DUST ON TRAINS

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1925, Page 6

DUST ON TRAINS

OIL SPRAYING TOO COSTLY Complaint has been made concerning the dust nuisance on the expresses, particularly between Frankton and Taumarunui. The Railway Department has investigated methods of combating this trouble on trains, but the cost has been found prohibitive. In the United States crude oil is sprayed over the ballast between the rails at a cost of only about one cent per gallon and the application is renewed periodically as the oil becomes ineffective. Oil could not be used in New Zealand, however, at such a low cost, and that method has been ruled out of the question in this country. The department has been endeavouring to make improvements by the construction of dust-proof carriages, and the results achieved so far in this direction have been embodied in the model sleeping car on show at the Dunedin Exhibition. This new method of construction has not yet been applied on rolling stock actually in use.

The railway authorities maintain that the dust nuisance is not worse on the day-light than on the other trains. The department is satisfied with the present running of the “daylight” train, and has not. expected a great rush of traffic by it at the present stage. It is felt that when South Island people realise more fully its advantages for “through” travel, enabling them to proceed northwards direct from the ferry steamer, they will find the new service specially suitable to their needs.