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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 12 (April 1, 1928.)

Extracts from the Presidential Address by Mr. R. H. Whitelegg to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, 1922

Extracts from the Presidential Address by Mr. R. H. Whitelegg to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, 1922.

“You will readily understand the necessity of strict control over this all important commodity (coal) upon the railways when I inform you that on fifteen English railways the consumption for the year 1921 was close on 8,500,000 tons and on five of the Scottish railways fully 1,500,000 tons were consumed. If it were possible, by economic working, to reduce the poundage per mile by only 11b., the saving for these twenty companies would amount to no less a sum than £377,000.” Further, Mr. Whitelegg goes on to say:—

“There are some firemen who use regularly a few pounds of coal per mile in excess of their fellow workmen. They are costing their company (in the excess coal they are burning) a sum equal to their yearly wage, for, of course, the man who wastes doesn't stop at coal.”

Again, I find Mr. Hill, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Eastern Railway of England, appealing to enginemen to save at least one shovelful of coal (weighing 14½ lb.) per mile, and stating that, if this were done, the Great Eastern Railway would save £312,000. Staggering figures!

In April 1923 the General Manager of the Great Western Railway of England told his enginemen that “One shovelful of coal saved per trip would mean a saving to the G.W.R. of 10,000 tons of coal per annum.”

I am only quoting these cases to illustrate my contention that enginemen, by studying the principles of combustion and the problem of fuel economy, could, of they so wished, save a considerable poundage of coal on almost every trip, which saving, spread over a period of a year, would represent a big saving in money.