The IRON TRAIL

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

The IRON TRAIL

THE railway train is one of the greatest material benefits British genius has given to mankind, and there is certainly no exaggeration in the statement that the man who gave tis railways realised for the world the greatest advance made for over 1000 years. When the railway came man had nothing more speedy than a horse as a means of transport, and the horse was not as general as we are apt to think. Actually it is a fact that when Columbus reached America there was not a horse on the continent. George Stephenson came to manhood in a world which scoffed at the thought of steam railways. Before his death, however, the victory had been won. Railways had begun to spring up all over the country, and George Stephenson and Ins son Robert had risen from poverty and obscuiity into the front rank of/ the world's engineers. They built engines, trains; carriages; they built whole railways in England, on the Continent, and in America. Ihey made their own fortunes, and the fortunes of thousands of others. They made the whole world richer by an enormous quickening of traffic and communication. Improving and constantly improving, railways covered the land, and needed still more room. In IBG3 came London's first underground railway; in 1870 the first elevated railway was begun in New York, Since those days electricity has come to challenge steam, and will more and more take its place. But, as it is, with steam and electricity both advancing, railways seam whole continents with their gleaming lines. They cross and pierce mountains; they rise into the air and run over the tops of cities; they dip below the soil and burrow beneath towns and rivers; they ride upon bridges over lakes" and arms of the sea, and, mounting great ferry steamers, cross growing widths of ocean. The whole story of the railway—the story of its workings, is a story of power. Where does it conic from, this power? How does it work and what does it do? \\ e must not think of a train as simply a line of vehicles drawn by an engine. The truth is that the whole train, from engine to guard's van, is alive with power, not less when it is standing in the station than when it is rushing through-the countryside at top speedr

No more striking or impressive example of man-made power exists to-day than an express train in motion. As it flashes past in the night, like a thing alive, it becomes to those who see it a throbbing manifestation of power. It symbolises the progress of mankind since the days when to travel meant roaming the forest primeval, or speeding fleet of foot across the grassy plains, to the present time when countless miles of shining steel link the nations of the world, and the roaring of a mighty engine echoes from north to south, from east to westj drawing closer JI to civilisation the distant outposts of the Empire.

A powerful furnace in tlie locomotive, kept roaring by a blast of air rushing through many fire tubes, raises water to a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and changes it intc steam# the invisible vapour which has latent in it enormous stores of energy. This steam, strange to say, lias to be dried of moisture, and is made still more powerful by superheating it; and as it passes through a pipe and rushes against a piston it presses with a force of 225 pounds on es'ery square inch, or 15 times as great a force as the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere. Sometimes the pressure of the_ steam is even greater, and it might then burst the walla of the boiler containing it but for a safety valve which allows some of the steam to escape automatically, and so relieves the pressure. As the piston is driven to and fro by the steam rushing in, first one side and then on the other, it moves so rapidly that our ears cannot detect the single strokes, for there are five hundred strokes every minute. Onlv v hen the train slows down are we able to hear the separate strokes of the piston. But the steam has not finished its work when it has moved the piston and turned the wheels, and made the engine travel. It passes from the piston cylinder into the smoke box to escape through the chimnev, and as it rushes up it creatcs a partial vacuum, whereupon air pours through the hundreds of fire tubes from the furnace to fill the vacant place; and this continuous roaring blast increases the heat of the furnace. Without it the fire would not be hot enough to make the steam needed by the engine. But power is used in other ways on a train, and not only steam, but air, also, is harnessed for service. Just as steam sends the train forward, so air stops it. This is done by means of the brake. Two forms of brake are used on our railways, and sometimes one locomotive is fitted up with both kinds, so that it can link up with coaches fitted with either the vacuum brake or the Westinghouse brake. To-day on the vast American Continent railway travellers experience a journey unique in comfort and variety. They "eat in dinino- saloons and sleep in bedrooms; they play games in recreation rooms; the wireless telephone ia at their service, a picture theatre installed for their amusement. And all this has come to us from those few pioneer men who grappled wisdom to their breasts and coincd new kingdoms from it. They were honest geniuses—they were such men as Sir Philip Sidneyspoke of: "Speedy goers and strong abiders."