Progress of the French Railways

(From Our Special London Correspondent.)

Britain has for long favoured steel construction for passenger cars. Following the introduction of new all-steel dining-cars on the “Flying Scotsman” train, the Northern Railway of France has put into service forty new all-steel passenger carriages of interesting design. The new stock falls into four classes. First is a number of first-class carriages, each having eight passenger compartments. Next comes a number of first-class carriages having five passenger compartments and a roomy luggage compartment. The third lot comprises second-class carriages with nine compartments; and the fourth division consists of second-class stock with five passenger compartments and a luggage section. The carriages, being for fast passenger service, have been designed on the streamline principle to reduce wind resistance.

The tubular girder plan has been followed in the building of the new stock. The main shell consists of steel plates 4mm. thick, comprising the two lateral exterior walls and the roofing. The edges of the roofing are bent in at right angles, and the lateral walls, slightly curved, are stamped with the necessary openings. Roofing is of eliptical section, the plates of which it is composed being transversely and longitudinally welded together. The transverse partitions are formed of joined pressed plates, 3mm. in thickness, and a longitudinal partition formed of pressed plates riveted together and welded, runs the entire length of the carriage forming the side corridor. The bogies are of the Pennsylvania type and the bogie frame is of cast steel. All doors, both outside and inside, between the corridor and the compartments, are of sheet steel. The interior panelling is a particularly interesting feature. This is carried out in coloured porcelain, and the whole appearance of the carriages internally and externally is exceptionally pleasing, striking a new note in passenger carriage design and construction. The carriages are absolutely fireproof, and, in the event of collision, they should prove capable of withstanding much greater shocks than the ordinary wooden-bodied stock.

Romance! Those first-class passengers they like it very well,
Printed and bound in little books; but why don't poets tell?
I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns—the loves and doves they dream—
Lord, send a man like Bobbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam.

—Kipling.