SPEED OF EXPRESS TRAINS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 66, 9 June 1927, Page 9

SPEED OF EXPRESS TRAINS

TIMARU SMASH RAISES QUESTION MANY TRAVELLERS DESIRE FASTER RUNS (Special to THE SUN.) CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. ALTHOUGH it seems probable that the Timaru train smash last Saturday was caused by some obstruction on the line, the suggestions of excessive speed on the Plains section of the South Island Main Trunk railway have been revived by the mishap.

in to-night’s “Sun,” a professional naan in the city asks: Writing in to-night's “Sun,” a professional man in the city asks: “Does it not seem rather ominous that when the line at the spot of the smash is tested, it was all right? For that means that’the real cause of the accident was speed. Our engines are being put to a speed beyond the limits of safety, hence the wobble noticed. It takes real wisdom to learn a big lesson from a relatively small event; but surely this accident, while mercifully trifling in its results, is serious enough to set men thinking what it might have been, without slumbering on till a more violent awakening comes. How often is the standard speed exceeded on the Plains? And what is the rate of speed reached when the train is making up time? “I fear the drivers are too often themselves driven, and perhaps* the man who insisted on safety first would not be popular with the department.” A "Sun” reporter who referred the complaint to several prominent and frequent travellers found that the main body of opinion, however, tends in the opposite direction, criticism being made that the trains, far from travelling too fast, are too slow. Mr. Chapman, district traffic 6 manager, Christchurch, said any authorised maximum speed on the railways always allowed a margin for safety. The authorised speed for passenger and express trains between Lyttelton and Oamaru, with certain exceptions where there were curves, was 50 miles an hour, he said. The timing of trains was mainly about five or ten miles less, and that allowed a margin for making up time. “From my own knowledge,” he said, “the trains do not exceed a 50 miles’ maximum. I have timed them frequently. Time-table speed is sometimes exceeded, but that does not mean that the maximum is passed. “To say that the drivers are allowed to exceed the speed lim.it is nonsense. Drivers who do so are 'on the mat’ for it.”

SOME COMPARISONS

TRAINS OF THE OLD WORLD ASTOUNDING SPEEDS The “dangerous speed” of New Zealand expresses fades Into insignificance in comparison with the speed maintained by some of the “fliers” of England and Europe. The fastest railway run on record in Britain was made in November, 1924, by the “Flying Scotsman,” which over a part of its journey, with a 356-ton load, averaged a speed of 89 miles an hour. This record, however, is eclipsed by the “Burlington King,” on the American Eckley-Wray run of 14.8 miles in nine minutes, equal to 98.7 miles an hour. GOING SOME! Probably the fastest speed ever attained was 102.3 miles an hour, achieved by 4-4-0 engine No. 3440, City of Truro. This, however, was done on a long gradient on the British Great Western line. The “Twentieth Century Limited” from Chicago to New York frequently cuts out its 260-mile journey at an average speed of 60 miles an hour, and the American “Transcontinental” from New York to ’Frisco, has crossed the continent in 69 hours 11 minutes, but this is not a regular average. The famous P-L-M (Paris, Lyons, Marseilles express), of which 10 run daily, between Paris and Marseilles, a distance of 56S miles, is comparatively slow, the average sped being 41 miles an hour. Coming nearer home, the MelbourneAlbury express, Australia’s fastest slow, the average speed being 41 miles hour.

THE LIMITED’S FIFTY On the Auckland-Wellington run the average speed of the Limited is 33 miles an hour. The speed ranges in various sections from 10 to 50 miles an hour, the highest speed being attained on the Auckland-Frankton sec tion. Having regard to the fact that the New Zealand gauge is only 3ft 6in an average of 33 miles an hour over the Main Trunk line appears to be swift enough for most passengers.