“Scrooge became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town or borough, in the good old world. He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”-Dickens “Christmas Carol.”

Christmas! How magical a word is this: how wonderful its power in awakening happy recollections and dormant sympathies. Railway folk the world over are ever eager to welcome the coming of Saint Christmas, with all his bluff and hearty honesty. This age-long season of hospitality, merriment and open-heartedness may bring with it much arduous labour for the railway worker, but where is the platelayer, the clerk or the superintendent who would dream of offering resistance to the spirit of Christmas?

Do you remember how dear old Bob Cratchit, general factotum to the miser Scrooge, trotted off to his humble home on Christmas Eve? Advanced in years though he was, and worn by the struggle of making ends meet on a beggarly salary, he leaped and sang, and raced down the slippery slides with the best of them. Eternal, indeed, is the spirit with which Dickens saturated his Christmas stories. North, south, east and west, goes out the magic message to the tune of Christmas bells. Happy, happy season, that can so melt the hear of mankind that the simplest of pleasures are steeped in pure and unalloyed delight, and for a while, at least, the world resounds to the sacred call: “Peace on earth; good-will toward men.”

The Home railways have not, as yet, this year been troubled greatly by severe snowstorms and similar seasonable obstacles to train movement. Normally, the British winter is less severe than that experienced in other parts of Europe. Norway, Sweden, Russia and Switzerland are proverbially bad-weather lands at this period. In these northern countries snow at times plays terrible havoc on the railways: for the snow-plough gangs there, Christmas often brings trouble in abundance.

Winter Troubles.

It is now many years since Scotland was visited by a really heavy snowstorm sufficient totally to suspend railway services for any considerable period. As for the green lands of Southern England, there are many children of school age in the Home Counties and the West Country to whom the sight of the glistening snowflakes fall is as yet an unknown ecstacy. On the Scottish and Scandinavian railways, snow fences are a common sight along the line. Three types are favoured-the “double,” the “sloping” and the “covered.” The first consists of two parallel lines of upright fencing, formed of stout wooden sleepers, placed about twenty yards apart alongside the track. Plan number two makes allowance for the undulating motion of the wind, by sloping the fence to deflect the air currents, thus assisting the wind to catch up drifted snow and carry it away from the track. Stout corrugated iron, which virtually converts a cutting into a tunnel, is employed for the covered type of snow fence.

Rate Fixing for British Railways.

The close of the present year marks the passing of an era in the history of railway rating at Home. For five years the railways have been wrestling with the rates ploblem allotted to them by the grouping Bill of 1921, which called for the fixing of conveyance rates on such a basis as to yield to each group a net standard revenue comprising the net receipts for the year 1913, with certain allowances, in respect of capital expenditure incurred after 1913, capital expenditure which had not fully fructified in 1913 (and was consequently not reflected in the receipts for that year), and economies effected as a result of grouping. Now the rating experts have completed their task, and the Government Tribunal has decided that the new standard charges shall come into operation on January 1st, 1928.

First the net standard revenue had to be established, and then the expenditure had to be ascertained for the first year in which the new rates would operate. This proved an especially difficult matter, for the expenditure, including page 19 provision for the renewal of rolling-stock and track, had to be related to the estimated traffic of a future year. The addition of the net revenue and the estimated expenditure gave the gross receipts. Standard rates for twenty-one classes of freight, in place of the existing eight classes, next had to be prepared, which, when applied to the estimated carryings of the normal year, would yield, with the product of the exceptional rates and the receipts from passenger traffic, a figure representing the gross receipts.

The sum of £196,632,901 has been agreed upon as the total standard revenue to be raised by the four group lines, with net revenue £50,075,847. To secure this revenue, Home goods rates are to be approximately sixty per cent. above the base rates operative on January 14th, 1920, or roughly the same rates as are at present being levied, and which were introduced last February to meet the heavy losses sustained through last year's labour troubles. On the passenger side, the existing fares of 2½ d. per mile first-class, and 1 1/2d. per mile third-class, are to be standard. (These are higher than the New Zealand standard first and second class fares. -Ed., N. Z. R. M.)

The Caprotti Valve Gear.

Refinements are constantly being introduced in locomotive design, and every year sees some new item of equipment brought into use to increase locomotive efficiency and economy. The latest development in this direction at Home is the experimental utilisation by the London, Midland and Scottish Company of the Caprott. valve gear on its engines. The main difference between the Caprotti and the familiar Walschaert gear is the employment in the Caprotti equipment of poppet (or automobile type) valves for the admission and exhaust of the steam. These valves, of which there are sixteen (one admission and one exhaust for each end of each cylinder) are operated by two valve boxes, worked by a short cross shaft under the smoke-box, bevel gears driving this cross shaft from the longitudinal shaft which is housed in an oil-tight gear box. The drive of the cross shaft is taken from the intermediate wheels of the locomotive, on the same principle as the back axle and propeller shaft of a motor car.

