STEEL RAILS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2765, 8 May 1916, Page 8

STEEL RAILS

NONE OBTAINABLE FROM ENGLAND. There may be some little difficulty for the next year or two in procuring steel rails in any quantity for tramway and railway purposes from England, consequent upon the great demand for steel tor munitions and for war utilities generally. The difficulty of the position as tar as oversea, countries are concerned which do not manufacture steel is accontuated by tho fact that the big output of steel rails from, Belgium and Germany is, of course, stopped, llie original tram-rails for tho electric trams m Wellington were Belgium made, but of recent .years the supply has come ironi England, and most of the wheels and axles m use en tho Wellington cars to-day were made in tho Kyupp works at Essen, which firm was in the habit of supplying the English firms, with whom theUity Corporation authorities . placed! their orders. Fortunately there is not likely to be a big 'demand for rails m Wellington for some time, tliough wear and tear is heavy, particuarly on some of the, sharper curves, but tho policy of duplicating the City lines to ease the working of the service has boon steadijy pursued for,the last t" -0 or three years, and further sections of duplication are contemplated at the present time, lltcently an inquiry was made through a local firm as to the prospects of getting supplies of steel rails from England, and the reply received closos the door of hopo in that direction. ; It may bo that America may be able to supply, but even that country's output of rails has been interfered with' owing to the vast quantities of steel used in munitions. Australia i s now turning out steel rails, but so far not in sufficient quantities to have many for export. That baby industry in Australia, and, possibly, tho Japanese, practically exhausts the world's sourcos of supply, so the difficulty of obtaining rails readily is likely to last a s long as the war, or longer, owing to tho enormous ■ quantity of steel that will be needed to make good tho ravages of war in fifty different ways after peace is declared.