WELLINGTON AND MANAWATU RAILWAY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 12

WELLINGTON AND MANAWATU RAILWAY.

NEW TIME-TABLE ARRANGEMENTS. The Directors of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company have received two numerously-signed memorials from the residents along their railway as far as Porirua, asking for additional train accommodation ; suggesting an' earlier morning train into the city and a later afternoon train outward. In compliance with this application the Company will, we understand, at an early date, re-arrange their time-table, and in the new table will provide a morning train arriving in Wellington about 7.45, and an afternoon train leaving the city about 6 p. m, in addition to those now running. The new time-table will also include the Sunday train as before, and a Saturday evening train reaching town about 7 p.m. NEW ENGINES. Tbe Directors of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company have ordered two additional locomotives of great power for their main-line traffic. Hitherto the trains between Wellington and Paikakariki —“through” as well as “local” trains—have all been worked over the heavy gradients with the tank engines, the large tender engines being kept for the more level length between Paikakariki. It will be remembered that there is a very heavy ascent of 1 in 40 for four miles out of Wellington, a longer descent at about 1 in 66 from Johnsonville toward Porirua, and a similar rise and fall past Pukerua. These severe gradients are found _ a great tax on the available locomotive power. A “bank” engine has nearly always to be used to help the through trains from town to Khandallab, and assistance has often to be taken from Paikakariki toward town with the heavy mixed trains from Palmerston. Indeed, three engines are not infrequently employed on a train, and even four have occasionally been used. This is an expensive mode of working, and the resident engineer, Mr Fulton, has long been desirous that engines of a greater strength should be obtained to work the heavy traffic over that section. Additional locomotive power was in any case required, ■as eight engines are quite insufficient for 84 miles of line. Accordingly an order has been sent to Messrs Burnham, Parry, Williams and Co., of the celebrated Baldwin works, Philadelphia, U.S.A., for two engines of the “Consolidation ” class. These will have eight coupled wheels, 3ft Gin in diameter, and a leading two-wheel bogie. The cylinders will be either 16J or 16fin in diameter, with a piston stroke of 20in, and the boiler will have about 1000 square feet of heating surfaoe. It will be seen that these dimensions, taken together, greatly exceed those of any engine hitherto seen in New Zealand. Mr Fulton, we believe, was anxious to have a slightly heavier type, which by placing 8J to 8 J tons on each axle instead of 7£ tons, as now adopted, would have enabled 17-inch cylinders to be used, thus obtaining a large increment of tractive force. But the Government Inspecting Engineers, we understand, demurred to such a weight, and se the smaller dimensions were decided upon. The engines are expected to take very heavy loads unaided between Wellington and Paikakariki, and they will only be used over that length, They are to be delivered in Wellington at the very moderate price of £2400 each, much less than has been paid hitherto for many engines of far less power. The new locomotives are expected to arrive in a few months’ time.