ROAD TRAIN AS FEEDER FOR RAILWAY SYSTEM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 521, 2 August 1932, Page 6

ROAD TRAIN AS FEEDER FOR RAILWAY SYSTEM.

A London Letter

Crocodile Flies to London Zoo; New Well Supplies Metropolis.

(Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, June 30. A new “ road train ” to provide a cheap and quick form of transport suited to the vast areas in the Empire which are not, at present, served by a railway—and where development is being held up through lack of transport —is being exhibited in connection with the Aldershot Tattoo. It is intended for use as a “ feeder ” to the railways in districts where population or development do not justify, or have not yet been proved to justify, the heavy expenditure required to build a branch line. Both dominions and colonies have made contributions to enable the experimental work on this road train to be carried on.

'jji'HE KUAU l KAiJN consists ot an eight-wheeled motor-tractor, and two eight-wheeled and is designed to carry a load of fifteen ‘tons. Two spare tyres, looking like vast headlamps in the distance, are fitted on to the front of the tractor. Both tractor and trailer embody several entirely new features. The drive and the steering of the tractor operate on all eight wheels, and the weight is so distributed ‘that no axle load exceeds 2% tons. The result of this is that the road train will pass over light bridges designed for much less, ambitious vehicles, and will travel over rough earth roads without damaging the surface. Each of the eight wheels is independently sprung,/ and will ‘thus pass smoothly without jolting over uneven ground. The train’s normal speed is about fifteen miles an hour. The two trailers are also designed to follow in the, wheel tread of the tractor. There is, therefore, no cutting of corners or swinging out—an important improvement intended to enable the train to travel along narrow, primitive roads which would be impassable for ordinary trailer?. A, Flying Crocodile.

The Zoo’s new “ snake charmer ” has just arrived by air—accompanied by a crocodile! The crocodile, which is three feet long, was brought from Amsterdam, and is the. first of its species to fly the Channel. The “ ?nake charmer ” is Dr Burgess Barnett, the new Curator of Reptiles at the Zoo. Besides the crocodile, his “ baggage ” contained a monkey, a few foxes, several very poisonous snakes, and a gaudily coloured toucan—a bird with an immense beak which is found in tropical America. Dr Barnett describes how, for the past eleven 3-ears, he has spent all the time he could spare searching for strange and often dangerous reptiles in the jungles *and deserts of South America. “ I have been medical officer in a South American oilfield for the past eleven 3-ears,” Dr Barnett explains, " and living in a small desert township by- the coast which was so dry- that we had to drink condensed sea water.

“ Since bo3"hood I have been keen on reptiles—it began with toads and tadpoles —and whenever I could, on holiday-s and

so on, I used to get off into the forest or across the desert, which is a wonderfullyrich field for my line of stuff.” Dr Barnett scoffs at the idea that there were any dangers. “Of course,” he says, “ pumas would come, and eat our meat at night sometimes. But the3' never touched us. Then we had to send the mules back at once—vampire bats used to suck their blood!

“ The natives were always very helpful, and extraordinarily- skilful at chopping down hollow trees and fishing out poisonous snakes. “ I have brought home with me two rare

fer-de-lance snakes. They- are very* interesting little beasts, specially adapted to desert life, and very poisonous. “ Then there is a nice little frog from Peru—a pleasant little chap, but he eats all the rest of his family-. He has been on starvation diet for the past six weeks, and seems to be doing very well on it. All he had on the voyage home was a nibble at my finger, and he did not seem to care for that. Nor did I!” New Halls of Light.

New lighting of tube stations which, it is declared, will be as brilliant as that of any West End ballroom, is one of the latest devices to add to the comfort of Londoners. These wonderful lighting arrangements are being installed in the London Underground Railway- stations which are now under reconstruction. There will be no lamps, or at least no visible bulbs; the light will shine through slabs of white glass. These g4ass slabs will be placed at intervals of seven feet« along the upper edge of the station wall. There will be rows of these slabs along both sides of the platform. Shadows and dim corners will be impossible when these schemes have been completed. A single continuous ring of white light will encircle the walls of the underground booking hall at Marble Aren. A somewhat similar installation is to be fixed in the booking hall at Hyde Park Corner, but there the continuous ring will be placed in a recess round the walls. New British automatic ticket machines are also being introduced. These machines will add xip halfpennies and pennies and deliver the ticket within two seconds. Europe’s Largest Well. Water as clear as crystal is now being supplied to hundreds of thousands of Londoners from the largest well in England, and probably- in Europe. This is the new well at Deptford, which supplies suburbs and colonies of villas in the south-eastern districts—the London parts of Kent. The well gives 8,000,000 gallons a day-. It is 118 feet deep, and has a mouth fourteen feet in diameter. The well has been connected by adits to the three older wells which it now replaces. The result is that the well’s great pumping station, dominated by a chimney 100 feet high and equipped with all the most up-to-date machinery, can raise this enormous quantity of water from the chalk—water so pure that it can be pumped straight into supply- without filtration. . Arrangements have also been made for a further 12,000,000 gallons a day-, if necessary, to be delivered from the Thames ‘supply.’ It has taken five y-ears to complete this great water supply scheme, and the total cost is about £200,000. Things have moved long way since the first works were built at Deptford in 1701 to deliver water in wooden pipes!