A RAILWAY DREAM COME TRUE

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

A RAILWAY DREAM COME TRUE

Train Speeds At 110 Miles An Hour

'J'HE dream of railway engineers 20 years ago—the unbridled imaginings of schoolboys—of a train capable of speeds hitherto unrealised, has now come true. Years of experiment in powereconomy have produced a 204 ft. bul-let-shaped train, now flashing its way across America, with a rounded nose and fin-like tail and a speed of 110 miles an hour. It is the “iron-road’s” reply to the challenge of the aeroplane and the motor-car (wrote John Whittingham in a recent issue of the “Daily Mail.”) When it was thought that steam power had reached its speed limit the discovery was made that at 60 miles an hour a streamlined train required only a fifth of the power needed by a square-end body of the same crosssection to overcome head-wind resistance. This streamlining is a method of “cheating the air,” and entails rounded ends, unbroken lines, and the shielding of all projections, including entrance steps and wheels, from the wind stream. Result: at 120 miles an hour a train meets with no greater air resistance than previously it encountered at half that speed; for, as speed doubles, air resistance quadruples. The. second discovery was the Diesel crude-oil engine, which would burn cheap fuel without carburettor, magneto, or plugs, and is connected through a dynamo to an electric motor. It is this type of engine which is used on the 93-m.p.h. Flying Hamburger, running from Berlin to Hamburg. It consumes but an eighth of the fuel of the steam engine, and has twice the energy-efficiency of the ordinary electric locomotive. Thirdly, came the use of a light altimunium alloy in coach construction. The total weight of a threecar unit of this metal is only equal to that of a single modern Pullman carriage—although the alloy is as strong as steel. What of railway progress in England? Though for the next few years such speeds as 100 to 150 miles an hour will be still economically impracticable (except on very special runs) by the straightening out of curves, and by the elimination of points and of level-crossings by buriowing or bridging, this new American exception will become, in the 1940’5, a British generalisation. Brighton is now an hour from London; to-morrow the journey will be as short as 40 minutes and less; Liverpool and Leeds, 90 minutes; Edinburgh less than three hours. And speed is not the only trend. At a recent exhibition; the British railway companies chose for their slogan, “Speed, Comfort, Security,” and comfort and security will figure as prominently as speed in their future development. We are all growing more luxuryminded, and'England’s largest private business, with its eleven hundred millions in capital, is preparing to indulge out tastes to the full. In fact, comfort in travel unknown to most of us is undergoing a period of trial and transition so revolutionary in kind that could one fall asleep to-day and awaken in a"train in the 1940’s one would believe oneself translated to what would seem an altogethei’ new world of transport. Through the use of sound-insulat-ing linings noise is being practically eliminated—even luggage barrows are to be fitted with rubber tyres. Vibration will be reduced to an unnoticeable minimum. There will be no draughts, no windows to be closed at tunnel mouths, and—blessing of blessings—no dirt. At the end of a journey we shall be as clean as when we started, for the air is to be washed, heatedt, and controlled to our precise.

requirements. Such Elysian conditions exist to some extent in America already. Among other nuisances the companies have condemned is gloom. The interior decoration of carriages will no longer be of one standard; some will be panelled in oak, others in mahogany, the upholstery toning tastefully with the woodwork. If you prefer autumn half-shades to the warmer golds, or the cooler greens, then in autumn tints you will be free to travel: the choice will be yours. If a line of five confronting faces is four more than your mood can tolerate, then you may ride in the Pullman section; but, wherever you sit, there will be ample stretching space for your legs. You will enjoy all-the-year-round sunlight through glass specially manufactured to eliminate'glare, and the area of visibility from the windows will be vastly increased. On longer journeys passengers will be entertained with radio music, mannequin parades, cinema shows. You will even be able to save precious city minutes by having a hair cut, or a shave, in the train, and you may save still more precious minutes

in a warm bed by taking your morning shower as you travel, for that luxury, too, will be commonplace in the future. There will be gymnasiums, cafeterias, cocktail bars, shops. The most welcome improvement in British railways of the. reasonably near future may well be in the cleansing and brightening of stations. Brightness, light, and warmth will rout the present melancholy blacks, and greys, and draughts. There is to be glitter and romance about the railway stations of the future—a suggestion of pageantry, of spectacle. Their restaurants will be devised to attract the general visitor, not simply the traveller.

This picture I have sketched is not the Utopia of a luxury-lover: on certain routes much of the progress indicated is already in the making. During the recent depression the railway companies, confident of a trade revival, were spending large sums of money on modernising their equipment to be ready for the return of prosperity. Beneficial results are now apparent in their increased traffic returns, although it must take years to effect a complete modernisation of their entire stock.