French Line,
20, Cockspur Street, London, S.W.I
January 27, 1940

     Sir,—Your editorial comment on the French Minister for Armament, M. Dautry's visit and on the Franco-British unity will be greatly felt by all French persons residing in Britain, who most sincerely hope that the ties between our two countries will become still closer and closer. But deeds speak more than words. Would it not be very useful for conducting our every-day life, if that fine spirit of co-operation between our two countries could be extended also to the connections between France and Great Britain?
     The least which can be said is that under existing conditions the trip from London to Paris is a most unpleasant, difficult, and hazardous venture. Could not the unavoidable formalities at both frontiers be curtailed and simplified? all examinations being carried out simultaneously by officials of both nationalities. Could not the service be accelerated? At present it takes nearly 12 hours, minimum, to go to Paris. When one remembers that during the last war, with the Germans at the doors of Amiens and the main line to Calais running just a few miles behind the front line, and also the ruthless submarine campaign in full swing, the service was performed with punctuality, at fixed hours, with a schedule of about 8 hours, one is wondering whether the very long wait for tides and the poor connections in the harbours could not be dispensed with.
     But what a pity that lack of vision and certain private interests have prevented the completion of the Channel Tunnel. If this tunnel were in existence now, the question of blockade would not even be considered, as the French harbours could be in direct railway communication with this country, in spite of the mines, submarines, and aircraft. If are to be ready for a long war, why not start at once building the tunnel? This step would show the world that our two countries are bound together for ever, and would have a tremendous moral effect. In war, one must be prepared for the worst, and who can tell that the very existence of such a tunnel in the last stage of the struggle will not be perhaps the deciding factor, which will make victory lean towards our cause. It is high time that we should show some spirit, vigour, and decision.

Reprint of Letter to the Editor of The Railway Gazette, published 2 February, 1940

     Electric tramcars started running in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the first section of line completed (little more than a mile and a half in length) in February, 1906, and as fresh track was completed the service was extended, until at the end of the year practically the whole town and district was served. The present length of the electrically-equipped routes is about 28 miles standard-gage track, and further extensions are already authorized.
     Before starting upon its own electrical scheme the Johannesburg Council purchased the old horse tramways, which had a route length of about 12 miles. By adopting almost entirely different routes for the electric traction the Council was able to keep the horse service running until an equivalent electrical service was available. The last of the horse tramways ceased working during August, 1906.
     The track is of the usual girder type for paved streets in the city limits, while T-rails are used on the suburban sections which are ballasted with rock. Overhead construction with double 0000 trolley wire is used throughout and as shown in the illustrations is of both the span and side-bracket type.
     A number of the poles were provided with an extra ornamental bracket for supporting arc lamps, while about 200 incandescent lamp posts were erected and 400 of the old gas lamps were converted into electric glow lamps.
     The arc lamps and glow lamps are arranged in twenty groups of nine in series across 460 direct-current mains and except in the case of two circuits each group of lamps is controlled by an automatic switch and fuse in the base of the first lamp post and a switch fuse in the last lamp post.

     The ears used are 18 ins. and 24 ins. long, and made of gun metal. The overhead switches are also of gun metal and are of the mechanical type, provided with an operating cord for working from the ground.
     The span wire used for bow string suspensions for side bracket poles and span poles is of galvanized steel made up of seven strands of No. 14 and 12-S. W. G., respectively. The straight line hangers and double and single pull-off are of galvanized iron. For a certain length overhead bare feeders are run on brackets fixed to the poles. These are guarded by .4375 inch strand wire erected on brackets above those carrying the feeders. Feeder and section pillars are erected at every one-half mile in accordance with the Board of Trade regulations, and the same are earthed to the rail as in English practice. Each feeder pillar is provided with a portable telephone and a twenty-seven-point switchboard for the main car house exchange.
     The first contract for cars comprised 100 of the four-wheel type, of which 60 have cross seats inside and out, and the remaining 40 have the usual longitudinal seats inside and cross seats outside. Eighty out of the 100 cars have been fitted with top covers extending the whole length of the car. They are fitted with roller spring blinds at the sides as a protection against sun and rain, and end screens with doors and windows. Each car carries 24 passengers inside and 34 outside. The over-all width of the body is 7 ft. 3 ins., and the extreme width of the car 7 ft. 5 ins. The bodies are 16 ft. long inside, and the length over the platform is 26 ft. 6 ins. The inside seats are of rattan, while the top seats are of the usual garden pattern.
     With a view to insuring ample power and minimizing repairs on motors, each car has been fitted with two 35-hp motors, so that the maximum temperature rise in working is unusually low. The trucks are of the Brill type, and the wheels, which are 33 inches in diameter, have especially thick steel tires.
     The braking arrangements consist of magnetic track brakes combined with wheel shoes energized by the motors. A Peacock hand brake operates on the same wheel shoes as the magnetic brake. The cars are fitted also with the popular English trigger-type lifeguards and folding steps.
     Ten double-truck cars have recently been shipped. They have longitudinal seats, top covers and electrical equipments similar in all respects to those on the four-wheel cars. Each of these will carry 30 passengers inside and 44 outside. They are intended for special traffic, such as for race meetings and at lunch time when the traffic demands are extremely heavy.
     In addition to the 110 passenger cars, 5 watering and 3 freight cars have been supplied. The water cars are of the single-truck type, and have 1800-gallon tanks, with electrically-driven air compressors giving sufficient pressure to spray the water 25 ft. on each side of the track. The water cars and freight cars have electrical equipments identical with those on the passenger cars.
     Excepting the bodies of the freight cars (which were made by the Gloucester Wagon Company), the whole of the cars and equipments have been supplied by Dick, Kerr & Company, and were manufactured by them — with the exception of the double trucks, which were made in America — to detail specifications prepared by Mordey & Dawbarn, the consulting engineers to the municipality of Johannesburg.
     The overhead equipment was also erected by Dick, Kerr & Company, to the specifications of the consulting engineers. The poles and pole fittings were supplied by Messrs. Blackwell & Company under a separate contract.
     The fact that the revenue from the tramways is over 30 cents per car-mile is an eloquent testimony to the appreciation of the tramway service by the public of Johannesburg.

