THE NEW LOCOMOTIVES.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10264, 6 February 1899, Page 3

THE NEW LOCOMOTIVES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Since writing to you on the above subject one of thess engines has been for a fortnight "hors de combat" in the Addington shops, undergoing csstly repairs and alterations. Moreover", it is stated that the engine stowed wear out of all proportion to the short time —a few weeks —it had been running. I also hear tha.t the coal consumption per train mile of these engines is enormous. Yet this is the class of engine that Mr Ronayne, the general manager of our railways, has deliberately declared to be giving every satisfaction, amd concerning which, your contemporary the "Post," has "from official sources" bean told to say the same. I may add that bhe brake power of these "satisfactory" engines is quite inadequate, the drivers having to crawl into stations to avoid helplessly rimming past the platforms. ■

Until we insist on having an expsrt from Home to manage our lines things will be no better, and travellers like the late P. W. Barton, C.E., nephew of ths great Barton who oomstruoted the Foith Bridge, will say:—"After three-quarters of an hour of the roughest railway travelling I had ever experienced, progress being attained by a series of violent jerks, Onehunga was reached, and I strolled away from, the station fully convinced that the railway authorities charged by tima, not" mileage, and this conviction I have since seen no reason to alter."—Yours, &c, SMOKE JACK.