A RAILWAY MANAGER'S HOLIDAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 123, 21 November 1906, Page 8

A RAILWAY MANAGER'S HOLIDAY.

IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES. A PLEASANT TRIP. " Business first, pleasure afterwards, ' appears to have been the motto which guidpd Mr. W. M. Hannay, general manager of the Manawatu Railway, in his recent trip to the Old World. Mr. Hannay returned to-day to Wellington, accompanied by Mrs. Hannay, af tei an absence of nearly nine months, and a Post representative had an interesting talk with him while ho was clearing hia belongings from the Customs. Leaving Wellington on 7th April, Mr. Hannay spent several days in Sydney, and in the light of subsequent experience pronounces the Redfern railway station to bo equal to the best he has seen in America and Great Britain. From Sydney ho went to Vancouver in the ■Maheno, on her first trip, and incidentally he remarked that, after travelling on the Orient and Whito Star lines, he considers that New Zealand ought to be very proud of its Union Company, which in somo respects is superior to the other services, and quite as good in other respects. From Vancouver, Mr. Hannay went over the whole length of the Canadian-PaciSc Railway, staying a couple of days in Winnipeg — a city which is thirty years old, has a population of 100,000, and has 100 miles of railway .sidings. There's only, one railway there , now, he remarked ; in the next two years there will be four. In this progressive city, by the bye, he had an interview with Mr. White, the second vico- ? resident of tho Canadian-Pacific. In act, wherever lie wont, Mr. Hnnnw appears to have made the nearest railway manager's office his Yirst port of call. From Winnipeg he went to Toronto, " did " tho Niagara Falls, and thence journeyed to Montreal, the headquarters of the Canadian-Pacific Railway and the Grand Trunk Railway. Ho travelled on both theso lines. In tho West, ho remarked, tho traffic is very little different from our own, but when you get east of Winnipeg the traffic becomes very heavy, and more like that on the western railways in the States or tho British railways. He added, however, that both the Canadian-Pacific and the Grand Trunk were equal to tho best of tho British railways. The Cana-dian-Pacific has a workshop at Montreal at which thoy iurn out an engine a week, and, inter alia, like 15,000 trucks a year. He had what ho describes as a very pleasant and profitable interview with Mr. M'Nicol, the managing director of the CanadianPacific. From Montreal, Mr. Hannay went to Ottawa and Quebec, aud thence to New York, and travelled over New York Central — " certainly one of tho very best railways I have seen in my travels." From New York ho_ went to Philadelphia, \vhere ho spent several days at the Baldwin locomotive works, at which 20,000 men are employed. From Philadelphia ho went to Washington, over the Philadelphia railway, the leading line in the States, but in this connection Mr. Hannay remarked that, good as the American railways aro in somo respects, nc had seen nothing to equal one or two of the best English railways, the chief point about which is the number of express trains, which run every day bctvvocn the chief towns. Mr. Hannay arrived at Liverpool on the 9th Juue, and tho next morning heard of the death of Mr. Seddon. Hia business kept him in London for about a month, but he devoted all his spare time to oxamiuing the railway systems radiating from that city. Ho made careful enquiry, he stated, as to the electrification of railways, and, as tho result of those enquiries, considers that the time ia not yet ripe for such a forward step in New Zealand. There aro a few electric railways in EDglsnd already — Liverpool to Southport, for instance — bnt the system has not yet been adopted to any extent. Railway men generally,' however, arc carafully studying the question, and the future is being looked forward to with interest. "Again, two or three of the railways have tried the experiment of the combined engine and car, but that system has not been adopted to any great extent, and a light engine and carriage aro being used instead in places where the traffic docs not necessitate anything extra. But the motor 'bus, says Mr. Hannay, has come to stay, although it still requires a great deal of improvement in regard to cost and applicability to bad roads. There are great complaints about them on account oi the noiso they make and the dirt they kick up, but ho thinks that the public has fully adopted them, and although improvement is necessary, the motor 'busses will not bo abandoned. Especially in Scotland, they aro serving as "feeders" to tho railways in the agricultural districts, and arc being used in place of light railways. Mr. Hannay is of opinion that the motor 'bus will supersede tho idea of a light railway in sparselypopulated agricultural districts, out, as far as Now Zealand is concerned, the stato of the roads will necessarily havo to be taken into consideration. Many of tho railway companies in Scotland and the West of Ireland are utilising motor 'bosses for touro to "interesting places, whoro it would not pay them to run a u excursion by rail. , The chief railway companies running north of London, Mr. Hannay saya, give a magnificent service ; for instance, There aro about forty trains a day betwben London and' Sheffield, and tho London and North- Western , Company runs a train from London to Manchester, 100 miles in three and a half hours, practically without a stop. With his colonial exporienco, Mr. Hannay preferred tho open carriages, but tho coupe Gtylo of carriago Boemß to suit tho Brilisher, s and ono or two general managers told him .that the corridor carriago Tiad not achiovod any clcgroo of popularity, and wa3 not as woll patronised as tho old-fashioned atylo of .carriage. With ragard to rolling-stock. ' he considered that tho leading British railways wore About equal. Tno Irish railways were, be addod, woll equipped, but tho trouble thoro Beams to bo that there are too many small companies. In Scotland, the Glasgow and South-Wostorn Railway is quito oqu.il to anything in England. Mr. Hannay went into tho offico of that company in Glusgow. Ho wna trained there, and loft it thirty yoara ago. Of the* seventy men that woro theio when ho left only ono remained. Speaking generally of his observation^, Mr. liannay remarked that tho prevailing idoa appears to bo that the rolling stock must (jo kept up to a very high stoto of oHicioncy. As. to tho ttaffs. ho eonsidom our lailway omployeen hero arc ouporior in ovory rospoct to thoco nl Homo; thoy oro smarter and better educated. Mr. Jlannay thinko that it would be to tho advantages of the colony if tho , (lovornmont allowed itn chief railway officers to periodically inspect rsiilwo'y nystoms in othor pans of, the world. Tnoro is a great dotu to be learnt by contact' with other railway men. [finally, ho bocamo qtiile onthunmntic ao to the courtesy and kindness ho received nt tho liando of railway mon whorover ho wont. All of them wore only too fjiad to give him nil the time at ttioir disposal and cupply him with information.

Mr. T. J. Wok*, of Went'n Pictun-n nnd the Broscians, passoc} through Weilington tQ-dny. on hu way, to Auckland,