MOTOR TRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 76, 26 September 1924, Page 7

MOTOR TRAINS

USE ON DOMINION RAILWAYS,

Reference is made by the Minister of Railways in his Railways 'Statement, presented to Parliament yesterdays tu'l thu uso of motor-trains on tho Dominion I lines. ! It was fully anticipated, states Mr. ] Coates, that at' least three motor-trains would have been in active commission ere this, but owing to various reasons it was not possible to furnish any useful information so far as actual experience of working on our own lines was concerned. Orders were placed in December last for one Sentinel steam-car, one Clayton steam-car, and a Leyland internal-combustion engine to be fitted to a car to bo designed and constructed in the Department's, own shops. The kllor engine arrived in July, and the vehicle- was at present under construction. With regard to the two steamcars, owing to various points being raised by the. Government's consulting engineers in England concerning the design and other matters, it was not anticipated that the cars would be available in tho Dominion for use much before the end of October. In addition, arrangements were made with -Mr. E. B. Buckhurst, a motor engineer of Christchurch, to install a sixcylinder internal-combustion engine to a light type of railway-carriage. Tin's car should be available towards the end of October. The cars would be placed in commission immediately they were available, and so far as could be seen at present would be tried out on various sections throughout the Dominion. In order to secure practical expert knowledge of the motor-trains ■in use on the railways in the Australian States, Mr. S. H. Jenkinson, Chief Draughtsman, visited Australia, and had furnished a valuable report dealing with his observations. Mr. Jenkinson closely inspected the design and construction of the various petrol rail motor-cars on the Australian railways (with the exception of Western Australia), and travelled on all the types in service at the timo of his visit, lie also examined the traffic conditions of the sections on which the curs were running, and travelled over sections representative of each type of service. It was clear from his report that selfpropelled cars were being successfully operated in some of the Australian. States, and the results obtained were, in the Minister's opinion, sufficient justification for this class of vehicle to be adopted moro extensively on some portions of our system. In addition, inqittrtes were being made with regard to other kinds of self-propelled cars, such a* electrical storage battery, and any utlwr typ<w that had been gucccßcful in