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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 6 (October 1, 1932.)

Our London Letter

page 19

Our London Letter

Last year the four group railways of Britain catered for more than 1,186,000,000 passenger train journeys, and during the present year it is anticipated this figure will be considerably exceeded. Every possible inducement in the way of fast services, cheap fares, and general travel amenities is being offered by the railways with the idea of improving their passenger handlings. In his present contribution, Mr. Stead deals with the facilities which have been created and developed for handling the vast passenger business in and out of London, and reviews recent railway developments on the Continent.

Cheap Tickets Popular.

the issue of cheap tickets at Home is being extended as never before. Thousands of cheap day and half-day excursions are being run, while week-end, anglers, hikers, and other cheap fares are operative from every station. Cheap fare passengers now form over 85 per cent, of the total persons carried by the Home railways. In 1924 the figure was only 68 per cent. Altogether, 428,000,000 passengers were conveyed last year by the four group lines for period, tourist, week-end and day and half-day cheap trips.

Rail Travel and Safety.

In providing cheap travel for the multitude, the Home railways are in no way lowering their standards of safety, speed and comfort. The number of passengers who lost their lives in accidents to trains in 1931 was, eight: less than half the number killed every day on the roads of the country. With 1,186,000,000 passenger journeys made in 1931, the risk of death in train accidents was one in 150,000,000, a striking testimony to the safety of Home railway travel.

The World's Fastest Train.

The record for the fastest daily train in the world still remains with the Great Western Railway of England, the 3.48 p.m. from Swindon to Paddington station, London, covering the 77 1/4 miles in just 67 minutes, an average speed of 69.18 miles per hour. More trains travel at 55 miles an hour and upwards in Britain than in any other country, and recently marked accelerations have been introduced in the Anglo-Scottish services of the London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern lines.

These accelerated services apply not only to famous trains like the “Flying Scotsman” and the “Royal Scot.” Almost all the principal day expresses between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, have been speeded up, as well as the services linking London with Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee, Stirling, and other Scottish points. The principal day expresses betweeen London and Glasgow and Edinburgh now perform the journey in both directions on reduced times, ranging from between 7hr. 50min. to 8 hours, instead of page 20 the previous 8hr. 15min. to 8hr. 30min. To handle the heavy tourist business of the season, non-stop trains have been introduced on both the Anglo-Scottish routes. To-day, the “Flying Scotsman” takes only 7 1/2 hours for the throughout run between King's Cross station, London, and Edinburgh, while the “Royal Scot,” out of Euston station, London, occupies just 7 hours 40 minutes on the trip to Glasgow. The “Flying Scotsman” and the “Royal Scot” are two of the world's most famous
The Holiday Season On The Home Railways. Holiday-makers arriving at Wemyss Bay Station (L.M. and S. Railway), for a Clyde Coast vacation.

The Holiday Season On The Home Railways.
Holiday-makers arriving at Wemyss Bay Station (L.M. and S. Railway), for a Clyde Coast vacation.

trains, and it is interesting to learn that at next year's World's Fair at Chicago, U.S.A., a complete “Royal Scot” passenger train is to be placed on show by the L.M. and S. authorities.

London's Busy Stations.

London is, of course, the greatest traffic centre of the Home railways, and recently one of the principal termini of the metropolis celebrated its fifty-eighth anniversary. This is the Liverpool Street station of the L. and N.E. line, formerly the headquarters of the Great Eastern system. At the time of its opening, doubt was expressed as to whether full use would ever be made of such commodious accommodation. So rapidly, however, did traffic expand, that in 1894 an extension, known as the East Side, was constructed, and to-day Liverpool Street station is actually the busiest station in the whole world, with the solitary exception of Flinders Street, Melbourne.

Of all the main-line termini in London, Liverpool Street is the largest. The station is used by more than 230,000 passengers every day, and there are upwards of 1,200 trains in and out every twenty-four hours. The second busiest station in London is the Southern Company's London Bridge station, with 149,000 passengers daily. Then comes Waterloo, with 130,000 passengers daily; Broad Street, 120,000; Victoria, 111,600; King's Cross, 60,000; Euston, 60,000; and Paddington, 55,000. More than 9,000 trains are handled daily at the sixteen principal London stations.

