LONDON GOSSIP. NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1908, Page 3

LONDON GOSSIP. NEWS AND NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, LTih December. So far (is the wither rjo:c, it has been a pleasant Chrislmcvtide, this of 190 J. Wo have b;cn spared that meteorological abomination which some folk love to call "a good old-fasliionid Christmas."' Christmas Day was coldish, , but fins and mmny ; Bnxing Day, although bright, was clis>ti.iclly cold, owing t» th 9 pressnee of a keen M.E. wind. To-day is colder still, with frost, but fine overhead. But a ftvpre easterly gals in blowing in th? Channel, and thsre seem to ,bs symptoms >of coming enow, which most of 113 hepe will not turn up. Notwithstanding thi occasionn! heavy night rains, with their consequent floods, and two or three stiff gales, • causing many fatal disasters at sea nnd on shore, December has bao/i on the who's a very fine and cheerful eort of month, this fact being mainly due to tho abundance of bright sunshine, while, up to Christmas Eve, the temperature was exceptionally mild ; indied, ths weather generally was much more summerliko than most of that during last June, July, and August. A night minimum temperature, for instance, of 51 dsgr-ses, such as occurred on the Shortest Day, is an exporiencs quite abnormal and eccentric. However, \vs still have January, February, and March to face, and in 1895 the vrholo of r-Bo vnpar pi] el sd period oi Arcticwm which rendered that winter ever memorable occurrsd. EAILWASTS: INCREASED TRADE. Times have bsen so bad for most railway? of late, due largely to tho unfavourable weather during the travelling season, but also in som© degree to the prevalent scarceness of money, that the unprecedented exodus^ of this Christmas and ths consequent increment of receipts h<ivo coma as an , inestixaablo boon. Most of the important. ex- \ presses on the Leading railways have besn run daily in- duplicate or triplicate — many in four or live pares, each in itself a huge train, weigning from 3CO to tens behind the locomotive tender. The splendid holiday traffic and the suspension of agitation on the part, of the men have given most of th; railways distinctly a "leg up," and stocks are- rising, much to the gratification of tho shareholders, who latteily hays be;n looking very blue indeed over their diminished "-hare v^lao an decreasing dividends. Occ.irion has been taken of ths improved position t» carry out porliaps the mo^t 'important, amalgamation of great railway yet achieved or even attempted since ths first introduction of thi-3 means of locomotion. Ever since thoir first inception tho Great Northern and tha Great Central Raijwaya-M.he latter originally known as tha Manchester, Sheffield, end Lincolnshire line^rhnve been in fierce and bittar competition one with the othsr, as well as with tevsral other rival mlways-T-induding ths North Western, Midland, and LancashireYorkshire — trhich serve soms of tho same important manufacturing districts m do tho two undertakings first named. Ib was just fifty years ago~-that the Great Northern and Gient Central lines entered into o fifty j'earV alliance in order to compete with ths London and North Western for the London-Manchester 'traffic in the: year of the famous Art Exhibition h;ld in the Cotton Metropolis. For fifty years they w^ro to yfork in harmony hnd amity, and .Iho competitive London-Manchester traffic was to be cariied by tho Groat Korthorn as far. as fletford, 15iH miles, and by th? Groat Central thencis to Manchester, oin mil.=». Bnt v/hsn Sir Edward \Vatkin presold forwnvl his characteristically gigantic sclism'; for a railway ,of his own from Manchester to Pari.s, via the Great Contra 1, Metropolitan, South Ensternj Channel , Tunnel, and French Korthorn lines, a fresh understanding was arrived at bstwet-n the Great Central and Great Northern line, under which th» Great Cm Ira 1 was to bo allowed to cam© through direct to -London by a new lino of its own, and then, on Metropolitan met? ls and tho Grettt Northsrn, to run through to Manchester on tho Great Centrrl road. This arrangement has been in active operation ever MV>ce the- Great Cantral ostensioD to thfl Jlarylebone station in London was opea-ed a few years ago, but the ouiccmo has beea in tho main heavy loss to both companies. Their competition to Kottiughajn, Sheffield, Manchester, etc., has been very costly and viitually unprofitable. Tho North-West-ern, with its much shorter and easier road from London to Lancashire, has not been even shaken in 'its supremacy, whil-s the Midland has been generally supieme as regards Sheffield, not so much en account of its few miles shorter route as the competing lines have always run in qaite as short « time, and! sometimes ten minutes, quickcr — as in consequence of th» Midland's eentrslity ef position at> Sheffield in respect of communication with Leeds, Bradford, and