The New Zealand
Railways
Magazine
Railways
Magazine
Registered for transmission by Post as a Newspaper
Published by the
New Zealand Government Railways Department
“”
For Better Service.Vol. 2. No. 5.
Wellington,
New Zealand
September1, 1927
The Gateway To The South.
(Etching of F. V. Ellis,\Rty.studios)
the! “maori,“ 87.40p.m.; wellington N.Z,
These “swift shuttles of an Empire's loom”-the ferry steamers that ply over the 175 miles of sea between Wellington and Lyttelton-effectively link-up the main systems of New Zealand's National Railways.
Editorial.
Signs Of Progress.
Signs Of Progress.
The interest of public and railwaymen alike cannot but be stirred by the visible signs of railway progress to be met with in all parts of the Dominion.
The now familiar Automatic Signal-ling posts, with their hooded lights, are making their appearance in new territory-sure sign of the advance of science in assisting the safe and expeditious handling of trains. Improved timetables and better rolling-stock have made passengers and freighters pleased and contented, a condition conducive to favourable reactions on the spirits and attitude of the staff. Better methods and machinery in workshops have lessened the cost of production, increased efficiency and created better conditions for those engaged in this work.
The general programme of railway improvements laid down in 1924 is proceeding apace. At Auckland everything about the new yards-their size, wealth of sidings, new postal outlet, and general evidence of organised activity in modernising the facilities of that important terminal-has favourably impressed primary producers, industrialists, and travellers alike-all, in fact, who recognise in improved transport facilities an important essential towards stimulating production and adding to the general well-being of the community.
At Wellington the three-quarter mile of sea-wall through deep-water, a structure intended to form the outer boundary of the new station yard reclamation, was commenced in May, 1923, and finished a month or two back-ahead of schedule. The filling in of this 68 acre area is now proceeding rapidly, dredges pouring material into the ample basin that the sea has resigned to the uses of commerce. The space still to be filled is known, the rate of filling is known, and no great strain is placed upon the engineering faculty in foretelling the approximate time at which the actual work of laying out yards and erecting buildings may be commenced.
But the “hope deferred” that “maketh the heart sick” has affected one writer so greatly that a sub-leader in the Wellington “Evening Post” of 16th August expresses doubt as to whether Wellington ever will have a new station-this, despite physical evidences, supplemented by an assurance from the Railway Board that the whole work of laying out yards and erecting station buildings would be well on its way in from 1 1/2 to 2 years. The Railway Department has been as anxious as the people of Wellington for this work to proceed, but the war period and subsequent term of high prices and industrial depression prevented the Government allocating any funds for the work before 1923. The four-year job of building the sea-wall an outstanding work in sea reclamation-brings us up to the present time, when a large portion of the actual reclamation (carried on concurrently) has been completed. The Department has its plans laid for pushing ahead with the yard-laying work as soon as physical conditions on the reclaimed area permit, and as Cabinet allocation of funds are made available.
The Middleton hump shunting yard to facilitate the sorting of South Island merchandise is practically completed, and the electrification of Lyttelton tunnel is under way.
All the above are among the major visible evidences of railway progress. No less real, however, are the indications of improvement in non-material things. Organised training of those entering the service, now applicable to all apprentices and cadets, has been developed quite recently but is already making its advantage felt at stations and in Workshops.
Optimism is every-where, and optimism like the roseate glow accompanying the first glimmering streaks of dawn-although not in itself the dayspring of prosperity is its best and most frequent forerunner.
Railway Worries Of A By-Gone Day.
We can think of nothing that adds a brighter lustre to the romance of business progress than the way in which the railways have met and—as the fittest—survived every kind of competition, and found a way past every kind of obstacle. One reason for their success is that they have always kept a keen eye on whatever enemy, for the time being, seemed likely to wrest from them their transport supremacy.
In glancing through the Annual Report of the New Zealand Railway Commissioners for 1891—written 36 years ago-one sees that, keeping their eye on the main chance, the railway controllers of those days saw the chief competitive menace in—of all the unlikely, harmless, necessary, and slow adjuncts of transport—the traction engine?
But hear what these old-time administrators say, and then consider whether Solomon was right with his conclusion that there is nothing new under the sun.
“Some representations have been made to the Commissioners on the subject of the carriage of wool by traction-engine in preference to the railway in certain localities. Such a practice is carried on at the expense of the ratepayers who maintain the roads, and who, as a rule, derive no benefit whatever from it. The persons who gain are the owners of the goods and the proprietors of the tractionengines. Those persons who lose are the local ratepayers.
“The owner of the traction-engine, who gets full loads and continuous work for a few weeks during the year, and who can stop work in slack times, and who pays nothing towards the heavy injury which he does to the roads can, over certain distances, and under certain conditions, compete with the railway, the charges for the use of which have to cover the cost of maintenance. If the ratepayers, who are in no way benefited, are willing to maintain the roads free for the advantage of the very few persons who elect to take their wool by road, the railways cannot be expected to secure the traffic, and it is a question which may properly be considered whether in future it is desirable to extend railways into remote country districts, which may be served by traction-engines in this way more cheaply.”
Safety Of Rail Travel.
The present keen contest for public support between two Auckland evening papers has resulted in great offers of free insurance to home-delivering readers of the respective publications. The dailies in question doubtless base their scale of benefits on actuarial advice, so a comparison of the extent of liability to accident from various causes which these insurances disclose is decidedly interesting. For instance, the highest benefit offered by the free insurance scheme of one paper is £1,000 in case of death from railway accident. The next highest insurance is £250 covering death by tram, ferry, or fire. Then comes £100 death benefit on account of cycle, motor cycle, or street accidents, whilst travel by motor car or bus appears to be too risky to carry any free life-insurance at all!
The scheme, whatever its effect in other respects, must be regarded as a first class advertisement for the railways, they being considered for safety purposes, better by 300 per cent. than the next safest mode of conveyance.
With 26 million passengers carried last year and no fatalities amongst them, there is sound reason behind the low risk estimate placed upon the New Zealand Railways in the above accident scale.
Professor Robert J. Scott, M. Inst. C. E., M. I. Mech. E., F. A. I. E. E., of Christchurch, sends the following historically valuable contribution regarding locomotive developments. Professor Scott's eminence in the engineering world is well known.
Trained on the Home Railways, at the age of 20 he joined the New Zealand Railways as a temporarydraftsman in 1881. Four year later he became Workshops Manager at Addington. Then in 1888 he received appointment as Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Canterbury College. Resigning from the Railways the following year, by 1894 he had risen to the position of Professor in charge of the School of Engineering at Canterbury University, where he reigned for 29 years, resigning his Directorship in 1923.
I Was much interested in the statement in your London Letter that the locomotive “Gladstone” was to be preserved in the South Kensington Museum.
When a pupil of Mr. Stroudley, I was engaged both in the design and trials of the “Devonshire,” the experimental engine of this class-the “Gladstone” following some three years later on slightly enlarged lines.
The history of the development of the type is interesting.
From a free-hand drawing by Professor: Scott.)
On William Stroudley coming from the Highland to the Brighton and South Coast Railway he found the locomotive stock at a low ebb. His first work was to rebuild six six-wheeled double framed Craven engines, 17 in. by 24 in. cylinders, 6 ft. 6 in. driving wheels (four coupled behind), with larger boilers and roomy cabs.
These engines for many years did the bulk of the main line express work.
Then came the “Grosvenor” (a single engine), some smaller single engines, and goods and tank engines from his own designs.
A demand then arose for an express goods engine to run the “Grand Vitesse” and Continental fruit traffic, and the “Lyons” class locomotives were built. These were six wheeled single frame engines, with four cylinders 17 in. by 24 in., 5 ft. 6 in. driving wheels (four coupled in front), and about 1,000 square feet of heating surface, with 18 ft. grate area. The weight of these engines loaded was about 33 tons each.
They proved so satisfactory that they soon found their way into the heavy fast passenger and excursion traffic and the express traffic on the Portsmouth direct line, a very hilly road.
Mr. Stroudley then determined to build a new class of express engine of this type, and drawings were got out from which the “Devonshire,”“Cornwall,” “Beaconsfield” and others were built.
In these engines the driving wheels were 6 ft.7 1/2 in. in diameter (four coupled in front), the trailing wheels 4 ft. 6 in., the cylinders 17 1/4 in. by 26 in., the heating surface was about 1,200 square feet, and the grate area about 22 square feet.
The weight of each engine was 35 tons in running trim.
That this comparatively small weight was, in fact, the “motive” of the design, I had the good fortune to have expounded to me by the Chief himself.
Pupils were occasionally invited to dine at Preston Park. One night when I was the only guest sitting in the billiard room after dinner, I, greatly daring, asked Mr. Stroudley why he adopted a design of engine, which most people-at that time-thought to be extremely risky, instead of the more conventional arrangement with leading bogic.
His answer was:-
Locomotives now-a-days are built far too heavy for the power they develop; they are simply fitter's engines-they should be fitter's engines, driver's engines, and above all, engineer's engines. Gooch built broad gauge (7 ft.) express engines in 1851, weighing only 35 tons, and indicating 1,000 h. p. and they are still running the fastest trains in the world. We should at least be able to obtain 25 i. h. p. per ton of engine, but to do this we must utilise the major portion of the weight of the engine for adhesion. We cannot affect the weight of the bogie and must have leading weight. The centre of gravity must, therefore, be kept well forward and the engine will run the steadier
How correct Mr. Stroudley's argument was has been shown by the remarkable performance of this class of locomotive. It has never been excelled.
The length of this letter precludes my dealing with the many features which helped to bring about a smallness of fuel consumption unapproached to-day, and a freedom from repairs which permitted engines to remain on the road from three to five years without visiting the workshops. I may add, however, that we still have in use here the perforated damper and lubrication of wheel flanges imported directly from Brighton.
Long Non-Stop Train Runs.
One of the most interesting aspects of modern railway operation is that associated with long non-stop train runs. The average railway traveller nowadays takes all such transportation achievements very much for granted, and rarely gives a thought to the perfect working of the system, the very high efficiency of the equipment-locomotives, rolling stock, track signalling apparatus-and of the personnel, that ensures his safe and rapid movement along the iron road.
The question of long non-stop train runs, with special reference to England, was recently discussed by correspondents in the London “Times.” It was the accepted opinion that the run from Paddington Station, London, to Plymouth (226 miles) was the longest non-stop run in the Old Country-a run which is done daily in four hours. The line is equipped with track watertroughs, which enable the engines to take water without stopping.
Longer non-stop runs than the above, however, have been announced in the summer schedules of the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway, and the London and North Eastern. The former provides for a 236.3 mile non-stop run from Euston (London), to Carnforth, and the latter for a 268 mile run from King's Cross to Newcastle -truly a great performance. The longest non-stop run on our own railway is one of 90 miles, between Frankton Junction and Taumarunui.
After Forty-Four Years' Faithful Service.
The famous locomotive “Gladstone” which has been acquired as a national relic, is to be permanently housed in the Science Museum, South Kensington, London.
)J. D. McComish .
I Heard a story recently concerning the different characteristics of English, Scotch and Irish. It was to the effect that on arriving at his destination by train the Irishman walked straight out of the car, the Englishman looked round to see if he had forgotten anything, and the Scotchman searched the car thoroughly to see if any person had forgotten anything.
Well, judging by the number of articles that find their way into the Lost Property Depôt, the majority of our train travellers are Irishmen -or Irishwomen-because it is usually the members of the gentler sex who leave their property behind them. And then how delightfully vague they are when they come to make inquiries-difficult to pin them down to anything definite. They are inclined to fuss greatly over a small thing, and to take comparatively calmly the loss of a valuable article. Only a few weeks ago a fur coat worth probably £50 reached the Depôt. There was no inquiry for it until three days later, when the owner called. When asked if she had not been worried over her loss, she replied that she knew it would turn up all right -a striking example of faith in the members of the Railway staff.
The annual sale of unclaimed articles was recently held at Auckland. A large goods shed had been cleared and the articles for sale methodically stacked, and surrounded by a wooden barrier breast high, to fence off the public. Many days had been spent in sorting out and cataloguing the articles due to be sold. Every possible clue as to ownership of the various articles had been followed up, and some “eleventh hour” deliveries were made, but most of the letters of inquiry came back through the Dead Letter office. A total of 1,503 articles had been grouped into 633 lots, each marked with a sale number.
The morning of the sale broke wet and cold, and at the starting hour rain was steadily falling. In spite of this, a crowd of about 200 of “all sorts and conditions of men” (and women)were pressed closely round the barriers, eagerly waiting for this year's annual sale to begin-a sale that has been conducted at Auckland by the firm of R. C. Carr & Son for about 30 years without a break. Until about five years ago Mr. Carr, senr., wielded the hammer, but since then his son has carried on.
Taking his stand on a large packing case Mr. Carr looked round genially on the crowd, and stated his pleasure at seeing so many old familiar faces, and he said he was also pleased to see many new ones. He reminded them that the terms were “spot cash” and asked them to bid up briskly as there were many lots to dispose of. (These sales commence at 9.30 a. m. and go on without a break until finished, in this case 5 p. m. a very tiring day for all who have duties connected with the sale.)
The auctioneer had some of his regular hands assisting him, prominent among them being “Ernie” quite a comedian in his way, and a wonderful hand at provoking stray bids when things were inclined to lag a bit. The first lot offered was a chest of drawers which “Ernie” informed the crowd was well-filled, but without disclosing the contents to their view. Bidding rose quickly to £5, at which price it was knocked down. Thereafter the various lots followed one another in quick succession. Sometimes there would be a lull in the bidding, and article would be added unto article, “Ernie” all the time passing up and down the crowd, dropping a word here and there until a bid came, but on the whole the bidding was very satisfactory. In fact it was rather surprising-in view of the hard times existing at present-how well the buying was maintained throughout the day.
To one having his first experience of a sale of this kind it proved very interesting. The auctioneer, striving hard to keep the attention of his crowd, to keep them in a good humour and coax the best possible prices out of them-the crowd, eager, expectant, keen on the look-out for “snips”-the auctioneer's men moving here and there displaying the goods, collecting the cash, and amusing everyone with their witty remarks-these together formed an interesting whole. One man at an early stage of the proceedings bought a step-ladder and promptly used it as grand-stand, from whence he surveyed the scene in comfort. A touch of colour was given to the proceedings by the presence of two small groups of Maoris. On an ukulele being put up the auctioneer was quick to interest them in it, and succeeded in selling it to a dusky maiden for 11/-. Shortly afterwards his persuasive powers resulted in a young Maori man finding himself the purchaser of a steel guitar for 37/6, and a little later of a much-dented bowler hat which he promptly donned to the great amusement of the crowd, and apparently also to himself. On the whole the sale proceeded smoothly, the geniality of the auctioneer and the witticisms of “Ernie” greatly conducing to this.
