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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 5 (September 1, 1927)

London Letter. — Holiday Travel. — (From our own Correspondent.)

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London Letter.
Holiday Travel.

(From our own Correspondent.)

In probably the best of good faith did the French writer, Sully, remark in his memoirs that “the English take their pleasures sadly, according to the custom of the country.” These words, however were penned very many years ago, and had Sully been alive in this sun-steeped summer of 1927, it is certain the record of his observations would have taken a vastly different form.

The past few months have proved the happiest of holiday periods for Britishers, old and young. Summer vacation travel has this year reached enormous proportions on the Home railways. In the conveyance of short and long-date holiday-makers from London and the leading provincial centres to the popular seaside and country resorts the group lines have done record business, while the running of special cheap excursions at weekends to London Town has drawn huge crowds to the metropolis.

Apart from the immense rush of Sunday trippers to the throbbing Thames-side capital, a feature of the passenger business handled has been the conveyance of vacationists innumerable to continental holiday-haunts. The growth of conducted party travel to continental centres is especially noteworthy, and outstanding among continental resorts favoured is cosmopolitan Paris. No fewer than five distinct services now connect London with the French capital, each operating in connection with the boat train services of the British and French railways.

Channel Routes.

The routes availabe are:-Dover and Calais, Folkestone and Boulogne, Newhaven and Dieppe, Southampton and Havre, and Tilbury and Dunkirk. The four first-named services are of long standing, but only this season has the Tilbury-Dunkirk route been opened out by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the French Northern Company.

By the new route, there is maintained a regular night service, leaving St. Pancras Station, London, at 10.30 p.m., and arriving Paris at 11.20 a.m. the following day. In the return direction, the French capital is left at 7 p.m., and London reached at 8.9 a.m. Through carriages run to and from Tilbury Docks in connection with this service from all leading Home centres, whilst across the Channel through expresses have been introduced giving quick connection with French, Swiss and Italian resorts.

New Continental Services.

Co-operating with the Home railways in their endeavour to further popularise continental travel, the French, Belgian and Dutch railway authorities have brought into use this summer many new fast services. New and luxuriously equipped Pullman trains have been introduced linking Calais with Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam-an outstanding train in this service being the “North Star” Pullman Limited, running between Paris and Belgian and Dutch centres.

The vehicles forming the “North Star” Limited are in all respects identical with those employed in the far-famed “Golden Arrow” Paris-Calais train (referred to in my letter appearing in the May-June issue of the “New Zealand Railways Magazine”). The cars have been built in Britain, and they represent the last word in travel luxury.

Pullman travel is an entirely new departure across the Channel, but by degrees this form of transportation is being extended to cover most of the main trans-Continental routes.

Increased Locomotive Efficiency.

Standardisation of locomotive types is being steadily pursued by the German railways, but the door is still being left open to experiment in the locomotive field by the Berlin authorities, and there is no intention of adhering slavishly to the standard types of engine which are being developed in the interests of efficiency and economy.

In furthering their search for increased locomotive efficiency the German railways have this year introduced a new turbine locomotive of the “Pacific” type, developing 2,500 horse power, and capable of drawing heavily laden passenger trains at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour. In this latest experimental machine, two surface condensers are placed on each side of the boiler, a suction draught fan being situated on the inner side of the smoke-box door for the ejection of waste gases. Two single-stage air-suction steam ejectors serve to remove the air of the condenser, while removal of the condensate water is effected by a pump directly connected to a piston feed-water pump.

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The turbine of the new German locomotive is placed above the engine bogie, and transmits its power by means of a double reduction gear through connecting rods to the driving wheels. The forward drive and the backward drive turbines are situated in the same housing. The total wheelbase of the locomotive is 36 feet 6 1/2 inches, and oflocomotive and tender 69 feet 9 inches. The total heating surface is 2,269 square feet, and condenser surface 2,379 square feet. The tender is mounted on two four-wheel bogies, and has an overall length of 37 feet 8 3/4 inches. The water tank has a capacity of 1,138 gallons, and the coal bunker six tons. The weight of the locomotive in working order is 114 1/2 tons, and of engine and tender 189 1/2 tons. Designed to draw heavy trans-Continental expresses between Berlin and the Belgian border at an average speed of 62 miles an hour, the new turbine locomotive is, at present, being subjected to most exhaustive trials.

