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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 6 (September 2, 1935)

Our London Letter

page 22

Our London Letter

The Railways and Holiday Travel.
The Booking Office at King's Cross Station, London.

Exceptionally heavy passenger bookings have been recorded on the Home railways during the holiday season. Summer vacation travel by rail has exceeded all expectations, and the railways have reaped a rich reward for their enterprise in providing unique facilities for the holiday-maker, such as additional fast services, cheap fares, combined rail and road travel, “all-in” home and continental tours, camping coaches, and “land cruises” by specially equipped express trains. Railway-owned hotels and guest-houses have been filled almost to overflowing; cross-Channel steamships have daily been booked to capacity; accommodation in railway-operated aeroplanes has been reserved weeks in advance, and in every phase of railway activity there has been recorded the same pleasing story of bumper summer business.

Features of New British Trains.

Because of the welcome improvement in passenger traffics, many additions have recently been made to the passenger carriage stocks of the group lines. Especially interesting are new vehicles put into service on the Great Western and London and North Eastern systems.

The Great Western have recently turned out of the Swindon shops two new ten-car trains for long-distance excursion working. Each carriage in these trains is 60 ft. long, and designed on the most modern lines. The vehicles are of the saloon type, with seats arranged on either side of a central gangway. The total seating capacity of the two trains is 416 and 384 passengers respectively. Two kitchencars are included in the composition of each train, these being panelled throughout with stainless steel. More spectacular still are the new carriages built by the L. & N.E. Company. These are first-class all-electric restaurant cars for service between King's Cross Station, London, and Scotland. Some 63 ft. 6in. long, each car consists of a dining saloon to seat eighteen persons, a pantry, kitchen, attendants' compartment, and toilet section. In the kitchen, all cooking is carried out electrically. The main cooking-range comprises a roasting oven, steaming oven, grill and hot-water boiler. In addition, there is a boiling-range with six hot-plates for frying and boiling, and a 10-gallon capacity boiling-pan for cooking vegetables.

Inclusive Holiday Tickets.

Special fare facilities have been a feature of the summer programme on the Home lines. Enormous crowds have thereby been drawn to seaside and country holiday resorts, while record passenger movements have been registered in connection with many outstanding events of the season. A few of the Jubilee year gatherings that have brought big business were the
Interior of the Main Lounge at the L.M. and S. “Welcombe Hotel” at Stratford-on-Avon.

Interior of the Main Lounge at the L.M. and S. “Welcombe Hotel” at Stratford-on-Avon.

Military Tattoos at Aldershot, Tidworth and Nottingham; the Navy Week displays at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham; the Pageant of England at Slough; the Empire Service at Canterbury; the Army Review by His Majesty the King at Aldershot; and the Royal Review of the Fleet at Spithead.

Among special fare arrangements there may be noted the innovation known as “Inclusive Holidays,” introduced this season by the L.M. & S. and L. & N.E. lines. These inclusive holiday tickets provide full accommodation for a week at a hotel or boarding-house, day and half-day sight-seeing trips by rail, road and water, and rail travel to and from the selected resort. A weekly “inclusive holiday” ticket may be purchased for as little as $3/13/-, and a fortnightly ticket for $8/10/-, the charge, of course, varying according to the distance covered and the accommodation selected.

Interior of the Main Lounge at the L.M. and S. “Welcombe Hotel” at Stratford-on-Avon.

Interior of the Main Lounge at the L.M. and S. “Welcombe Hotel” at Stratford-on-Avon.

page 23

Novel Mechanical Contrivances.

Mechanical equipment of various types is constantly being introduced to aid the railway traveller. Two recent interesting developments take the form of the provision of a quick-service ticket-issuing machine at Liverpool Street Station, London, and a new electric train departure indicator at Paddington Station, London.

