AN ASTOUNDING TOY

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 39, 16 February 1938, Page 8

AN ASTOUNDING TOY

the present time a toy is being taken round the world which astounds the men to whom it is being shown, filling some with admiration, disconcerting others: it is a toy railway which would be the delight of children, but a railway of a curious kind, writes Emmanuel D’Astier, in Vu et Lu, Paris. Suspended about 27 inches above the ground by aerial rails, themselves supported by steel pillars, a small coach shaped like a Zeppelin runs at a fabulous speed, driven by two propellers, the one propulsive, the other tractive, and operated by diminutive electric motors.

This toy is the reproduction in miniature of the railplane.

The greatest engineers, the most powerful financiers in the capitals of the world are bending over it with greater fondness and attention than any child could bestow on its playthings. While this toy enraptures and fascinates the majority, it upsets, humilates and fills with anxiety a hundred other men. The latter are those who control the present transport systems of the globe, and who see in this toy an invention that may throw their systems on the scrap heap, diminish their power, and set aside their sovereignty. These people are fighting the innovation in two ways: refusing it, by the use of money and the aid of politicians, all publicity, obscuring it in a veil of silence, so to speak; or seeking to obtain its suppression, also with the help of their millions, on the grounds that it is a dangerous invention.

The transport kings, the kings of electricity and oil, are putting their heads together and turning pale over the question. They see the invention growing with the irresistible power of truth; the widening of the field of experiment troubles them. Through dexterity and intrigue they have kept the railplane out of two different countries. but now it is making its way in a third which is more courageous and enterprising. The day will come when nobody will any longer be able to deprive mankind in general of this realisation of the dream of faster travel.

For ten years the inventors of the railplane have been struggling, on the one hand, to perfect their invention, on the other hand, to secure its adoption. At Milngavie, in Scotland, they installed an experimental line. The

superstructure was raised above a branch line of the London and Northeastern Railway and there one views

the spectacle of this ‘meteor” leaving behind the too slow trains that in the future will only be used for the carriage of goods.

The success of the experiment has exceeded all hopes and in miniature the railplane is now being shown all over the world. The Belgians are still hesitating, the Americans are enthusiastic, but it is Brazil which has definitely taken the initiative and launched herself upon the great adventure. She has granted the Railplane Company a concession for the construction of nine provincial lines converging upon Rio de Janeiro and for the building of an aerial metropolitan railway. The Railplane has conquered. It is not, however, a question of substituting the railplane for the railway. They will work in unison. For the railplane, fast passenger service, rapid postal communication and the conveyance of perishable goods; for the railway, passenger service where speed is not essential, freight and the normal postal service.

Without exception the railplane system will simply mean a doubling of the system already existing. The lines will be constructed above the present railway lines. Thus no costly expropriation will be necessary. The railplane looks like a great torpedo of glittering steel with a door, about ten windows and two propellers, one in front, the other behind. On entering the station the door opens automatically. Seated on a high stool in his cabin the pilot watches a little signboard which reproduces automatically all the signals of the road.

The order to stop is indicated by a red light and in case the pilot’s attention is distracted and he does not obey the signals, the car will stop automatically. Every contingency has been provided for, even the death of the pilot. In a corner on the left is a lever which is called “Dead Man’s Lever.” Not only does it stop the car in case of danger or if the man fails in his duty, but, the danger past, it starts the railplane again and takes it safely on to the next station.

' From a distance the railplane looks like a rocket, striped with a luminous band which emits sparks as it passes the joints of the rails. Underneath it, even express trains seem to crawl slowly like clumsy caterpillars. It has attained a speed of about 126 miles an hour and its future anticipated speed is about 188 miles an hour or more.