There was only one discordant note. A suitcase had been put up and described (correctly)
Fortunately the complainant had been seen to go outside the shed, open the suit-case, and remove the tools. The auctioneer was promptly advised of this as soon as the man appeared, and in consequence he received very short shrift.
Another incident of an entirely different nature occurred. A suit-case was put up, and the auctioneer craved the indulgence of the crowd to make an explanation regarding it. He explained that it was the property of a poor woman who had experienced a lot of trouble and ill-health who, being in very straitened circumstances, had been unable to pay the charges due. He explained, however, that the suit-case must be auctioned, and put it up accordingly. As a result of his remarks no one bid against the poor woman, and she obtained her property for 2/6. A hand sewing-machine, the property of the same woman, was also knocked down to her for 2/6, but advised the auctioneer that she was unable to pay for it. On this being made known another woman in the crowd handed over the money, for which kindly act she was heartily applauded.
The bulk of the articles sold consisted of umbrellas, walking sticks, hats, gloves, and small parcels. Umbrellas (in bundles of 6) brought 6/6 to 16/6 per bundle. Walking sticks (in bundlesof 6) 2/6 to 6/6 per bundle. Hats (all sorts) in lots of 6, 2/6 to 4/-; swags 1/- to 14/-. Coats(in bundles of 6) 3/- to 20/- per bundle. Bicycles (of which there were 6-all gents') 10/-to 27/6. Jewellery was hardly saleable-gold rings bringing only 1/- to 8/-; gold bangles 6d. to 4/-; and watches 3/- to 4/-. There was a good demand for small parcels of clothing which sold two or three together up to 10/- a lot. A side-saddle in first-class order was difficult of sale at 3/- -a real bargain. What was described as a bale of twine brought 17/- and on being opened it was found to contain about 40 balls of office twine of good quality, showing a prospective profit ofat least 100 per cent.
Amusement was caused from time to time when purchasers of suit-cases, etc., opened them out in view of the crowd and displayed the contents, especially when a young man became the possessor of a suit-case well filled with lady's wearing apparel.
As the afternoon wore on the crowd gradually dwindled away, but 30 or 40 people stayed on until the hammer fell on the last article at about 5 p.m. All concerned in the work of the sale then squared up and went home very tired, but happy in the thought that there was an interval of 12 months before the next sale, during which time they might recuperate and fit themselves for another strenuous day.
Goods Train (approaching Otira from the tunnel), being hauled by electric locomotive.
Transforming Night Into Day.
Otahuhu Station Yard by night, illustrating the improved visibility obtained through flood-lighting.
(W. E. Puddy, A. M. Inst. C. E.)
The renewal and strengthening of existing structures and bridges without interruption to traffic, proves an interesting part of railway working and design. The following lines have been written to show how Waiteti Viaduct on the North Island Main Trunk Line was strengthened.
Waiteti Viaduct is situated 127 miles south of Auckland in between two stations Te Kuiti and Puketutu, two miles south of the former and seven miles north of the latter. The railway rises from the former to within a mile of the latter on a grade of 1 in 70 with curves from 8 to 20 chains radius throughout. Traffic over this section is very heavy, approximately 26 trains passing each day and these are spread over the twenty-four hours.
The concrete pier being built up in stages to carry the steel plate girders. The rails can be seen at the extreme top of the photo. The steel work on either side of the concrete had later to be removed to another span.
The viaduct (424 feet in length) was built in 1888, and is of wrought iron consisting of four spans of 106 feet, lattice deck trusses of two per span placed on two abutments, and three wrought iron piers. The height from the rail to the bed of the gully is 120 feet-twenty feet higher than any building in New Zealand. It is satisfactory to note that the wrought iron piers and the eight wrought iron trusses are still in excellent condition, although practically 40 years old; in consequence, all material was used again in the strengthening process.
Owing to the increase in the traffic on this line, with subsequent increase in weights of engines and speeds, it became necessary just before 1914 to strengthen the viaduct. A scheme was arrived at for halving spans 1 and 4 by intermediate concrete piers, and halving spans 2 and 3 by steel rocking piers. The concrete piers were erected up about 60 feet and there stopped. Shortly after the steel contract was let the war came on and of course put an end to the work for the time being. Thus the position remained until prices resumed a reasonable level. The plans (in 1926) were altered somewhat, and this year it was decided to proceed with the job, which was carried out in the following manner.
The 106 ft. spans of Nos. 1 and 4 were halved into 53ft. spans, utilising the concrete piers built in 1914. The four 106ft. trusses thus relieved were shifted to spans 2 and 3, making an increase of 100 per cent. strength without any new material.
The four spans of 53 ft. plate girders arrived in parts at Te Kuiti early this year; and a start was made by Mr. Drummond, Foreman of Works, Ohakune District, with a special gang stationed permanently at the site. An Ingersoll-Rand air plant machine was used to rivet up the girders complete, 3 1/3 miles from the Viaduct (work which it did economically) each span of steelwork when completed, weighing 19 1/2 tons. (The idea of rivetting up complete beforehand is to save as much work as possible in mid-air and to avoid trains, -both being items of importance which affect the costs of the job). The end bracing at the abutments was partly removed
View looking along the side of the viaduct. Note the rails, handrailing, and the men standing on the pler-head. The lattice-work on either side of them had to be jacked up whilst the piece of new ironbark timber (seen behind the men) was placed in position.
The method of placing this 19 1/2 tons of steelwork is shown briefly as follows:-
Two overhead timber gantries, each suspending two Morris pulley blocks of 5 tons capacity and designed to sit on the 106ft. lattice trusses, were built on the shore. By means of these blocks two men can easily lift, or lower, 5 tons; the 19 1/2 tons was, therefore, an easy lift for the eight men concerned with it. At the desired moment (daylight on Sunday morning), the 7 1/2 ton crane placed the two gantries out on the bridge; the wagon with the span was run up with each end under a gantry, the men then lifting up the span off the wagons, which were run off the bridge out of the way. The rails, sleepers, crossbeams, etc., were then removed, and the new span lowered into position between the old two trusses. The sleepers and rails were immediately replaced upon the new span (the crane lifting off the gantries)and traffic was resumed. This cycle of operations was repeated for the four spans of 53 feet each; thus half the bridge was completed.
The problem then was to shift the trusses away to their new positions. Each single lattice truss weighed 13 1/2 tons, so had to be handled carefully. During the week two trusses (one on each side of the track) were pushed out sideways till each was six feet four and a half inches from the centre line of the track, and was securely held there. On the Sunday morning, trucks with an overhanging beam at right angles to the rails, were brought up beside the trusses; the two inch diameter steel bolt through each end of the beam down to the truss was then made fast, and four men on the end of a large spanner tightened the nut till the truss lifted off its support. By this means the four bolts were tightened up and so the twenty-seven tons was hanging in mid-air and evenly balanced. A long rope made fast at the shore leading out to the truck and back to the crane, gave a very steady pull and so the loads moved slowly to their new position. When at their destination, they were temporarily secured by chains, the nuts were slacked back, and the trucks, etc., taken away. This completed the Sunday's work.
The position now was that the span contained four trusses instead of two, each one not being the proper distance from its neighbour. To hold the track up and rearrange the four trusses, then brace the structure again without any false work or support from the ground, was a good day's work for the Sunday and had to be carefully watched.
The procedure is perhaps rather difficult to write out free from technicalities, but briefly, four long bolts, fifteen feet by two inches in diameter and threaded right along with eight nuts to each bolt, were used. These were threaded (two at each end, one at the top, and one at the bottom) through the four trusses. Each truss was clipped between two nuts. In this way each truss could be moved sideways by means of the nuts and spanners, but was rigidly and securely held at any period. The weight of the track was transferred from one pair of trusses to the other and back by means of wedges, as occassion offered.
The weather was not all that could be desired for such work, and one Sunday a storm broke over at the latter part of the day. Working with lamps in heavy rain, thunder, and lightening, was most unpleasant (especially high up) and the men deserve credit for the energy and eagerness they displayed throughout the job.
The Viaduct is now 100 per cent. stronger than before, so shortly there will be seen heavier and more powerful engines working this hilly and difficult section of the line.
The Shunter.
You've told us all about the man who keeps the permanent way,
And, of course, it's right such useful chaps as he should have their say;
But there are others on the list can sport a bit o' bunting,
And one of these, remember, please-The Lad Who Does the Shunting!
He toils by day, he moils by night, in weather wet or fine,
His job is marshalling the “goods” ere they go on the line;
And storms may roar, and rain may fall, but, every peril fronting,
He works away through night, through day, and Gets on with the Shunting.
His eye must ever watchful be, and clear must be his brain,
His body strong and active too, to stand the stress and strain;
He knows each time he goes to toil, danger or death confronting,
Nerves of steel and firm-set heel he needs Who Does the Shunting.
As he turns the points he must not give a thought to child or wife,
Lest a moment of forgetfulness should cost a mate his life;
And rough the work he has to do, all finer feelings blunting,
And oft' an accident pulls up The Lad who Does the Shunting.
No matter how the world may wag, or what may be his fate,
He takes his chance for good or ill, he's at it ear' and late;
He does his duty with a will, his good name ne'er affronting,
But prays some day still better pay Will Bless the Lad who's Shunting.
Wm. C.
From left to right-Top: The workshop and temporary siding at end of viaduct. View of Waiteti Viaduct in January, 1927. Bottom: Trucks being pulled out after the span of steel plate girders had been lifted from them by means of the gantries. The span, weighing 19 1/2 tons, hanging in mid-air before being lowered into position.
Now an Exhibit at Trentham War Museum.
Adaptability of N. Z. Railway Workshops.
You know the speckless cleanliness of a British Man-o-war? The golden sparkle of the high polished brass, and the whitescoured decks that even to walk upon with unregenerate civilian shoes seems a kind of sacrilege towards the God of Battle? Well, just that impression is conveyed by a visit to -of all the unlikely places in the world-the War Museum at Trentham!
It is fifteen years since Sergeant-Major T. Tustain, now in charge of the Museum, was a member of His Majesty's Navy, but the thoroughness and order which mark each unit of the Royal fleets in all the seven seas, have found their way into that instructive curiosity shop which the Defence Department maintains, for the benefit of those in search of knowledge, at its permanent camp on the outskirts of Wellington.
During the War, the compound question arose, “Could New Zealand, if required, manufacture her own ordnance; and, if so, would it pay her to do so?”
Naturally enough, the Government looked first to its own manufacturing works for an answer to the question, and the Railways being the largest manufacturing Department, it fell to the lot of the Railway Workshops at Petone to try the matter out. The gun produced there and then, and now stored, in perfect order, at the Trentham War Museum, was the Railway's answer to the Government's question.
In the course of a recent visit to Trentham we had the privilege of being personally convoyed through the Museum by Sergt. -Major Tustain. The various weapons and defensive armaments are so grouped and arranged that the development of war, and the means of war, may be traced from the earliest days right down to modern times, not only in relation to the perpetual race between offensive and defensive implements of war, but also according to their rate of progression and “ratio of efficiency” in the principal fighting countries of the world.
It comes as something of a shock, for instance, to peace-time complacency, to find that the Chinese Arsenal at Shanghai turns out rifles, revolvers, bayonets and machine guns every bit as efficient, in the quality of metal used, the perfection of fitting and general finish, and capacity for the purpose intended, as those of the Armstrong, Whitworth's, the Maxims', or the Colt's, of Great Britain and America.
One sees here a modern rifle, made in Japan, which has a clever attachment that, with one click, throws a bayonet blade into position on the barrel. And China is represented by a natty magazine revolver which fits when desired on to a miniature rifle stock. The place bristles with samples of every kind of warlike implement (except such large affairs as tanks or naval guns) used in the “big show,” together with all the later improvements. Flame throwers are placed handy to gas-masks;machine guns are grouped with steel helmets;jam-tin and cricket ball bombs lie alongside the larger bombs thrown by the “Minnies.”
Our guide was deeply interested in the whole question of Defence. “If,” he said, “the rest of the world were taking a rest so far as the designing and manufacturing of arms is concerned, there would be no need for us to worry. But,” with a sweep of his arm to include the whole museum, “these up-to-date specimens of what is being prepared elsewhere, show the need for us to be on the alert in order to avoid being caught napping.”
Sergt. -Major Tustain is a striking example of that wise dictum: “The backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man!” His life has been spent associated with the things that go to the making of wars and rumours of wars. 15 years in the Navy has been followed
Returning to the “Gun that made Petone famous,” it is interesting to know that it is more than a mere specimen, for thousands of rounds have been fired from it in actual service. It is of the “Maxim” type, and although it has since been replaced by the lighter “Vickers” machine gun for general use in the Army, the “Maxim” is still used in the Navy, where mere weight is of small consequence. The rate of fire and range of the two guns are similar. Every part of the gun was made exactly to sample at Petone Workshops, and when it is remembered that no previous experience of this kind of work was possessed by any of the employees, that the staff was depleted by heavy enlistments, that traffic was particularly heavy owing to the mobilisation of men and materials, and that a large amount of delicate hand-machining was required, the finished product is a tribute to the high standard of Railway Workshops efficiency and patriotic endeavour.
There were no drawings available, and the staff had nothing to guide them but a condemned gun! The finished product, Mr. Tustain admits, “has its peculiarities, but” he added tolerantly, “every gun has that!”
The tripod mounting for the gun, also made by the Railway Workshops, is of the most modern type, which is so good that it is not likely to be altered. Its superiority over some of the German and Austrian mountings was demonstrated. Some of the latter were much heavier and their gun could only operate through a limited are, whereas this mounting permits of firing all round the circle without altering the position of the mounting.
Thus the Railway answer was that the Workshops could easily be adapted to the manufacture of guns instead of wagons or locomotives, but that, in view of the specialised machinery and large scale production of the British arms manufactories, it was not a sound business proposition for the New Zealand Railways to turn their Workshops into an arsenal.
