HEAVY TYPE OF RAIL

Chronicle (Levin), 31 December 1947, Page 4

HEAVY TYPE OF RAIL

Main trunk line improved NEAR tEVlN - •

'The gradual replacdifient df th^ Main Trunk railway line betweeii Levin and Palmerston North with a he'avier tyrie of rail is a task that has been occupying the attentiojil df rdilway workmen for sdirie time now. The new rails weigh.9Glb;; a? compared with thfe 701b. rails whieh they have replaced. . ■ J A marked ehange iri the passagfe of carriages over the riew stretcheS is very . apparent td pstssfengers, there being an absence dr thfe usual jol'ts fexfjferienced as. a •.earri&gfe passes over' rail joints. "ThiS smoothness of passage has . beeii rerriarked ori by niany. bassfefigerS, and ih a number of cases it attributed to a belief that the rail sections had bfeen welded togethfet with some type of expandable stefei. When this was referred by "Thfe Chro'nicle" to the Railways Deparfment's publicity officeir in Wellington, Mr. R. C. Mathews, he stated that no wel-ded rails had. beeri laid betwefen thfese twd statiOns, Brit that the absence of noise as ..thjfe train passed over the rail j airies was . solely attributable to * thfe fact that the rails were new. With time this continued smoothness. df running would not be so noticeabl#. The only place where welded rriiis were used was in tunnels. This wotild be noticed in the two tunnfels near Wellington and in the wellington. station. v. In answer to a further questioH, he stated that there had beehkrip irnprqvement iri train schedules arid spefe'ds between- Palmerston? North and Levin during the i "-.'past j t#) years. The maxi'mufn "authorisfeii speed between these two statioris was 50 m.p.h. for expresses ariti passenger trains, and the distanfee of 28J miles was covered by exprfeSs trains in scheduled times betwefen 43 and 47 minutes. These schediilfes had been in operation for.two.yeaifs and any difference in running. tiiiie to'day between Palmerston North and Levin would probably be elplained by the renewals of trfecfes being carried out. This work of .relaying the lifie with heavier rails had bfefen undfertaken in sections of "about half' a mile, necessita-ting special speed rfestrictions to as low as six over newly-laid raiis. Such- §Pfefeial speed restrictions caused considfefable Idss df rtiririirig tinife. A special speed -restrictibh of six m.p.h. over a distanee df half a mile caused an express train td- Idsfe tifetween six and seven minutes, sdid Mr. Mathews, the exact time alSo d'epending on the weight of the train, the rate of speed that would normally be run over the affectfed Sfefetidn, ahd the pdwfer of the feiigine by whieh it was "being haulfed, and consequently upon the tiriie necessary to rdgain rioririal &p(eedCommenting on tlie test cohcr^te sleepers laid near Levin, Mr. Mathews said that no results were yfefc available, as the tests were of a long-term nature. arid worild ifi— volve some years df study. Though many trains have defen k affectionatfely named by consistferit f?) usei'S, aM^Mvfe sihce become utU-'"' versally used by the travelling piiblic, it was interesting to note frdirt " Railway records and conversatidhs with , departmental officers ttikfc these names were never used by the Department. The fainfed ^Field^" expresses on the Wellingtdn-Pdl-merston North run, are always ffeferred to by the Railways by thfeir respective numbers, as is Taranakl's * mm ftins hiWfelri Wmand New PlymoUthi ahd has established over the years a rferiutation all • its owri. . '