MODERN GHOST TRAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21141, 26 March 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

MODERN GHOST TRAIN.

PNEUMATIC-TYRED COACH. FIFTY-FIVE MILES AN HOUR. . TEST ON. ENGLISH LINE, To travel 31 miles in 39 minutes on the first pneumatic-tyred motor-coach to run on rails in Britain, was the recent experience of a correspondent of the Daily Mirror. It foretold a revolution in rail transport. Will the next development see pefrol pumps on the -railways, it is asked, with privatelv-owned steam-engines on the roads as a counter-attack to the all-conquering combustion engine ? The journey,' which took place on the Bletchley-Oxford line, was one of the tests which the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company are carrying out with the new Michelin rail coach, designed to replace the costly and infrequent trains on branch lines. Weighing only five tons, and in appear-arice-not unlike an ordinary motor-coach, ap;irt from its aeroplane-type radiators at the side, the coach looked strangely insignificant beside, the large, old-fash-ioned trains drawn up on the sidings. S et, with its 27 horse-power engine, with a petrol consumption of 12 miles per gallon, it, can attain a speed of 60 miles an hour and over, while the shockabsorbing qualities of the tyres ensure an amazing smoothness in running. The wheels are fitted with flanges to keep them on the rails, and each tjre has a permanent pressure-gauge. In the unlikely event of a puncture, it is stated, 8 hooter sounds in the driver's cab. This small ten-wheeled vehicle has a seating capacity for 24 passengers, but over 30 people crowded into it on the trial run. Luckily, it has ten-wheel brakes—and when these were applied they drew the car up with a jerk that left "o doubt as to their power! On starting, the pleasant Oxfordshire f'Pnery flowed past with an evenness that .made it difficult to realise that the coach was "doing 55." Only when the writer p'it his head out of _t.hc window was he convinced that the speedometer was not exaggerating. Ifc was so silent in runling that it deserved to lie called the Ghost Train"—a real Inish-hu si) job! The return journey, a distance of over 31 miles, was made in nine minutes over "'p. . half-hour—and yet the passengers hardly noticed it when the coach passed ov er points. Ihe chief advantage claimed for these chicles is that tliev can he run at fron»ent intervals, while they are speedier and more economical than the secondary bains running at present. i