ROLLER-BEARING TRAINS

Southland Times, Issue 19655, 4 October 1922, Page 2

ROLLER-BEARING TRAINS

GREAT DISCOVERY. CHEAPER AND EASIER TRAVEL. LONDON, August 12. A new roller-bearing for railway coaches which has just passed its preliminary trials on the Great Eastern Railway will, if brought into general use, make railway travelling cheaper and more comfortable. Experimental trials carried out on a dead level track of line near London have been completely satisfactory, and experiments will be conducted soon under actual running conditions. If these are satisfactory the whole of the company’s new rolling stock will be equipped with the roller-bearing. It was proved by the tests that whereas it requires seven men to push a 27-tons a coach, one man can easily push a coach of the same weight if it is fitted with the new roller-bearing. This means that the new bearing would effect an immense saving in fuel, and also in the wear and tear of locomotives and the permanent way. The saving in fuel alone will, in the opinion of Great Eastern Railway officials, be at least 25 to 30 per cent. An idea of what this means can be obtained from the fact that every week the Great Eastern Railways burn over 12,000 tons of coal, costing annually £750,000. SMOOTHER RUNNING. It will also mean much smoother running, and Sbnsequently add to the comfort of travellers. Explaining the new roller-bearing yesterday, an official of the company said: “Each of about a dozen rollers are locked together in a sort of bicycle chain and can stand a strain of 21 fons per roller.” “A successful roller-bearing for railway use has long been the dream of railway engineers,” said Sir Henry Thornton, the general manager of the G.E.R., to the London Evening News recently.

“The difficulty has always been that no metal capable of standing the heavy strain has been available. The new bearing has been rendered possible by the great improvements made in the manufacture of steel since the war. Hitherto the rollers have quickly worn and become conical. In the present case this difficulty has been overcome by the use of particularly hard but not brittle steel.”