So the “business as usual” attitude was reverted to, and the Railways proceeded with their normal work, for:-
“The wisest thing, we suppose, that a man can do for his land,
Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under his hand.”
But the evidence afforded at the Trentham War Museum shows how far we are from the “World Government” of which Wells dreams, a government that “will have no army or navy” and whose “general suavity will be tempered by an effective intolerance of armaments and of the making of lethal weapons anywhere.”
List Of Parts.
1. Barrel. 2. Packing Gland. 3. Steam Escape Hole. 4. Foresight. 5. Screwed Plug for Emptying. 6. Asbestos Packing. 7. Holes in Steam Tube. 8. Barrel Casing. 9. Steam Tube. 10. Slide Valve. 11. Ejector Tube. 12. Cannelure for Asbestos Packing. 13. Gun-Metal Valve. 14. Feed Block. 15. Bottom Lever Feed Block. 16. Top Lever Feed Block. 17. Feed Block Side. 18. Upper Extractor Stop. 19. Extractor.20. Tangent Sight. 21. Gib Spring. 22. Slide Cams. 23. Cover Spring. 24. Sear. 25. Firing Pin.26. Tumbler. 27. Lock Casing. 28. Trigger. 29. Lock Spring. 30. Keeper Bracket. 31. Extractor Stop.32. Ejector Tube Spring. 33. Trigger Bar. 34. Projection on Trigger Bar. 35. Breech Casing. 36. Screwed Head. 37. Connecting Rod. 38. Crank Pin. 39. Crank. 40. Connecting Rod Spring. 41. Gun-Metal Block.42. Tangent Sight Spring. 43. Side Plates. 44. Slides, Right and Left. 45. Cover Lock. 46. Cover Lock Spring. 47. Safety Catch. 48. Milled Heads with Oil Brushes. 49. Handles. 50. Firing Lever. 51. Shutter.52. Firing Lever Spring.
Draftsman, District Engineer's Office, Christchurch.)A. T. Gandell ,
The completion of the new Canterbury marshalling yards at Middleton, to deal with traffic through the principal commercial outlet of the South Island, has been awaited with the keenest interest.
Business men as well as railway operators have been considering the possibilities, and preparing for the changes, which a scientifically laid-out yard, with ample room and hump-shunting facilities, would produce. Quicker despatch and delivery of consignments, safer working, the elimination of congestion, and greater economy in handling, are among the benefits to be derived from the enterprise which these modern yards represent.
It IS comparatively a long span of years from the construction of New Zealand's first line of railway in 1863 to the construction of the first modern marshalling yard in 1927. The growth of years has witnessed a great development in railway transport. Formerly small station yards were sufficiently large to handle the transport offering, but with the expansion of our primary industries, and the development of our natural resources, the growth in traffic has been so great as to call for very modern means of dealing with it.
Marshalling yard in course of construction.
Christchurch as a railway centre has in particular felt this increasing demand. Situated six miles inland from the port of export, Lyttelton, it is the centre for traffic from the whole of the Canterbury Plains, South, East and North. In addition, with the recent opening of the Otira Tunnel, it has become the centre for the greater portion of Westland's export trade, including timber and coal for overseas, as well as a quantity passing south to Dunedin. Then there is the import trade for the northern portion of the South Island all being distributed from Christchurch. The existing goods yards and station yard have for long been inadequate to handle the expanding business expeditiously, without delay in transport and needless waste of revenue.
The new marshalling yard is situated three miles from Christchurch city, on the Main South Line at a flag station named Middleton. The yard is thus nine miles from the port on the line of route of all traffic offering from the South, or from the West Coast, and only one mile distant from Addington (the junction of the Main North railway with the main line).
The land bought by the Department, fifty acres in area, was formerly sheep grazing land with a slightly rising grade and eminently suited for the construction of an up-to-date marshalling yard.
The work of constructing the yard was commenced in March, 1926. Canterbury was blessed with a particularly dry winter and this in no small manner assisted in the early completion of the job. The formation work was done by the use of horses and drays—private carters contracting at so much per day. No less than 20,000 yards of “cut” were excavated from the high end of the land and used as filling at the lower end of the yard. When this preliminary work was completed a commencement was immediately made with the construction of the permanent way, the whole of which was carried forward in a face from the east end of the yard.
Marion steam-shovel in operation.
The yard contains 8 3/4 miles of running track. The main engine road contains rails weighing 70 lb. to the yard, whilst rails of 56 lb., and 53 lb. to the yard are used for the other tracks. The points and crossings (all of 70 lb. material), were manufactured in the Addington Workshops, the quantity used in the construction of the yard being shown in the following schedule:-
Nine 1 in 9 points and crossings for main line connections.
Sixty-four 1 in 7 1/2 points and crossings in marshalling yard.
Three “tandem three throws.”
Two diamond crossings for main lines.
Three double slips.
One scissors crossing.
With the completion of the track laying in December, 1926, the work of ballasting, lifting and packing, proceeded. A very fine pit was opened on the west portion of the land acquired, and material was excavated to water level at a depth of ten feet. The ballast was loaded on to “Mb” wagons by a “Marion” steam shovel, loading 3/4 yard at a time. A work train conveyed the material into the yard where it was unloaded by a special plough hauled along the surface of the trucks by a steam winch. In all, some 32,000 cubic yards of ballast were placed in the yard, the lifting and packing of which was completed in May, 1927.
The yard in general is being completed in accordance with modern marshalling yard practice. The Signal and Electrical Department's work in the installation of the yard interlocking is nearing completion (the whole portion of the train running yard is to be electrically controlled and interlocked), a fine two-storied brick signal cabin having been erected to house the controlling machine.
The yard shunters have been provided with an accommodation house, well lighted and fitted
Much has been written on the principle of “Hump” marshalling yards. The technical term was first introduced to a gathering of maintenance men at a smoke concert, and with the commencement of the new yard construction shortly afterwards, every visiting surfaceman and works man, as well as the passing train crews, made sure to watch the growth of this important detail of the yard. An attached diagram shows the general layout of the yard, with the various grades plainly indicated.
Loading ballast in the pit.
The yard is excellently drained and with the completion of the interlocking and the erection of the flood lights, the Middleton Marshalling Yard will be available for use. There can be no doubt but that the yard when opened will considerably facilitate the working of goods traffic in this district. From the shunters' viewpoint, the yard is favoured because of its modern appointments and scientific layout; from the maintenance viewpoint, the work of construction has been carried out expeditiously and with satisfaction so far as the final cost is concerned.
A Great Safety Essay Competition.
In the hope of obtaining suggestions and practical remedies for lessening the number of level crossing accidents in the United States, the American Railway Association is holding a nation-wide essay competition amongst the students of Grammar Schools, High Schools and Colleges, the subject being entitled:-“Cross Crossings Cautiously.” The Association is offering three cash prizes of £50 each for the best essays submitted by students from each class of school mentioned.
(1) Main South railway. (2) Arrival roads. (3) Departure roads. (4) Marshalling Yard. (5) Hump Road. (6) To Engine Depot.
Transportation And The University.
The degree of Master of Science in Transportation Engineering (the first degree of the kind ever granted in any country) has recently been conferred by Yale University, U. S. A.
Dairy Company Favours National Transportation System.
A pleasing feature of present day transportation in New Zealand is the swing of public opinion, including business opinion, in favour of using the Railways wherever possible as the transport agency for the country's products.
This was exemplified at the recent annual meeting of a dairy company which has a large yearly output of butter. Despite the fact that the cost of sending their produce by rail would occasion the company some additional expense, the meeting decided in favour of the rail method of conveyance.
Doubtless the national aspect had much to do with the decision arrived at, and it is gratifying to find evidence of so healthy a public spirit amongst members of what is now the Dominion's most important producing industry. The long view, which regards transportation as a necessary part of production, and sees ultimate prosperity as something only to be maximised when the country's own facilities for transport are used in the conveyance of the country's own products, is the outlook now held by all the most progressive of our people.
Gas-Electric Cars For Branch Lines.
The economic operation of branch lines is to-day one of the most perplexing problems with which railway managements everywhere are confronted. Many interesting experiments some more or less successful, have been made to solve it. One of the latest of these-an experiment for which an entirely successful outcome is claimed-is that of the Rock Island Railroad of the United States Middle West, which has recently introduced, on its branch lines, a new type of gas-electric cars.
The cars use as fuel, a cheap petroleum distillate, and are reported to be proving efficient units. Running at standard steam train-speed, each car can haul a train weighing 200 tons, and at less than half the operating cost of steam haulage.
The motive power is derived from a 275 h. p. Winton engine (placed in the front part of each car) driving a generator which feeds two direct-current motors mounted on the front truck. Each car-which is equipped with a smoking and baggage compartment-has accommodation for 77 passengers, and such is the design of its control mechanism that it can be operated without difficulty by any driver of a steam locomotive.
The Public Utility Aspect Of Railways.
The railways of New Zealand have none of the advantages (common to the railways of most countries) which follow large public endowments. Although it is understood that at one time a million acres somewhere in the King Country was actually selected for the purpose of a railway endowment-prior to the putting through of the North Island Main Trunk Line-the idea was not carried out. It is therefore interesting to note what has been done in relation to private railways in other countries.
Malcolm Keir, in his recent book “Industrial Organisation” points out that, in the United States, the loans and gifts to railroads from public authorities have aggregated 700 million dollars. In some cases the various governments -local, county, state, or national-have bought the securities of railroads; in others the interest on the securities has been guaranteed; in many others there have been loans or outright gifts of money or land. The first large land grant to a railroad was made in 1850 to the Illinois Central. Between this date and 1871 the total of land given to railroads was 242,000 square miles, an area equal to that of Texas or four times that of New England. Once, the State of Texas-in her ardour for railroads-gave away eight million more acres of public land than she actually possessed. Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, gave a fifth of their public lands to railroads;Nebraska gave a seventh, and California an eighth.
formerly Chief Accountant of the N. Z. R.)L. C. E. Hamann ,
The desire to visit the Old Country, for so we term Great Britain, is inherent in every New Zealander. We may not all be able to gratify that wish or desire, nevertheless those who can do so usually take a trip to England, either during their term of Railway life or immediately on retirement. A few short notes in regard to my trip to the Old Land, may, therefore, be of interest to some of the readers of the Railway Magazine.
Before commencing my notes I would like to say how pleased I was to see a copy of this magazine and to note the excellence of its articles.
One of the special locomotives for mountain climbing on what has been termed the “crookedest” railway in the world-Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods.
My wife and I left Wellington for San Francisco on the 28th April, 1925, by the R. M. S. “Makura.” We had a splendid trip and arrived at San Francisco on the 15th May. San Francisco is a very fine city, full of life and activity, and contains some very fine buildings. The climate is somewhat similar to that of Wellington.
Whilst at San Francisco we visited Mt. Tamalpais which is 2,600 feet above sea level. To reach the mountain we first of all travelled on the ferry steamer from San Francisco to Sausalita, a 35-minutes steamer journey. We then took the electric train to Mill Valley where we transferred to the hill train for Mt. Tamalpais.
On this hill train special engines are used with driving gear on the side of the engine. The grade rises about 45 feet per minute and negotiates 281 curves, the sharpest of which is 90 degrees. The engine pushed the train up hill. The maximum load of the train is three light cars, or one heavy car. More than one engine on a train is never used. When traffic warrants it several trains are run. The view from Mt. Tamalpais is, on a fine day, a magnificent one, a clear view of the beautiful harbour of San Francisco with the Pacific Ocean in the distance, being obtained.
From San Francisco we went on to Yosemite Valley-one of the famous tourist resorts of the United States. The waterfalls at Yosemite Valley are very wonderful. Owing to the heavy rain during the weeks previous to our visit there was a great rush of water and many of the falls were quite 1,000 feet high.A unique experience at Yosemite Valley was the “fire” fall. For some 40 years it has been the custom in the tourist season to light a big fire of wood on the overhanging rock at Glacier Point (3,200 feet above the level of the Valley). When the wood is burnt nearly out the red embers are pushed over the end of the rock and fall down on the ground below. The effect is that of a lovely fire fall. This ceremony takes place about 8 p. m. each evening.
We left Yosemite Valley on Sunday, 24th May in a Pierce Arrow Motor Car en route to the Railway Station at Merced. Included in our party were a number of Railway Transport Officers who had been holding a Conference at Yosemite Valley. The distance from Yosemite Valley to Merced is 111 miles. At one portion of the journey we were 7,200 feet above sea level. The road in places was very narrow and steep. On this trip, which is known as the Horseshoe route, our car ran through a forest of “Sequoia” or redwood trees, some of which are over 300 feet in height and about 24 feet in circumference.
Before reaching Merced we passed through an immense plantation of fruit trees-said to be the largest plantation of fruit trees in the world, and to contain some 350,000 trees. There were no fences of any kind around the plantation.
On arrival at Merced we had to wait some three hours for the train and filled in this time in sight-seeing in the town. The heat was very oppressive.
We left Merced at 8.25 p. m. and arrived at Los Angeles at 8 a. m. next morning-distance 400 miles. The train travelling was particularly smooth and comfortable.
Los Angeles is a beautiful city and possesses some particularly good picture theatres. Whilst there we made the trip to Mt. Lowe (5,000 feet above sea level), to reach which we travelled through the city and suburbs on the electric railway until we came to the incline cable car. The incline is 2,682 feet long and in this distance the car rises 1,245 feet on grades ranging from 48 degrees to 62 degrees, or, as we would term it in New Zealand, from 1 in 2 to 1 in 3. The cable car took us to Echo Mountain (3,200 feet above sea level) where we transferred into an electric car which conveyed us for the remaining 3 1/2 miles to Mt. Lowe cavern. In this 3 1/2 miles run there are 127 curves and 18 bridges. The trip is a very pleasant one though not without a certain amount of excitement.
We stayed a few days at Los Angeles and then set out on our journey to Chicago via the Grand Canyon. On arrival at the Junction station (Williams) our Pulman sleeper was disconnected from the main line train and was then taken through to the Grand Canyon station. At night the Pullman sleeping car was taken on from the Grand Canyon to Williams and then connected on to the main line express train. Some idea of the immensity of the Grand Canyon may be gathered from the fact that it is about 217 miles long. The minimum breadth is approximately 8 miles, and the maximum 20 miles, the average breadth being about 11 miles. The river at the foot of the Canyon is some 300 feet wide. Looking from the top it appears to be but a very narrow stream. The El Tovar Hotel at the Canyon (a very fine hotel) is some 6,500 feet above sea level. Whilst we were at the Grand Canyon we met a party of Shriners who came from all parts of the United States to attend a Convention at Los Angeles (taking the opportunity of visiting this wonder region en route). Five special trains were utilised to convey this party.