other important manufacturing 1 centres. For somo tim« pnst ib has been a secret — almost oh opMi or.c— known only to very few persona outsido tha directorates of the Great NoTthem and Great Central Railway, that those two undertakings were earnestly striving t» arrive at not merely a rriodus vivendi, but a practical vrorking amalgamation similar to that effected a few years ago between th© SouthEastern and> Chatham-Dover lines, only of course on an enormously large scalo. It has just been officially announced] that an agreement to this effect has been arrived at between the boards of the two companies, and will take effect almost immediately. How vast is the scale of this arransjcmoTit may be imagined when I state that the capital of the two railways — Gr«at Northern and Great Central — exceeds £58,000,00 and £47,000,000' respectively, i.e., amounts in all to over £105,000,000 sterling, while the respective revenues cf the t<vo amalgamating railways ore — Great Northern over fiv« and' a half millions, Great Central over four millions ; tho aggregate approaches pretty closely to £10,000,000 sterling per annum. It is estimated that there will be an enormous saving of expenditure in the avoidance of needless competition and train-duplicntion. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that a part of this saving will be effected' through reduction in employment, but the directors have very coiisickjiately and most properly decided that tho projected economies shall be carried out with ths l««st possible inconvenience to th« employees, and that so- far as is feasible tho ■>v«je and salarr-redtictions^liall be«ffected, not by dismissals, but mainly by abstenfeien from filling up rxauxcio.* cansAd bj dsatb, iHjn'MiEK*ti»i, v«tiz»ia»BV, •r dUmusal. , GIGANTIC ENGINES. Whilo on Jt\\Q subject of (railway affairs, I may mention that on a recent Sunday, at the invitation of the GKief Mechanic.il Engineer of the London, Brighton, and jiouth Coast railway, Mr. D. Earl© Maish, I mad? a 'special experimental trip from London to Brighton and back to observe the working of the new and Kifiaistic uxpre-s engines of the- "Atlantic" t?p« yrkiuh Mr. Maisiv has placed on tnat line. These- huj;e rnackines weigh 70 tons without their tenders, and have enormous boilers sft 6m in diameter, riving 2500 sqaare feet of healing surface. The engines run on ten wheels, foui, 6ft 6in iv diameter, being coupled. 'Lhe down journey was marred dj delajs

owing t# permanent \r&j alterations, but the up journey was distinctly remarkable, for vre started from Brighton half a. minute lat?, and reached London exactly fifteen rainutes in advance of booked' lime. The particular feature- of thii run was not its exceptional speed, but the uniform maintenance of a relatively moderate rate all the viay on ascending ! and falling fradients alike. That is to lay, a sturdy T.'.ts of 60 to 65 miles an hour — a very isofcr.Hi one- in the circumstances — vra3 'evenly maintained uphill ' and downhill. The SI miles by the new road, fiom Brighton to Victoria, occupied a few siv;end:i ot sr E3 nunuies, tvita a trainlofad of 250 tons. _^ J'ROJLCIED FERF.Y' SERVICE. AnicTi^ t-bs late?fc schemes for the avoidance tea-sickly passages between En^lfsd and' *lse'vrh.;r* i« 073» for a railway isrry rctcss the Irish Cnennel. Ore of the rucs'j atrmuor-s cdrocatcs of thn inode\)f im'jirsTir.r Anilo-lriah commsreo points out thfit th* \vidth oi ths chnnnel bctwoc-n Ireland and Scotland is o^7 tweufcy-one milps. sud explains that, the proposal is io" Lr<v3 ferries similar to thoie of the Gr-nd TranJj on Lalie .Michi^-.n. 'I he sea between Ireland a'cd Gcctlond ot tbe' point it is proposed to cross is all rheltcxed v/ntsr — much moro sheltered than. Lake Michigaa. The waves en fchc latter sometimes isa a^s high as 25ft, bat an the strip of chfuraf] referred to they ars never, in tho vrorab gales, more than. 15ft. I recently mentioned that the proposal for a f.iinihr train-ferry across tho English Clnnrel from Dover to Calais is receiving increased and. increasing support. This subject possesses especial interest' for New Zealand, through the possibility which it suggests of having continuous rail communication, from the North to the South of the Dominion by means of a train-ferry from some point at the seaapproach to Wellington to another at the' entrance of Terry 1 Channel. The. trainferry system having been successfully carried 'out in the c?ses named abore, and being now in serious contemplation for the rcspectrre transits of English and Irish Channels, it might fairly^ be regarded bs feasible, care perhaps in exceptionally stormy weather for thje crossing of Cock Straito nls». It then b scorn 6 c m»re qtiostlen. ef cost, and it can hardly be donbted that should the practicability of the method he conchisirely established, the outlay fcr such a purpose would be entirely -warranted.