RAILWAY SYSTEMS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 132, 21 February 1918, Page 6

RAILWAY SYSTEMS

-♦ QUAINT ORIGINS EXPLAINED THE STATE AND FUTURE RAILWAY . REQUIREMENTS One would imagine that a conference of civil engineers would be one of the dullest oi assemblies. It is nothing' of the kind, for these gentlemen sre perpetually engrossed in those problems that are bread and butter to the community, and tho examination of their papers and the ideas and information they contain in packed with vital interest. . ■

In his paper on our communications, the president (Mr. J. B. Mason) devoted some thought to the origin. and development of our railways and tramway systems. "Railways," he said, "originated in England about I 2SO years ago, when the roads of Britain hearing heavy traffic were in a deplorable condition. The practice.at first was to fill up the ruts with stoiies. Then it was found bettor to omit the stones and lay planks in the nits A further advance was .to build up the plankslevel with tho surface of the road. These methods are'.in vogue to-day in some places. Iron plates slightly channelled are sometimes used, and at of great service where there is mucli cart traffic. , Near Melbourne there is. a road of .this, description four miles long. _ The transition to wooden bars or rails supported on cress timbers or sleepers on which .a x cart or wagon could be made to keep the track-follow-ed. The wooden rail in time gave way to ca-at-iron. By casting these rails with a flange in their inner edge thb rails acted as trammels or gauges to guido and keep the cart wheels on the tread. The trammelled or tram roads, as it came to be called, rose into general use for the carting of coal, and many miies were laid down as special lines and apart from the public highways. Tho introduction by'Jessop in ]789 of the edged metal rail-ind flanged wheel gave an Impetus to the use of tram roads or railroads as they arc now' called. _ These improvements and the application of steam power in lieu of animal power made it necessarv to make tho railroads special roads, for which Parliamentary' powers and ' authority were required. Tho first Railway Act was passed in 1821 for the Stockton and Darlington railway, which, under t the direction and by the genius c.f George Stephenson, was in 1825 opened as a steam railway for the conveyance of goods and passengers. The improvements in railways in respect to haulage since that <3nt« have beem principally matters of detail. The usg or steel and the more economic use of steam, together with the improvements that experience has suggested from time to time in the details of railway mechanism, have made railways essential to a country's prosperity and of the greatest service in opening up new lands for settlement, They form the main arteries which radiate from the seaport and commercial centres, and, by affording cheap anad speedy transport, encourage trade, giving the farmer or merchant at the distant down or town a chance to compete with those nearer the centre of things. "The railways of a new and thinly populated land must'of necessity be constructed nf a more iinexpensivo character than those of older and fully populated countries. The new country has the advantage of greater freedom, of route through a large proportion of unsettled and virgin country, which minimises the cost of tlie road. This suggests the desirability of the reservation by the Crown of lands for future railways extensions, tho situation of which might be forecasted after topographical examination and the extent of the resources to be tapped, thus avoiding as far as possible future road compensation costs'.

"The necessity of encouraging settlement of the country by provision of railways and the large initial expenditure required to construct them has in these new lands, with few exceptions, made their provision a function of the State. It is sometimes asserted that State control leads to political interference, the operation known as 'log-rolling,' extravagance, and other political vices. It may be that occasionally interested parties _ have succeeded in securing the deviation of a railway to further their own ends ; or have been able to secure concessions for their personal profit against the public good; yet in spite of all that State control ha.? no doubt been for the public benefit. Tlie integrity of railway management, one believes, has never been questioned, and the engineering work of construction compares favourably in efficiency and cost with those of other countries. The statistics of various countries show the average capital expenditure per mile of railway to be in round numbers:— United Kingdom, £53.000 per mile; United States, £12,500; British North America, £11,600; New South Wales,. £14 400; New Zealand, £11,900. New Zealand, with itd" limited mileage, comes out per miie about the same as British North America (Canada), possessing a : far greater mileage. "The total capital expenditure in New Zealand railways is set down in the railway return for 1917 as*£3s,378 664 for a mileage of 29(0 mile& opened. In proportion to population the mileage gives a population t>l d7U per mile of railway. The analogous figures for the following countries are as follow:— .. United Kingdom. , 1900 people per mile United States .... 400 „ France •• 1500 „ , Russia •• 4000 „ Canada 310 „ N.S. Wales 500 „, So that it would appear that in proportion, to-population the P°>™ railway facilities are now behind those of the newer settled countries of the Wo "The use of electricity for railway traction and the necessity of pr°«*"S roads of improved cons ruction and orade to suit the requirements of mechanical power traction must sooner or later demand the considerate of the responsible authorities, and is, 1, nl, worthy of some investigation at the hands of the railway and deotneal ngineers. The substitution of clectm traction for steam is now regarded m raany quarters ns inevitable when hvdr'Uencrntino: stations have been established and the distribution of power, becomrs general. The utilisation of the Dominion water nower for MiOTlv will probably be wholly controlled by the State, who own the rmlwavs and whp*e enpiupers and man-, asrers'. interested as they are m maintaining the highest economical eftnieiicv, will not be slow in adopting Hie new povror when it becomes financially and practically advantageous to do so.