We left the Junction station (Williams) at 3.40 a. m. on Sunday, 31st May, and arrived at Chicago at 8.30 a. m. on Tuesday, 2nd June. During the greater portion of this journey we passed through desert country-very bare and rugged with little feed for sheep or cattle. When nearing Kansas City which we reached on the Monday night, the country was much more fertile, and it was a treat to see the beautiful green fields. We passed a number of oil wells in the Kansas district and these were particularly interesting.
Chicago is a very big city and a most important railway centre. The Union Railway station which had just been completed is a very fine station and the arrangements and facilities for working are right up-to-date. Through the kindness of Mr. Holmes, Assistant Chief Engineer, I had the privilege of seeing over this station and was very much impressed with it.
The Famous Circular Bridge On The Mt. Lowe Railway.
During the time we were at Chicago the city experienced a heat wave and the heat was unbearable. We have never experienced heat in New Zealand like that of Chicago.
From Chicago we went to Detroit where we had the privilege of being shown through Ford's Motor Car Works. The works are stupendous and everything is wonderfully arranged.
We travelled from Detroit to Cleveland and from there to Philadelphia. Our stay at Cleveland and Philadelphia was short as I was anxious to get on to Atlantic City to attend the Convention of the Railway Accounting Officers' Association which was to commence there on 10th June. We therefore left Philadelphia on the morning of the 9th June, and arrived at Atlantic City the same afternoon.
On the 10th June I attended the Convention of the Association as the delegate from New Zealand. In his opening speech the Chairman referred to the fact that he had had the pleasure of meeting a member of the Association who had travelled from New Zealand to be present at the Convention. At the request of the Chairman I gave an address on railway matters in New Zealand, and was given a right royal reception by the members of the Association. This Association exercises a very important part in railway accounting affairs in America. Practically every Railway Company belongs to the Association and the meeting of the Railway Accountants of America each year at the Annual Convention is a wonderful factor in securing uniformity of methods and the simplification of the accounts. At the meeting of the Association at Atlantic City in June, 1925, over 300 Railway Accountants were present, four days being devoted to the discussions.
Atlantic City is a very popular tourist resort for the people of United States. The Board-walk on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean is a very long promenade. On one side is the Ocean, and on the other is a long array of shops. The leading hotels are all situated on the Boardwalk.
From Atlantic City we went to Washington where we stayed for some days. Washington, though not so large as many of the other cities, is the show city of the United States. The Capitol Library and the Legislative Assembly are beautiful buildings. The Arlington Cemetery, situated on the Hill overlooking Washington, is the place of burial of America's Unknown Soldier. A most glorious view of the surrounding district is obtained from this eminence. Whilst at Washington I had an opportunity of seeing the Potomac shunting yard and was much struck with the volume of the shunting that was carried on there. On the day previous to my visit, some 5,700 wagons were shunted in this yard by means of the gravitation system. When at Washington we were taken to Richmond and to Baltimore -both places of great interest. The surroundings of Washington are very beautiful, and the Potomac Park is one of the finest to be seen anywhere. Mr. E. R. Woodson, the Secretary to the Railway Accounting Officers' Association at Washington, was particularly kind to Mrs. Hamann and myself, and he and his staff did everything they could to render our visit to Washington a most enjoyable one.
In The Region Of The Grand Canyon.
Colorado River, foot of Hermit Trail.
In The Region Of The Grand Canyon.
Antelope at Hermit Cabins (Tonto Trail.)
From Washington we went to New York. On the train journey we passed under the Hudson river. Shortly before arriving at New York the steam locomotive was uncoupled and replaced by an electric locomotive, which then worked the train to New York. The buildings at New York are very big and impressive. From the top of Woolworth's buildings, which is 60 stories high, a magnificent view of the bay with the ocean in the distance, is obtained. One lift conveys the passengers up 55 stories at express speed, another lift being used for the remaining five stories. The lighting in the streets of New York is most brilliant and the effect is most striking. The Pennsylvania and New York Central Railway stations are wonderfully well equipped and right up-to-date.
From New York we went to Boston and from there to Niagara Falls. These falls have been so well and freely described that everyone is acquainted with them. I shall only say, therefore, that the famous falls came quite up to our expectations, and that the memory of our visit to them will ever remain with us.
Seven Mistakes.
“There are seven mistakes of life that many of us make,” said a famous writer. These he listed in the following order:-
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1. The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others down.
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2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
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3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we ourselves cannot accomplish it.
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4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences in order that important things may be accomplished.
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5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind by not acquiring the habit of reading.
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6. Attempting to compel other persons to believe and live as we do.
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7. The failure to establish the habit of saving money.
New Electric Power Works.
The Canyon at Arapuni, North Island, New Zealand.
Railway Economics.
Relation Between Plant And Personnel.
Relation Between Plant And Personnel.
Mr. Samuel O. Dunn, Editor of the Railway Age, is one of the foremost thinkers on transportation problems. In an address before the Mechanical Division of the American Railway Association at Montreal recently, he dealt comprehensively with the broad relation of output to remuneration, and the general effect of mechanical improvements on the incidence of employment. The following are some extracts, applicable in the main to New Zealand conditions.
When we use the word “railroad” we usually refer merely to the physical plant; but a railroad actually consists of both a plant and a personnel. These two parts of a railroad are complementary and interdependent to such a degree that there is hardly an important problem of management the solution of which does not involve changes affecting both of them. The physical property and personnel constantly react upon and determine each other.
It is my belief, based upon what I take to be incontrovertible evidence, that in the long run on the railroads and in every other largescale industry it never has been and never will be the owners of capital and the managers of industry, but that it always has been and always will be those who work for wages, who have got and will get the great bulk of all the tangible and intangible benefits resulting from every increase in the output of industry per man hour of labour employed and paid for, and that, therefore, it is the employee and not the employer who should be the more anxious to see efficiency in every branch of production increased by every means possible.
The best available measures of the physical capacity of the railroads are the tractive power of their locomotives and the tonnage capacity of their freight cars. Total locomotive tractive power per employee in 1906 was 817 pounds, and in 1926 it was 1,445 pounds, an increase of 77 per cent. Total freight car capacity per employee in 1906 was thirty-nine tons, and in 1926 it was fifty-nine tons, an increase of 51 per cent. It may reasonably be assumed that these increases are typical of increases in capacity that were made in all parts of the railway plant; and they were accomplished, of course, by the investment of capital. The average investment per employee in 1906 was $8,088, and in 1926 it was $12,991, an increase of 61 per cent.
The increase in the total operating revenues of the railroads per employee between 1906 and 1926 was from $1,540 to $3,571, or 132 per cent. This was due to the average increase of 58 per cent. in the output of transportation per employee and to average advances in freight and passenger rates of 47 per cent. Now, how did the employees of the railroads and the capital invested in them share between them the benefits resulting from the increase in total earnings due to both increased output and advances in rates? If the employees had shared only in proportion to the increase in output per employee and the advances in rates, the increase in their average annual compensation would have been 132 per cent., but in fact the average annual compensation per employee increased from $596 in 1906 to $1,656 in 1926, or 177 per cent. Net operating income is the return earned on the capital invested in the industry, and it amounted in 1906 to $480 per employee. If it had increased during the last twenty years as much in proportion per employee as did the average wage paid, or 177 per cent., it would have amounted in 1926 to $1,330 per employee. If it had increased only as much in proportion as the average operating revenue per employee, or 132 per cent., it would have amounted in 1926 to $1,108 per employee. It actually was in 1926 only $682 per employee, an increase since 1906 of only 42 per cent. Since the increase in investment per employee was 61 per cent. and the increase in net operating income per employee only 42 per cent., it follows that there was a decline in the average return earned upon each dollar of capital invested. Average return upon investment in 1906 was 5.9 per cent.; in 1926, only 5.3 per cent.
Now let us summarise and consider the significance of these facts. There was during these twenty years a large increase in the amount of transportation that the railroads could and did produce per employee-in other words, a great improvement in the railway plant and in the efficiency with which it was used by its organised personnel, including both management and employees. This increase in railway
“Out of the night that covers me.”
Rotorua express emerging from the Parnell tunnel.
Not only did capital not receive relatively more of the benefit of this increase in the total operating revenues earned than the employees, but the exact opposite was true-the employees received relatively much more of it than capital, for the increase in the net operating income received by capital per man employed was only 42 per cent., while the increase in the average wage paid per employee was 177 per cent. Not only did the employees receive this increase in their average annual wage, but in addition they received meantime a reduction of probably 25 per cent. in the number of hours they worked to get their annual wage. The increase in the number of dollars they received was so much greater in proportion than the decline in the value of each dollar that the purchasing power of their average annual wage increased about 60 per cent., or fully in proportion to the increase in railway output per employee, while the average income per dollar of capital declined.
These facts show beyond all question that during the last twenty years the employees of the railroads have received far greater benefits from the improvements in the properties and in their operation than those who, by the investment of capital in them, have made these improvements possible. Twenty years ago the employees as a whole received an income from the industry 24 per cent. greater than the income received by capital, while last year the employees received 140 per cent. more than capital. Probably in most other industries the increase in the income of employees has not been so much greater in proportion than the increase in the income of capital as it has been in the railway industry, because the railroads have been subject to a special form of regulation directed mainly at limiting the return received by the capital invested in them. But in practically all other industries wages have increased much more in proportion than the income from invested capital.
In other words, the facts demonstrate, as I indicated earlier in this address, that under our present industrial system it is the employee, not the employer, who gets the lion's share of the increase in income and purchasing power resulting from large and wise investment of capital, good management and sane co-operation between employers and employees to intensify industrial efficiency. During most of the period reviewed the difficulty of raising capital for the railway industry constantly increased because of excessively restrictive regulation of the return upon it. Undoubtedly if the percentage of return allowed to be earned had been larger the amount of capital invested would have been larger, resulting in improvements in facilities that would have effected still greater savings of labour, fuel and materials, thereby making possible even higher wages for employees or lower rates for the public.
In addition to the increase in the purchasing power of their wages and reductions in their
“In one impetuous torrent down the steep.”
Bowen Falls, Milford Sound.
It is hardly necessary to say that a large production per employee in the railway and other industries does not result in proportionately high, or even proportionately higher, wages merely because of a generous disposition of employers to pay high wages. Nor are advances in wages mainly due to the organised pressure of employees for them, because without increases in average output per employee there would soon be no source from which the means of paying higher “real wages”-that is, wages of greater purchasing power-could be derived. Increased production per employee results in increased average real wages per employee because of the operation of economic laws over which neither employers nor employees have much influence. Increased production will not increase the prosperity of industries without increased consumption of the products of industry, and since those who work for wages constitute the largest single class of consumers, they must, if industry is to prosper, be paid wages high enough to enable them to increase their consumption as production increases. Obviously, however, high production must precede and thereby make possible the wages of greater purchasing power required to enable the employees to become larger buyers and consumers of necessaries, comforts and luxuries.
Almost every increase in railway efficiency that has been accomplished has reduced the number of hours of human labour required to produce a given number of ton miles and passenger miles, but this has never actually resulted, excepting temporarily, in a reduction of the total number of employees. There was a large increase in their number during and immediately following the war, owing to the general introduction of the 8-hour day and other causes, and a correspondingly large reduction as a result of the industrial depression and the increase in the efficiency of operation which followed the return of the railroads to private management. In 1926, however, the number of employees of the Class I railroads of the United States was larger than in any other year in history, excepting the war years and in 1923, when it was affected by the results of the shop employees' strike of 1922.
Excepting under abnormal conditions increases in railway output per employee, resulting from
The relations between a railroad and its employees are primarily business relations. The railroad hires every man on its payroll for its own business purposes, and every man on the payroll hires to it to get as much wages as he can. Therefore, when the management proposes to the employees that they shall do certain things to increase efficiency it is reasonably to be expected that the employees will want to know how they will be benefited by doing these things, just as when the employees ask for higher wages they should reasonably expect that the managements will ask what the employees are doing or intend to do, or what conditions exist, to justify paying them more. There is a valid reason that the management can always give why employees should support them in every practicable way increasing efficiency, and this is the one I have tried to illustrate by the citation of facts of railway economic history-namely, that in the long run much the greater part of the benefits of every form of increased efficiency in transportation and production go to the workers in the form of better and safer working conditions and of wages that will increase their purchasing power. It is because labour generally does not know this that we often find it harmfully antagonistic to more efficient machinery and methods.
35
Years Ago.
Ellerslie Station, Auckland.
The true definition of railway efficiency from the standpoint of both management and employees is the largest practicable productions of ton miles and passenger miles in proportion to the number of man-hours and of tons of fuel and materials used in rendering railway service. Broadly speaking, there are two ways of increaseing efficiency as thus defined. The first is by the investment of capital in the innumerable ways by which labour, fuel and materials can be saved. In order that all the capital may be raised that can be effectively employed for these purposes, it is necessary that each railroad shall earn an amount of net return that will make it an attractive concern in which to invest capital. And in their own selfish interest the employees should always support the managements in their efforts to keep total earnings high enough and operating expenses and taxes low enough to produce an adequate net return on capital. Capital consists simply of the tools with which the personnel works, whether they be small tools in shops or such great tools as locomotives. The better these tools are, the larger, if they are skilfully used, will be the output of transportation per employee, and, if freight and passenger rates are reasonably regulated, the larger also the total railway earnings per employee out of which the average wages per employee must be paid.
The second important means of increasing efficiency is that of so organising the personnel, and of obtaining such co-operation among all the classes and individuals composing it, that the physical facilities provided by capital will be used with the greatest practical skill.
The needed organisation and co-operation of the entire personnel can never be fully attained until labour in general has the right idea regarding its own true interest. It will never have this right idea until it is given it by education. The resistance that has been offered in the past, and is offered now, to so many efforts of management to increase efficiency through improvements in plant, promotion according to merit and the payment of wages according to merit and the payment of wages according to the work done, will continue. Great exertions will have to be made to overcome it, and it will be overcome with only incomplete success as long as so many working men continue to believe that improvements in plants, in organisations and in methods are intended and adapted mainly or solely to enable capital to get more profits by making part of the employees do more work and throwing the rest out of their jobs.
