HIGHER SPEED

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4693, 14 May 1935, Page 3

HIGHER SPEED

RAILROAD RECORDS OF EUROPE. BRITAIN'S SUPREMACY FOR SPEED WITH ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

In recent months. German, French and Italian railway companies have been placing very speedy streamlined trains on their main lines. Italy claims to have the fastest trains in the world in the streamlined electric trains which will shortly be working between Milan and Rome. ' They will cover the 450 miles in four hours 20 minutes, in place of the present nine hours, and at times their speed will reach 120 miles an hour. In France rail cars have been running at 115 miles an hour for many months, and this over fair distances, as their maximum is 120 miles an hour. The commercial speed of these railways, however, is only 69 miles an hour. A French rail car with 70 sea'ts costs about £15,00'0. In Germany two special streamline express steam locomotives, drawing five coaches with a seating capacity of 300, are approaching completion, following upon some remarkable speed tests by the Diesel electric motor train, the Flying Hamburger. The new engines will have six driving wheels in front and four behind, and the three cylinders work with steam superheated to 770 deg. Fahr. Their speed will be 110 miles an hour. The Flying Hamburger, burning oil, operates on the BerlinHamburg line, and it is wont to average 77 miles an hour over long distances, reaching 100 miles an hour at times.

These foreign exploits have tempted British companies to try their hands at railway record breaking. The London and North Eastern recently ran a train from London to Leeds, and the dynamo meter car records registered 100 miles an hour at times, and an average of 80 miles an hour for 155 miles. This was done with a steam engine burning coal and not oil. Moreover, the engine was not new, but was the Flying Scotsman which had run 635,000 miles, and was not even specially overhauled for the Lee Is run. The trial was really intended to be one of British steam and British coal, in view of the remarkable performances claimed for the oil driven Diesel electric engine used in the Hamburg-Berlin runs. Curiously enough, the 100 miles an hour registered by the Flying Scotsman is net even a British record. This was made as long ago as 1904, when a Great Western express between Plymouth and Paddington reached 102 miles an hour. The directors of that day were frightened to announce the speed, and it was only officially made public and recognised as a record in 1924, when public nervousness regarding high speeds had evaporated. THE PROBLEM OF COST. The most 'powerful passenger engine in Britain to-day is probably the N.E.R. Earl Marischal, a new eight wheel coupled express, just finished at

Doncaster, and intended for heavy trains between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. It includes complete stream lining and "front end" design, intend ed to ensure that exhaust steam is flung clear of the engine driver's lookout window. This engine has already done 70 miles an hour' with 500 to 600 ton trains, up and down, the Scottish hills, and this is mid-winter, The Earl Marischal will be tha pattern type for future construction on the North Eastern Railway. The real problem in railway engines, however, is not record breaking, but the discovery of payable speeds. Sir Josiah Stamp has pointed out that numerous speedy runs at 55 to 60 miles an hour are a far more real test of good management than occasional bursts of record breaking. , On his own railway, the London, Midland and Scottisb,~3o trains are listed with an average speed of over 58 miles an hour, and eight of them run 60 miles an hour or more regularly. These eight trains have a daily run of 1000 miles, and show a speed which is 10 per. cent more than that of similar trains in 1914. No country in the world has so many fast trains as Britain, even if the record speed may escape the British "Big Four." The touring camping coach, which the London North Eastern introduced in 1933 for the benefit of holiday makers, was so successful that its use will be extended in 1935. The vehicle has six sleeping compartments, a, comfortable living room and a, kitchen, together with crockery, cutlery and linen. The coach is linked up to any train, and is greatly appreciated in the Yorkshire dales and moors. Those who hire'a coach can make it their headquarters each night, leaving the camp train in the daytime, and picking it up at nightfall. Attractive weekly tours specially devised for hikers, are arranged by the railway company. /