While Liverpool Street handles such an enormous passenger business, it is not an electrified terminal. All operations are conducted by steam power, although plans have for long been prepared for the ultimate electrification of the station and the adjoining suburban tracks. The intensive steam operation favoured was originally introduced by the Great Eastern General Manager, Henry Thornton (now Sir Henry page 21 Thornton). The special features are the unique equipment employed for the speediest possible turn-round of trains, these including a well-designed locomotive dock facing each platform road, entrance to and departure from which is possible without interference with trains on other roads; derailers replacing catch-points and giving an additional 10ft clearance for the driver to bring his locomotive to rest; and water-columns for feeding locomotives while passengers are detraining and entraining.

A Modern “Iron Horse.” L.N.E.R. Anglo-Scottish Express with “Hush Hush” locomotive, crossing the Forth Bridge.

A Modern “Iron Horse.”
L.N.E.R. Anglo-Scottish Express with “Hush Hush” locomotive, crossing the Forth Bridge.

Rail-cars and Operating Economy.

Railways the world over are effecting valuable economies through the utilisation of light railcars, in place of the conventional steam units. In Ireland an interesting development is the replacement of steam-operated passenger trains by electric battery-driven trains on the Dublin-Bray section of the Great Southern line.

These trains consist of a two-car unit operated by means of a Drumm storage battery. The cells are housed in four boxes suspended from the underframes of the car. Current is supplied from the full battery at 500 volts, and is controlled by electropneumatic operated switches and contactors in series-parallel. Electric drive is applied to the centre truck by a 200 h.p. motor on each axle. Two charging stations have been installed, one at Dublin and the other at Bray. At these stations the train batteries can be charged whenever desired.

Each articulated two-car unit weighs 70 tons, and has accommodation for 140 passengers. Trains make an average run of 300 miles per day, and the only special attention necessary, beyond re-charging at intervals, is the topping-up of the battery cells with distilled water. Battery-driven trains of this character are something of a novelty: it will certainly be interesting to see how they work out under regular service conditions.

New Carriages on the Underground Railways.

Because of greatly increased traffic, the London Underground Railways some time ago placed orders for 275 new motor and trailer cars. These vehicles have now been brought into use, and they represent a noteworthy contribution to British passenger stock.

The new carriages embody all modern features, and include new sliding doors, the page 22 provision of all-electric automatic control for the traction motors, patent electropneumatic brakes and air-door equipment of the latest design. On the motor-cars the centre double sliding doors giving an opening of 5ft. 11in. have been retained, and there have also been provided a pair of end sliding doors each giving a 2ft. 3in. opening. The weight of the cars has been kept down by the utilisation of aluminium alloys—a development to which many main-line railways might well devote consideration. Normally seven cars form a train during busy periods—three motor and four trailer cars. The principal dimensions of the motor cars are as follows:—Length overall, 53ft. 1 1/2in.; width, 8ft. 6 1/2in.; overall height from rail, 9ft. 6in.; tare weight, 31 tons 15 1/2cwt. Varying schemes of interior decoration and seat coverings have been adopted, silver greywood largely replacing the mahogany formerly employed. Great attention has been paid to interior lighting. The total number of lamps remains the same, but their wattage has been raised from 40 to 60, and the arrangement is such as to give the greatest freedom from glare and avoidance of shadows.

A Great German Traffic Centre. Essen Station, headquarters of the North-western division of the German Railways.

A Great German Traffic Centre.
Essen Station, headquarters of the North-western division of the German Railways.

Catering on the German Railway.

Five times round the earth at the equator or about 125,000 miles, is the average daily mileage covered by the dining and sleeping cars of the Mitropa Company, of Berlin, the efficient undertaking responsible for train catering on the German railways. In the west, the Mitropa dining and sleeping cars run as far as Amsterdam, Flushing and Hook of Holland, serving the traffic to and from Britain. In the south they operate to Zurich, Interlaken, Lucerne, and Lugano, establishing connections between Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Mitropa cars likewise go to Vienna, and to the Spa centres of Czechoslovakia, while the company also operates the sleepers and diners on the Scandinavian railways. More than 650 cars are owned by the undertaking, which has its own chain of car repair shops.

Good catering is an immense aid in securing railway passenger business, and while there is much to be said in favour of a railway undertaking its own dining car and refreshment room services, the German lines are certainly fortunate in having placed their catering interests in the hands of so efficient an organisation.