MOTOR TRAINS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 204, 8 May 1912, Page 4

MOTOR TRAINS.

The cabled intimation that satisfactory trials have taken place on the Victorian railways of two motor trains imported by the Railway Commissioners, they developing a speed of sixty miles an hour, is of more than passing interest to New Zealand, for they seem to be just the thing suited to our requirements. Our "express' trains average a little over twenty miles an hour; our ordinary trains anything between 10 and 15 miles an hour. Compare these speeds, which the Railway Department have never dreamt of accelerating, with the motortrain's sixty miles an hour! At this rate, we could do the journey between here and Wellington in about five hours. For local passenger services the motors would fill a long-felt need. The passenger cars on ordinary local trains in Taranaki are frequently half empty. And the same is the case elsewhere in New Zealand. Now, if motor cars were installed, the distance between New Plymouth and Hawera could be accomplished in a little over an hour, allowing for stoppages. A car could easily make four trips each way per day. If one were insufficient, two or three cars could be put on. The cost is not considerable. Those in Victoria only cost between £6OOO and £7OOO each. Accommodation is provided for about 70 persona, seating room, baggage room and motor being all in one long car. In the type purchased by the Victorian Government there is accommodation for 15 people in the first-class smoker and for a similar number in the non-smoker, while in the second-class smoker 16 persons can be seated and in the non-smoker 22. The baggage-room can carry 30cwt., and the whole car is 70ft long. Entrance is by side doors, and acetylene gas is used as an illuminant. The roof is curved, and the head is shaped in such a manner that the car presents a torpedo-like appearance, the round port-holes accentuating the strangeness of the whole aspect. The claim is made that in a collision it is impossible to disrupt the structure, as it is on the principle of the steel bridge, the steel-trussed frame being reinforced by a solid sheet of steel extending round the entire car. It is also claimed that telescoping is impossible. There is a small turret in the driver's position, containing the Westinghouse brake control a change control, and the clutch control. The motor is of 200 horse-power, the cylinder holds 88 gallons of benzine, and the oil consumption is estimated at about balf a gallon per mile. They are made in America, where they are somewhat extensively used. The round porthole windows are two feet in diameter, the glass, as on a ship, being hooked up to the roof when open. Now that they have been successfully tried, the Minister for Railways should send for a number without delay and place them in commission on local services like that between New Plymouth and Hawera. The present trains could be used exclusively for the carriage of merchandise, as one goods train would probably do the work of three ordinary mixed trains, the saving would be considerable, whilst it stands to reason that if quicker and better transit facilities were available and rates were reduced, passenger traffic and the revenue therefrom would substantially increase.