Nearly 2,000 Bright Ideas for Railways

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 1 September 1928, Page 13

Nearly 2,000 Bright Ideas for Railways

Public’s Suggestions and Inventions MANY PROVE VALUABLE The past year has been a record one for the suggestions and inventions branch of the New Zealand Railways. The branch has had 1,739 suggestions and inventions to deal with, some 500 more than has been received in any year since its inception in 1925. Of these suggestions 131 have been adopted, and in some cases a monetary reward paid. In addition, there are about 150 suggestions still under consideration, says the “Railways Magazine” for August. It is not generally known that the public is at liberty to forward suggestions, inventions and bright ideas to this committee in Wellington. The suggestions are considered by the committee and are used if they are deemed sufficiently valuable. Methods of saving money by the introduction of more efficient systems, mechanical or otherwise, are wanted particularly. Since the committee started work over 3,000 suggestions have poured in. Many of these ideas are highly technical and are mainly supplied by the railway staff, but the public has submitted quite a number. The most numerous, however, have been inventions in connection with automatic safety systems at railway crossings. The general public has attacked this problem much more vigorously than any other, even at the expense of ideas for their own personal ccftnfort on trains. The railway crossing inventions, unfortunately, have not covered new ground. None has equalled the standard warning of flashing signals already in use. Next in numbers are a long series of suggestions for improvement in hand rails on trucks, to prevent the hand rails becoming covered by tarpaulins an 1 causing difficulty to shunters in the course of their duties. Curiously enough, the general public has been busy on these suggestions as well as the more technical members of the Railway Department. The ever-increasing motor competition has not been forgotten by inventors. There are all sorts of ideas how to combat this competition, but at present some of these are of a secret nature, and cannot be disclosed. Obviously a reduction in railway fares would play a large part in this problem of road competition. Inventors have been fertile with ideas how this can be done. VAST SCOPE COVERED

It is extraordinary what a vast scope lias been covered by these suggestions —ranging from the berthing of whaling ships at docks to the wildly fantastic and irrelevant invention of how to obscure flashes from artillery guns by a complicated system of shutters. Quite the most novel idea submitted consists of organised entertainment for passengers on long-distance runs. These would comprise music, sketches, and humour. Another traveller considers sleeping boards that would be placed from seat to seat would be an excellent innovation. It is worth mentioning that one individual wrote and suggested that oxygen should be supplied to the drivers and firemen to prevent suffocation in long tunnels. An idea that would surely appeal to many users of the long-distance trains is to sell food coupons en route which would have to be merely presented to the waitress in exchange for a meal. Cross-word puzzles in timetables, dust coats for passengers, and an automatic system for waking members of the staff who sleep in. all receive a fair measure of attention. Every suggestion sent in is considered on its merits by the committee. Furthermore, there is an interchange of ideas with Australia. Many successful New Zealand innovations are sent to Australia, and they in return send us the pick of inventions from Australian brains.