NEW WONDER TRAINS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 7, 19 December 1932, Page 10

NEW WONDER TRAINS

SHAPED LIKE TORPEDOES EXPERIMENT IN BRITAIN. CATERING FOR THE FUTURE. Streamlined trains like giant torpedoes, speedier, cheaper, cleaner and more luxurious railway travel. These are some of the attractions planned by the four big railway companies in their drive to revive the prosperity of Britain’s railways. Each company has a secret in store for the public. Both the London and North-Eastern Railway aud the London, Midland and Scottish are experimenting with streamlined trains. Scale models of the Flying Scotsman and the London and North-Eastern Railway “hush-hush” engine have been tested in the wind tunnel of the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington to Hind the saving in fuel and the higher speeds provided by sreamlining. The results are now being considered by railway engineers.

Another London aud North-Eastern Railway improvement is the equipment of sleeping cars and first-class coaches with apparatus providing a flow of filtered air into the compartment. The apparatus works whether the window' is open or not, and experiments are now being made with photo-electric cells to shut off the apparatus while passing through tunnels, so that the filter will not become choked.

While the northern lines are busy with these improvements the Southern Bailway was recently running the first electric trains over the new ell-electric line from London to Brighton and Worthing. The full route will be opened to the public on January 1. The Great Western Railway has a £1,500,000 improvement scheme well in hand, and ten new engines of the Cheltenham Fyler class and a fleet of motor road vehicles are being built. In all, about £30,000,000 is being spent in railway improvements. All the companies are offering attractive excursions and cheap tickets. Drastic working economies have effected savings of thousands of pounds a year, and pooling arrangements between the companies have made for increased co-ordination and the elimination of wasteful competition. Meanwhile, the London, Midland and .Scottish is leading a campaign to make the nation railway-minded. Under the leadership of Mr Ashton Davies, chief commercial manager, an army of salesmen is being organised to sell railway travel to the public. They will be put through a course of modern salesmanship and canvassing methods, and those who show conspicuous energy and ability will be assured of a progressive career, leading to the highest commercial posts in the service. Mr Davies revealed some of his plans when addressing the Sales Managers’ Association in London. The old-fashioned holiday, when the family went to the seaside for two or three weeks, no longer satisfied the present generation, he declared. They wanted to see the country and were not content to stay in one place all the time. “I can see the day coming,” he said, “when the young people will go in thousands from the big towns in England to Scotland, each with a rucksack on his back, his railway fare in his pocket, and as many more shillings as will play for his food and his bunk in the hostel when he gets there. “Anw when you travel in Scotland a few years hence you may see beside the London, Midland, and Scottish line, in some of the glens, attractive-looking dormy houses for the youthful guests of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. ’ ’