LUXURIOUS TRAVELLING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10223, 29 August 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

LUXURIOUS TRAVELLING.

A NEW DEPARTURE.

Seeing that A courteous and most gorgeously got-up invitation was expressly sent to the London representative of tiie New Zealand Herald to travel as a guest of the East Coast Railway Companies by the special press Exhibition train that left London for Edinburgh on Monday morning, I cannot do less (Writes our London correspondent) than to give a brief account of this new departure in luxurious travel liy rail. Some 200 press representatives and others interested in the subject went by that) train, and I may just say here that all were entertained with princely hospitality. What was termed a ' luncheon'—really a splendid banquet—was served in the train en route. On arrival at Edinburgh in the evening free cabs were waiting to convey tho visitors to the Waterloo Hotel, which was entirely given up to them for the night under arrangement with the railway hosts. Another sumptuous banquet took place there during the evening. At ten p.m. those of the guests who were unable or unwilling to remain all night in Edinburgh, returned to London in a splendid train of the latest improved sleeping car?. The object of the trip was, of course, to exhibit the new coaching stock, which is in advance of anything hitherto placed on wheels. The third-class carriages are far handsomer and more comfortable than any first-class hitherto running. Each of the carriages runs on two six-wheeled bogies (i.e. twelve wheels under each coach), and having an extreme height) of 13' feet 5 inches from the rails, clerestory roofs, patent torpedo ventilators, double gas lights, Gold's patent steam heating apparatus, and a complete arrangement of electric bells from each compartment by which theattendantcan be called if required. In the long corridors are ingenious skeleton route maps showing the principal stations, branch lines and junctions, the mileage, etc., which will be of interest to the traveller who is unfamiliar with the route, and who wants to know 'where we are now,' and which, with the large maps placed at intervals on the doors in the corridors, and the fold-up seats also fitted therein, make the long promenade from one end of the train a pleasant place in which bo pass away the time. Two entire novelties, so far as this country is concerned, which will add much to the comfort unci safety of the passengers, are introduced in these trains, namely, the patent Gould combined vestibule, automatic coupler, buffer, and continuous platform, and the quick-action Westinghouse brake. The system of side buffers and screw-up couplings, which is universal in this country, has never been used in America, and the gradual abolition of so unsatisfactory a system means a great increase in the haulage capacity of the locomotives, as ib is evident that on a curve a considerable amount of the power of the engine is employed in compressing the inner buffers. But the greatest gain of all in the way of safety is in the adoption of the Gould continuous platform and solid vestibule, which make the train practically one vehicle from end to end. The composite corridor carriages are each 66 feet 10 inches long and 8 feet 6 inches wide. For the Glasgow, Perth, and Aberdeen service each is completein itself, containing three first-classand fourthird.classcompartments.ampleluggage room, and separate lavatories for each clas* Nothing could surpass the ease and smoothness with which the new vohicles ran, the pressmen being able to write with perfect comfort while the train was running at over 75 miles an hour. As a rule, however, the speed was moderate, no attempt being made at 1 record breaking' or exceptionally swift travel. Comfort and convenience are the special characteristics of this new train (le luxe, which runs daily honceforward between London and Scotland. The locomotives which drag the heavy load of 270 tons at an average speed of over 50 miles an hour, including stoppages, are veritable monsters. The Great Northern engines, which take the train as far as York, have a single pair of driving wheelsß feet 2 inches in diameter, 19J-inch cylinders, and 28 inch piston stroke, and carry 1701b steam pressure. The now North Eastern engines which take on the train from York to Edinburgh, have four coupled driving wheels 7 feet 74 inches in diameter, 20-inch cylinders, 26-inch piston stroko, and 1801b steam pressure. These latter stand nearly 11 feet to the top of the boiler, and are positively gigantic in aspect. Such splendid engines and carriages have assuredly never yet been seen since railways were first invented.