THE RAIL MOTOR

Southland Times, Issue 19102, 21 November 1923, Page 9

THE RAIL MOTOR

NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT. USE INCREASING IN AUSTRALIA. The rail motor is becoming a peculiarly Australian adaptation. Its use on the railways of the various States is increasing every year, and it is proving that for light traffic on sparsely populated lines, it has no equal. The Victorian railway system has several of these units in use, and is providing more. The reason for their success is obvious. They supplant the more clumsy and expensive locomotive and carriages. Their cost of operation is lower. They are more easily handled, and per lb. of weight give infinitely better results than the engine and carriage system. The rail motor used by the Railway Department is a fairly large car built on an ordinary motor lorry chassis. In power and capacity it is much the same as the motor buses one sees running about the city, with the exception that the rail motor will take more passengers and has accommodation for light goods. Where the rail motor has been established it has proved to be a boon to the public, but there are not enough in this State. This type of vehicle might well be run on more of the sparsely settled lines, where at present there are not daily trains. It is conceivable that it might not even pay to run the present type of rail motor used by the Railway Department, but that difficulty could surely be overcome by using a smaller type of car. The cost of operating rail motors must be fairly high, because they are big machines, which take a lot of fuel to move them even when empty. Their efficiency is, however, assured, because where they are in use there is enough business for them to do. There must be many lines where it would not pay to instal the ordinary type of rail motor now used, and where it will be some time before it will be possible to instal these machines. Could not the situation be met by providing smaller and lighter vehicles, which would cope with all the traffic offering and yet cost little to operate? The crying need in the sparsely settled districts of the State is for means of transport. Of course, wherever there is a rail- | way line there is transport of some kind, i It may be a tri-weekly service by mixed train, which travels slowly, and is sub- | ject to many vexatious waits. From the f railway-users’ point of view it would be a j far better proposition if all passenger and . light goods traffic on these lines were car- j ried out by means of a light rail motor. | Such a system ought to pay the depart- I ment, too. It would serve the needs of the district far better, and would to a large extend do away with the running of expensive mixed trains, in which much of the available space is often empty. If a small rail motor would do the work, it stands to reason that the expense would not be nearly as heavy, especially if the size and capacity of the motor were suited to the needs of the line to be served.

The advantage of the small rail motor n would be its capacity to make more trips, and give a more frequent service. This has already been proved in the case of the standard type of motor used on the railways. The small motor would pay where the larger one would not, and the resulting benefit | to the people living along the line would : lie incalculable. Often it happens that a district does not attract settlers because of its poor passenger train service. The small I rail motor would eliminate that disady 1 vantage by giving a more frequent service. [. 1 The possibilities in the use of the motor g I car type of chassis on the railways are t ’ tremendous, and the Railway Department q | would do well to investigate them with a s J view to making the more sparsely settled . j lines more attractive from the point of . view of the persons who live along them.— e I A « e -