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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 1 (May 1, 1932.)

The World's Railways — Current Developments. — (From Our Special London Correspondent.)

page 62

The World's Railways
Current Developments.
(From Our Special London Correspondent.)

Experiments with Pneumatic Tyres.

A good deal of attention has of late been devoted to the potentialities of the pneumatic tyre for railcar wheels, and in France extensive trials have been conducted with a patent pneumatic-tyred flanged wheel, the invention of the Michelin Company. In its essentials, the wheel comprises an ordinary road motor truck wheel, to which is attached on the inside a steel flange. The tyre, with a tread projecting somewhat to the outside, is fitted to the rim of the wheel in the conventional manner, and is inflated to a pressure of 851bs. per sq. in. The life of the tyre is put at about 18,000 miles. The car equipped with the patent pneumatic tyres operated by the French State Railways has a chassis supported on two trucks—six-wheeled in front and four-wheel in the rear. The engine is a 6-cylinder Panhard, rated at 24 h.p., with a four-speed gearbox. Gross weight is 6 1/2 tons, normal speed on level 56 m.p.h., maximum speed 62 m.p.h., petrol consumption 14 m.p.g., and cost approximately £1,500. The advantages claimed for the car are more rapid acceleration; more rapid braking; greater travel comfort; and reduction in noise.

In addition to the State Railways' experiments, the Eastern Railway of France has put thirty 24-seater petrol railcars with pneumatic tyres into branch-line service.

Bermuda's First Railway.

More than a century has passed since England welcomed its first railway, while few are alive to-day to remember the opening of New Zealand's pioneer railway linking Lyttelton with Christchurch. In spite of these facts, there is one country in the world—Bermuda—which only recently has received its first introduction to the “Iron Way.” Bermuda is a great playground for the wealthy British and American tourist, and the new Bermuda Railway, when completed, will be 21 1/2 miles in length, running almost for the full length of the island. The section just opened is that between Hamilton and Somerset, a distance of 11 miles. The railway is of 4ft. 8 1/2in. gauge, and single-tracked throughout. Rails are flat-bottomed, spiked to timber sleepers, and weighing 67.5lbs. per yard. Passing loops are provided at intervals along the route, and the most important engineering work is the 1,004ft. bridge of steel, having an electrically-operated swing-span of 135ft., crossing a sea-inlet at Ferry Point.

Six Drewry petrol railcars and six trailer cars have been acquired for passenger movement over the Bermuda Railway. Goods traffic is handled by means of two power-operated 10-ton covered steel trucks, two 10-ton covered trailer trucks, and one spare power bogie. The motor railcars are 42ft. long, 9ft. wide and 11ft.6in. high. They weigh about 20 tons and accommodate 42 passengers. A feature is the patent five-speed gearbox, giving all five speeds in both forward and reverse directions.

Train Ferries in Europe.

Railway trains that actually go to sea are not uncommon in Europe, thanks to the utilisation that is made of the oceangoing train-ferry in maintaining rail connections between various Continental lands. The success of the Harwich-Zee-brugge train-ferry has been most conspicuous, and soon another train-ferry will link Britain with the Continent, this time having Harwich and Calais as its terminals.

Europe's first train-ferry was opened in 1872, across the Little Belt Channel at the entrance to the Baltic Sea. Since then seven other train-ferries have been opened between Denmark and the neighbouring page 63 lands of Germany and Scandinavia, the longest being that between Gjedser and Warnemunde, a distance of twenty-three miles, providing for through movement of passengers and freight between Copenhagen and other European points. This service is operated jointly by the Danish State Railways and the German Railways, and the crossing occupies just two hours ten minutes.

The Gjedser-Warnemunde ferry service employs a most interesting type of ferry-steamer, 348 feet long and 59 feet wide. The propelling machinery consists of two sets of four-cylinder triple-expansion engines, and a maximum speed of 15 knots is maintained. Eighteen goods wagons or seven passenger carriages are accommodated on two sets of tracks on an almost totally enclosed deck. Access to this deck is secured by the novel arrangement of a moveable forecastle. The bows of the vessel are hinged in such a manner as to enable them to be lifted right back to form an archway through which the railway vehicles travel. The ferry gives accommodation for 800 passengers.
At Marton Junction, North IsLand, New Zealand. (Rly. Publicity photo.) The Auckland-Wellington express, with seventeen cars and two mail vans, hauled by two Ab locomotives.

At Marton Junction, North IsLand, New Zealand.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
The Auckland-Wellington express, with seventeen cars and two mail vans, hauled by two Ab locomotives.

Watering Engines en route.

One of the most useful devices ever invented for railway use was the water pick-up gear for locomotives, enabling engines to pick up water for boiler use while travelling at speed. This apparatus was invented in 1857 by John Rams-bottom, then locomotive engineer on the London and North Western Railway. It gave railways the power to operate really long non-stop runs, and obviated the provision of tenders with very large capacity tanks, involving haulage of much dead weight and an increase in locomotive building costs. To-day almost all the main-line engines of the Home railways are equipped with the apparatus, and as an example of present-day working it may be stated that the “Royal Scot” locomotives, hauling the heaviest Anglo-Scottish passenger trains between London and Carlisle, have a water capacity of only 3,500 gallons, water being picked up en route from nine track troughs spaced about thirty miles apart.