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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 4 (July 2, 1934.)

Our London Letter — Improved Terminal Facilities

page 13

Our London Letter
Improved Terminal Facilities.

Salmon fisherman's rope bridge Carrick-a-Rede, Ireland.

Salmon fisherman's rope bridge Carrick-a-Rede, Ireland.

One of the most difficult problems facing railways all over the world to-day is that which concerns ways and means of meeting the ever-growing passenger business handled at city termini. In the past, city passenger stations were often planned and constructed with little thought of future expansion, so that the enlargement and remodelling of the average city terminus is both a costly and perplexing proposition.

In London the situation is especially harassing, and attention has recently been focussed on the possibilities associated with approach track widening as a means of facilitating terminal operations. It is recognised that terminal congestion may often be completely removed by the provision of better facilities on the approach tracks some miles outside the city, and noteworthy widenings accomplished beyond the big London stations have been the means of securing high operating efficiency at relatively modest cost.

Liverpool Street is a typical London terminus, handling by steam power an exceedingly dense suburban business as well as a heavy main-line traffic, train arrivals and departures totalling 1,230 daily. Here, track widenings outside the station have revolutionised conditions within the terminus and rendered unnecessary costly station alterations. Commencing on 1st January, the L. & N.E. Railway operated a four-track mainline from Liverpool Street as far as Shenfield, 20 1/2 miles from the metropolis. Hitherto the four-track mainline extended only 14 miles from Liverpool Street, and the provision of the two new tracks for a distance of 6 1/2 miles has come as an immense boon. The 20 1/2 mile stretch of four lines of way out of the terminus has enabled the management to entirely separate local from express services; while new power-operated signalling equipment has rendered practicable a three-minute headway, which will also meet any future requirements associated with possible electrification works.

Until the building of the new Waterloo terminus of the Southern Railway, Liverpool Street was the most commodious main-line terminal in London. Opened exactly sixty years ago, and at one time the London headquarters of the old Great Eastern Railway, Liverpool Street is to-day the largest of the three London termini owned by the L. & N.E. line. King's Cross and Marylebone are the other London stations on the system, both handling traffic to and from the north and midlands.

All the big London main-line stations are placed some distance from the actual centre of the city, being arranged in a circle with inter-connecting tube and bus services of a unique character. Liverpool Street lies on the eastern side of the city; on the north there are the King's Cross and Marylebone termini of the L. & N.E. line, and the Euston and St. Pancras stations of the L.M. & S. system; westwards lies the G.W. Company's Paddington terminal; while to the south are the Southern stations of Waterloo and Victoria. The London termini lay no claim to being the finest in the world, but, taken all in all, they probably represent the most striking and most efficient collection of passenger stations to be found in any one centre.

Main departure platform, King's Cross Station, London.

Main departure platform, King's Cross Station, London.

The Irish Railways.

Although little is heard of the railways of Ireland, steady progress continues to be made by the transportation undertakings both of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. In the Free State, it will be remembered, one big railway—the Great Southern —was some years ago formed out of the individual lines serving the area, just as the ambitious grouping scheme was carried out in Britain. The Great Southern, with headquarters in Dublin, has proved itself a truly goahead concern, and this line has recently embarked upon big improvement works.

In all, some #200,000 are to be spent by the Great Southern upon improvements of various kinds. Track betterments will give improved services with Waterford, Kerry, Limerick and Galway, while new trains will also be introduced on the Dublin-Cork main-line. Ten new main-line locomotives are to be constructed in the railway shops, and new rollingstock will include 500 goods wagons designed for the movement of sugarbeet. In association with the Dublin tramways, the Great Southern has been given a virtual monopoly of road transport, and in this connection the railway is constructing a huge central omnibus station in Dublin, with workshops, washing-sheds, and other modern amenities. There is also being developed a comprehensive plan for co-ordinated rail-road transport employing railway-owned vehicles throughout, and this will give quick door-to-door service for merchandise of every kind throughout the country.

