TRAIN’S RECORD TRIP

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 266, 6 August 1929, Page 9

TRAIN’S RECORD TRIP

SMOKELESS COAL AS FUEL

REMARKABLE NEW PROCESS

London, July 21. Hurtling over the tracks at a speed at times of 70 miles an hour, a train from Lanarkshire to Euston Station, London, covered 395$ miles in eight hours without stopping—the longest and fastest non-stop run on record. When the train was travelling at its maximum speed a luncheon was held on board and the speeches were broadcast through the various dining coaches, every word being distinctly heard. The record run followed what is claimed to have been the inauguration of a new era in the British coal and other heavy industries when Lord Elmley, son of Lord Beauchamp, a former Governor of New South Wales, pressed a lever starting the huge dynamos of the new Bussey coal distillation plant, the largest in the world, at Glenboig, Lanarkshire, Scotland. The Bussey Company proposes to erect 20 similar plants in the coal areas, especially Nottingham, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire, at a total cost of £3.000,000, and employing 30,000 men. In the course of the luncheon on the train the Duke of Montrose emphasised that it was a great blunder for Britain to spend £75,000,000 a year in Importing oil when her own coal could be so treated to answer the same purpose, keeping millions of pounds in the country, and providing employment for thousands. Lord Elmley said £29,000,000 disappeared up British chimneys every year. That was a terrible national waste, and caused towns to be enveloped in smoke and fog at certain periods of the year. It was a common saying that there could not be smoke without fire, but the Bussey process produced the fire with no smofe at all. The plant at Glenboig is expected to consume between 600 and 700 tons of Scottish coal daily, turning out 450 tons of smokeless fuel, 20,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil, suitable for Diesels or capable of being refined into motor spirit, and 20,000,000 cubic feet of gas at present sold to neighbouring brickworks. The plant includes 14 low temperature retorts constructed in accordance with a method that has proved successful in the United States. On the train also were two kinema cars, in which views of the process were exhibited. Lord Elmley at the end of the journey congratulated the enginedriver, James Gibson, of Glasgow, aged 69, described as the world’s crack driver, who said: “No, I am not tired. She’s a wonderful job, this engine.” The “Daily News” says the Home Secretary, Mr. J. R. Clynes, promised to perform the opening ceremony, but at the last minute withdrew, pleading Parliamentary duties. He sent a message wishing the enterprise success. The paper says his withdrawal was due to the left wing of the Labour Party chiding him with association with wicked capitalists, causing a minor crisis. Mr. W. Adamson, Secretary for Scotland, refused to make the trip for the same reason.