The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 5 (September 1, 1932)

Our London Letter

Our London Letter

“Trade is slowly improving at Home, and with this improvement comes promise of more prosperous times for the railways. Last year—a year of serious trade depression—more than 250,000,000 tons of freight were handled by the four big group railways, and during the present year it is anticipated that this figure will be considerably exceeded,” says our Special London Correspondent in his current review of recent railway developments in Britain and on the Continent.

In order to meet the requirements of traders, the Home railways have built up a comprehensive service of express freight trains, linking up the principal industrial centres. Over two hundred braked freight trains, run at high speeds and hauled by powerful locomotives, operate nightly between London and other cities, giving next day deliveries to places as far distant as Glasgow, Liverpool, Cardiff and Plymouth. No additional charge is made for the conveyance of freight by these fast services, and their dependability is so great that a shipper can calculate, almost to half an hour, the particular time at which his traffic will arrive at destination.

To keep pace with the improvement in train running, terminal operations have been greatly speeded up. Large sums of money are being spent in rebuilding and laying out new goods stations equipped with overhead electric travelling cranes and other appliances to facilitate the handling of merchandise traffic. An interesting feature is the operation by the four Home railways of nearly 1,000 warehouses, situated at key positions, and having accommodation of over 25,000,000 square feet. Under a comprehensive storage and distribution scheme launched by the railways, freight is dispatched in bulk from the factory by fast trains at a reduced rail rate. On arrival at railhead depot the goods are stored, and subsequent delivery to customers in the surrounding area is undertaken by the railways to the order of the sender or his accredited agents. Door-to-door conveyance is assisted by means of containers, which enable freight to be carried from works to destination without intermediate handling. More than 6,000 containers are in use in Britain to-day, and the number is constantly being augmented.

Amalgamation of Goods Depots.

Last month reference was made in this Letter to the efforts being made to secure increased economy and efficiency through the amalgamation of certain London passenger stations. On the goods side, too, the possibilities attending a move of this nature are being closely watched, and as a first step two of the big London goods depots of the Southern line—the Bricklayers' Arms and the Willow Walk stations—will shortly be amalgamated, to form one big depot.

Under the new arrangement, these two stations of the former South Eastern and Chatham and London, Brighton and South Coast Railways respectively, with their inwards and outwards sheds and marshalling yards, will be combined, so that the original Bricklayers' Arms depot will handle all inward traffic, and the Willow Walk station all outward shipments. This will mean doubling the size of the outward shed, which, on completion, will be the largest goods shed in Britain. Over three hundred wagons will be accommodated in this shed adjacent to the platform. The yard will consist of eight roads, laid in pairs. Four road tracks will be provided, with an approximate width of forty feet each. Provision will be made (by the erection of a covered way spanning two sets of rails) for dealing with yard traffic that requires protection from bad weather. Bricklayers' Arms is one of the oldest London stations. At one time it handled a considerable passenger business, and it was there that Queen Alexandra arrived, in 1863, for her wedding to King Edward VII., then Prince of Wales. The particular building in which the Queen arrived is now utilised for paper traffic in connection with London's great newspapers.

Lowering Locomotive Expenditure.

Grouping of the Home railways has been the means of saving considerable sums of money in the locomotive department. Each of the Home lines builds and repairs most of its locomotives in its own shops, and the economies effected by the L.M. and S. Railway in locomotive operation may be taken as typical of the achievements of the group lines generally.

A Busy Locomotive Works In Britain A peep at the brass finishing shop in the famous Crewe Workshops

A Busy Locomotive Works In Britain
A peep at the brass finishing shop in the famous Crewe Workshops

The standardisation policy of the L.M. and S. Railway resulted in a lowering in locomotive expenditure in 1931 by £3,250,000, as compared with 1927. Since 1923 the number of different types of locomotives employed has been reduced from 393 to 261. Standardisation of renewal work has contributed materially to the 12 1/2 per cent. reduction which the Euston authorities have made in their locomotive stock, viz., from 10,316 in 1923, to 9,032 at the close of last year. In the meantime, the average tractive effort has risen by 12 per cent. Better organisation, and the fact that the latest engines can run larger mileages per day—as, for example, London to Carlisle, Crewe to Glasgow, or Carlisle to Aberdeen—has released for other duties some 250 locomotives, while a contributing factor to the smaller total number required has been the reduction of locomotives under and awaiting repairs at any one time. This number dropped to 383 in 1931, as against 1,958 in 1923, representing a saving on capital lying idle of many thousands of pounds.

In eight years the number of L.M. and S. engines fitted with superheaters has grown from 18 to 40 per cent. of the total stock. This has made possible the use of only one locomotive on heavy trains which formerly were double-headed. Double-heading, by the way, was at one time a feature of the locomotive practice on the Midland section of the line. As regards the 1932 renewal programme, it is worthy of note that the average tractive power of locomotives to be built this year will be increased by 30 per cent., while their cost of maintenance and coal consumption will be reduced by something like 24 per cent.

Economy in Signal Operation.

In the realm of railway signalling, too, there is abundant scope for the exercise of economy. On the Home railways the staffing of signal-boxes alone costs the undertakings £5,000,000 per annum in wages. Thanks to the efforts of the signal engineers, steady reductions are being made in this figure, without in any way reducing the efficiency and safety factor. Economy schemes made possible by means of the amalgamation of signal boxes have in most cases given improved working from a traffic point of view while effecting big savings. On the L. and N.E. line a saving of well over £66,000 per annum has been achieved by the closing of signal boxes.

In general, the closing of signal cabins is being made possible by the introduction of modern electro-mechanical installations.