In addition to giving his usual interesting review of European railway affairs our Special London Correspondent raises the question of superstition among Railwaymen. Are New Zealand train operators superstitious?

A prize of two guineas is offered for the best story based on fact bearing upon this point.

Circular Tours.

It was John Ruskin, I believe, who remarked in his “Modern Painters” that a railway was merely a device for making the world smaller. This year the Home railways are setting out to reduce their territory to infinitesimal proportions, so elaborate and far-reaching are the travel programmes placed before the public.

A feature of the season's passenger business is the operation of a new type of long-distance circular tour, enabling extended excursions to be made, lasting up to three months, at fares twenty-five per cent. below normal. These special tours, which are planned primarily for the benefit of visitors from overseas, are not confined to the system of any one group railway, but are available over as many as three of the great transportation undertakings of the Homeland, and include travel by rail, road and steamer. They cover such popular resorts and places of pilgrimage as Shakespeare Land, the Burns and Scott countries, the Cathedral cities of the Eastern Counties, the beauteous Lake District and the Scottish Trossachs. Here is a splendid opportunity for all visitors to see the Homeland as it really is, and to appreciate the scenic charms of sea-side and country, with a minimum of trouble and expense.

While all the better-known beach resorts are doing record business this summer, many of the lesser-known holiday haunts further afield are drawing large numbers of patrons. The Isle of Man, for example, is stepping to the forefront among holiday resorts for the Britisher, and the transportation services of the island are being extended in almost every direction to meet the growing needs of the holiday-maker. The principal railway undertaking in Manxland is known as the Manx Electric Railway Company, and has its headquarters in Douglas. Of 3ft. gauge, this enterprising line connects the coast towns of Douglas, Laxey and Ramsey, passing through many of the most interesting and beautiful parts of the island, such as Groudle Glen, Laxey Glen, Dhoon Glen and Glen Mona. From Laxey, a special mountain railway ascends to the summit of Snaefell Mountain, the highest point in the island, from which there are secured the most wonderful views of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Of double track throughout, and electrically operated, the Snaefell Mountain line is on a continuous gradient of 1 in 12, and ranks as one of the most interesting mountain railways in the world.

Rail Joint Experiments.

For long it has been the constant endeavour of the permanent way engineer to devise an improved rail joint, which would give increased strength to the track and at the same time be simple in application. On the Home railways the suspended joint holds favour, but very shortly interesting developments are anticipated as a result of extensive experiments now being conducted by the London and North Eastern Line in the use of a combination of the suspended and supported types of joints with bridging pieces stretching between the pair of chairs at the junction. On the British railways, as a general rule, the joints of two rails are kept opposite to one another. Alternating, or “staggered” track is, however, utilised in certain isolated cases, as for instance on sharp curves where it is desirable to reduce the lateral strength of the road as little as possible at weak points.

To lengthen the life of the fishplate, thin metal strips are commonly employed to take the wear between surfaces, and the plates are usually changed periodically from end to end so as to equalise the wear. The annual lubrication of fished rail joints also has been taken up as a means of adding to track life. For this work both tar and recovered machine-oil are employed successfully.

Maintenance of the Tracks.

On the group railways of the Homeland the practice in connection with permanent way repairs and renewals is to carry out minor daily upkeep operations by small groups of men each allocated to a particular short length of route. More important repairs are carried out as necessary by the relaying personnel, while special gangs cover partial or complete track renewals. The foreman in charge of each maintenance section is responsible for determining the necessity for minor track repairs and renewals, and arranges his work accordingly. Each foreman is subject to the circularised instructions of the divisional engineering chief, and to the supervision of the local inspector, who covers anything up to fifty route miles of track. The section foreman is responsible for maintaining the track to an even surface, with correct super-elevation by lifting and packing; maintaining correct alignment by slueing; the rectification of gauge faults; the tight and effective maintenance of all keys, bolts and fastenings; the adjustment of rail expansion spaces; the renewal and replacement of old and defective individual sleepers, rails, fastenings and fishplates; and the repair and minor renewal of crossings, points and their fittings. He is also responsible for the cleansing of the

In The Beautiful Isle Of Man.
A Summer scene on the Manx Electric Railway.

ballast by screening, the cleaning of drains and ditches, the weeding of the track, the cutting of grass slopes, and the repair of fences, and crossing gates. Once a day (including Sundays in cases where passenger train movement takes place on that day) the section foreman must personally inspect the full length of line allotted to him. Altogether the section foreman is a very busy man, and upon his shoulders rests a big responsibility, for sound and well-maintained railway track is the very basis of safe and successful railway working.

Reversible Operation of Trains.

Of the many operating methods utilised with success in recent years to give improved train working, few are of greater interest than that which concerns the employment of a single track for the passage of trains in either direction, or what is generally known as reversible operation. For many years reversible operation has been employed to advantage on what is now the Southern Railway of England, between Victoria Station and Battersea Park Junction, and between London Bridge Station, Old Kent Road Junction and Bricklayers’ Arms Junction. Recently the idea has been taken up by the Great Southern Railway of Ireland. In this case the new working is associated with conversions of double-line sections into single tracks in cases where the traffic handled did not justify the existence of a double track route. The arrangement is confined to passing places, usually located at a double-platform station, but it is anticipated that considerable extensions of the system will shortly be made into the open track.

In the United States, a most interesting system of reversible line working is in operation on the Missouri Pacific Railway between Kirkwood, Montana, and Jefferson City. This is a double track route, and trains are run in either direction on each track as circumstances necessitate. Signals are installed for both directions on each line, coloured light signals being employed for right-hand running and semaphores for left-hand running to facilitate the correct reading of signals by drivers and to prevent confusion. Double track sections of up to five miles have their switches at either end worked from a single signal box, with mechanical operation for the near-by points and signals, and electrical operation for those located at the far end of the section. On longer sections, ranging up to as long as seventeen miles, there have been provided scissors crossings, each approximately in the middle of a double-track section, and worked from a cabin controlling train movements on both tracks, and operating the remote switches at the two ends of the double-track section. In this way it is possible to utilise the sections as running loops, sidings, or main running roads.

