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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 11 (March 1, 1928)

London Letter. — (From Our Own Correspondent.) — The Grouping System

page 18

London Letter.
(From Our Own Correspondent.)
The Grouping System.

The grouping of the Home railways has been very much more than a mere paper move. To the visitor from overseas making the tour of Britain to-day, the railway system of the land presents a vastly different picture from that of pre-war times. Stations have been remodelled to meet the changed situation, locomotives and rolling-stock of all types have been standardised, time-tables have been subjected to considerable revision, staff uniforms have been altered, and the whole face of the Home railway world has assumed a different aspect.

In the remodelling of important passenger and freight termini much has been accomplished tending towards more efficient and economical operation. Probably the most striking instance of station remodelling arising out of grouping is the fusion of the Exchange and Victoria depots of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at Manchester. The Exchange station was the property of the former London and North Western line, and the Victoria depot housed the trains of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Both these systems are embraced in the London, Midland and Scottish group, and the two stations in question are now being combined to form one vast terminal.

The linking-up of the Exchange and Victoria stations at Manchester involves the construction of what will rank as the longest platform in Britain, and probably in the whole world. The new platform will be 2,199 feet in length, and will compare with the 1,692ft. platform at York, and the 1,680ft. platform at Waverley station, Edinburgh. It will accommodate three trains simultaneously, and the whole area will be under cover. Passenger traffic in the Manchester area is exceedingly dense, and in the remodelling which is now proceeding arrangements are being made to convert the Exchange section of the new depot into a closed station, with barriers to every platform. The Victoria section has for several years been of the closed type. All over Britain the closed type of passenger depot is gaining favour, and the necessity for collecting tickets at outside points is thus being done away with.

Improving Railway Stations.

Although Manchester, in common with London, can boast of a really commodious passenger station, there are few really imposing railway stations on the Home railways. Compared with the enormous termini found in the United States and on the mainland of Europe, the Home passenger stations are on very unpretentious lines. Utility, rather than architectural magnificence, has been the aim of the British station designer, and it is only in recent years that the pulling power of a really imposing railway station has come to be realised at Home. Among Europe's most beautiful city railway stations may be named the central depot at Leipzig, in Germany; the Amsterdam terminal of the State Railways of Holland; Bergen station on the Norwegian State Railways; the Orleans terminal in Paris; and the central station at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. Helsingfors station has been styled the most beautiful railway depot in the world. It stands alone in one of the central squares of the city. Built of granite and having as one of its most striking features a massive tower roofed by a copper cupola, the structure may be classed as a true architectural masterpiece. The spacious entrance hall, containing booking, luggage, parcels and telegraph offices, is flanked on either side by magnificent waiting and refreshment rooms. In the latter rooms a woman cook, dressed in spotless white, presides at an electric stove, and in front of her are the cooked dishes, with glistening electro-plate covers which can be raised or lowered by mechanical means to display their contents.

The ticket offices in the main hall at Helsingfors station are in sets of three. Each booking-clerk has sole control of his own series of tickets. When he goes off duty he closes the window and locks up his office, the adjoining window being opened by the clerk who relieves him. Book stalls and other amenities are much in evidence, and throughout the depot there is displayed the sincere desire of the Finnish railway authorities to please the traveller and attract him to the rail route.

Transport Developments.

At the World Motor Transport Congress recently held in London, official representatives of more than fifty nations unanimously carried a resolution calling for sane co-ordination between rail and road transport in the interests of the carriers and the public. All over the page 19 world there is real need for wise co-operation between rail and road, and a policy of cut-throat competition would be deplorable in the extreme.

The Home railways are now seeking fullest powers to operate road services of their own on both the passenger and freight sides, and it is anticipated that these powers will be duly granted by the government at an early date. Pending the securing of permission to undertake road transport in all its forms, the group lines are extending to a considerable extent the road motor services already operated by them in rural areas. Following the lead of the London and North Eastern and Great Western lines, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway has recently introduced road collection and delivery services between the railhead and farms in a number of agricultural areas. Warehouses have been opened up, at selected centres, in which stocks may be held by manufacturers, and from which farmers' supplies may be delivered in suitable quantities for immediate consumption when storage accommodation on the farms is limited. In the return direction, road motor transport is furnished between farm and railway depot for agricultural produce of all kinds.

Self-Help.

Self-help is a gospel of which the Home railway worker never loses sight. There are many institutions operating in the Home railway world, supported by the voluntary contributions of the employees, which prove invaluable in furnishing aid to the railwayman in times of stress and sickness, and self-help movements of this type are rightly given every encouragement by the group lines.

One of the most interesting institutions operating at Home are the Railway Convalescent Homes. Eight of these homes are conducted at selected points in Britain. By paying as little as one halfpenny a week through the paybill a sick railwayman may enjoy a fortnight's rest in one of the homes free of charge. Recently a special convalescent home has been opened up in Kent, exclusively for the use of the female staff of the Home railways. The whole of the business of the Railway Convalescent Homes is supervised by an honorary board of trustees drawn from the official ranks of the railways, and since the first home was opened twenty-seven years ago, many thousands of ailing railway workers have been restored to health and strength through their agency.

Bergem Station; Norwegian State Railways.

Bergem Station; Norwegian State Railways.

Further Electrification.