Revolving cams operate the valves through a series of rocker arms, which depress the valve

The First Touch of Winter.
Heavy anowfalls only occasionally hamper railway operations in Britain. Further north, however, in snow-bound Scandinavia, much more severe climatic conditions are experienced at Christmas time. Above is depicted the first snowfall of the season on the newly electrified tracks of the Swedish State Railways between Stockholm and Gothenburg. This electrification operates on single-phase current at a frequency of 16⅔ with 16,000 volts on trolley line.

page 20 spindles, a single cam operating the exhaust, and double cams operating the admission. These double cams are so arranged that their largest diameters can be revolved so as to more nearly coincide, or the reverse, by movement of connected scrolls along a quick left-handed threaded shaft, which runs on ball-bearings, this movement being under the control of the driver. The action of these two cams is such that while the “lead” is always constant, the time period during which the valve is open can be altered without changing the amount of lift, this having the great advantage that “notching up” does not result in wire drawing, nearly full boiler pressure being secured in the cylinders to an early point of cut off.

Results achieved to date on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway show that the Caprotti equipment possesses great possibilities for fuel consumption economy and reduced maintenance costs.

Manchester-Bury (L. M. & C.) Electric Division.

On Time!

“Punctuality,” said Louis XIV., “is the politeness of kings.” It is also, as Samuel Smiles told us in that wonderful volume “Self-Help,” “the duty of gentlemen, and the necessity of men of business.”

In the railway world the necessity for punctuality is ever present. A railway that runs its trains to time speedily earns the good-will of the traveller, and a reputation for efficiency. The Home railways have an enviable record in this regard, and by far the bulk of the long and short-distance trains here operated arrive at their destinations on time, or comparatively near booked time.

From the Southern Railway headquarters at Waterloo Station, London, there have recently been issued some especially interesting statistics bearing on passenger train punctuality month by month. During a typical month, some 102,090 week-day steam trains were operated on the system, and 81,070, or 79.4 per cent. of these ran absolutely to time. Only 68 trains lost more than 20 minutes on the journey, and for the whole of the 102,090 steam trains run, the average late arrival at destination was only 64 minutes per train. During the same month 67,731 electric trains were operated on week-days, and 58,568 of these ran absolutely to time.

On the freight side, during the month in question there were run 15,695 goods trains, and 89.5 per cent. of these left at booked time. The average late arrival at destination was only a trifle over seven minutes per tain, a truly remarkable performance of which the Southern Railway may well be proud.

Rebuilding Stations.

Paris has for long ranked as the most important of all railway centres in Europe. The great passenger stations of the French capital are almost all built on commodious lines, but the growth of traffic now necessitates improvements of one kind and another, and these works are gradually being put in hand as the financial position improves.

The biggest rebuilding plan now being tackled is that at the Gare de l'Est. The original station was opened seventy years ago. Today the terminal covers 20 acres, and has some eighteen platforms under cover. An additional ten acres of land has been acquired for the extension scheme, and a further twelve platforms are being provided. Main-line and suburban booking-offices are to be provided on elegant lines, with luggage offices and an under-ground luggage hall similar to that recently installed at Victoria Station, London. Subway connection is also to be given with the Paris underground railways. The approach lines are being considerably widened, and the complete scheme will occupy something like five years to finish.

Brake Equipment.

International goods traffic working across the Continent of Europe has for some time been hampered by reason of the lack of uniformity in the type of brake employed in the respective countries parties to through movement. Under the Treaty of Versailles, there was aimed at the standardisation of freight train brakes throughout the whole of the Continent, and satisfactory progress effected towards this end is already facilitating very largely the haulage of through merchandise.

The Westinghouse automatic brake has been adopted as standard in Britain, Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, Roumania, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia. In Germany an effort has been made to adhere to a German product-the Kunze Knorr brake-and for the time being this brake is utilised throughout Germany. Although not of the standard type, this brake is capable of page 21 operating in conjunction with the Westinghouse, and wagons so fitted now are able to travel in through goods trains across Europe.

The Smoking Car.

Smoking compartments to-day form so large a proportion of the passenger accommodation provided on the Home railways, that it is difficult to realise in the early days of our railways passengers who sought the solace of the fragrant weed met with scant sympathy either from the railway authorities or their fellow-travellers. It was the old Great Eastern Company, now part and parcel of the L. & N. E. group, which first enabled the railway traveller to enjoy a comfortable smoke, by introducing smoking carriages more than seventy years ago. Later, in 1868 to be precise, a clause was introduced into the Railway Regulations Bill, making it imperative on the part of all the Home railways to provide special accommodations for smoker in each class of carriage on every train.

Better Publicity.

Familiar to all travellers at Home are the notices regarding smoking in non-smoking compartments, porterage arrangements, hotel facilities, and so forth, displayed in the passenger carriages and in the railway time-tables. Time and again the uselessness of many of these hoary notices has been commented upon, and now the Great Western Railway is taking a lead in the modernisation of its public announcements, and cutting out many of the awesome warnings that have for so long featured in their passenger carriages and timetables.

Importance of Safety Activities.

All available evidence supports the view that an increase or decrease in safety activities reflects itself in a corresponding decrease or increase in the number of personal injuries incured by the employees, says Sir Felix Pole, General Manager of the Great Western Railway.

An Aid to Passenger Train Punctuality.
Train Departure Indicator, Southern Railway, Waterloo Station, London.