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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 7 (October 1, 1937.)

Permanent-way Improvements

Permanent-way Improvements.

Fast running, which is now becoming general on the Home railways, calls for increased attention to roadbed and track. Extensive experiments are being made with a view to heightening permanent-way efficiency, new types of flat-bottomed rails, weighing 110 lb. per yard as compared with the standard 95 lb. bull-headed rails, being installed, with new types of bed plates replacing the conventional chair. The welding together of continuous lengths of rails is also being tried out. On the London & North Eastern main-line south of Peterborough there have been laid rails of 100 lb. per yard and 120 ft. in length. At the beginning of the century the standard main-line rail lengths at Home were 30 ft. and 45 ft. After the Great War the 60 ft. standard was established, and since that time this has gradually been increased to 100 ft.

The relaying of the Home railway tracks follows an ordered programme. For one mile of express track there are needed 176 rail lengths, each 60 ft. long and 95 lb. per yard, weighing 149 tons. In addition, 4,230 cast-iron chairs, each of 46 lb., and weighing in the aggregate 87 tons, are fixed to 2,115 sleepers by 12,690 chair-screws. A similar number of wooden screw ferrules, 4,230 felt pads to rest between page 18 page 19 chairs and sleepers, 470 steel fishplates, and fish-bolts to match weighing nearly 2½ tons, are also laid down to each mile of track, not overlooking some 3,500 tons of stone ballast for every mile of double track. Truly, it is a “permanent-way” our trains run on!

Ljungström Turbine, 2—8—0 Locomotives, Grangesberg—Oxelosund Railway, Sweden.

Ljungström Turbine, 2—8—0 Locomotives, Grangesberg—Oxelosund Railway, Sweden.