SPEED OF TRAINS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 97, 17 January 1908, Page 9

SPEED OF TRAINS.

A, REPLY TO MR. WILFORD. (by telegraph—rr.F.sa association.) , i. . . Auokland, January 16. , The recent remarks, of Mr. T. M. WiJford, M;l., anent the rate of speed .at which trams travel oil the Main Trunk. Line on the descent,to Taumaruriui, were referred today to Mr. D. T. M'lntosh; District 'Engineer, who largely discounted the alarmist note struck by, Mr Wilford. S The line, ho declared was in first-class order on'the incline referred to. Far from the track being dangerous, ne said it was good for a speed of fifty miles an hour, let alone miles,-if they liked to run at that rate; The sleepers wore all perfectly .sound..-As a matter of fact the speed -limit between ]?oro-a-torau and lEiiniarunui on the down crado was thirty • myos. an hour. Mr, M'lntosh admitted that ; tha paeo was exceeded 'sometimes; neverthc- ■ Jess, the oneine drivers were supposed to run down tuoro ; at • not more than thirty miles an hour. . He asserted there was no danger iu a greater rate of travelling up . to at least fifty .milos an hour, except at'the' curves. With regard to tho latter, Mr. Miatosh said that most of them were transition curves as it happened (this in reply to Mr. Wilford s statement that the line was laid with an entiro absence of transition curves). _ Iho sharpest curves on tho pcrtion fjf tho line referred to were ■ nine chains. Xhere wore five of these, several of 10, 12 and 15. chains... The District Engineer knew nothing of tho slip of .nine acres of land into the river, : mentioned by Mr. Wilford. j)igoussing *:the,. speed question generally, Mr. . M'lntosh reiterated his statement as to the safoty of the. track.. He pointed out that • some cars do not run smoothly, and Mr. Wilford, he suggested, niny have been in * rough riding one. lie denied altogether that the; engine drivers took their lives, into their own hands. ;