TWO NEW RAIL-CARS GIVEN TESTS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 257, 27 July 1936, Page 6

TWO NEW RAIL-CARS GIVEN TESTS

Christchurch-Greymouth Type Introduced MAHUHU A STABLE-MATE OF MAAHUNUI The newest type of rail-car manufactured for the New Zealand Railways Department for use between Christchurch and Greymouth was tried out on Saturday on a trial run from Lambton to Palmerston North, and a trial was conducted yesterday of the second rail-car of the type to be used on the new service connecting AVellington, Alasterton and Palmerston North. The new Christchurch-Greymouth car, constructed at the Hutt Valley workshops, is a four-wheeled vehicle driven by a Leyland Diesel engine of 8.6 litre. It has six cylinders and a four-speed gear-box with drive on the rear axle. It has been especially constructed to meet the requirements of newspaper and passenger traffic on a night service between Christchurch and Greymouth. It carries 20 passengers and has a special compartment for the conveyance of morning newspapers from ■ Christchurch to Greymouth under contract to land the papers at Greymouth about 7 o’clock on the morning of printing. Though the vehicle is smaller, the build and general equipment of the Christchurch-Greymouth car are quite up to the standard set by the Alaahunui, the Wairarapa type of car. A feature is the “dip” light thrown forward for convenience in drawing up to signals and in passing other trains. The outlook is thus very clear. One passenger on Saturday’s trip described it as “like being in a glass box, with a view all round.”

A feature of the trial run was the very quiet movement of the engine which, in the course of a 200-miles trial, worked with wonderful smoothness.

The weight of the car (engines) is 7 tons 8 cwt. It has 48 h.p. (R.A.C. rating) and is capable of 95 horsepower at 1850 revolutions a minute. It is 25ft. long and has a wheel-base of 14ft. 6in. Among the attractive equipment is a folding card-table for the convenience of passengers on the night runs. The dashboard has the ordinary equipment of a motor-car including speedometer and light switches. The performance of the car, using a special oil prepared for diesel engines, was exceptionally good, over 15 miles a gallon being obtained for the average of the run, which included grades as steep as one in 57 at Pukerua. The car has a great reserve of power and flew up the steepest banks “like a bird.” Its maximum speed is about 50 miles an hour. The outlook from the forward part of the car, where the engine is placed, is exceptionally good. Second Wairarapa Car. ’The second rail-car of the Alaahunui (Wairarapa) type was also tried out during the week-end. This car, the Mahuhu (named after another of the famous early Polynesian canoes), ran yesterday from Wellington to Palmerston North and return. Its performance was even better than that of the Alaahunui which has recently been so severely (rested over all the principal lines of the North Island. Beside technical officers and mechanics, the General Manager of Railways, Air. G. H. Alackley, invited representatives of the Railways Officers’ Institute, who are at present in Wellington attending their annual conference, to make the trip and at its conclusion Air. E. W. Barnes, president of the Institute, expressed, on behalf of his fellow officers, great appreciation of the opportunity to see in actual operation one of the fleet of rail-cars of which they had heard so much lately. Air. Barnes said that experience ot the rail-car had convinced the railway representatives drawn from all parts of tlie Dominion that rail-cars would revolutionise the system of passenger transport upon the railways of New Zealand.

Mr. Macklcy, acknowledging the thanks of the Railways Officers’ Institute, made a point of the fact that the of the department’s own staff and that the work of manufacture had been carried out entirely by New Zealanders in their own workshops at Hutt. He said it was a tribute to their designing and manufacturing skill that cars of this type had been constructed, the best in the world, he believed, for the purpose for which they had been designed. A third car of the Maahunui class is expected out of the workshops in a few days.

Three motor vehicles collided at the intersection of Jervois Quay and Harris Street on Saturday morning, and as a result of the accident Mr. Philip J. Ellis, who lives at 23 Wilton Road, Wadestown, was taken to hospital by the Wellington Free Ambulance suffering from head injuries and slight concussion. The car, driven by Mr. Ellis, collided with a lorry and then swung out and struck another car on the opposite side of the road. Both the lorry and the third car were damaged, and Mr. Ellis’s car was almost wrecked Wellington waterside workers on Friday received payment of the increases in wages consequent upon the restoration of rates to the 1931 level. The men have been receiving the 1931 rate, which was 2/2 an hour on the genera] cargo compared with 2/- until recently, since July 1, as intended by the Government, but the award makes the restoration retrospective to April 1. The men thus had to collect for work done between April 1 and July 1. The amount varies with each man, but it Is stated to run into four figures in the aggregate for Wellington.