RAILWAY COMFORT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 16, 29 October 1932, Page 8

RAILWAY COMFORT

NEW TYPE OF AXLE-BOXES.

SOUTH ISLAND EXPRESS EQUIPPED.

(Special to the “Guardian ”). CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. After an exhaustive test carried out on the Lyttelton railway line on Thursday, a train, equipped with the new “S.K.F.” roller-bearing axle-boxes, •ran-for the first time in the .South Island on the south line yesterday, to Dunedin and Invercargill. The 12.30 p.ni. express, which consisted of an engine and nine cars, the latter of the type introduced recently, had its carriages mounted on the new bogies, and" an interested passenger was Mr J. Binsted, locomotive engineer at Christchurch. . A particularly smart piece of work was carried out at the Addington Workshops. A train, equipped with the old bogies, was taken to the shops on Wednesday night, and the workmen started to convert the cars to the new types of axlesi at 7 a.m. on Thursday. This operation meant lifting the bodies of the cars off the bogies, substituting the roller-bearing axle-boxes, and, reassembling the whole. The work was completed by 2 p.m. and the train left the shops for test at 2.30 p.m. There was no hitch in the work and the workshop officials expressed themselves as well pleased. Yesterday’s cars will return to Christchurch on Friday next. Altogether nine cars and a brake van were converted at the shops.

’ Comfort for Passengers. The new axle-boxes are expected to give the passengers added comfort, reduce running and maintenance costs, and enable the train weight to be increased. The new/ boxes reduce friction to such an extent that it is possible for one man, unaided, to push a full-sized car along the rails. The two North Island Limited expresses have already been equipped, with good results, and the tests made in the South Island have been eminently satisfactory. The type used was in operation in Sweden 15 years ago and was first used on the Swedish State railways. To-day it is regarded as standard equipment on important railways in England, Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, Germany, France, Sweden, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, and many other countries. Throughout the world there are about 100,000 S.K.F. axle-boxes in operation, and some, it is stated, have already run more than 1,000,000 miles each.

An Important Feature. The bearings are regarded as one of the most important mechanical details in the construction of a railway coach. The entire weight of the coach rests on them and they have to take up all stresses arising when the coach is in motion, particularly when negotiating curves or points. The new axle-boxes are manufactured in Sweden under the name “S.K.F.” and were recommended byJVlr P. R. Angus, assistant chief mechanical engineer to the Railway Department, after a 1 tour overseas. While “S.K.F.” is in,origin a Swedish firm, it now. controls factories in England, France, Germany, and the United States of America. When in Christchurch, three months ago, Mr Frithiof Jakobsson, managing director of the S.K.F. Ball-Bearing Company (N.Z.), Ltd., which is a taxpayer and employer, stated that the weight of a train must be regulated according to the- tractive power the locomotive can develop on starting. A. roller-bearing train could be started easily under all conditions.

A reduction of starting resistance enabled the weight of the train to be increased without using a more powerful locomotive, and that was of special importance in a goods train. It was estimated that the new type would reduce the starting resistance by as much as 85 per cent, and the start would be smooth. Comparative tests showed, too, that there was a saving in running resistance by as much as nine to 14 per cent. Another important feature was that roller-bearing boxes could not “run hot” and inspection was*iequircd about once every 16 to 18 months, and not at every station.