GREYHOUNDS OF THE RAIL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 24 December 1907, Page 13

GREYHOUNDS OF THE RAIL.

THE WORLD’S FASTEST TRAINS. The craze for speed is ever with us no matter which it be that of the horse, or the motor, or the yacht. The following, therefore, concerning the speed of trains should prove of interest. Needless to say New Zealand does not figure in the list. The fastest regular long distance

run without stop in the world is on the Great Western from London to Bristol 118% miles in 120 minutes, or practically sixty miles an hour. In order to leave passengers at Bath a car is dropped from the train without stop, a time saving device in operation on a number of European roads. The longest run without stop made in any country is from London to Liverpool on the London and Northwestern, 201 miles, made at the rate of fifty-four miles an hour. The next longest is on the Midland, from London to Leeds, 196 mile, at the rate of fifty-two miles an hour. The most famous American train is the Empire State Express on the New York Central, from New York to Albany, 143 miles, which travels at the rate of 53 64-100 miles an hour; and the time of the same train to Buffalo, 440 miles in 500 minutes is just a trifle faster than that of the Midland express from London to Glasgow, 447 miles in 510 minutes. Each makes four regular stops. The North Western runs a train from London to Glasgow, 401% miles, in eight hours, making only two stops. The Great Northern runs a train from London to Doncaster, 156 miles, without stop, in 169 minutes, at the rate of 55% miles an hour, and the Great Central train runs over England’s new road, from London to Sheffield, 165 miles, in 170 minutes, better than 58 miles an hour, slipping a car at Leicester without stop. These fast and long runs are common to all the trunk lines in England, while in the United States the fast runs are all confined to two roads, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania. Compared with many English fast runs the time between New York and Washington and Boston is slow. The distanace to the two cities from New York is about the same, and in both cases the fastest trains make it in five hours (or a little over, now, to Boston), or at the rate of 46 miles an hour, three stops being made in each case. For runs of nearly 1000 miles no country can show trains to compare with the New York and Chicago trains on the New York Central, the best trains making the 980 miles in 1080 minutes, or at 54 miles an hour. While this is not quite so fast as the time made by the fast trains from Paris to Lyons and Marseilles, the distance is twice as great as across France. Coming to short runs and special summer trains, undoubtedy the fastest are from Camden to Atlantic City. Here some very fast time has been made over an ideal country for fast time by both the Reading and the ennsylvania. The best Reading time is 56% miles in 50 minutes, or 66 miles an hour, while the best Pennsylvania time is 59 miles at the rate of 64 miles an hour.

These constitute all the fast regular trains in the United States. The fastest run in New England outside the Boston-New York run is from Boston to Portland at the rate of 44 miles an hour, and the showing is still poorer in the West and South. Chicago in many respects the greatest railroad centre in the world, has no fast trains outside the New York Central and Pennsylvania trains referred to. Throughout the West, though the best trains are very luxurious, the runs are all short, averaging about 30 miles between stations and the speed nowhere averages 40 miles an hour. Next to speed may be considered the frequency of trains, their appointments, etc. In this respect a still more pronounced difference appears in different countries with almost equal population. More trains leave the great South Terminal in Boston in one day than are moved in one direction on all the roads of Spain and Portugal in two weeks. From one terminal in London more trains leave daily than move in ten days to supply 125,000,000 people of all Russia, in Europe and Asia. The South Terminal in Boston not only is the largest station in the world but sends out daily more than 400 trains, nearly twice the number despatched from the Grand Central Station by the three roads starting from there. The next laragest number sent from any station in this country is about 350 from the Boston and Maine terminal in Boston, and the next about 325 from the Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. Then come the Grand Central Station, New York, and the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia. But these figures do not equal those of the great London terminal. There one statioin sends out 700 trains daily, the greatest number from any one station in the world, and all of the twelve great terminals send out large numbers of trains. Including all suburban trains, and figuring on a mean average of winter and summer, the regular scheduled

trains leave the four great centres in the following numbers daily, the figures being for all roads and approximately correct: New York city, 1400; Boston, 1000; Philadelpia, 850; Chicago, 850. No other American city has 400. The roadbed and the operating equipment are better in England and some parts of France and Germany than in America, and owing to the ever prevailing precautions accidents are only about one-fifth as frequent as in America. All the principal roads in England have two tracks and many main lines have four. Turning to continental Europe it is found that France alone indulges in really fast trains and possibly she is ahead even of England in the number of trains running regularly above fifty miles an hour. The greatest travel route on the Continent is from Paris south to Lyons, Marseilles, and the Mediterranean, aand here are found fine and fast trains. The run from Paris to Marseilles, 585 miles, is made in 750 minutes, with only six stops. Many of the shorter runs, such as from Paris to Calais, to the Belgian frontier, etc., are at the rate of from fifty-eight to sixty-two miles an hour for the regular schedule. ; According to a German authority the average speed of the fastest trains in Europe is as follows: French, fiftyeight miles an hour; English, fifty-five miles an hour, and German, fifty-one. Fast trains are hard to find in Germany, and the service in this respect does not compare with France. It takes the fastest train 227 minutes to go from Berlin to Hamburg 178 miles, which is 47% miles an hour, and the “luxe” train, the one fast goer, between Munich and Vienna runs at only 45.60 miles an hour; but there are as a rule frequent trains throughout Germaany and the service is good. For all the rest of Europe the speed drops to about 30 miles an hour for express trains. Italy is surprisingly slow. It takes the express 965 minutes to go from Turin to Rome, 413 miles, or only 26 miles an hour, though the Milan-Rome express makes nearly 40 mile an hour. Between Rome and Naples, 155 miles, there are only four or five trains daily, the fastest at 34 miles an hour, while it takes 920 minutes to go 439 miles on the best train from Rome to Brindisi, a rate of less than thirty miles an hour. The express from Stockholm to Gothenburg, the two large cities of Sweden, barely makes 30 miles an hour. In the remaining continental countries the trains are even slower. On the English trains third-class dining-cars are now run in which the same meals are served as in the firstclass f coaches, but at considerably lower rates. Such runs as that between London and Birmingham on the Great Western, a distance of 129% miles, made without stop in 140 minutes, or at the rate of more than 55 miles an hour, are remarkable; for this seems to be about the regular gait of many trains in England.