NEW SLEEPING CAR

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 16, 18 July 1925, Page 8

NEW SLEEPING CAR

FOR MAIN TRUNK LINE.

Mr. -G. S. Lynde, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Railway Department, has designed a hew sleeping car, the building of which has now commenced. This car will be exhibited at the Dunedin Exhibition, and has ten transverse compartments, totally enclosed, giving absolute privacy, two of the compartments containing double berths and- the remainder single berths. Each compartment has a lavatory basin, with hot and cold water, etc., also an electric fan, electric bunk light, ventilators, and extractors; the compartments will.also.be fitted with comfortable beds. The interior will be panelled in polished mahogany and cedar. The ceiling will be white and picked out with suitable mouldings, and the whole of the interior fittings are of oxidised silver. . Rubber flooring will be provided in the.corridors. At each end of the car lavatories and wash hand-basins' with hot. and . cold water are provided. The lavatory conveniences of these "cars'will ba equal to the latest sleeping cars built in England.

This is the longest car built for the Main Trunk line, and is fitted with steam heat, the control of which is regulated 'by the passengers. Ample water will be carried in suitable tanks which are slung to the underframe of the car, and the supply will be under constant pressure to the water taps by an electrical automatic water-raiser Special attention has been paid to the springs and bogies to ensure the utmost comfort to passengers. Alongside the sleeping car will be an old six-wheeled "0" car built in New Zealand many years ago. A main line express engine of the "Ab" type will form another exhibit, the coupled wheels of which will revolve slowly, although the engine and tender will remain stationary. This engine will remain in traffic until a week or so before the opening of the Exhibition, _when she will be put in the shops and painted, having completed up to that data some 120,000 miles—returning "into service after the Exhibition. Alongside this engine will be the engine known as the "Josephine," built in England as far back as 1872. These exhibit* will show the public what progress has been made on the New Zealand Government Railways.