ELECTRIC TRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 8

ELECTRIC TRAINS

THE FIRST SHIPMENT

(From "The iPost's" Representative.) {LONDON, January 5.

The first oj the electric trains for the Wellingtdi-Johnsonville suburban line and an ejectric locomotive for the Wellington-P^ekakariki main line section were loatled on the Cambridge at Liverpool on January 1 for New Zealand. She is Jue- at Auckland on February 12, ani Wellington on February 19. Both; the train and the locomotives were made at the English Electric Company's works at Pres-r ton. i ■ The locomotive, the first streamlined electric unitlof its kind to be made in England, develops 1240 horse-power and is capable of drawing a 250-ton passenger trin at sixty miles an hour. The electric! train consists of two units—a eariiage bearing four 165----horse-power Inotors and a trailer coach of very similar size and appearance except that it has no motive power of its own. | ■' Both the electric train and the locomotive will be finished in New Zealand. Five'more electric trains will be shipped b the Dominion as they are completed at intervals of about a fortnight. Seven more electric locomotives forKhe P.aekakariki line and two for the1 Arthur's Pass-Otira line will be builfc'in New Zealand to similar designs to tiat of the engine on board the Cambridge. Most of the electrical equipment inquired for their construction has already been shipped to the ' Dominion, i