Festooned With Snow.
Bridge Approach to National Park in Winter.
Superintendent of Workshops.)E. T. Spidy ,
Much has been said about “Co-operation.” What is “Co-operation?”
Co-operation is the mutual agreement between individuals or parties to work together for the accomplishment of a given object, and the loyal carrying out of that agreement.
It happens, in the Workshops, that the two parties concerned in cooperation constitute a large number of individuals on each side. It is physically impossible to get into personal touch with everyone on both sides, so each body elects a small number to represent them, and thus we have a practical Committee.
New “Kearns” (British) horizontal boring, milling and drilling machine for locomotive shops.
The Committee system is good, because it ensures the combined thoughts and judgments of a number of men, as opposed to the possibility of one man's opinion-which might not be right-dominating.
You may not know, but in head office there are a number of committees operating with very definite objects. Co-operative they certainly are, in order that the best judgment possible may be obtained in the decisions required.
For instance, take the new Workshops scheme. We have a building committee, a machinery committee, and an electrical committee, each comprised of Railway officers concerned and experts from the Public Works Department. These committees, in their respective spheres, approve all specifications and analyse all tenders that are required as the scheme progresses. They certainly have been co-operative and have been productive of good results.
So it is nothing new.
Now, in our Workshops we have a number of problems wherein the interests of the men are vitally concerned. The Department could itself, without a doubt, deal with all these problems as they arise, but it might not deal with them as satisfactorily-to the men-as it could if the men co-operated with the management.
By reason of the establishment of these committees, the Department does not sidestep any of its responsibility in any connection; it merely asks for the co-operative action of the men, through the committee, in accomplishing certain aims and objects.
Through the committee, the management can explain what it wants and why it wants it. If the committee considers it good, they will support the move, and the “esprit de corps” of the shops will become something real.
For instance, if I sent an order to a Workshop Manager to build a certain structure and told him my estimate of the cost of doing it, and that-if we could do it for the price-it was intended to build such structures in our own shops in future instead of importing them from abroad, the Workshop Manager would explain the position to the committee.
Such an order being in accordance with the principle of building up our own industries, and thus equally sound from the viewpoints of both management and men, I would expect all hands to give the job the best “go” possible-in other words, to co-operate.
I do not want the Committee to be simply a “Complaint Department.” Its development should be mutually constructive and educative, and members representing both management and men are invited to bring forward any suggestions for the development of the service.
I set up as the ideal for these meetings “Honesty and frankness in all dealings,” and I am sure that if this is sincerely agreed to, a real means of co-operation will be established that will give big benefits to both sides.
London Letter.
Holiday Travel.
Holiday Travel.
(From our own Correspondent.)
In probably the best of good faith did the French writer, Sully, remark in his memoirs that “the English take their pleasures sadly, according to the custom of the country.” These words, however were penned very many years ago, and had Sully been alive in this sun-steeped summer of 1927, it is certain the record of his observations would have taken a vastly different form.
The past few months have proved the happiest of holiday periods for Britishers, old and young. Summer vacation travel has this year reached enormous proportions on the Home railways. In the conveyance of short and long-date holiday-makers from London and the leading provincial centres to the popular seaside and country resorts the group lines have done record business, while the running of special cheap excursions at weekends to London Town has drawn huge crowds to the metropolis.
Apart from the immense rush of Sunday trippers to the throbbing Thames-side capital, a feature of the passenger business handled has been the conveyance of vacationists innumerable to continental holiday-haunts. The growth of conducted party travel to continental centres is especially noteworthy, and outstanding among continental resorts favoured is cosmopolitan Paris. No fewer than five distinct services now connect London with the French capital, each operating in connection with the boat train services of the British and French railways.
The routes availabe are:-Dover and Calais, Folkestone and Boulogne, Newhaven and Dieppe, Southampton and Havre, and Tilbury and Dunkirk. The four first-named services are of long standing, but only this season has the Tilbury-Dunkirk route been opened out by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the French Northern Company.
By the new route, there is maintained a regular night service, leaving St. Pancras Station, London, at 10.30 p.m., and arriving Paris at 11.20 a.m. the following day. In the return direction, the French capital is left at 7 p.m., and London reached at 8.9 a.m. Through carriages run to and from Tilbury Docks in connection with this service from all leading Home centres, whilst across the Channel through expresses have been introduced giving quick connection with French, Swiss and Italian resorts.
Co-operating with the Home railways in their endeavour to further popularise continental travel, the French, Belgian and Dutch railway authorities have brought into use this summer many new fast services. New and luxuriously equipped Pullman trains have been introduced linking Calais with Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam-an outstanding train in this service being the “North Star” Pullman Limited, running between Paris and Belgian and Dutch centres.
The vehicles forming the “North Star” Limited are in all respects identical with those employed in the far-famed “Golden Arrow” Paris-Calais train (referred to in my letter appearing in the May-June issue of the “New Zealand Railways Magazine”). The cars have been built in Britain, and they represent the last word in travel luxury.
Pullman travel is an entirely new departure across the Channel, but by degrees this form of transportation is being extended to cover most of the main trans-Continental routes.
Standardisation of locomotive types is being steadily pursued by the German railways, but the door is still being left open to experiment in the locomotive field by the Berlin authorities, and there is no intention of adhering slavishly to the standard types of engine which are being developed in the interests of efficiency and economy.
In furthering their search for increased locomotive efficiency the German railways have this year introduced a new turbine locomotive of the “Pacific” type, developing 2,500 horse power, and capable of drawing heavily laden passenger trains at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour. In this latest experimental machine, two surface condensers are placed on each side of the boiler, a suction draught fan being situated on the inner side of the smoke-box door for the ejection of waste gases. Two single-stage air-suction steam ejectors serve to remove the air of the condenser, while removal of the condensate water is effected by a pump directly connected to a piston feed-water pump.
The turbine of the new German locomotive is placed above the engine bogie, and transmits its power by means of a double reduction gear through connecting rods to the driving wheels. The forward drive and the backward drive turbines are situated in the same housing. The total wheelbase of the locomotive is 36 feet 6 1/2 inches, and oflocomotive and tender 69 feet 9 inches. The total heating surface is 2,269 square feet, and condenser surface 2,379 square feet. The tender is mounted on two four-wheel bogies, and has an overall length of 37 feet 8 3/4 inches. The water tank has a capacity of 1,138 gallons, and the coal bunker six tons. The weight of the locomotive in working order is 114 1/2 tons, and of engine and tender 189 1/2 tons. Designed to draw heavy trans-Continental expresses between Berlin and the Belgian border at an average speed of 62 miles an hour, the new turbine locomotive is, at present, being subjected to most exhaustive trials.
Here at Home, locomotive development has received a stimulus by the introduction on the London, Midland and Scottish line of three “Garratt” 2–6–0x0–6–2 articulated engines of an especially interesting type. These locomotives have a grate area of 44.5 square feet, and 2,637 square feet of heating surface. Coupled wheels are of 5 feet 3 inches diameter, and bogie wheels 3 feet 3 1/2 inches diameter. The overall wheelbase is 79 feet 1 inch, and the total weight of each locomotive, with 7 tons of coal and 4,500 gallons of water, is 148 tons 15 cwts. At 75 per cent. of the boiler pressure (190 lbs.) the tractive effort is 40,260 lbs., and at 85 per cent.45,260 lbs. Tractive power is 282.5 lbs. per 1 lb.M. E. P. in cylinders. One inside and two outside cylinders are provided, of 18 1/2 inches diameter and 26 inch stroke. The new L. M. & S. “Garratt” type locomotives are the first articulated machines to be utilised by the Home railways in main-line service, and their utilisation promises to extend considerably in the future. A somewhat similar type of “Garratt” machine, it may be noted, has for some months been employed with success by the London and North Eastern line for “banking” purposes in the Wath mineral marshalling yards.
Some three years ago there was embarked upon by the Great Western Railway an ambitious housing plan for its employees scattered up and down the system from London to Cornwall, Public Utility Housing Societies-run on co-operative lines-being established at selected centres. In this effort the Great Western line has, to date, erected some 685 houses for its staff, while an additional 134 houses now are in course of erection.
Covent Garden Underground Station, London.
This typical underground station is situated adjacent to the Covent Garden Market, the chief wholesale market in London for fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Eight garden-cities, affording comfortable and healthy homes for Great Western workers, have come into being under the shceme. At Acton, a little to the west of London, 150 employee houses have been erected, and a further 162 homes have been established at Hayes nearby. Other garden settlements are placed at Seven Tunnel Junction, Caerphilly, Swansea, Barry, Plymouth and Truro. Various methods of construction have been adopted, but brick houses have proved most satisfactory from the viewpoint of cost, speed of erection, and general convenience. By Oliver Wendell Holmes it was once remarked that “the world has a million roosts for a man, but only one nest.” It is the desire of the Great Western Company to provide every railwayman with a real nest of his own, as it is recognised how valuable a part a genuinely comfortable home plays in the lives of its employees.
There are few more far-famed passenger trains in Britain than the “Torbay Limited” express of the Great Western line, which runs between London and Torquay-the delectable seaside resort of the south-west. Each day, at twelve noon precisely, this crack train, with its load of happy holiday-makers, steams softly out of the Paddington Terminus, glides smoothly round the curve, and creeps up to somewhere in the neighbourhood of sixty miles an hour on the open road beyond.
The “Torbay Limited” actually runs to the fastest three-hour timing in Britain. Every seat in this aristocrat of passenger trains is numbered, and at the height of the holiday season advance booking is a necessity if seats are to be secured with certainty. In a recent issue of the “Great Western Railway Magazine,” there were given interesting details of a typical run of this giant among Home railway passenger trains.
Leaving London on time, with eight heavy 70-feet coaches behind the locomotive, a speed of 62 miles an hour was reached at Southall, 65 miles an hour at Newbury, 75 miles an hour at Savernake, and-hold tight, please-80 miles an hour down the Patney Bank. From Paddington Station to Exeter, the first stop of the “Torbay Limited,” is a distance of 174 miles, and on this particular occasion, the “Neath Abbey” locomotive drew with ease its 310-ton train between the two points in 177 1/2 minutes. This, it should be noted, was quite a normal run of the Devonbound express. Paddington is immensely proud of its “Torbay Limited”: even the “Flying Scotsman” and the “Harrogate Pullman” regard it as a privilege to stand alongside this Great Western flier in the list of Britain's outstanding passenger services.
Traffic control is being developed to an everincreasing degree on the Home railways. The Londonn, Midland and Scottish Railway leads in this activity, but now the London and North Eastern line is extending its control plan to cover almost the whole of its Anglo-Scottish main-line.
With the working of the control plan, as favoured on the Home railways, most New Zealand railwaymen will be familiar. There is, however, one feature of the control system operating on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway which may not be widely known, and that is the coal traffic control which operates in the London area. In regulating the flow of the millions of tons of “black diamonds” annually consumed in the metropolis, elaborate supervisory methods are involved. Through the control scheme, the London operating authorities are kept advised daily-one might almost say hourly -of every wagon of coal standing on the system lines for the metropolis, and of the progress of unloading operations at the various coal depots located throughout the city. Only coal which can be accommodated in London is permitted to come forward from the collieries or marshalling yards, and normally a three days' supply of coal is kept standing in the London stations.
The London coal traffic control plan is well worth careful study on the part of the New Zealand railwaymen interested in operating affairs. It provides innumerable pointers for all who are concerned in the bulk movement of traffic of any kind to any big centre.
Improvements in railway track have proceeded steadily throughout a century of railway operation. Hitherto, however, attention has primarily been centred around the track itself, rather than upon the bed which carries the slepers and rails. Of the comparatively few innovations introduced in the roadbed itself, none are of greater interest than the concrete track bed recently subjected to experiment in the United States. Reinforced concrete is at present being experimented with on a big scale, by the Pere Marquette Railway, with the idea of effecting cuts in permanent way maintenance costs. It will not be suprising if very shortly similar tests are conducted by the group lines of Britain, for the American trials have aroused immense interest here at Home.
The concrete track bed employed in America is ten feet in width and 21 inches deep. Two upright longitudinal frames, in the plane of the two track rails, supplemented by plain diagonal and cross bars, form the steel reinforcement. Additional support is given by adjustable rods installed at six-feet intervals, and steel bar cross
Britain is rich in railway relics of one kind and another. For long there has been talk of the establishment of a central railway museum in London to house the many priceless exhibits of railway interest now scattered throughout the country. Up to the present, however, nothing has actually been accomplished in this direction, and for the time being the rich relics of the early days of British railway working remain cared for in the smaller museums maintained by the individual railways at various points. In South Kensington Museum, London, it is true, there are found a considerable number of fascinating railway exhibits, and this Museum is a place no New Zealand railwayman holiday-making in the Home land should fail to visit.
Probably the most extensive museum maintained in Britain by the railways is the York Museum of the London and North Eastern line. This Museum has recently been enriched by the acquisition of the famous “Gladstone” locomotive of 1883, and is in every way unique in its possession of the rarest of locomotive relics. The gem of the collection is George Stephenson's Hetton Colliery engine, built in 1822, while another enormously attractive exhibit is the earliest iron railway bridge ever built. One would give much to possess the fine series of original letters of George and Robert Stephenson, Burnel and other railway leaders of the past, that repose in the York collection, while the contemporary engravings, dating from 1820 to 1850, are alone worth a small fortune.
It is a commendable thing for every railway undertaking to guard preciously its relics of the past, and one can have nothing but praise for the admirable manner in which the London and North Eastern Railway is meeting its obligations in this direction. The establishment of a central railways museum in London, however, would be an immense boon to all, and it is to be hoped that ere long Britain may be able to boast of a vast railway museum equalling-if not exceeding-in interest, the far-famed collection adjoining the Lehrter Station of the German Railways Company in Berlin. This Museum is undoubtedly the most remarkable affair of its kind the world over, and incidentally includes within its walls many priceless exhibits covering to a considerable extent the early history of the British railways.
Great Moving Panorama Of Transportation.
Railway Exhibition at Baltimore, U. S. A., to celebrate centenary of Baltimore and Ohio Railway.
Ocean Greyhound At Northern Terminal Of Main Trunk Railway.
R. M. S. “Aorangi” (as seen by night) at Auckland.
Where Road Transport Is Failing.
