STEAM LOCOMOTIVES ARE DOOMED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 153, 24 July 1909, Page 4

STEAM LOCOMOTIVES ARE DOOMED.

In a few weeks now the travelling public will be treated to the sight of ' cngincless, electrically-propelled trains limning above ground over a portion of the London, Brighton, and South Coast , Kailway Company's system (remarks ai London journal). < Oilier companies will certainly follow! suit. Indeed, the Midland Company have already electrified their Heysham and Morccambe line, while the London f.iid North-Western are shortly to start building an electric railway from London to Watford. Does all this foreshadow the gradual extinction of the steam-driven locomotive ? It would almost seem so. Electricity is not only cleaner than steam, but itl is quicker, and quickness counts for everything nowadays. Speeds of over !30 miles an hour, or considerably more than two miles a minute, have already been attained on at least one German electric railway. This would mean that the journey between London and Edinburgh would only occupy about threo hours. Of course there is a big difference between suburban and main line electrification. A central powcr-etation can be used for the former; it would be impossible for the latter. The electric locomotive, therefore, would have to be used, and it would have to be what electricians call "self-contained." That is to say, the motive-power would have to , be derived from an accumulator carried ! on the engine itself. Such engines are in existence in America and elsewhere—the New York and Hudson Kiver Railway Company . alone possessee_forty of them—.but it is , admitted that they are not as yet altogether satisfactory. ' But that is nothing. Improvements are being effected . in them practically every day. And it is admitted on all hands that ence the ideally perfect electric locomotive is produced, no steam-driven one , can stand against it.