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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 4 (August 1, 1928)
Current Comments
Current Comments
Under Revitalised Management.
With the revitalised railway management that we have now a good deal is being done to make the New Zealand Railways a success (comments the “Poverty Bay Herald”). In many directions the Department is reaching out after business, and endeavouring to give such good and efficient service that opposition is disarmed. The railways already are regaining a good deal of lost ground, demonstrating every day how essential they are in the economic system of this Dominion. For a fertile district such as this they are most essential to development, and it would be a thousand pities if through disunion and disputation on the part of our people the project for the accomplishment of railway communication should be set back for any appreciable period.
Life of the Permanent Way.
A sound and well-maintained permanent way is an essential to efficient railway operation (writes our London Correspondent). The Home railways are leaders in this direction, and considering the severe wear and tear to which the British track is subjected, the life of the rail is remarkably long. Interesting data in this regard was recently given out by Mr. V. A. M. Robertson, one of the L. and N.E.R. District Engineers, in the course of a paper on “Bridges and Permanent Way,” read at a meeting of the L. and N.E.R. London Lecture and Debating Society. The average life of permanent way throughout Britain was given as twenty-one years. In the London district of the L. and N.E.R., the average life of plain road was about eighteen years, although various component parts, such as old rails, chairs, sleepers, and so on, frequently had to be renewed before that life had expired. The permanent way in Liverpool Street Station presented a pretty problem for the maintenance engineer. There, the average life of points and crossings is three years, the shortest being twelve months. The average life of rails at Liverpool Street was stated to be four years, and the shortest eighteen months. Liverpool Street is the busiest steam-operated terminus in London. In a single day as many as one thousand heavy trains pass in and out of this gigantic terminal.
The World's Coal Supply.
“When will the coal be gone?” is a question asked in Baker Brownell's “The New Universe,” recently published. Answering it he states that there are, in the world, more than 7,000 billion tons of coal, of which the United States has more than half; Canada has 16 per cent., Europe 11 per cent., Asia 17 per cent and the other regions together less than 6 per cent. “If the United States burns coal at 400 million tons to a billion tons a year for 4,000 years, she would barely exhaust her stock. Others are not so fortunate. By each limiting their burning to 400 million tons a year, England can keep supplied for 450 years, and Germany for one thousand years.
It Costs 10/5 to Stop a Train.
The actual cost of a train stop, including such items as waste of fuel, loss of time, and damage to equipment, is not generally appreciated, even by the employee whose duties are directly concerned with train movements (says the “Railway Age”). For this reason the Missouri-Kansas-Texas has provided in each interlocking tower a sign which conveys the following message in large letters: “It costs $2.50 (10/5) to Stop a Train.” The amount mentioned is a conservative estimate of the average cost of a train stop; in fact, the stopping of heavy trains on an adverse grade will result not only in wasted fuel, but also in delays, especially if a draw-bar is pulled out when attempting to start. The emphasizing of the costs of unsound practices undoubtedly is useful, and may well be employed to influence other employees as well as towermen. Local freight crews and yard crews who are often required to switch on the main line, as well as track foremen, signal maintainers, and bridge crews, would often profit by definite statements of the reason for the importance of avoiding train stops.