The Liverpool Street machine speeds up ticket-issuing enormously, and what is better still from the railway point of view immensely simplifies operations in the booking-office. Not only does the machine print and issue tickets, but it also actually counts up the day's takings. By the pressure of a button the machine prints, dates and issues a ticket selected from 3,040 different types, and simultaneously records the amount of money involved. The consecutive amounts are automatically added together, so that the booking-clerk can tell at any moment what are the total receipts.

The Paddington train indicator is an equally ingenius contrivance. It is an electrical indicator (installed on the concourse) which not only tells passengers the time, destination, and platform of departure trains, but changes its face throughout the twenty-four hours without any human aid. The machine is enclosed in a glass-fronted case ten feet high by six feet wide. To look at, it is like a large venetian blind with twenty-nine metal slats, on each of which is painted the time of a train and the principal stations served. The slats run on endless belts, in groups of ten, only one slat in each group being displayed at one time. An electric motor sets in motion, at intervals during the twenty-four hours, the twenty-nine endless belts, thus erasing the one setting and bringing into view the next set of trains. Altogether, this is one of the most ingenious train-departure indicators we have seen.

Railway-operated Air Services.

Aeroplanes named after famous cities on the line of route have been introduced by Railway Air Services on the Liverpool-Brighton and Plymouth-Nottingham services this season. The machines on the former service are called “City of Birmingham” and “City of Bristol.” Plymouth and Cardiff are the two cities honoured in naming the ‘planes in the other service.

The new railway-operated air-links connect Liverpool, Cardiff, Bristol, Plymouth and Southampton with each other, and the industrial Midlands with popular holiday resorts, by means of a rapid morning and afternoon service in each direction on each route. Multi-engined air liners, seating eight passengers, are employed. They are equipped with wireless, and have a cruising speed of 100 to 130 m.p.h. At Southampton the Liverpool-Brighton ‘planes make connection with other’ Railway Air Services' ‘planes for the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. At Liverpool there is a link with the morning air service to Blackpool and the Isle of Man. In many cases, the fares are lower than those of last year.

Improved Facilities at Railway Docks.

Important schemes of development and modernisation have for some time been in progress at the South Wales docks of the Great Western Railway. As a result, the shipping facilities in this corner of Britain have been brought right up-to-date, and increased freight handlings may be anticipated in the future. One interesting improvement is the introduction of special appliances for the prevention of the breakage of coal during shipment. These consist of an escalator comprising a number of trays worked on an endless belt. Each tray as it is filled lowers the coal without breakage, and thirty-four of these machines have so far been installed. The “Norfolk” spade, or mechanical digger, has also been introduced successfully, to clear wet coal from wagons. Fifteen of these machines are in service, and they clean a wagon in a few minutes, as against manual labour of more than half-an-hour.

The Great Western Company have completed a scheme of enlargement of
Beautiful Ventnor, Isle of Wight—on the route of Railway Airways.

Beautiful Ventnor, Isle of Wight—on the route of Railway Airways.

their standage sidings at the South Wales docks. At Swansea Docks there has been provided a new hump sorting yard, with extensive new reception and storage tracks, and these alterations have greatly facilitated the handling of traffic of all kinds. In recent years no fewer than one hundred new level-luffing hydraulic and electric cranes have been installed at the South Wales ports by the railway, as well as a floating crane capable of lifting 125 tons, which is available for use at any of the docks in the area.

The World's First Railway “Talkie.”

Cinema cars have from time to time been tried out on many of the world's railways, but no particular success seems to have marked the experiment. The cars hitherto utilised have been devoted to the exhibition of silent films, but now the London and North Eastern Railway has launched out with regular “talkie” shows on certain of its express trains between London and Leeds. The “talkie” coach accommodates 44 passengers, tip-up seats being provided, these being raised towards the back of the car, so that everyone may see the films in comfort. A six-foot screen is utilised, and most of the films are of “news” interest. A small charge is made for admission. Whether or not the show becomes a permanent feature remains to be seen. In any case, we may certainly congratulate the King's Cross authorities on their enterprise in introducing the world's first railway “talkie.”