The stream of motor vehicles seen on Sundays in such localities as the Hutt Road out of Wellington or the Great South Road out of Auckland is already becoming sufficiently congested to slow down the speed of all, and to make more of a leisurely, though anxiously controlled, procession of the afternoon's outing, than the swift untroubled ride it used to be.
Writing or conditions in the suburbs of London, a “Dominion” contributor makes the following comments:-
The transport problems are going to be more acute than ever this summer, and the establishment of “circuses” in London and of arterial by-passes outside London, are proving ineffective remedies against congestion. The scenes on the road last week-end were truly amazing. Every week thousands of new motorists are taking to the roads and the spell of warmth brought everybody out, with the result that for long stretches roads in the country were as congested as Piccadilly. The lovely road from Dorking to Leatherhead on Sunday was simply a double line of vehicles moving slowly forward in jerks, and observers on Box Hill could see the whole line of cars stretching from Dorking to Leatherhead, whose narrow streets were primarily the cause of the congestion. There was, however, one difference between these blocks and an ordinary traffic block in town. The motorists could relieve the tedium by gazing on one of the loveliest stretches of English countryside, which that day was at its greenest. Even when darkness came, a long line of vehicles was moving slowly homewards, and seen from the slopes of Box Hill, the cars with their headlights on turned the road into a glittering serpent. But what shall we do as the summer goes on is the problem. Motorists are all busy finding pleasant by-roads where they can amble at ease, but London cannot be regained without congestion being encountered at some point. It is astonishing how quickly a hold-up of traffic at one point leads to a block miles behind. When the Artillery Memorial was unveiled at Hyde Park corner last year, those who were making the arrangements consulted with the police as to the possibility of just stopping the traffic for ten minutes while the brief service was being held. The reply of the police experts was that to stop the traffic at Hyde Park corner, even for only ten minutes on a Sunday would mean a line of stationary vehicles stretching, perhaps, as far as Kent Bridge, seven miles away. The Railway Companies are watching with interest the failure of the roads to carry the traffic, and there seems little doubt that many people will find this summer that the rail has an advantage over the car.
Class N “Baldwin” locomotive, formerly used on express trains in New Zealand.
Tools Of Steel.
Workshops Machinery Inspector.)H. E. Childs ,
“The gate to more-produce more and get more.”—The Rt. Hon. J. R. Clynes.
Most trades have their optimists and pessimists;the engineers and steel makers are no exception to the rule.
When high speed steel was first put on the market, several engineers declared that they could not afford to use it-“to—day, there is no production engineer who can afford to refuse it.” The first great stride in the development of tool steel was made in 1857, when Robert Mushet introduced his self-hardening tungsten steel capable of cutting at higher speeds than was possible with carbon steel.
Electric spot-welding machine in operation, Hillside Workshops.
For over thirty years this class of steel was developed and used all over the world, and after exhaustive experiments it was discovered that by raising the temperature from a bright red to a yellow heat, the tools made therefrom gave an increased cutting efficiency.
Credit for this revolutionary step in the further development of modern high speed steel must be given to Messrs. White and Taylor who exhibited and demonstrated high speed cutting tools at the Paris Exhibition in 1900. Since those days the steel tool industry has never looked back. It is no exaggeration to say that thousands of experiments and actual tests have been, and are being made, each experiment and test crystallising the results of previous experience, the whole being the outcome of most careful thought, analysis, and the labours of scientific research departments working with the best metallurgists—all with the object of increasing our knowledge of steel tools.
For many hundreds of years it had been the standard practice to harden steel by bringing it to a bright red heat and then plunging it into water or oil, and to temper at various heats determined by colour.
The structural changes that took place were almost entirely unknown and success or failure depended to a very great extent on the skill and experience of the blacksmith. These were indeed the good old days when the village blacksmith was at his zenith. Then it was that his work and personality appealed so much to the imagination of early writers.
In the modern workshop the tool smith has superseded the blacksmith;and where tools are ground from the bar, and no smithing is required, they are handled by a specialist and scientifically heat treated in furnaces that are under perfect control. The tradesman is no longer left to grope his way in the dark; the rule of thumb has advisedly given way to the above practice which has made the tradesman a positive master of his craft. The manufacture and after treatment of high speed steel is both a science and an art. It is in the realms of the practical that the still obscure problems of chemistry and metallurgy will be solved, and time, patience and perseverance will ultimately give us a real super high speed steel that will meet the requirements of the modern Production Engineer.
The claim is no idle one that inside a quarter of a century high speed steel has revolutionised the engineering world; the striking results obtained, and the alacrity that users have shown in adopting this steel is the greatest possible tribute to the early pioneers.
Every practical and technical engineer has been compelled to recast his ideas or go to the wall.
Modern machine tool makers in their wisdom have incorporated a rigidity and strength of design into machinery to-day which gives it much superiority over the machinery of their predecessors.
The belt manufacturers also have had to look to their laurels and search the four corners of the earth for hides that, after special treatment, will transmit the power demanded of the modern high pressure machine. In spite of their efforts their one time monopoly is seriously menaced by the ever increasing demand for the direct drive and the silent steel chain.
The high speed tool is the mighty atom that dictated the equipment, and speeded up the work, of the modern machine shop.
N. Z. Scenery.
At the Citizens Luncheon Club, Palmerston North, recently Mr. G. L. Bennett gave a very interesting address on the Railways, scenic resorts, etc., of Switzerland. At the conclusion of the address Mr. J. W. Fergie of the New Zealand Railays, in extending a very hearty vote of thanks to the speaker on behalf of the Club, brought under notice the wonderful scenery of our own country, fine examples of which, he said, were the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.
A view of Tinsmith's Shop, Hillside-soon to give place to a more up-to-date shop under the workshops reorganisation.
New Engines Out Of Old.
It is intended as the old boilers run down, to renew all the “Q” class locomotives (13 in number) with “Ab” class boilers. Opportunity is also being taken to renew the central portion of the frame whilst the locomotives are being reboilered.
The older types of locomotives are now fast disappearing being replaced by more powerful types to meet modern requirements.
The classes of locomotives listed below have so far either been written off, or will be stopped and written off, in the near future:-
Class “Bc,” “C,” “D,” “K,” “O,” “S,”“V,” and “Wj” 466.
Probably the latter locomotive (the only one of its class-and used for many years assisting on the Ngaio bank) is better known as “Jumbo,” owing to the height of the side tanks and its general stumpy appearance.
These locomotives are not only being withdrawn from service: after being stripped of all useful gear they are being handed over to the Maintenance Department for dumping in suitable spots.
The photographs held in the Head Office at Wellington will soon form the only link with these old “coffee-pots” of the past.
Mike Flannery, the Westcote agent of the Interurban Express Company, leaned over the counter of the express office and shook his fist. Mr. Morehouse, angry and red, stood on the other side of the counter, trembling with rage. The argument had been long and heated, and at last Mr. Morehouse had talked himself speechless. The cause of the trouble stood on the counter between the two men. It was a soap box across the top of which were nailed a number of strips, forming a rough but serviceable cage. In it two spotted guinea-pigs were greedily eating lettuce leaves.
If there is any moral about this classic among railway stories, it is that clam-like adherence to a literal interpretation of rules is not only inadvisable in certain circumstances, but may produce totally unexpected and-at times-boomerang-like results, altogether detrimental to the progress of business. And these don't always have the comic relief that made Mike Flannery's way to wisdom a harmlessly amusing diversion.
“Do as you loike, then!” shouted Flannery;“pay for thim an'take thim, or don't pay for thim and leave thim be. Rules is rules, Misther Morehouse, an'Mike Flannery's not goin' to be called down for breakin' of thim.”
“But, you everlastingly stupid idiot!” shouted Mr. Morehouse, madly shaking a flimsy printed book beneath the agent's nose. “Can't you read it here-in your own plain printed rates? ‘Pets, domestic, Franklin to Westcote, if properly boxed, twenty-five cents each.”’ He threw the book on the counter in disgust. “What more do you want? Aren't they pets? Aren't they domestic? Aren't they properly boxed? What?”
“Pets,” he said. “P-e-t-s! Twenty-five cents each. There are two of them. One! Two! Two times twenty-five are fifty! Can you understand that? I offer you fifty cents.”
Flannery reached for the book. He ran his hand through the pages and stopped at page sixty-four.
“An' I don't take fifty cints,” he whispered, in mockery. “Here's the rule for ut. ‘Whin the agint be in anny doubt regardin’ which of two rates applies to a shipmint, he shall charge the larger. The consign-ey may file a claim for the overcharge.' In this case, Misther Morehouse, I be in doubt. Pets thim animals may be, an' domestic they be, but pigs, I'm blame sure they do be, an' me rules says plain as the nose on yer face, ‘Pigs, Franklin to Westcote, thurty cints each. An’, Misther Morehouse, by me arithmetical knowledge two times thurty comes to sixty cints.”
Mr. Morehouse shook his head savagely.
“Nonsense!” he shouted. “Confounded nonsense, I tell you! Why, you poor, ignorant foreigner, that rule means common pigs, domestic pigs, not guinea-pigs!”
Flannery was stubborn.“Pigs is pigs,” he declared firmly.“Guineapigs or dago pigs or Irish pigs is all the same to the Interurban Express Company an' to Mike Flannery. Th' nationality of the pig creates no differentiality in the rate, Misther Morehouse! 'Twould be the same was they Dutch pigs or Rooshun pigs. Mike Flannery,” he added,“is here to tind to the expriss business an' not to hould conversation wid dago pigs in sivinteen languages fer to discover be they Chinese or Tipperary by birth an' nativity.”
Mr. Morehouse hesitated. He bit his lip and then flung out his arms wildly.
“Very well!” he shouted. “You shall hear of this! Your president shall hear of this!It is an outrage! I have offered you fifty cents. You refuse it! Keep the pigs until you are ready to take the fifty cents, but, by George, sir, if one hair of those pigs' heads is harmed I will have the law on you!”
Mr. Morehouse went home raging. His boy, who had been awaiting the guinea-pigs, knew better than to ask for them. He was a normal boy, and therefore always had a guilty conscience when his father was angry. So the boy slipped quietly around the house. There is nothing so soothing to a guilty conscience as to be out of the path of the avenger.
Mr. Morehouse stormed into the house.
“Where's the ink?” he shouted at his wife as soon as his foot was across the doorsill.
When the ink was found Mr. Morehouse wrote rapidly and he read the completed letter and smiled a triumphant smile.
“That will settle that crazy Irishman!” he exclaimed. “When they get that letter he will hunt another job all right!”
A week later Mr. Morehouse received a long official envelope, with the card of the Interurban Express Company in the upper left corner. He tore it open eagerly and drew out a sheet of paper. At the top it bore the number A6754. The letter was short. “Subject -Rate on guinea-pigs,” it said. “Dear Sir, -We are in receipt of your letter regarding rate on guinea-pigs between Franklin and Westcote, addressed to the president of this company. All claims for overcharge should be addressed to the Claims Department.”
Mr. Morehouse wrote to the Claims Department. He wrote six pages of choice sarcasm, vituperation, and argument, and sent them to the Claims Department.
Mr. Ngauruhoe in eruption, Easter, 1909.
A few weeks later he received a reply from the Claims Department. Attached to it was his last letter.
“Dear Sir,” said the reply, “your letter of the 16th inst., addressed to this department, subject rate on guinea-pigs from Franklin to Westcote, rec'd. We have taken up the matter with our agent at Westcote, and his reply is attached herewith. He informs us that you refused to receive the consignment or to pay the charges. You have, therefore, no claim against this company, and your letter regarding the proper rate on the consignment should be addressed to our Tariff Department.”
Mr. Morehouse wrote to the Tariff Department. He stated his case clearly, and gave his arguments in full, quoting a page or two from the encylcopaedia to prove that guineapigs were not common pigs.
With the care that characterises corporations when they are systematically conducted, Mr. Morehouse's letter was numbered, O. K'd, and started through the regular channels. Duplicate copies of the bill of lading, manifest, Flannery's receipt for the package, and several other pertinent papers were pinned to the letter, and they were passed to the head of the Tariff Department.
“Miss Kane,” he said to his stenographer,“take this letter. ‘Agent, Westcote, N. J. Please advice why consignment referred to in attached papers was refused domestic pet rates.”’
“Huh! guinea-pigs!” he said. “Probably starved to death by this time! Add this to that letter: ‘Give condition of consignment at present.”
He tossed the papers on to the stenographer's desk, took his feet from his own desk, and went out to lunch.
When Mike Flannery received the letter he scratched his head.
“Give prisint condition,” he repeated thoughtfully. “Now what do thim clerks be wantin' to know, I wonder! Prisint condition,' is ut? Thim pigs, praise St. Patrick, do be in good health, so far as I know, but I niver was no veterinary surgeon to dago pigs. Mebby thim clerks wants me to call in the pig docther an' have their pulses took. Wan thing I do know, howiver, which is they've glorious appytites for pigs of their soize. Ate? They'd ate the brass padlocks off a barn door! If the paddy pig, by the same token, ate as hearty as these dago pigs do, there'd be a famine in Ireland.”
To assure himself that his report would be up to date, Flannery went to the rear of the office and looked into the cage. The pigs had been transferred to a larger box-a dry goods box.
“Wan-two-t'ree-four-foive-six-sivin-eight!” he counted. “Sivin spotted an' wan all black. All well and hearty an' all eatin'loike ragin' hippy-potty-musses.” He went back to his desk and wrote.
“Mr. Morgan, Head of Tariff Department,” he wrote. “Why do I say dago pigs is pigs is because they is pigs and will be til you say they ain't which is what the rule books says stop your jollying me you know it as well as I do. As to health they are all well and hoping you are the same. P. S. There are eight now the family increased all good eaters. P. S. I paid out so far two dollars
Morgan, head of the Tariff Department, when he received this letter, laughed. He read it again, and became serious.
“By George!” he said. “Flannery is right.‘Pigs is pigs.’ I'll have to get authority on this thing. Meanwhile, Miss Kane, take this letter: ‘Agent, Westcote, N. J. Regarding shipment guinea-pigs, File No. A6754. Rule 83, General Instruction to Agents, clearly states that agents shall collect from consignee all costs of provender, etc., etc., required for live stock while in transit or storage. You will proceed to collect same from consignee.
