BRITISH ENGINEERING.

Shannon News, 4 May 1928, Page 2

BRITISH ENGINEERING.

TRADE THRIVES AGAINST FOREIGN COMPETITION.

Some important contracts secured by British firms were mentioned in the December issue cf the Monthly Bulletin of Information published by the Department of Overseas Trade, among them being the fo'owing:— Carriage bogies to the Sudan Government, wagon bogies the South Indian Railway and the Rhodesian Railways, and steel bogie wagons to the Mashonaland Railways, by the Lee Is Forge Co., Ltd. Coupling hooks to the Burma Railways, by Cammell, Laird and Co., Ltd., Nottingham. Signalling materials to the railways of the Federated Malay States, by the Westinghouse Brake and Saxby Signalling Co., Ltd. Among contracts secured by the Me-tropolitan-Vickers Electric 1 Co., Ltd., were a motor eoach and trailer coach equipment for the Sydney Suburban Railways; over 100 control equipments for converting non-driving motor coaches into driving motor coaches for the same railways; 50 motors for the Dutch railways, and further motors for the 1500 volt electrification of the IrunAliasua section of the Norte Railway of Spain. . The Sentinel Wagon Works, Ltd., Shrewsbury, 12 locomotives to the Egyptian Delta Light Railways. The Central Argentine Railway has awarded the following contracts: 92 corridor coaches, 46 first-class carriages, 32 second-class carriages, and 14 first and second class carriages, all to the Birmingham'Railway Carriage and Wagon Co., Ltd., and for 300 20-ton allsteel wagons to the 'Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Co., Ltd., which company has also secured contr.acts for 15 cattle vvagons and 20 platform wagons for the Dorada Railway, Colombia.

Smith>s Dock Qo., South Bank-on-Tees, has secured orders for six cargo steamers for service on the Canadian Lakes.

The Adelaide Steamship Co. has placed with Wrn. Beardmore and Co., Dalmuir, an order for a high-class twin screw passenger and cargo motor ship of about 9000 tons deadweight.

A large new bridge is to be built at Makurdi, 290 miles inland from Port Harcourt, on the Eastern Division of the Nigerian Railway. It will comprise 13 spans, with a total length between abutments of 2584 fet,'and will rank as the longest on the African Continent. The contract has been awarded to Sir William Arrol and Co., Ltd., Glasgow, on a tender of £960,505, and a period of four and a-half years is allowed for completion. The Chloride Electrical Storage Co., Ltd., Manchester, have secured, against considerable continental competition, the contract for the supply of an accumulator battery to the Municipality of Copenhagen for the Hortensia Electricity Power Station. The hourly capacity was the highest and the price the lowest of the tenders submitted. The New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department awarded the contract for the supply of cable manufactured by British Insulated Cables, Ltd., Helsby, and for the supply of electric low-wound bells by the General Electric Co., London.

In connection with the completion of port works, the State Government, Pernambudo, awarded the contract for the supply of all the cranes —34 miscellaneous and 28 overhead —as well as for the coaling plant and hopper, to Babcock & Wilcox, Ltd., while J. I. Thorneycroft und Co., Ltd., obtained the contract for a salvage tug. Twenty foreign firms tendered for the mechan, ! fcal equipment. Edgar Allen and Co., Ltd., Sheffield, have secured the contract for plant for the equipment of a Portland cement factory at Berrima, New South Wales, with a capacity of 120,000. tons per annum of high grade Portland and quick hardening cement.