The Importance of Punctuality.

One of the most worrying features of passenger train running, so far as the problem of maintaining punctuality is concerned, is the constant tendency to spend, on station duties, precious minutes which should be given over to running. The keenest supervision is called for on many routes in this connection, if punctuality is to be maintained, and in suburban traffic working in particular the question of time occupied in station duties requires the closest attention.

Many devices have from time to time been subjected to experiment with a view to bringing home to station staffs and passengers the importance of punctual departures, and on the Underground Railways of London great success has been achieved by the employment of a special syren to give warning that the station time has been exceeded. At many busy stations on this important system, an automatic syren comes into operation after a train has stood at the platform for a pre-determined period, provided the stating signal is “off” and the train has not started. The warning blast from this syren has been found a most effective reminder to all concerned of the passing of time, and although the arrangement lends itself peculiarly to conditions ruling on a busy system like the London Underground, it would appear that some similar device might with advantage be employed at many main line stations where difficulty is experienced in the prompt despatch of passenger trains.

Anti-Telescopic Carriages.

On the Home railways there have been installed safety devices of all kinds to ensure freedom from accidents, and the records of past years pay eloquent tribute to the safe fashion in which the four great group railways conduct their operations. One of the most interesting types of safety equipment in favour is the antitelescopic coach, and on the London and North-Eastern system a portion of the passenger carriage stock is fitted with special anti-telescopic apparatus of proved worth.

This apparatus was first evolved on the former Great Central line—the enterprising undertaking which had for many years that well-known railwayman, Sir Sam Fay, as its general manager, and which was swallowed up by the L. and N.E. line under the grouping Act of 1921. It takes for form of shock-absorbing buffer springs and corrugated steel fenders placed on the end of the carriage. These make it impossible for adjoining vehicles to mount each other in the event of collision, and preserve the lateral alignment.

The idea of fixing special shock absorbers to passenger carriages is not, of course, a new one. Nearly one hundred years ago, one ingenious British inventor actually proposed to insert feather beds between the carriages as a measure of protection. Better still was the suggestion that the locomotive should be placed half a mile ahead of the train, and connected to it by a stout steel cable. “In the event of accident,” it was pointed out, “the driver only would be imperilled.” We hear much of safety these days. Even one hundred years ago, it seems, the search for railway safety was ever being pursued.

Studying Railway Problems Abroad.

Railway working is to-day so international in character that it would be foolish in the extreme for the railwayman of any one land to shut his eyes to what is going on in the railway field in countries other than his own, and to bury himself in his own local problems to the exclusion of all others. The need for a wider outlook among railwaymen was never more fully realised at Home than is the case to-day. Visits are constantly being paid by groups of Home railwaymen to the railway centres on the Continent, and now and then special parties of Home railway officers are made up to tour the great transportation systems of the United States and Canada. In a smaller way, much good is being done by the study of railway journals and other literature bearing upon overseas and foreign railway practice.

Quite recently a party of ninety members of the Railway Students’ Association of the London page 29 School of Economics paid a most profitable week's visit to France, with a view to studying railway problems across the Channel. From London the party travelled to Dunkirk, where a tour of the docks was made. Lille next was visited, with its fine hump marshalling yard of the Nord Company, handling eighty trains per day, and equipped with a remarkable system of rail brakes for regulating the movement of wagons through the yard. After a round of sight-seeing in Paris, the party proceeded to Tours by the Orleans line. The electrified section from the Quai d'Orsay Station, Paris, to Aubres-Orleans excited much interest, and leaving the Orleans line behind, visits were paid by the P.L.M. line to Lyons, Marseilles, Nice, Mentone and Monte Carlo. Visits of this character are to be whole-heartedly commended, and one hopes the time is not far distant when every big railway undertaking in the world will make provision for the despatch on organised study tours abroad of selected officers and representatives of the rank and file, with a view to broadening the outlook of the staff generally and bringing new thought and new ideas to aid in the solution of local problems.

Superstitions of Railwaymen.

The refusal of an engine driver to take out of one of the Home railway sheds a new locomotive bearing the number “13” serves to remind us of the hold that superstition has on many railway

Lille Marshalling Yard.
This huge depot is one of a number of modern gravitational yards constructed by the French Northern Railway as part of its post-war restoration plan.

workers. We can all appreciate the dislike of the average engine driver at taking out a locomotive which on its previous run has been concerned in a serious mishap. Much more difficult is it to understand why engines whose numbers contain the figure “9” should be shunned like the plague by many intelligent drivers. Another inexplicable superstition of the Home locomotive man is that which concerns the turning of the engine on the turn-table. Some men insist upon turning the table to the right. Others are equally insistent upon turning their locomotive to the left. By both, any deviation from their accustomed practice is regarded with superstitious dread.

Then there is the quaint belief that never, if you wish to avoid mishap, should you step on to the engine with the right foot first; nor, what is even more disastrous, climb out of the cab on the right-hand side. Most singular of all is the horror which arises in the mind of many engine-drivers at the sight of a hare crossing the metals in front of the locomotive when he is setting out on a long journey. Such an occurrence the superstitious engine-driver at Home regards with the gravest apprehension. New Zealand locomotive men have their own pet superstitions, but it is doubtful whether any railwaymen the world over approach in this respect the other-wise hard-headed footplate staffs of Doncaster, Crewe, Swindon and other Homeland engine centres.