Electric Light on Manawatu Railway.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 59, 6 September 1895, Page 3

Electric Light on Manawatu Railway.

(PER PRESS A.B3OCIATIOH) Wellington, September 5. The Manawata Railway Company, having decided to light their express trains with electricity, and having the installation of Eome of the carriages coinpleted, a trial was made this evening. The Directors acd a number of influential gentlemen, many of whom are experts in the matter of electricity, were invited on a ran to Porirua. The power is obtained from a dynamo placed under the floor of the luggage van and worked by a belt from the wheel of the car. In this car are also accumulators, the latter precaution being necessary to ensnre the light burning when the train stops, or in the event of any accident to the machinery. To-night after running about eix miles With kerosine lamps alight, the latter were shut off and the electric light put on. The effect was at once apparent, and the improvement over oil generally remarked up. Lamps of 10 and 16 candle power were used both on the journey out and in, and the steadiest of light was obtained. The authorities state that sufficient electricity can be stored on the trip to Palmerston North to light the train for the whole journey, eyen should an accident occur to the dynamo, and it> said that the cost compares favorably with oil. 1 Wires conveying the current are carried underneath the carriages, and connection is easily made by the insertion of a plug, much in the same manner as connections ara made ia the annunciators ai the telephone exchange.