The Famous “Silver Jubilee” Express.

Accelerated Time-tables.

While experiments are being conducted by the Home lines in the way of introducing high-speed streamliners, the need for a general acceleration of passenger trains is not being over-looked. Normally, this season does not see any very important accelerations, but actually the winter time-tables show marked speeding-up throughout all the four group systems.

On the L.M. & S. Railway, for example, no fewer than 1,146 passenger trains have been accelerated this winter. The “Royal Scot” throughout run from Glasgow to London (Euston) has been cut to 7 hours 25 minutes, the fastest booking ever recorded. The “Irish Mail” (Holyhead-Euston) has been speeded up, reducing by as much as 25 minutes the journey times between Dublin and many important cities.

A noticeable feature of the winter time-tables is the greatly improved Sunday services on many routes, and the bettered interchange arrangements between the four groups. Week-end travel has grown by leaps and bounds of late, and it is essential the railways should cater suitably for this demand, and not allow so valuable a source of revenue to go untapped.

Streamlined “Pacific,” hauling the L. and N.E. “Silver Jubilee” Express.

Railway Speeds on the Continent.

On the Continent of Europe, probably the best all-round showing from the viewpoint of speed is made by the railways of France. The Nord Railway comes first, with a splendid array of fast, daily heavy main-line trains, linking Paris with a hundred important centres. On this system, “Pacific” type locomotives daily haul 700- to 800-ton trains at average start-to-stop speeds of 55 m.p.h. Daily speeds recorded start-to-stop include runs between Paris and Calais, 59 m.p.h.; Boulogne, 61 m.p.h.; Aulnoy, 62 m.p.h.; Brussels, 64 m.p.h.; and St. Quentin, 65 m.p.h.

The Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean is another system which prides itself upon its high-speed attainments. A noteworthy run is that between Paris and the Italian frontier town of Ventimiglia, averaging 54 m.p.h. throughout. This includes speeds of 66 m.p.h. between Paris and Laroche; 68 m.p.h. between Dijon and Macon; and 67 m.p.h. between Avignon and Marseilles. On the Midi line, there are daily recorded in page 18 page 19

All-metal passenger carriage, Northern Railway, France.

the Paris-Bordeaux service speeds of up to 75 m.p.h.

Improved Accommodation at Plymouth Docks.

Plymouth ranks as a most important ocean gateway into Britain. For the comfort and convenience of the large number of passengers who disembark from ocean liners at Plymouth Docks, the Great Western Railway have recently provided greatly improved and modernised accommodation. A new reception room has been constructed, large and lofty, having seating accommodation for 170 persons. It has a single entrance, and serves generally the purpose of a waiting and writing room. Fronting the reception room is a roomy refreshment buffet. In suitable positions, kiosks have been installed for the despatch of telegrams and cables, the transaction of postal business, money exchange, and luggage registration. The scheme of decorations throughout the building gives a marked effect of cheerfulness and brightness. The walls are tiled in white to about half their height, where the tiling finishes in a pleasing green border. The floor covering is of tile pattern, and the furniture is upholstered in leather.

More Attractive Stations.

Attractive passenger stations are now becoming the order of the day throughout Europe. During the last few years a great deal of attention has been paid to this question, with the result that the old drab terminus is becoming a thing of the past, and in its place has sprung up a really pleasing structure, attractive alike inside and out. After a series of experiments, the L.M. & S. Railway has adopted a range of six standard colours for painting its 2,500 passenger stations in a more cheerful and more attractive guise. The colours comprise two light shades (deep cream or Portland stone), either of which can be used in conjunction with any one of three dark shades (middle brown, middle Brunswick green, or Venetian red). The sixth colour—golden brown—is being used sometimes by itself, and some-times with another paint. It is most useful at stations where there are electric trains, and there is consequently iron dust in the air. This iron dust, peculiar to conditions of electric traction, causes a rust-like stain on the paint, but its effects are minimised when golden brown paint is used. No hard-and-fast rule is observed as to any particular colour scheme in any particular district, the scheme adopted for each L.M. & S. station being considered individually in relation to its environment and architectural characteristics.

Passenger Carriage Design.

Wonderful progress has been recorded in recent years in passenger carriage design. A development at Home is the buffet car, providing a quick service of light meals on trains where there is insufficient demand for a full restaurant service. Four new buffet cars have just been brought into use on the L.M. & S. line, between London and Manchester, York and Manchester, and Worcester and Manchester. Each carriage is 57ft. long, and has a kitchen and service counter at one end, with a quick-service cafeteria bar adjoining. The remainder of the interior is devoted to tables, of which there are four, seating four passengers each on one side of the car, and four seating two passengers each on the other, giving total seating accommodation for 24 persons. The chairs strike a new note in Home railway carriage furnishing, having chromium-steel tube frames, with red leather upholstery.

Other features of the cars include the employment of delicately-grained Empire timbers for the interior panelling, and the provision of deep, wide windows, affording an absolutely unrestricted outlook.

(Mae Kettel, photo.)
The new Central Passenger Station, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Railway Storekeeper.

Of the thousand and one jobs within the railway service, few carry such heavy responsibility as that of the storekeeper. In theory, maintaining stocks of stores appears a relatively simple task, but when one thinks of the hundreds of thousands of items of equipment involved, upon the soundness and suitability of many of which depends the safety of human life and limb, there comes realisation of the importance of the storekeeper's work.

With the idea of enabling a sample of every item of equipment in use on the system to be available for inspection either by railway officers or suppliers, the L. & N.E. Railway has opened in London a new department, classed as a “stores museum.” Here there have been gathered together sealed samples or drawings of every conceivable article used on the system, and a staff of four men spend their days classifying and testing new “exhibits.” Altogether, there are about 5,000 samples and 2,000 drawings in the building, and the equipment includes machines for testing all manner of stores supplied. It is part of the policy of the L. & N.E. Company, in cases where contracting firms supply articles superior to those standardised, to scrap the standard pattern and replace it by the improved article.