New Freight Locomotives.

Now that trade is steadily improving in Britain, the railways are adding to their stocks of freight locomotives. The L.M. & S. line has under construction in the Crewe Works a batch of forty new tender locomotives of the 2–6 wheel arrangement, designed especially for fast freight haulage. The new engines are on similar lines to the existing “13,000” class of standard 2–6 superheated locomotives, of which there are some 245 already in service on the line. The page 14 page 15 “13,000” class engines, however, have not the tapered boilers of the new type. The boiler pressure, also, has been increased from 180 lb. to 225 lb. per sq in., and tractive effort from 25,580 lb. to 26,288 lb. The two horizontal outside cylinders of the new engines are of 18 in. diameter by 28 in, stroke; total heating surface is 1,411 sq. ft. and grate area 27.8 sq. ft. Driving wheels are of 5 ft. 6 in. dia.; coupled wheelbase is 16 ft. 6 in.; and total length of engine and tender over buffers is 59 ft. 10 3/4 in. In working order the engine weighs 65 tons, or with a six-wheeled tender carrying 3,500 gallons of water and 5 tons of coal, 107 tons 4 cwts.

The cab equipment of the new engines is especially interesting. The width over cab plates is 8 ft. 6 in. and the drive is on the left-hand side, tipup seats being fitted on each side of the cab. There are two sliding windows on each side, and a wellplaced hinged window on the front cab plate.

Railway Timing Systems.

Greenwich time is the basis upon which all the British railways operate. Across the Channel various timing systems are in force, all based upon Greenwich. These include West European Time, the same as Greenwich; Amsterdam Time, 20 minutes ahead of Greenwich; Central European Time, one hour ahead of Greenwich; and Eastern European Time, two hours ahead of Greenwich. These standard railway times are especially interesting, because it is just fifty years since the world of railways put its time in order. Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian railway manager, was the pioneer of standardised timing. He planned to divide the earth up into twenty-four zones, with a standard meridian as the centre of each, in which time would always be uniform. To-day, as one journeys round the world, the clock is conveniently advanced or retarded one hour as the passage is made from zone to zone.

Practically all the countries of the European mainland work to the 24-hour clock. In Britain, the old a.m. and p.m. arrangement persists, but there is a movement on foot to adopt the 24-hour clock, and this would undoubtedly simplify time-table arrangement and prove a convenience to the travelling public.

Railways as Common Carriers.

Post-war government legislation in many lands definitely extends a helping hand to the railways, and frees them from nineteenth century enactments which tended to restrict their useful activities as common carriers. In Britain there has recently come into operation the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, which affords relief from former legislation, under which the railways were compelled to weigh meticulously the quoting of a rate for a particular commodity, lest they should be called, before the courts upon a charge of conferring undue preference towards one trader as against another engaged in the same business anywhere in the land. This relief has rendered possible a new scheme of rating known as the “agreed charge,” to be determined by the railway and the trader in consultation, and providing for the movement of traffic at a fixed figure per unit, generally per ton.

The new plan, now being taken up enthusiastically by most large consignors, does away with the old system of charging by distance, and dispenses with the time-honoured railway “classification” of merchandise. The trader, on his part, undertakes to forward all his goods by rail service—which, of course, includes railoperated road service—and altogether the new plan promises to prove both simple and efficient.

Mechanical Appliances.

In the handling of goods traffic, it is remarkable how extensively mechanical appliances are now employed in Britain. Freight is no longer laboriously moved to the loading crane in warehouses and yards; instead, mobile cranes are speedily moved into position alongside the goods, and the transfer to or from wagon made in a few minutes. Handbarrowing in goods stations has been replaced to a large extent by the employment of petrol-driven trucks, and experiments are now being made with moving platforms. In city collection and delivery services, horses and carts still have their use, but by degrees motor trucks and tractors are replacing horses.