Railways' Biggest Loads

Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1922, Page 3

Railways' Biggest Loads

LONDON, Aug. 23. A Midfield engine, ring company recently completed a contract for the Japanes" Government for idle largest armour-plate giimliug machine ever imide, its weight being fully 60 tons. Roh'nsoii Crusoe, it will bo remembered. iniill with great pains a massive boat, only to discover when he had finished il that he was totally tillable to gel it lo the water. An engineering iinnpaliy that acted with similar lack ul fcrethoiiglit might easily find t'.ui.id'ur spending great stilus upon malting some massive tasting or piece of machinery, they were tumble to coni', v ii or get it conveyed to its destination.

| There is, ii must lie remembered, a : j limit t : D e carryirng capacity of a j j (rain, a limit cn,arced partly by the ■ ' i nlinary gauge of British railways and partly by the wiith and height of bridges and tunnels. Roughly spenk- | ing, no lead can he carried that ex-, coeds nine ‘ret in width and thirteen i and a half I et in hcigjit from the rail I loci. Sin h a load is ‘'out of gauge,” j I as (lie lenn goes. ; let our railway companies, living ! inmimui carriers, are constantly on-, j : aged in carrying giant loads of all . r|s. ami -.".me of those not only of i great weight Inn ol the most awkward J ! shapes and sizes. And every company has men in its cmplov who make a i speciality of handling these queer j loads. ' i ; A very < amnion kind of load is big logs, some of them (10ft or even 70ft in ' length. Special timbei wagons are kept by all the companies for this purp' so. They are- short, four-wheeled I rucks, provided with what are called "holsters." which swing upon a pivot. The lag is loaded on a number of these' a’, i nee. and so is enabled to take finite sharp on i vex without danger. Pig guns for battleships are carried

in semewhal similar fashion, and so are steel masts for ships, tall llagslalfs, am! similar lengthy objects. More awkward still to carry are large cas'iiigs such as the rudder of a big liner nr I he solid stem of a battleship, or the huge armour-grinding maclainc ijread.v mentioned. Motor launches or ''tiler craft, some of them fully Kilt in beam, are often built inland, and must he taken by rail to the sea. For flu* carriage of objects of this kind special trucks are used, which are called ■Yruendiles.” If you keep your eves open when travelling you may somelimes see some of these upon a siding. They are very long, very strongly built anil the centre is sunk, so that the floor has only about a foot clearance above the rails. They are built to stand great weights. When it is necessary to oarrv an ' "out of gauge” freight careful men-* surements are taken beforehand, so that clearance may he provided for. I Sometimes an awkward burden can he! ■safely handled by filling it at a parliculai: angle. Sat urdav night and Sunday morning; are the hours when most of these dlfli-

C'llt loads are larrieil. At such a time I lie lines are naturally freer of traffic. So good are the arrangemenfs that accidents in connection with those heavy loads are practically unknown. No railway mail to whom 1 have spoken on the subject lias been able to give nr* a single instance of loss of life or serious mishap.