CITYY TRAMWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1317, 21 December 1911, Page 4

CITYY TRAMWAYS.

CAE AND SOME PEOBA clause in the Tramways Amendment Act, passed last session, which has given tlie local tramway authorities a knotty problem to solve is that directing that all ears constructed after January 1, 1312, shall have a central passage in lieu of the side-boards carried by the ero«seated cars which carry the liulk of the traffic in Wellington. Experiments have lately been conducted by the Tramways Department with a view to determining whether a longer car than any at present m use can lie run on the city lines. -In the sin a, I hours temporary frames, •mounted on trucks, and of a length and breadth answering to the dimensions of projected cars, have been rim around corners at such places as the intersection of Manncrs btrcot and Willis Street. There has been much pondering over clearance and sundry abstruse problems in applied mechanics. The aim of (be trainwav engineers is to design a big car which* can Iw run on the existing lines without any extensive alterations lwing made to the tracks. Jho probability is that these ends can lie attained by building cars longer but no wider than those now in life. Running vehicles of this tvpe might necessitate track alterations 'at some of tho sharper corners, but on all straight runs tho existing tracks would serve. . .

• Meantime the work of altering and eonslructmg cars now in the workshops is boine pushed ahead so as to have them ready for use before tho end of (he year. Eight additional cars will bo turned out during the next few davs. Four of tnciii are new vehicles of 'tho Vinelo truck palace variety, which is used on the M adestowii Hie. Thcso will I* used mostly on the lull routes. The oilier four ears have been converted from box to combination lype.