Flannery received this letter next morning, and when he read it he grinned. “Proceed to collect,” he said, softly. “How thim clerks do loike to be talkin'! Me proceed to collect two dollars and twinty-foive cints off Misther Morehouse! I wonder do thim clerks know Misther Morehouse? I'll git it! Oh yes! ‘Misther Morehouse, two an’ a quarter, plaze.’ ‘Cert'nly, me dear frin Flannery. Delighted!’ Not!”
One of the first goods wagons to run on the Dunedin and Port Chalmers line, 1872. Weight, 2 tons 15 cwt.; capacity, 546 cubic feet.
Flannery drove the express wagon to Mr. Morehouse's door. Mr. Morehouse answered the bell.
“Ah, hal” he cried as soon as he saw it was Flannery. “So you've come to your senses at last, have you? I thought you would! Bring the box in.”
“I hev no box,” said Flannery, coldly.“I hev a bill agen Misther John C. Morehouse for two dollars and twinty-foive cints for kcbbages aten by his dago pigs. Wud you wish to pay ut?”
“Pay-Cabbages—!” gasped Mr. Morehouse.“Do you mean to say that two little guinea-pigs—”
“Eight!” said Flannery. “Papa an' mamma an' the six childer. Eight!”
For answer Mr. Morehouse slammed the door in Flannery's face. Flannery looked at the door reproachfully.
Mr. Morgan, the head of the Tariff Department, consulted the president of the Interurban Express Company regarding guinea-pigs, as to whether they were pigs or not pigs. The president was inclined to treat the matter lightly.
“What is the rate on pigs and on pets?” he asked.
“Pigs thirty cents, pets twenty-five,” said Morgan.
“Then, of course, guinea-pigs are pigs,” said the president.
“Yes,” agreed Morgan. “I look at it that way, too. A thing that can come under two rates is naturally due to be classed as the higher. But are guinea-pigs pigs? Aren't they rabbits?”
“Come to think of it,” said the president,“I believe they are more like rabbits. Sort of half-way station between pig and rabbit.I think the question is this-are guinea-pigs of the domestic pig family? I'll ask Professor Gordon. He is an authority on such things. Leave the papers with me.”
The president put the papers on his desk and wrote a letter to Professor Gordon. Unfortunately, the Professor was in South America collecting zoological specimens, and the letter was forwarded to him by his wife. As the professor was in the highest Andes, where no white man had ever penetrated, the letter was many months in reaching him. The president forgot the guinea-pigs, Morgan forgot them, Mr. Morehouse forgot them, but Flannery did not. One-half of his time he gave to the duties of his agency; the other half was devoted to the guinea-pigs. Long before Professor Gordon received the president's letter Morgan received one from Flannery.
“About thim dago pigs,” it said, “what shall I do, they are great in family life, no race suicide for thim, there are thirty-two now shall I sell thim do you take this express office for a menagerie, answer quick.”
Morgan reached for a telegraph blank and wrote:-
“Agent, Westcote. Don't sell pigs.”
He then wrote Flannery a letter calling his attention to the fact that the pigs were not the property of the company, but were merely being held during a settlement of a dispute regarding rates. He advised Flannery to take the best possible care of them.
Flannery, letter in hand, looked at the pigs and sighed. The dry-goods box cage had become too small. He boarded up twenty feet
Not long after this the president of the express company received a letter from Professor Gordon. It was a long and scholarly letter, but the point was that the guinea-pig was the Cavia aparaea, while the common pig was the genus Sus of the family Suidae. He remarked that they were prolific and multiplied rapidly.
“They are not pigs,” said the president, decidedly, to Morgan.“The twenty-five cent rate applies.”
Morgan made the proper notation on the papers that had accumulated in File A6754, and turned them over to the Audit Department. The Audit Department took some time to look the matter up, and after the usual delay wrote Flannery that as he had on hand one hundred and sixty guinea-pigs the property of consignee, he should deliver them and collect charges at the rate of twenty-five cents each.
Truck of wheat hauled from Ingalta on Renmark track, Victorian State Railways. Maximum capacity, 55 tons.
Flannery spent a day herding his charges through a narrow opening in their cages so that he might count them.
“Audit Dept.,” he wrote, when he had finished the count, “you are way off there may be was one hundred and sixty dago pigs once, but wake up don't be a back number. I've got even eight hundred, now shall I collect for eight hundred or what? How about sixty-four dollars I paid out for cabbages?”
It required a great many letters back and forth before the Audit Department was able to understand why the error had been made of billing one hundred and sixty instead of eight hundred, and still more time for it to get the meaning of the “cabbages.”
Flannery was crowded into a few feet at the extreme front of the office. The pigs had all the rest of the room, and two boys were employed constantly attending to them. The day after Flannery had counted the guinea-pigs there were eight more added to his drove, and by the time the Audit Department gave him authority to collect for eight hundred Flannery had given up all attempts to attend to the receipt or the delivery of goods. He was hastily building galleries around the express office, tier above tier. He had four thousand and sixty-four guinea-pigs to care for! More were arriving daily.
Immediately following its authorisation the Audit Department sent another letter, but Flannery was too busy to open it. They wrote another and then they telegraphed:-
“Error in guinea-pig bill. Collect for two guinea-pigs, fifty cents. Deliver all to consignee.”
Flannery read the telegram and cheered up. He wrote out a bill as rapidly as his pencil could travel over the paper and ran all the way to the Morehouse home. At the gate he stopped suddenly. The house stared at him with vacant eyes. The windows were bare of curtains and he could see into the empty rooms. A sign on the porch said: “To Let.” Mr. Morehouse had moved! Flannery ran all the way back to the express office. Sixty-nine guinea-pigs had been born during his absence. He ran out again and made foverish inquiries in the village. Mr. Morehouse had not only moved, but he had left Westcote. Flannery returned to the express office and found that two hundred and six guinea-pigs had entered the world since he left it. He wrote a telegram to the Audit Department.
“Can't collect fifty cents for two dago pigs consignee has left town address unknown what shall I do? Flannery.”
The telegram was handed to one of the clerks in the Audit Department, and as he read it he laughed.
“Flannery must be crazy. He ought to know that the thing to do is to return the consignment here,” said the clerk. He telegraphed Flannery to send the pigs to the main office of the company at Franklin.
When Flannery received the telegram he set to work. The six boys he had engaged to help him also set to work. They worked with the haste of desperate men, making cages out of soap boxes, cracker boxes, and all kinds of boxes, and as fast as the cages were completed they filled them with guinea-pigs and expressed them to Franklin. Day after day
“Stop sending pigs. Warehouse full,” came a telegram to Flannery. He stopped packing only long enough to wire back. “Can't stop,” and kept on sending them. On the next train up from Franklin came one of the company's inspectors. He had instructions to stop the stream of guinea-pigs at all hazards. As his train drew up at Westcote Station he saw a cattle-car standing on the express company's siding. When he reached the express office he saw the express wagon backed up to the door. Six boys were carrying bushel baskets full of guinea-pigs from the office and dumping them into the wagon. Inside the room Flannery, with his coat and vest off, was shovelling guinea-pigs into bushel baskets with a coal-scoop. He was winding up the guinea-pig episode.
C Rail Petrol Tank Car, capacity, 4,900 gallons. Built at Petone Railway Workshops.
He looked up at the inspector with a snort of anger.
“Wan waggonload more an' I'll be quit of thim, an' niver will ye catch Flannery wid no more foreign pigs on his hands. No, sur! They near was the death o' me. Nixt toime I'll know that pigs of what iver nationality is domestic pets-an' go at the lowest rate. Rules may be rules, but you can't fool Mike Flannery twice wid the same thrick-whin ut comes to live stock, dang the rules. So long as Flannery runs this expriss office pigs is pets-an' cows is pets, an' horses is pets, an' lions an' tigers an' Rocky Mountain goats is pets-an' the rate on thim is twintyfoive cints.”
He paused long enough to let one of the boys put an empty basket in the place of the one he had just filled. There were only a few guinea-pigs left. As he noted their limited number his natural habit of looking on the bright side returned.
“Well, annyhow,” he said cheerfully, “'tis not so bad as ut might be. What if thim dago pigs had been elephants!”
By Those Who Like Us
From the Colonel Commandant, Central Military Command, to the District Traffic Manager, Wanganui:-
The transport arrangements made by the Railway Department were very good and the careful manner in which the shunting of horse trucks was carried out was much appreciated by all ranks.
From the Secretary, The Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand, to the Railway Board:-
At the Annual Meeting of this Society I was instructed to convey the warm appreciation of members at the business-like manner in which Royal Show stock was transported to and from Auckland at the last Royal Show, and also to express appreciation of the courtesy extended to exhibitors by the various railway officials concerned.
Mr. W. H. Wood of the Oxford University Press, writes to the Railway Board as follows:-
I wish to express my appreciation for the courtesy, the good attention, and useful help, afforded me by the officer in charge of the “B” goods shed at Invercargill in connection with my luggage which, with myself, arrived by the S. S. “Moeraki” on the 8th June. By the assistance of the officer mentioned, and members of his staff, I was saved considerable trouble and delay. Also on the passenger platform I found readiness to assist me when making inquiries in the same matter.
From Mr. W. J. Knell, Greytown, to the Railway Board:-
I have pleasure in reporting that in connection with the transport of my furniture and effects (a consignment consisting of 96 packages) from Picton to Greytown, the goods were handled most carefully, and with a minimum of delay, arriving at their destination without a single breakage-a fact that speaks well for the efficiency of those responsible. Through the kindly advice of Mr. W. J. Foote, Stationmaster-in-Charge, Picton, the goods were handled solely by the railways and I wish specially to mention Mr. Foote's courtesy and the assistance rendered by him.
Wholesale Transport.
Three farming families residing in the Feilding district decided to change the scene of their operations to Putaruru. They consulted the Railways about ways and means, and after brief negotiation a special train for their conveyance was arranged. It consisted of 25 vehicles, viz.:-16 cattle wagons, 3 double-bogie wagons (for motor cars and implements), 2 open wagons, and 3 box wagons (for general household goods), besides a car for the eight adults and eight children comprising the families concerned.
How satisfactory were the arrangements made and how pleased were the settlers with the service rendered the following letter fully indicates:-
Feilding.
Messrs. Bryant and Nicholson, who had the special train to Putaruru, expressed to me their satisfaction and pleasure at the manner in which the Department-and you, Sir, especially-had arranged for the comfort of the families and care taken of the stock on the way up. Mr. Bryant wished me to tell you the actual travelling was accomplished without a hitch, and asked me to express to you their thanks for the care and time taken by you over this journey and also the attention shown them by the others all along the route.
(Sgd.)
W.A. Limbrick.
N. Z. R., Hamilton.)N. Blake ,
Inaugurated in 1926, the Frankton-Thames night passenger service which leaves Frankton at 10.35 p.m. and returns from Thames at 3.15 a.m., has proved to be one of the most popular trains ever introduced by the Department.
It is notable in more respects than one. First of all it provides one of the very few instances to be found on any railway of what is practically a main line night passenger train service maintained by a rail motor. Usually, when it is found necessary to run a passenger train during the dark hours over a long distance, this important duty is assigned to an ordinary locomotive and train. Only in rare instances, and they are hard to find, can a rail motor be found successfully fulfilling all needs on such a service.
The “Sentinel-Cammell” rail coach which operates on this route owes its origin to the activities of a well-known British firm of steam road wagon manufacturers.
Finding their steam road wagons, of which several thousands are now in use, to be both economical and successful in competing with the petrol driven motor lorry, this enterprising firm did not see why a similar vehicle made to carry passengers should not be built to run on the railway. The “Sentinel-Cammell” rail coach, one of the most successful of modern innovations in railway working, was the outcome of these deductions.
It is only at Christmas and Easter, and during exceptionally busy holiday periods, that the rail motor is replaced by an ordinary engine and car (or cars) and guards' van. This is necessary owing to the popularity of the service, offering as it does quick transit to and from stations on the Thames branch to Auckland city. On the up journey, connection is made at Frankton with the 7.10 a.m. (from Frankton) Wellington to Auckland “Limited,” arriving in Auckland at 9.38 a.m.; in the opposite direction passengers leave Auckland on the 7.45 p.m. Wellington express, arriving at Frankton at 10.24 p.m., the rail motor departing from Frankton at 10.35 p.m. for Thames and intermediate stations. Occasionally, through breakdowns or the need for overhaul, the rail motor is replaced on one or two trips by an ordinary train and locomotive.
It is not surprising, indeed, that any rail motor vehicle, however perfect, should give trouble in such strenuous work-running a double trip of approximately 126 miles every 24 hours, often with capacity loads for a great part of the distance, and with over forty stops to be made en route.
This rail motor, the only one of its kind at present in New Zealand, originally started on the Petone-Wellington suburban run. Owing to the need for all trains to work the track circuit controlling the automatic signalling on the section, the wooden centres of the wheels where removed at the time and replaced by solid steel disc wheels. These are still in use, and may account for the rather bumpy riding experienced when the rail motor is running empty or only partially filled.
In order to economise, the Frankton-Thames night service is run entirely without tablet and signals between these two points. Tablet working is, however, in force for the up train between Hamilton and Frankton. Thus it is possibly one of the best paying passenger trains in New Zealand. The cost of operation is very low, there being no station staffs (with the exception of Hamilton and Thames, at each of which a porter remains on duty, to switch on lights, attend to luggage; and at Hamilton, to operate the level crossing warning bells for the down train, and, at Frankton, where the staff would, in any case, have to be on duty to attend to other trains) required to run the service.
Perhaps at this stage, a few particulars regarding the rail motor will be of interest.
The seating capacity of the rail coach is for 56 passengers; (other types, however, are made which seat considerably more people). The unit is not, as many of the travelling public (to the writer's own knowledge) believe, electrically propelled, but is entirely steamdriven. Why so many people should imagine it to be electrically driven is hard to understand, unless the total absence of the usual boiler, outside cylinders and exterior motion and valve gear, can have some effect in causing the misunderstanding. Strange to say, it is a good fault rather than a bad one. Many elderly and nervous people have expressed great surprise and even regret when told it was a steam driven vehicle they were going to travel on!
As the rail motor is not intended to be run on trains, great saving in weight is effected.
In ordinary coaches much additional dead weight is added solely to provide sufficient strength and resistance to train stresses and shunting shocks. With the self-contained rail motor coach all this is obviated and the complete car can be very light in comparison with the ordinary coach. Springing presented a difficult problem for the builders, low tare weight per passenger making the weight when empty and fully loaded vary as much as 22 per cent., instead of 11 per cent. as in an orthodox railway coach. Spacious windows are provided, and at night electric light is used for both interior and exterior (running lights)on the rail motor.