Here at Home, locomotive development has received a stimulus by the introduction on the London, Midland and Scottish line of three “Garratt” 2–6–0x0–6–2 articulated engines of an especially interesting type. These locomotives have a grate area of 44.5 square feet, and 2,637 square feet of heating surface. Coupled wheels are of 5 feet 3 inches diameter, and bogie wheels 3 feet 3 1/2 inches diameter. The overall wheelbase is 79 feet 1 inch, and the total weight of each locomotive, with 7 tons of coal and 4,500 gallons of water, is 148 tons 15 cwts. At 75 per cent. of the boiler pressure (190 lbs.) the tractive effort is 40,260 lbs., and at 85 per cent.45,260 lbs. Tractive power is 282.5 lbs. per 1 lb.M. E. P. in cylinders. One inside and two outside cylinders are provided, of 18 1/2 inches diameter and 26 inch stroke. The new L. M. & S. “Garratt” type locomotives are the first articulated machines to be utilised by the Home railways in main-line service, and their utilisation promises to extend considerably in the future. A somewhat similar type of “Garratt” machine, it may be noted, has for some months been employed with success by the London and North Eastern line for “banking” purposes in the Wath mineral marshalling yards.

Railway Housing Plans.

Some three years ago there was embarked upon by the Great Western Railway an ambitious housing plan for its employees scattered up and down the system from London to Cornwall, Public Utility Housing Societies-run on co-operative lines-being established at selected centres. In this effort the Great Western line has, to date, erected some 685 houses for its staff, while an additional 134 houses now are in course of erection.

Covent Garden Underground Station, London. This typical underground station is situated adjacent to the Covent Garden Market, the chief wholesale market in London for fruit, vegetables and flowers.

Covent Garden Underground Station, London.
This typical underground station is situated adjacent to the Covent Garden Market, the chief wholesale market in London for fruit, vegetables and flowers.

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Eight garden-cities, affording comfortable and healthy homes for Great Western workers, have come into being under the shceme. At Acton, a little to the west of London, 150 employee houses have been erected, and a further 162 homes have been established at Hayes nearby. Other garden settlements are placed at Seven Tunnel Junction, Caerphilly, Swansea, Barry, Plymouth and Truro. Various methods of construction have been adopted, but brick houses have proved most satisfactory from the viewpoint of cost, speed of erection, and general convenience. By Oliver Wendell Holmes it was once remarked that “the world has a million roosts for a man, but only one nest.” It is the desire of the Great Western Company to provide every railwayman with a real nest of his own, as it is recognised how valuable a part a genuinely comfortable home plays in the lives of its employees.

The “Great Western's” Crack Express.

There are few more far-famed passenger trains in Britain than the “Torbay Limited” express of the Great Western line, which runs between London and Torquay-the delectable seaside resort of the south-west. Each day, at twelve noon precisely, this crack train, with its load of happy holiday-makers, steams softly out of the Paddington Terminus, glides smoothly round the curve, and creeps up to somewhere in the neighbourhood of sixty miles an hour on the open road beyond.

The “Torbay Limited” actually runs to the fastest three-hour timing in Britain. Every seat in this aristocrat of passenger trains is numbered, and at the height of the holiday season advance booking is a necessity if seats are to be secured with certainty. In a recent issue of the “Great Western Railway Magazine,” there were given interesting details of a typical run of this giant among Home railway passenger trains.

Leaving London on time, with eight heavy 70-feet coaches behind the locomotive, a speed of 62 miles an hour was reached at Southall, 65 miles an hour at Newbury, 75 miles an hour at Savernake, and-hold tight, please-80 miles an hour down the Patney Bank. From Paddington Station to Exeter, the first stop of the “Torbay Limited,” is a distance of 174 miles, and on this particular occasion, the “Neath Abbey” locomotive drew with ease its 310-ton train between the two points in 177 1/2 minutes. This, it should be noted, was quite a normal run of the Devonbound express. Paddington is immensely proud of its “Torbay Limited”: even the “Flying Scotsman” and the “Harrogate Pullman” regard it as a privilege to stand alongside this Great Western flier in the list of Britain's outstanding passenger services.

Traffic Control.

Traffic control is being developed to an everincreasing degree on the Home railways. The Londonn, Midland and Scottish Railway leads in this activity, but now the London and North Eastern line is extending its control plan to cover almost the whole of its Anglo-Scottish main-line.

