FIRST MOTOR TRAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 157, 3 July 1914, Page 2

FIRST MOTOR TRAIN.

RUNS WELLrXGTOX AKD JOFTNSONA r ILL-E. A subdued Imzzing sound procecdinjr from the suburban dock at the Thorndon railway statiou on Wednesday morning indicated the imminence of an important event, the inatururation oi tho first railway motor service in New Zealand. This "has been established between Wellington and Johnsonville. and will -aLso serve the suburbs of Ngaio aatd KlundaJlah. The "motor train," as it is termed, consists of a siiurle vehicle combining two passenger compartments and the driver's cabin: it is the Westinghouse pctrol-eleetric car, which ban adready successfully tmderjrone several trial trips. Forty-eight passengcre can be siceonmiodated, and a speed of about forty miles an hour can be attained on the level. The motive power is electricity generated by a petrol motor. Some fifteen passengers took iheir places in the carriage, the motor whistle was blown, and the vehicle moved smoothly and easily away, its course being watched by -a. band of interested spectators until the car disappeared round a bend. The driver was Mr. Peter Kobertson, formerly of the Auckland express, who has made a special study of electric traction. The schedule time for the journey is half an hour, as in the case of ordinary trains. A trial of the car with a trailer attached has been made, but it has been found that the grade is too steep to render coupling of any practical value, ■ the time required to ascend the hill under such conditions being twenty • minutes. Running alone, however, the ; car provides a comfortable and satisfactory mode of travel, not the least adi vantage of which is tho absence of the ■ I smoke nuisance.