A Big Renewals Programme.

Permanent-way renewals on a huge scale are being undertaken by the Home lines. On the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, for example, £2,500,000 is being spent on track renewals, and, 96,000 tons of new steel rails are being purchased. Altogether, about 600 miles of track (including points and crossings) are being completely relaid. L. M. & S. engineers are studying amended designs of track components, and the use of mechanical appliances to facilitate the handling of the heavy material involved. They are also experimenting with new devices making for travel smoothness and quietness, one invention being a rail having a patent joint, with the ends of the rails fitting in each other and not abutting as in the standard type of track. Extended use is also being made of short two-hole fishplates, instead of the standard four-hole plate. By using the short plate, it is possible to place the sleepers supporting the rails much nearer to the rail ends, and by so doing obtain a shorter bearing at the joints.