RAILWAY RACES

Evening Star, Issue 20988, 30 December 1931, Page 1

RAILWAY RACES

RIVALRY IN THE PAST The Great Western Railway now; schedules its afternoon express from Cheltenham to London to travel the 77.3 miles from Swinton to Paddington in 67min. This is equivalent to an average speed from start to stop of 69.2 miles an hour and constitutes a, record. Until last April this train had been for some years the fastest in regular operation in the world, being then surpassed in Canada. Now its lead is restored, says an overseas papery On the old “ broad gauge 15 of 7ft, which Brunei adopted for the Great Western, main-line _ trains were frequently run at higher s speeds than* now. In 1848 the journey from Pad-, dington to Didcot, a distance of 53! miles, took 47$min, an average speed] of 67 miles an hour. Last January the report of the Royal Commission qnj Transport referred to this run, inj pointing out that there had been prac- j tically no improvements in speeds ini the country since eighty years ago. : In' 1888 came the race to Edinburgh’, between the East Coast and the West! Coast routes. The result of the com-i petition was that in ten weeks the time j taken by the journey from King’s! Cross to Edinburgh on the East Coast; train was cut down from 9 to 7f hours,-: and from Euston on the West Coast train from 10’to S - hours. This was after the admission of third; class passengers to the “Flying Spots-! man, which has started from King’s i Cross at 10 o’clock every morning, ex- ! cept during the latter part of the! Great War, for over 68 years—a' world’s record. In 1895 came the greatest railway, race in history, that to Aberdeen occa- 1 sioned by the opening of the Forth’] bridge, which shortened the East Coast; route. Trains started from King’s! Cross and Euston both at 8 p.m., the first arriving at 7.35 a.m. and the j second at 7.50 a.m. From July 1 the! second was advertised to arrive at 7.40' a.m. The East Coast system immediately, countered by announcing their express' would arrive at 7.20 a.m. Then the competition began in earnest. By the end of the month the West’] Coast system had reduced its time by, 1 a further 80 minutes in three cuts, to each of which the East Coast promptly! replied, reducing its time, altogether | by 55 minutes. The West Coast, more-' over, frequently improved _ upon} scheduled time, and once arrived 21 ■ minutes early. Competition slackened during the ] rush northwards at the opening of the] Scottish season, to be, resumed asj fiercely as ever in the middle ofi August. Each system made a cut of' 45 minutes. Railway officials and men. the gene* cal pujjlic. and especially irave' i is .to, •■Aberdeen,” heosnie intense!!’ - <*scited.*s The two routes ran the last 38 miles ( side by side into the northern city.-j Records were set up only to be broken « until the culminating achievement on * August 22 by the West Coast train, . which arrived at 4.32 a.m., or 3 hours j 31 minutes earlier than seven" weeks i before. This entailed an average speed < throughout of 63.3 miles an Lour, inelusive of three intermediate stops. The other great railway rape de* veloped in 1904—from competition be- *. tween the Great Western and South-, western Railways for transatlantic' mails and passengers from Plymouth. The Great Western won the victory, once running from Exeter to Bristol at over 70 miles an hour, and thence to London at over 71 miles an hour. It. attained the highest authenticated: train speed in railway history in descending Wellington Bank, near Taun* • ton —102.3 miles an hour. During the war all standards of train speed were upset, and there was no movement to restore them until 1922. The only two trains scheduled to run at 60 miles an hour or over were between; Birmingham and Coventry and from) Paddington to Bath. A number of ! services were accelerated, and the process continued in 1923. The run from Swindon to Padding* ton became the fastest in the world, . the average speed being 61.8 miles _ an! hour. In the summer of 1929 the time j was again reduced, and at a speed of j 66.3 miles an hour it retained the] record until last April. In that month j the Canadian Pacific reduced the time J between Montreal and Toronto by 90 j minutes, in volving' a speed of. 68.9 i miles an hour. Now the new time for] the Cheltenham train has regained the ' lead for Britain. But it cannot be pretended that, there is not a great deal of advance ■ possible in British train speeds gene-' rally. The emergence from the rut of, mediocrity into which their railways had declined has begun. _ There is now in progress keen competition in the design of engines. . The demand for longer trains with corridor coaches and restaurant cars means increased tractive power in engines if the old achievements of speed Sre to be equalled.