THE MAIN TRUNK TRAIN.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1796, 17 May 1912, Page 4

THE MAIN TRUNK TRAIN.

WANTED—MORE AND FASTER TRAINS. CAN THE SERVICE BE IMPROVED? SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY.

It is not yet quite four years since the first train ran through from Wellington to Auckland, but in that time (says the Post's special reporter) tho Main Trunk railway has become an accepted institution. For over three years the express has run daily each way with reasouable punctuality and without serious mishap. This in itself is an achievement worthy of all praise for a new line through some of tho most difficult country for railroad construction in the world. Yet the fact that in three years the time-table has not been appreciably altered, and that the expresses still take just abdut as long to do the journey as they did when the service was inaugurated, reveals one of the dangers of accepted institutions —their tendency to become conservative and unprogressive. This the travelling public is beginning to perceive. NATURAL LIMITATIONS.

The carrying capacity, the size and speed of trains, and the consequent ■- running cost of a railway, are all largely determined by its grades. Tho speed is also affected in a lesser degree oy tun prevalence or otherwise of sharp curves. The gauge also limits the size ot engines, trucks and carriages. These points are too obvious in themselves to need further emphasis or explanation. Now, the Main Trunk railway is badly off in all those respects: it is of comparatively narrow gauge, full of heavy grades, and abounding in curves, some of which impose a distinct restriction on speed. Li short, for highspeed traffic, say, as compared with Christchurch-Invercargill line, it is placed by the natural contour of tho land through which it runs, and also by tho shortsightedness of early constructors, at a severe disadvantage. The normal traffic is about the heaviest in the whole of New Zealand, and trains have to be hauled over somo of the worst grades on any trunk line iv the world. THOSE FEARFUL GRADES. Take, the general contour of ,the line from Wellington to Auckland. Immediately out of Wellington comes tho gruelling climb at 1 in 40 up to a point between Ivliandallah and Johnsonville. This necessitates the use of a banking engine all the way uo From Marton to Taihape the general outline, is a graded ascent, but thero are two or three very bad curves going down the side of the Rangitikei valley to Manganaonoho. Thero is a. -big climb from Mangaweka, hut this part of the -lino is in tho carefully engineered comparative, ly modern section. CLIMBING MOUNTAINS. .

AU this is nothing to the Midland section of ninety miles between Taihape and Taumarunui. Here the line has to climb and descend "moiui- . tains to get (there, and for the- purpose of hauling the heavy trains the monster X engines are called into active service. It is a prodigious feat these superb locomotives have _to perform. From Taihape to Hipitahi is 16 miles and the difference in altitude is about 1000 feet. Only the most skilful- engineering through forbidding country has kept the grade down to 1 in 50. For miles of this'the X leviathans snort protestingly, yet keep the traing moving at a ifispectabL. speed. Waiouru at 2660 feet is the- summit of tlie line, but after falling to 2000 at Ohakune it again rises to itlie upland plateau at Pokako 2651 feet, again descends on Erna-, and up again to Waimarino, on the pumice plains, at an elevation of 2636 feet. Then follows the long descent to the Wanganui river at Taumarunui, 567 feet, and there tho X engine is taken off. Between Taumarunui and Auckland the express has to mount the saddle between the watersheds at Porootarao tunnel, 1128 feet, but after that there is nothing worse than a ftw old fashioned grades near Pukekoho -on the original line, now being cut down to something reasonable. There is a steep descent of 1 in 40 into Auckland from Newmarket. AVERAGE SPEEDS. Naturally on such a line it is impossible to get- a high-; average speed witn. a heavy train. At present the Wellington-Auckland express leaves Thorndon at 11.50 a.m. and arrives in 'Auckland at 6.5S a.m. next- day, doing tho distance of 426 in 19 hours 8 minutes—which works out at an average speed (including stops) of just over 22 miles per hour. The return journey is made in 19 hours 2 minutes. It is interesting to compare these low speeds with the average rate a. which he Chrischurch-Dunedin express runs. From Chrischurch to Timaru is exactly 100 miles; the express does the distance in 3 hours 2 minutes, including stops. From Te Awamutu to Auckland the distance is exactly 100 miles of the best of the Auckland-Wellington Main Trunkrailway. The Wellington-Auckland .express does the distance in 4 hours 1 minute, including stops. In the South Island the average speed is 30 miles per hour; ia the North Island 25 miles per hour. But it will be said that one train runs in the day time and the other at night. This is trus but the disparity is none the less very great. Wellington to Feilding is 99 miles, run in the daylight by the Main Trunk express; the time is 4 hours 7 minutes, which works out still worse. Of course, the Ohrist. ehurch-Timaru line is almost ideal for express running, whilst most of the Main Trunk between Wellington and Auckland is the very reverse. The fastest running is done by the down express., Tama pei to Marton, 54 miles in 96 minutes, or 33 : '- miles per hour—down lull all the way. DAWDLING ON THE AVAY. But when all reasonable excuses have been made for the 22 miles-an-hour Main Trunk expresses—heavy grades, heavy trains, sharp curves, and a line generally tricky—the fact remains that no real attempt has been made to improve- the service since the start. The tip-train used to start at 11.45 a.m., aiow it starts at 11.50 after a spell of 12.15 p.m., which seemed to work all right. The fact, often observed and noted by Main Trunk travellers, still stands that, if the expr.esses are lato either way on tlie central portion of the line, they can easily pick up an hour or two, and get into their filial destinations on time. This comfortable sort of time-table is apt to produce slovenliness in running, such as trains dawdling on the way 'between stations, so as not to put in a premature appearance or, if they do beat tho timetable, excessive delays by the wayside. Anybody who has travelled by the Main Trunk north-bound express once or twice must have been struck by tho almost comical way it makes its ,eutry in the early morning into the Queen City. The last thirty miles from Pukekoho, with the day gradually breaking, at this time of the year, somewhere about Papahura, roll slowly by with a gradually decreasing speed. The engine seems to be either tired with its night run or else it is determined to steal into Auckland gently, without a. puff or unnecessary snort, for fear of waking up the strenuous citizens of the North from well-earned repose. In any case, it is a "won't-be-home-till-morning" at any price .express, that lumbers into the terminus at Auckland at 6.58 a.m., and that after several delinquencies and delays on the road. TJhdoubtedly at least an hour could be cut off the time betw.e_ii the two cities, and many people say two. It will be worth while in a future article to consider -this aspect.