BRITISH ENGINES IN JAPAN,

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 1 November 1901, Page 4

BRITISH ENGINES IN JAPAN,

Unsuccessful Competition with

the Americans

The experience of Japanes railway companies with British and American locomotives shows, writes a Kobe correspondent, that the British engine is being run off the lines by the American. The locomotive superintendent of the Sanyo Company said that his company introduced American locomotives six years ago. Previously they had imported only British engines, They have no intention at present of giving further orders to any Bri .ish maker. On the other hand they have eight engines on order from the Schenectady Works, New York State—the order was placed in May—and ten more are coming from the Baldwin Works, Philadelphia. The British locomotive costs nearly as much again as an American —£8000 as against £2ooo—and orders placed in Great Britain are filled only in from nine to twelve months, against seven to nine months in the case of the States.

. The company’s superintendent believes it is possible the life of the American locomotive may be shorter than that of the English engine, but his experience has not yet enabled him to pronounce with certainity.

Ho complains that the British engine has less durable tyres than the American, that it tacks the sight-feeding lubricator and cylinder air-valves, and that its driver’s cabin is not so comfortable as in the American engines. He finds the American boiler faulty and the general construction of the engine rough. The British engine is much better finished, but is nor built on the scientific lines of the American. In this—as in other spheres—the British manufactures is too conservative.