LESS NOISE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 173, 15 March 1932, Page 7

LESS NOISE

FEWER JOINTS IN RAILS PRINCIPLE IN N-S.W, SYDNEY, Friday. Welding rails into continuous lengths of 200 feet is the latest move hy New South Wales railway engineers to reduce the noise of travel and to decrease track maintenance. A trial section of one mile has been put down on the up-grade between Como and Sutherland on the Illawarra line, and further sections will be welded within the next few months. With the exception of the corrugations which develop in some sections, the pounding of the wheels on the rail-joints is the cause of the more pronounced noises. Their cumulative effect when the joints are worq is ap unpleasqnt feature of railway travel. . By welding five rails each 40 feet

pa length and by placmg the expansion joints opposite each other instead of Btaggering them every 20 feet, as at present, the number of joints will be reduced by 90' per cent. This will not only greatly reduce noise, but will provide a smoother running surface and thus reduce shocks 'to rolling stock and to the track. In the last few months many miles of rails between Hawkesbury Riyer and Newcastle have been ground by carhorundum skates attached to a brake-van, and corrugations have been completely removed. When all the rails have heen ground, the roar which is particularly noticeahle on sections of the northern track will he eliminated.