With a view to ascertaining the present condition regarding locomotive rolling stock on the New Zealand Railways in so far as obsolescence and cognate factors influence the question of locomotive efficiency and economy, responsible officers of the mechanical engineering staff have recently made a comprehensive survey of the position and embodied their findings in a report to the management.

Following upon the recommendations of the engineers the commencement of a programme of locomotive replacements has been authorised.

In accordance with this policy, Mr. P. R. Angus, A.M.I.Mech.E., Assistant-Chief Mechanical Engineer, has put in hand the design of a general utility engine of powerful type.

The new engines are being designed to meet the special conditions obtaining in New Zealand, and will embody the latest improvements in locomotive practice overseas. They will have a capacity approximately 50 per cent. greater than units of the existing “Ab” class engines, with the added advantage that the trailing bogie of the new engines will be so built that a “Booster” can later be conveniently fitted if provision of this added power is found necessary.

The outline drawing which is featured below will give readers an impression of the general characteristics of the proposed new locomotive units.

The design of the new engines is already appreciably advanced in the Department's drawing office in Wellington, and it is confidently anticipated that constructional work will be commenced during the present year.

Air troubles

The distance the air is from being either really safe or fully comfortable for human freight is indicated in two recent news items. The first gives the record of the British Royal Air Force and shews 53 crashes and 63 fatalities for eleven months of 1930. In the second the discomforts and what might be termed the subsidiary dangers of air travel are surprisingly revealed in the plea of Imperial Airways for the sale of intoxicants on air-liners “experience having shewn that they are required by passengers not wholly in connection with meals, but also because of air sickness.” A further claim is made that pilots should be free to drink during a flight if they wanted to, as they “occasionally required a stimulant owing to the intense cold at high altitudes.”

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