With the working of the control plan, as favoured on the Home railways, most New Zealand railwaymen will be familiar. There is, however, one feature of the control system operating on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway which may not be widely known, and that is the coal traffic control which operates in the London area. In regulating the flow of the millions of tons of “black diamonds” annually consumed in the metropolis, elaborate supervisory methods are involved. Through the control scheme, the London operating authorities are kept advised daily-one might almost say hourly -of every wagon of coal standing on the system lines for the metropolis, and of the progress of unloading operations at the various coal depots located throughout the city. Only coal which can be accommodated in London is permitted to come forward from the collieries or marshalling yards, and normally a three days' supply of coal is kept standing in the London stations.

The London coal traffic control plan is well worth careful study on the part of the New Zealand railwaymen interested in operating affairs. It provides innumerable pointers for all who are concerned in the bulk movement of traffic of any kind to any big centre.

Concrete Roadbeds.

Improvements in railway track have proceeded steadily throughout a century of railway operation. Hitherto, however, attention has primarily been centred around the track itself, rather than upon the bed which carries the slepers and rails. Of the comparatively few innovations introduced in the roadbed itself, none are of greater interest than the concrete track bed recently subjected to experiment in the United States. Reinforced concrete is at present being experimented with on a big scale, by the Pere Marquette Railway, with the idea of effecting cuts in permanent way maintenance costs. It will not be suprising if very shortly similar tests are conducted by the group lines of Britain, for the American trials have aroused immense interest here at Home.

The concrete track bed employed in America is ten feet in width and 21 inches deep. Two upright longitudinal frames, in the plane of the two track rails, supplemented by plain diagonal and cross bars, form the steel reinforcement. Additional support is given by adjustable rods installed at six-feet intervals, and steel bar cross page 31 frames at each alternate adjustable rod. At intervals of twenty-seven inches stirrups are provided, forming seats for the rail slips, and the rails have no direct contact with the reinforcement. About 850 cubic yards of concrete are used on each quarter of a mile of track, and in order to “cure” the concrete, it is kept covered for seven days after laying with blankets of wet sand. No sleepers are required on the concrete track, and it is anticipated that the life of the reinforced concrete bed will be much longer than the conventional roadbed hitherto favoured.

Railway Relics.

Britain is rich in railway relics of one kind and another. For long there has been talk of the establishment of a central railway museum in London to house the many priceless exhibits of railway interest now scattered throughout the country. Up to the present, however, nothing has actually been accomplished in this direction, and for the time being the rich relics of the early days of British railway working remain cared for in the smaller museums maintained by the individual railways at various points. In South Kensington Museum, London, it is true, there are found a considerable number of fascinating railway exhibits, and this Museum is a place no New Zealand railwayman holiday-making in the Home land should fail to visit.

Probably the most extensive museum maintained in Britain by the railways is the York Museum of the London and North Eastern line. This Museum has recently been enriched by the acquisition of the famous “Gladstone” locomotive of 1883, and is in every way unique in its possession of the rarest of locomotive relics. The gem of the collection is George Stephenson's Hetton Colliery engine, built in 1822, while another enormously attractive exhibit is the earliest iron railway bridge ever built. One would give much to possess the fine series of original letters of George and Robert Stephenson, Burnel and other railway leaders of the past, that repose in the York collection, while the contemporary engravings, dating from 1820 to 1850, are alone worth a small fortune.

It is a commendable thing for every railway undertaking to guard preciously its relics of the past, and one can have nothing but praise for the admirable manner in which the London and North Eastern Railway is meeting its obligations in this direction. The establishment of a central railways museum in London, however, would be an immense boon to all, and it is to be hoped that ere long Britain may be able to boast of a vast railway museum equalling-if not exceeding-in interest, the far-famed collection adjoining the Lehrter Station of the German Railways Company in Berlin. This Museum is undoubtedly the most remarkable affair of its kind the world over, and incidentally includes within its walls many priceless exhibits covering to a considerable extent the early history of the British railways.

Great Moving Panorama Of Transportation. Railway Exhibition at Baltimore, U. S. A., to celebrate centenary of Baltimore and Ohio Railway.

Great Moving Panorama Of Transportation.
Railway Exhibition at Baltimore, U. S. A., to celebrate centenary of Baltimore and Ohio Railway.

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Ocean Greyhound At Northern Terminal Of Main Trunk Railway. R. M. S. “Aorangi” (as seen by night) at Auckland.

Ocean Greyhound At Northern Terminal Of Main Trunk Railway.
R. M. S. “Aorangi” (as seen by night) at Auckland.