FASTEST IN WORLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 110, 12 May 1933, Page 8

FASTEST IN WORLD

GERMAN RAILWAY TRAIN. A maximum speed of 99.4 miles an hour, and an average speed of over one and a-quarter miles a minute for a run of 178.3 miles makes the German Railroads Company’s new “Flying Hamburger” the fastest train in the world, and brings the German capital and Germany’s greatest ocean harbour city 40 minutes nearer to each other. It was tho intention not to place this new train in service until the beginning of the summer season, but the test trips proved so successful that this month i will see the present fast “FD-trains” on tho Berlin-Hamburg route replaced by this latest technical wonder. Moreover, tho fare will be the same as the second-class faro, 23 marks, or just under 12.9 pfennigs a mile. The train—really a double coach, 137.8 ft. long, with scats for 102 pas■soziigors—is driven by two MaybachDiesel motors generating 410 horsepower each. The motors and also the generators are built in the running gear at the ends of the coach —a novel construction that reduces the vibration of tho coach itself and keeps tho centre of gravity lower, thus giving greater stability. The running gear is aproned down close to the rails, the ends of tho coach arp curved downward, and the. only projecting parts are the exhaust pipe and the buffers, so that air resist ance is reduced to a minimum. The interior, divided into a smoking and non-smoking section is finished like the modern second class coaches of the regular trains. Tho coach has a double braking system—a Knorr airbrake for application to the wheels, and an electro magnetic brake for emergencies. When travelling at highest, speed the train can bo stopped within three-quar-ters of a mile between the warning and the* stop signal. ’Phe brakes are applied automatically if the stop signal be disregarded.