Reprinted from Street Railway Journal, 6 April, 1907

     Following a demonstration run on December 18, the first NSWGR electric train to be fitted with power-operated doors went into regular service between Wynyard-Homebush-Bankstown-Wynyard on January 10.
     Initial trips were made during off-peak hours during the day and night, but it is expected later that the train will work in peak hour services as soon as the public have become accustomed to it.
     (Decision to equip an electric train with power doors arose from public alarm at the number of persons killed and injured by falling from open doors on moving trains. Extended use of power doors will depend on public reaction.)
     The cars fitted, Nos. 3469, 4634, 4633, 3520, 3519, 4632, 4630 and 3464, are of all-steel construction, received over the past year from Tulloch Ltd.
     Main structural alterations have been the provision of additional roof ventilation in car vestibules, louvre vents and half-drop windows in car doors, and the fitting of door engines, control equipment, warning lights and release cocks.
     The control equipment is located in the guard's compartment of the fourth and fifth car of the eight-car set. Door control units, over the doors on each side of the car, show a red light when doors are open and yellow when closed. Mechanism is operated by a green button to open car doors and a red button to close them.
     Outside the cars a red light (mounted in a panel between each pair of doors) shows when the green door opening button is pressed, and remains on until each pair of doors are closed. Corresponding lights are also provided on the panel between the doors inside the car vestibule which function in a similar manner.
     Emergency release cocks are provided both inside and outside the car adjacent to each pair of doors.
     Operation of the doors, opening or closing, takes only a few seconds, and as soon as the green light is shown on both control units, normal bell signals can be given by the guard to the driver.

Reprinted from Railway Transportation, February, 1956

     The Chief Traffic Manager said for the 4 weeks ended 2nd July, 1933, 77 Special trains had been run in all Districts; for the corresponding period of 1932, 55 special trains had been chartered. The regulation guarantees for the 77 special trains in 1933 totalled £1,442.18.4d. The Superintendents, in their wisdom, had reduced the guarantees to a total of £1,180; in 27 instances guarantees had been reduced. The gross revenue received amounted to £2,075. The foregoing particulars had been submitted to the Commissioner, who was very satisfied with the results obtained.
     One noticeable feature of the return was that in the Lithgow District the number of special trains chartered was considerably less than the number in other Districts. Was the matter being handled in such a manner that the Department was not losing business which might be obtained by quoting a reduced guarantee?
     The District Superintendent, Lithgow, said he personally dealt with the running of special trains. In the majority of instances the promoters were quite willing to pay the regulation guarantee for a special train. In certain cases he had quoted a reduced guarantee, and was able to secure business to the mutual satisfaction of the Department, and the promoters. No opportunity was lost of obtaining business if the regulation guarantee were the only stumbling block.
     The C.T.M. said he was glad to have that assurance. Taking the business as a whole, it was very pleasing that the earnings from the 77 special trains referred to exceeded the regulation guarantee by 50%.
     In reply to a question by the District Superintendent, Newcastle, the Chairman said generally speaking a rebate of the earnings of special trains was granted on the basis of the reduced guarantee, but in those cases where the District Superintendent had come to a clear understanding with the promoter that any rebate allowed would be on the basis of the regulation guarantee, the District Superintendent's action was upheld, and the rebate granted on the regulation guarantee. If, after running a special train at a reduced rate, the Department attempted to whittle down the rebate, he was afraid patronage of special trains would be discouraged.
     The opinion was unanimously expressed by the Superintendents that if the guarantees had not been reduced in the 27 instances referred to, the special trains would not have run at all.

