Maintaining the Permanent-Way.

Every year the Home railways spend something like £17,500,000 on maintaining and renewing their permanentway, signals, buildings, etc. More than 1,000 miles of track are laid or renewed annually, for which 183,000 tons of steel rails, more than 3,800,000 sleepers, and nearly 1,800,000 cubic yards of ballast are required. Increasing passenger train speeds have made great demands on the permanent-way in recent times. As yet, however, this high-speed running has not affected the design of the Home railway track to any appreciable degree.

Standard track on the four Home groups takes the form of 95 lb. British standard bullhead rails in 60 ft. lengths, carried in cast-iron chairs weighing 46 lbs. each, on 24 sleepers per rail length. On the L. M. and S., L. and N. E. and Southern lines, the chairs are secured to the sleepers by three screws. On the Great Western system, a through-bolt is employed. The two larger groups—the L. M. and S. and L. and N. E.—have laid a limited mileage of 100 lb. rails. Actually, however, these rails are of 95 lb. section, with 5lb. additional per yard on top of the head, the idea being to extend rail life where heavy wear is experienced.

A new idea which is gaining favour in some continental countries and in the United States, but which is viewed with a certain amount of doubt by Home permanent-way engineers, takes the form of welding rails into long lengths. Germany has done a good deal in this direction, and in that country, too, the recent introduction of specially fast passenger trains has called for very extensive track alterations and adjustments on the mainlines such as Berlin-Cologne, Berlin-Hamburg, and Berlin-Frankfort.