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The Way of the Rail
Notes of the Month

Twice the revenue and three times the number of passengers—that is the fine record put up by the Waiuku branch railway for forty-three weeks of the 1932–33 financial year, compared with the corresponding term in the previous year. With results such as these in front of them, the Railways Board decided to reinstate as from the 1st April, Saturday evening train connections between Auckland and the branch, which had been lost over two years ago owing to paucity of traffic. Here was a clear-cut case of the danger of supporting road motor competition and the benefit of increased rail traffic.

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The Signal Section of the American Railway Association has now completed the issue of sixteen pamphlets on “American Railway Signalling Principles and Practices”—the most comprehensive work upon the subject which we have seen. As an indication of the thoroughness with which the compilers have performed their work it may be mentioned that Chapter XIV. is a pamphlet containing eighty-one pages (demy octavo) of simple one-or-two-line definitions of signalling terms used in the narrative. Diagrams and half-tone illustrations help to make the letterpress of the other chapters fully explanatory of the whole subject. The complete set is now available for sale to railway employees at low cost (3.45 dols.) upon application to the Secretary, 30 Vesey Street, New York.

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Discussing Canada's railway problem at Toronto the other day, Mr. E. W. Beatty, Chairman and President of the C.P.R., spoke on the unification plan for Canadian Railways. Referring to the objection that it would involve a reduction in personnel, he gave some interesting particulars of the turnover of railway labour at normal times. “It has been shown by investigations in the United States,” he said, “that the normal turnover by withdrawals due to ill health, death, retirements and voluntary changes, runs from 5 to 6 per cent, per annum of the total number of employees. Therefore, from natural causes, in the event vacancies were not filled, the personnel of Canadian railways would be reduced in five years from 25 to 30 per cent., and it would not be possible to administer the unified properties with a staff reduced below 75 or 70 per cent, of normal. Consequently, the danger of injustice can be readily exaggerated, and, of course, the danger of reduction, even in the event I have mentioned, decreases with the return to more normal times and heavier traffic.” In New Zealand the railway staff losses through death alone have averaged 55 annually in the last four years.

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“The New Zealand Truth” recently made a special panel display of the following paragraph, headed “We Hand this Bouquet to N.Z. Railways Department”:

It is a popular pastime to growl at all forms of official enterprise, particularly the Railways. But when Mother Nature frowned on the North Island last week and washed away roads, rails and bridges in a dozen places the N.Z. Railways Department rose to the occasion and did a job that deserves a hearty handshake.

Passengers and urgent goods, stranded in trains, faced a dismal prospect. A lot of hard work, quick thinking and vigorous organisation got the line clear within a day when the outlook at first indicated something more like a week.

“We hope to get the passengers and mail matter to Auckland about eight o'clock on Thursday morning,” said one communique issued in Wellington on Wednesday. And at just a quarter to eight the next day the north-bound express steamed into Auckland. It was a fine achievement in overcoming big difficulties and showed the public that the Service is out to win recognition for efficiency and clear-headedness in emergencies.