THE “NEVER-STOP.”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18917, 21 January 1924, Page 3

THE “NEVER-STOP.”

LATEST THING IN RAILWAYS. POSSIBLE SOLUTION OF TRAFFIC PROBLEMS. At South-end-oh-Sea, in the Kursal grounds, there is in course of completion a new method of transit, known as the * ‘ Never-stop ” railway, which has remarkable possibilities in the way of relieving passenger traffic congestion of large cities, an acute and serious problem in London and Paris, and one which is rapidly becoming almost equally so in Manchester, writes a correspondent of the Guardian. This system is the invention of Mr. W. Yorah Lewis-, M. 1., Mech.E., a well-known engineer, and his associates, and consists essentially in thff use of travelling carriages of a simple type, close together, ■ which never stop, passing through stations at such a slow speed that anyone can step on or off, but shooting up instantly to a high speed between stations. In this way the great loss of time in starting and stopping trains whether electric or steam driven, is avoided—not only the time of the actual stoppage, but also the loss of acceleration immediately before and after. The method was first described at the British Association meeting of 1911, but although a small experimental railway on these lines was erected at Ipswich, there has hitherto been no means of testing the idea on a practical scale. The equivalent now under competion at Southend consists of two parallel tracks six feet apart, from centre to centre, and 300 yards long, one being the “up” line and the other the “down,” joined together at each end in the form of a curve, which is of no more than three feet radius. Between the rails is a large skeleton screw-thread or spiral arrangemene constructed of heavy central steel tube with spokes carrying a flat steel bar forming the spiral, the whole rotating at a constant speed and driven by an electric .motor with suitable gearing at each end of the track. The driving screw comes to and end at the curves, but the carriages are conveyed round and engage in the other spiral again by an arm arrangement driven by a worm wheel geared to the driving shafts. The carriages are roofed in but open at one side, each carrying eight people seated and four standing, running with rubbet-shod wheels on the broad rails, and under the frame they engage witn the rotating screw or spiral by means of a special projecting arm carrying two rollers. That is to say, as the long driving screw-thread revolves, in conjunction with the end driving median ism, it conveys the carriages along the track and continuously round the whole circuit. The system is so designed that though the screw where the tooth or spirals are close together it travels very slowly, but when the screw widens out again—that is, when the pitch increases—the carriages speeds up. The ariangement is such that the» carriage never stops travelling, since the screw continuously revolving at one speed, but by a suitable alteration in the pitch of the screw at intervals it slows down to lj-3 miles per hoar when passing through stations, and when clear of these shoots up at once to about 24 miles per hour. The passengers step in and out of the train without difficulty because of the slow speed, just as they do in the case of a moving staircase.

The system includes a large number of carriages on the track, each driven independently by the varying-piten screw, and close together, so arranged that at any given time there is always a carriage passing through a station at slow speed one behind the other, which on. leaving the station shoot apart again, but come together in the next station.

The capacities claimed for this system are extraordinary, and on the installation at Southend it is stated that 1800 passengers per hour can be carried either way. The running of the carriage is smooth and silent. Many criticisms naturally suggest themselves to engineers, particularly the wear and tear on the driving spirals and the methods of stopping the entire series of carriages, but, whether the system will justify the hopes of the inventors or not, it is a highly ingenious and well-thought-out method which will occupy the earnest attention of traffic engineers throughotu the world. The city of Paris, for example, is keenly interested, and the system is competing for one of the big prizes oqered by the municipality for a successful method of relieving passenger congestion.