Reprinted from the Minutes of the Traffic Officers' Conference, 26 July, 1933

     American railroad officials who recently returned from a 6500-mile tour of Russian railroads reported that the Soviet Union's railroad system is 30 years behind America's and would require a 20-year effort to equal the U.S. railroads' present facilities. The delegation included Curtis D. Buford, Vice President, Operations and Maintenance, AAR; William M. Keller, Vice President, Research, AAR; John F. Nash, Vice President, Operations, NYC; Paul V. Garin, Manager Research and Development, SP; Sergei G. Guins, Assistant to Research Director, C&O; Jon W. Horine, Electrical Engineer, PRR; Frank E. Woolford, Chief Engineer, WP and Lowell B. Yarbrough, Superintendent Signals and Communications, Wabash.
     Speaking for the group, Mr. Buford described the Russian rail system as predominantly single track, with only rudimentary safety precautions and few passenger comforts. The only remaining national industry that has not been decentralized, the system has a heavy concentration of commuter service around the major cities. There is little mechanization, so the 75,000-mile system requires ten times as many employees per route mile as the privately owned U.S. system — some 3.5 million men and women. Railroad workers receive a good technical training and a pay scale higher than that of factory workers, yet the average engineer earns only $200 a month for a six-day week.
     The Russians, Mr. Buford said, have made a careful study of their transportation problem and concluded that railroads offer the most economical form of all weather transport for that country. Plans for rail growth — about 10 percent a year — are keyed to the growth of the economy.
     Though virtually everything in Russia moves by rail, it does not move as fast or at tonnage mile rates comparable to U.S. railroads. In one respect, however — electrification — Russian railroads are ahead of those in the U.S., although steam power predominates on the Russian system.
     Russia has decided against the nuclear-powered locomotive in favor of nuclear power stations at key points on electrified lines, the group was told.
     A group of Russian railroad men is scheduled to pay a return visit to the United States in November.

Reprinted from Modern Railroads, September, 1960

     A sleeper is one who sleeps. A sleeper is the name of a carriage on the railway in which a sleeper sleeps. A sleeper is the name of a baulk of wood that holds the rails on which the sleeper runs while the sleeper sleeps. Therefore, while the sleeper sleeps in the sleeper the sleeper carries the sleeper over the sleeper under the sleeper until the sleeper which carries the sleeper jumps the sleeper and wakes the sleeper in the sleeper by striking the sleeper under the sleeper on the sleeper and there is no longer any sleep for the sleeper who was sleeping in the sleeper on the sleeper.

Reprinted from The Beyer-Peacock Quarterly Review, April, 1929

     A curious example of false-clear automatic signals occurred on September 16, 1939, on the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad, when a freight train standing on a main line had clear home and approach signals in rear and was run into by another. The signalling was of the two-aspect type, to which the Burlington has remained faithful, with A.P.B. (absolute permissive block) single-line circuits and line controls carried over taped and braided cables supported by a messenger wire. Inspection at first showed no defect in the equipment. Eventually an intermittent earth was discovered, but even with this set up permanently the working was not adversely affected. Further tests, however revealed an intermittent cross connection of 20 ohms resistance between two conductors in a cable. Careful inspection disclosed that some shot from a hunter's gun had become lodged therein, and on its removal the cross resistance somewhat increased. The cross itself was finally traced and found to be due to one small shot embedded in the cable about 1,200 ft. from the automatic home signal that failed to protect the standing train.

Reprinted from The Railway Gazette, 2 February, 1940

     Earthworks began early in March for State Rail's massive new $84 million St Marys maintenance centre for the new Tangara suburban train.
     Mr Ron Mulock, Deputy Premier and Minister for Transport, officially got the project underway by driving a 15 tonne earthmover.
     Work on the centre's buildings will begin in October.
     The earthworks involve diverting a creek and relocating power and telephone lines and water mains.
     The centre will provide the most modern maintenance facilities in the world for the new high tech Tangara trains, which begin service at the end of the year.
     Mr Mulock said the new centre would provide direct employment for more than 600 during the building stage and 280 when fully operational.
     "It will be used for servicing Tangara trains only," Mr Mulock said.
     "The materials for both inside and outside the Tangara carriages have been chosen for ease of cleaning and resistance to vandalism.
     "The sophisticated equipment in both the maintenance centre and the carriages means servicing and repairs will be carried out in the absolute minimum time so trains can be returned quickly to service."
     The centre will carry out day to day routine servicing and internal cleaning of the Tangara trains.
     It will have materials handling equipment on all service roads so that any defective equipment module on Tangara can be quickly removed and sent to the adjacent repair centre.
     A replacement module will be fitted immediately so the train is not delayed in returning to service.
     External cleaning of the carriages will be done at a separate washing plant.
     The enormous building will be the size of four football fields (215m x 110m) and will be located on a 45 hectare site.
     Special designs have been incorporated to minimise noise from the building and give a favourable visual impact.
     Seven four-car train sets in the 450-carriage Tangara fleet will be serviced daily.

Reprinted from State Wide, April, 1987