyone connected with the supply from such stations may have a modern time-piece called a “Telechron” connected to their lighting wires. This will indicate correct time silently day after day, without winding, regulating, cleaning or oiling. “Telechrons” may be obtained with any type of dial from the tiny mantel clock to the large outdoor clock with a dial many feet in diameter. To overcome stoppages due to the power failing, many of the “Telechrons” are fitted with auxiliary devices to keep the hands in motion until power is restored; or they may be fitted with hand or automatic resetting devices, the latter quickly bringing the hands back to correct time on the restoration of the power supply.

The “Telechron” is driven by a small motor which requires no oiling and which runs at an exact speed, taking a very minute amount of power. It therefore requires no batteries, as was the case with older types of electric clocks. As the “Telechron” becomes better known it is likely to prove a most popular form of timepiece.

Where introduced into homes already provided with telephones, the new type of clock will certainly save a lot of time now occupied in ringing up “central” to check the truth of the discrepant declarations made by the present spring-regulated home timepieces.

Britain Delivers The Goods.

There was recently placed in position on the roof of the Wanamaker store in Philadelphia, U. S. A., the largest bell ever seen in the Western Hemisphere. The bell was made in Britain, and is the heaviest that has so far been cast by British founders. It is nine feet six inches in diameter, seven feet six inches high, and weighs 17 1/4 tons. Under favourable conditions the tolling of the great bell can be heard at a distance of thirty miles. The bell was placed in a specially built tower on the roof of the store in commemoration of John Wanamaker who died in 1922. It is to be known as the “Founder's Bell,” and will strike hourly and be tolled on anniversaries and special occasions.

The bell is tuned to low D bass cleff, a half tone lower than the great bell in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. It is said to be one of the few bells in the world tuned on the five tone harmonic principle, and sounds the deepest tone ever produced under this tuning system. It is the eighth largest bell in the world.