The driving power is supplied by a patent two cylinder vertical steam engine of the totally enclosed type as used on motor car engines. The only difference, speaking from the laymen's point of view, is that the engine has piston rods and connecting rods, whereas the motor car engine has the connecting rods, coupled up straight to the pistons. Otherwise, the engines are very similar, poppett valves and cams of the usual petrol engine type, being used.
The normal maximum speed of the engine is 500 r. p. m. The drive from the engine to wheels is by chains. One chain on the left hand side of the engine drives on to the leading axle, and a chain from the right hand side of the engine drives on to the second axle.
One of the greatest differences between a “Sentinel-Cammell” rail coach and an ordinary steam-driven rail motor is in the type of boiler used. Usually this would be of the horizontal locomotive pattern; in the “Sentinel” it is a vertical water tube boiler of uncommon design. Firing is performed through a chute in the top of the boiler. The boiler pressure is very much higher than commonly employed on railway work, a steam pressure of 275 lbs. per square inch being used.
Control can be effected from either end. In the case of the rail motor used on the Thames-Frankton service it is not found necessary to use this feature as it is possible to turn the vehicle on the turntables provided at Thames and Frankton respectively.
The cost when new of a “Sentinel-Cammell” steam rail motor coach is approximately £4,000 in New Zealand. The running costs may vary according to the service on which the vehicle is employed, whether hilly country is traversed, and other factors. The running costs of the rail motor employed on the Thames branch may safely be covered by a 1s. a mile inclusive of driver, firemen and guard's wages, which is very low in comparison with a steam locomotive and train of normal type to carry 56 passengers.
In some countries abroad only two men suffice to run one of these rail motors. At first only two men were employed when the vehicle was running on the Petone line. Owing, however, to the need for greater vigilance because of the numerous level crossings and sometimes stray cattle encountered on the Thames branch, a driver and fireman and guard, are now employed.
Second class fares are charged, all tickets issued en route being made out by the guard on P-9 tickets. Small quantities of hand luggage, and bundles of newspapers, notably the “Auckland Star” which was indirectly responsible for the inauguration of the Frankton-Thames rail motor service, are carried.
Checked luggage, bicycles and excess belonging to passengers who may be travelling on the rail motor is not carried, but is forwarded by the first available passenger or mixed train to destination station.
It is interesting, in view of the success of this service, to note the tendency to introduce night trains in the Auckland district. Only recently the Department has introduced a night train to Whangarei, and it is to be hoped this commendable enterprise will meet with equal success.
“Garratt” Patent Articulated Locomotive, Benguella Railway. Tractive power at 75 per cent. boiler pressure, 46,200 lbs.; Maximum axle load, 12.75 tons; Gauge, 3 ft. 6 in.
Safety First
Teaching Safety In The Home.
In a circular recently issued by the President of the Pere Marguette Railway (U.S.A.) attention is drawn to the fact that in 1926 there were no less than 621,000 casualties on the highways of the nation in addition to 9,483 at railroad level crossings. Believing that there is a certain relationship between the two types of accident—that carelessness and recklessness account for the major portion of all our accidents—and that the safety appeals made to men hitherto on this subject have apparently not been heeded, the President suggests that the womenfolk of the United States and Canada start a vigorous safety campaign in the homes in the hope of lessening the heavy annual toll of accidents.
horse sense
It is an excellent suggestion and if taken up with sufficient enthusiasm and understanding is likely to have beneficial results. It is only in proportion as men and women are made conscious of the dire fruits of carelessness that accidents due to this major cause will disappear.
The Locomotive Driver And The Reckless Motorist.
“Engineer Dies at the Wheel,” was the headline in a New York newspaper over an item telling of the sudden death of an engine man in the cab of his locomotive (says D. T. and I. Railroad News).
“The automotive point of view which was responsible for the above is sadly out of place in this instance.
As a matter of fact, an increasing number of veteran enginemen who should have many full years of service ahead of them are dropping out because of the battering attack of numerous amateur motorists who speed along the highways of the nation at the wheels of automobiles and pile up at grade crossings disputing the right of way.
Heart failure is the award of many an engineer for long years behind the throttle. And to hold his job the engineer must pass periodically a series of the severest examinations, whie the tyro on the highway needs only a little time and money to procure a license that will permit him a wide range of action, subject to only a few scattering and more or less unenforced regulations.”
“I want the employee to realise that in his own interest it is desirable he should look where he walks, look where he puts his head or arm, keep an alert mind and realise that if his own carelessness involves him in an accident, he is not merely doing harm to himself, but to his relatives and the community at large, and he is placing a further burden upon industry as a whole.”—The Rt. Hon. Sir William Joynson-Hicks.
Don't slide down ladders or perform “smart” tricks on them. Such departure from safety principles has cost many painful accidents. Ladders and steps should be fixed firmly and ascended and descended in the safe way only—step by step.
Don't use the mouth as a receptacle for holding small nails or screws. Apart from the risk of disease infection the practice is dangerous in that some of the nails or screws are liable to be swallowed, and become lodged in the windpipe. When using small nails, screws and tacks place them in safe and proper receptacles.
Fashion Notes.
Navy blue repp with vest of deep rose is the material used for the frock illustrated.
Cake, Quick.
Ingredients:
2 eggs.
1 1/2 cups brown sugar.
1/2 cup milk.
1 3/4 cups flour.
1/3 cup butter.
3 teaspoons baking powder.
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg.
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
1/2 pound dates.
Directions for mixing:-Cream sugar and butter, then add the well beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Sift dry ingredients together and then add the milk alternately. Chop dates, roll in flour and add them to the mixture. Beat hard for three minutes, pour into buttered cake tin and bake thirty-five minutes in a moderate oven.
Culinary Athletics.
“R. M.” sends us the story of a young bride who asked her husband to copy off a radio recipe she wanted. He did his best, but got two stations at once, one of which was broadcasting the morning exercises, and the other the recipe. This is what he took down:-
Hands on hip, place one cup of flour on the shoulders, raise knees and depress toes and mix thoroughly in one-half cup of milk. Repeat six times. Inhale quickly one-half teaspoonful of baking powder, lower the legs and mash two hard-boiled eggs in a sieve. Inhale, breathe naturally and sift into a bowl.
Attention! Lie flat on the floor and roll the white of an egg backward and forward until it comes to the boil. In ten minutes remove from the fire and rub smartly with a rough towel. Breathe naturally, dress in warm flannels and serve with fish soup.
Annual Staff Dance.
The annual staff dance was held in the Adelphi Cabaret on 4th August under the patronage of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Prime Minister and Minister of Railways, and the Railway Board of Management. It was one of the most successful gatherings of the season. Despite the fact that there were 230 couples present, the dancing floors were not over-crowded.
A very nicely arranged supper was served (in four sittings) and reflected great credit on the Cabaret Management and staff.
The function was a most enjoyable one, much credit for its success being due to the Committee which consisted of Mrs. Haslam, Misses McQueen, Aitken and Tolley; Messrs. H. J. Wynne (chairman), Lynde, Guiness, Spidy, Roussell, Millington, Franklin, Sawers, Sutherland, Syme, Fabian, Welsh, Cunningham, Beaglehole, Tulloch and Tierney.
The chaperons were Mesdames Jones, Mason, Mouat and Wynne.
Mr. W. H. Simmons acted as Hon. secretary, and Mr. G. T. Tierney as Hon. treasurer, and they contributed much to the success of the dance.
Basketball.
The return match between the Chief Accountant's girls and Head Office typistes was played on 3rd August and proved a most exciting game.
The teams were evenly matched, and the game throughout was very fast; players and spectators alike were keyed up to a high pitch. The Chief Accountant's girls maintained the lead, finally taking the victory by 12–4. Mr. C. Campbell refereed very ably and when the game was finished gave the girls some very acceptable hints on goal-throwing, etc.
Refreshments were provided by the male members of the Staff Division.
Wit And Humour
Caught!
It is the story of a resourceful young woman at a bazaar. Business was in full swing when a young man strolled around the various stalls, with no intention of purchasing anything. As he passed a large, beautifully decorated stall the young lady seller detained him.
“Won't you buy a cigarette holder, sir?” she asked.
“No thank you, I don't smoke,” was the curt reply.
The Master Plumber: “I've never see'd a bloke take so long over a job in all my life. That lad'll go far!”
“Or a pen wiper worked with my own hands?”
“I don't write.”
“Then do have this nice box of chocolates.”
“I don't eat sweets.”
The seller's patience was exhausted. “Sir,” she said grimly, “will you buy this box of soap?” The young man paid up.
Johnny Scores!
Little Johnny was partaking of his evening meal. “Will you have some more bread?” asked his nurse.
“No,” replied Johnny.
“No what?” promptly said the nurse.
“No fear,” Johnny replied.
Emphatic!
A newly-rich man, who had bought a large house called in an expert to advise him regarding the furnishing of it. When they came to the library he said, “Those books look very shabby. If I were you, I should have them all rebound in Morocco.”
“No, sir” said the newly rich, “not in Morocco. If I have them rebound anywhere, I'll have them done in old England.”
Taking Precautions.
Small Girl, obliged to visit dentist during holidays in France: “Can he understand English, Mummy?”
Mother: “I don't think he can, dear.”
Small Girl, after a thoughtful pause:“Mummy, what's the French for ‘Ow!’?”
Perfectly Normal.
Girl (to phlegmatic lover): “You 'ave got a 'ard 'eart, George!”
George (a taxi-driver):
“No, I ain't, Maude. That's my number plate you've got your 'ead against!”
“Up at six o'clock, in bed at eleven at night. I wash, scrub, iron, and cook my husband's meals. The rest of the time is my own.”-Woman describing her “occupation” at Shoreditch County Court.
A Good Investment.
“What is the best way to make a Scotsman happy in his old age?”
“Tell him a joke when he's young.”
A Poser.
Traffic Inspector (to professor of mathematics):“So you saw the accident, sir? What was the number of the car that knocked this man down?”
Professor: “I'm afraid I've forgotten it. But I remember noticing that if it were multiplied by fifty, the cube root of the product would be equal to the sum of the digits reversed.”
Stationmasters:
Dick, W. T., to Grade 6, Okahukura.
Hickey, M., to Grade 6, Waihapi.
Sinclair, W., to Grade 6, Stirling.
Clerks:
Denz, F. C., to Grade 5, Palmerston North.
Porters to Shunters:
Clark, J., to Spare, Dunedin Goods.
Cornfoot, G. B., to Wellington Goods.
Elliott, C. B., to Frankton Junction.
Grubb, I. J., to Wellington Goods.
Elvy, P. K., Storeman, Wellington Goods, to Shunter, Wellington Goods.
Baldwin, R. G. Skilled Labourer and Acting-Striker, to Striker, Grade 1, Newmarket.
Clark, J. B., Labourer, to Striker, Grade 2, Petone.
Dallison, H. W., Leading Fitter, Addington, to Foreman, Grade 6, Car and Wagon Repair Depot, Dunedin.
Halkett, F. A., Lifter and Acting Train Examiner, Timaru, to Tain Examiner, Grade 1, Otira.
O'Neal, H., Labourer to Skilled Labourer, Hillside.
Stubley, L. C., Cleaner and Acting Fireman, to Fireman, Christchurch.
Surfaceman to Storeman:
Parsons, F. C., to Milton.
Surfaceman to Ganger, Grade 2:
Barclay, D., to Seddon.
Surfaceman to Bridgeman:
Beckley, F., to Hastings.
Suggestions And Inventions.
Commendations.
Commendations.
Berriman, A. E., Fitter, East Town. -Suggested alteration to “Ab” and “Bb” locomotive packing stud boxes.
Elmes, E. C. D., App. Carp., Addington. -Commended and awarded a bonus of £5 for suggested plate to hold braces on “J” wagons.
Farmer, D., Cas. B'maker, Addington. -Suggested method of eliminating corrosion in locomotive boilers.
Henstock, W. C., Porter, Taumarunui. -Suggested method of station names on destination boards of carriages.
Marr, A., Surfaceman, Clyde. -Commended and granted a bonus of £2 for suggestion regarding gang lengths Otago Central line.
Skelton, C. E., Cas. Iron Machinist, East Town. -Awarded bonus of £2 for suggested adjustable guard for emery stones.
Thompson, H. H., Clerk of Works, Hutt Valley. -Suggested method of heating tar.
Wainscott, H., Stationmaster, Cross Creek. -Suggested method for adjusting overcharges on milk and cream traffic.
Land Cruises.
The President of the New Zealand Tourist League (Mr. G. M. Fowlds) draws attention to what may be called a quite new development in pleasure travelling. He states that the Raymond Whitcomb Co. (who chartered the S. S. “Carinthia” for tourist purposes, and the visit of which last year will be well remembered), have arranged a series of what are known as “land cruises.” They book up special trains for trips across the American continent, these trains making stops as required at various points of interest. The specials consist of sleeping cars, some having compartments fitted with showers, etc. In addition to a dining car, and an observation car with barber's shop, library and writing tables, a special type of vehicle has been constructed called the “Entertainment Car,” in which wireless and gramophone concerts are given; it also contains a lecture platform, a moving picture screen, and a gymnasium. The chairs can be moved aside to allow for dancing.
During the summer season these trains leave New York each week, and take about eight days crossing the continent. Motor trips are made from different stopping places. Travellers can take advantage, after a week or so on the Pacific Coasts, of returning to the East by a different route. In nautical language, the stops are spoken of as “ports” and on one or two of the cruises extensions by steamer are made to Hawaii and Alaska.
Mr. Fowlds then goes on to speak of the possibility of similar land cruises in New Zealand. “Imagine,” he says, “a North Island tour in a train made up like that for the Royal Party, on a run from Wellington to Napier, the Manawatu Gorge, up to Mr. Egmont via New Plymouth, a day in the Tongariro National Park, a night at the Waitomo Caves, two or three days at Rotorua, half a day at Te Aroha, the same at Helensville, a fishing outing at Russell, and a visit to the Kauri forests at Dargaville. When more of the gaps in the railway system are closed, a similar tour could be planned in the South Island.”
Variations In Traffic And Revenue
As compared with last year-1st April to 23rd July, 1927
Revenue