Railway electrification proceeds apace in Europe. The electrified lines of the Southern Railway in the London area continue to expand, and across the Channel there has been completed the electrification of the railways of Holland between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Electric trains have for some time been running between Amsterdam and Haarlem, and between Rotterdam and The Hague. Now these sections page 20 have been linked-up and through electric running introduced between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Direct current is employed with overhead transmission at a voltage of 1,500. The train unit consists of five cars, and a train is normally formed of two motor-cars and three trailers, giving accommodation for 320 passengers. During the rush hours the train service is run at intervals of fifteen minutes, with a train every half hour during the slack periods.

A Win for Steam.

In connection with main-line electrification, a curious position has arisen in the central European country of Austria. A most ambitious electrification plan was some years ago embarked upon by the Austrian State Railways, but it would seem that when this scheme was first given effect to the possibility was quite overlooked of a drop in the price of locomotive coal, while the estimates of the cost of conversion from steam to electricity were apparently on a far too low basis. Coal has now dropped considerably in price, and there has been vast improvement in the technique of generation of steam from coal dust and inferior fuel. As a consequence of the changed situation, the Austrian railway authorities have stopped all electrification works and come to the decision that in future steam working is to be adhered to on all tracks not completely converted to electricity.

Public Admitted “Behind the Scenes.”

Although innumerable experiments have been tried in the past with a view to encouraging passenger traffic by rail, there are still many promising means of attracting passenger business which remain untapped. A reminder of this fact is given by the recent action of the Great Western Railway in instituting “day” and “half-day” excursions from London and other points to the company's locomotive works at Swindon. Excursions of this kind are now regularly run, and they are proving immensely popular with the public.

Passengers by the Swindon excursion trains are requested by the conductors to divide themselves into parties each consisting of about twenty, and on arrival at Swindon each party is met by a guide wearing a distinctive rosette, and taken round the locomotive works of the line located at that point. From London to Swindon is a distance of 78 miles, and the fare for the round trip, including the conducted tour of the engine shops, is five shillings. Something like 700 passengers are conveyed by each train. The running of these excursions is proving of real worth in the betterment of public relations. They afford the public a rare opportunity of visualising the “behind the scenes” activities of a modern railway, and emphasise the care which is taken by the railway in the production and maintenance of the most efficient and safe equipment for the conveyance of the traveller and his possessions.

The Famous L.N.E.R. “Flying Scotsman.”

The Famous L.N.E.R. “Flying Scotsman.”

Milk Conveyors.

Milk forms one of the most important of railway traffics. By the Home railways there are annually carried more than 280,000,000 gallons of milk, of which 95,000,000 gallons are handled by the London, Midland and Scottish, and 85,000,000 gallons by the Great Western lines. Until recently all milk traffic dealt with by the Home railways was conveyed in small metal churns, which involved a tremendous amount of handling, and called for the utilisation of a vast number of covered milk vans. Now the L.M. & S., and G.W. Railways have brought into use special tank cars for the conveyance of milk, each of 3,000 gallons capacity.

The new milk tanks are mounted on a steel underframe, 18 feet long, and they are glass-lined and fitted with an outlet cock at each end. Special arrangements have been made to avoid any undue variation of the temperature of the milk during transit, and each tank is encased with two layers of slab-cork, each one inch thick, and finally covered by thin metal sheets welded together at the joints. Special milk depots have been established at selected points, where milk from surrounding farms is concentrated, passed through a cooling plant and loaded into the tanks. At the point of delivery, the milk is unloaded from the tanks at the rate of 150 gallons a minute, and speedily conveyed to the consumer by motor and horse trucks.

Three-cylinder Locomotives.

To the several interesting types of passenger locomotives introduced on the group railways at Home during recent months there has now been added a new series of engines of the three-cylinder single-expansion type, with 4–4–0 wheel page 21 arrangement, constructed in the Darlington shops of the London and North Eastern line. These locomotives are intended for hauling express passenger trains other than the Anglo-Scottish fliers, and each engine bears the name of an English or Scottish county.

The principal dimensions of this new type of locomotive are as follows:—Cylinders, 17 inches diameter and 26 inch stroke; boiler length 11 feet 4½ inches, diameter 5 feet 6 inches; heating surface, 1,397 square feet; boiler pressure 180lb. per square inch; total wheelbase 48 feet 5¼ inches; total length 58 feet 8¾ inches; total weight of engine and tender in working order, 118½ tons; coal capacity 7½ tons, water 4,200 gallons. The engines are painted in the standard green of the L. & N.E. group, and they present a remarkably spick and span appearance in traffic.

Birth of a Railway.

Just ninety years ago the Great Western Railway of England was opened between London and Maidenhead-on-Thames. In a recent volume entitled the “History of the Great Western Railway,” by E. T. MacDermot, published by the Great Western Company, there is unfolded the wondrous story of the birth and development of this unique transportation system, which has played so vital a part in Britain's progress. Railway working in the “good old days” was a very primitive business. For long, traffic was conducted in such a happy-go-lucky fashion that trains were not always restricted to the correct “Up” or “Down” road, while fixed signals were almost unknown. The trials and troubles of the early railway officials make especially interesting reading, and this ably penned record of the birth and growth of Brunel's far-flung railway undertaking is one which will appeal to railway-men of all grades the world over. It should certainly find a place in every railway library.

Electric Train, State Railways Of Holland. The electrification of the Dutch railways is proceeding steadily, and the throughout main line between Amsterdam and Rotterdam has recently been converted from steam to electric traction.

Electric Train, State Railways Of Holland.
The electrification of the Dutch railways is proceeding steadily, and the throughout main line between Amsterdam and Rotterdam has recently been converted from steam to electric traction.