BIG SCHEMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 10

BIG SCHEMES.

HUNDREDS OF NEW ENGINES. £10,000,000 TO BE SPENT. Important development schemes by the four English main line railway companies have done much to detract from the effects of depression. And such is the belief of the companies in the nearness of a real trade revival that all four have in hand fresh works of development and extension, ill the last few years they have spent several millions of pounds in the betterment of their svstems, and trade generally has benefited. But this account of wise spending does not end there, for, so that they will be equipped to take the fullest possible advantage of improving trade, the four companies have in hand, or arc about to put in hand, further development schemes which in the aggregate will involve an expenditure of not much less than £10,000,000. Following are the main works which the different companies have in hand:— London, Midland and Scottish. —Contracts, it was announced, have been placed with British manufacturers for the construction of 100 locomotives and tenders for express passenger and goods trains. This announcement follows last week's statement that the company had placed orders for the construction of 2000 new wagons for the conveyance of express merchandise traffic in high-speed trains. Southern Railway. —Following the successful electrification of the Brighton and Worthing lines, the route to Sevenoaks is to be electrified at a cost of more than £500,000, adding twentythree route miles to the Southern electric system. London and North-Eastern. —The programme includes the construction of new locomotives, carriages and wagons, and the renewal of bridges and of the permanent way. One hundred locomotives are to be constructed, nine of them of the high pressure Pacific type used on the Flying Scotsman services. The whole of this work will be carried out during 1934, at a coet of £2,300,000. Great Western. —A £2,000,000 scheme of development has been decided on for 1934. Over 400 miles of line will be relaid at a cost of over £800,000, involving the use of 30,000 tons of rails and 000,000 sleepers.