RAILWAY MATTERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1140, 16 February 1884, Page 3

RAILWAY MATTERS.

Au approximate rough balance-sheet of the railway revenue and expenditure for ten months shows the gross receipts on all New Zealand Government railways to have beeD in ronnd numbers £BOO,OOO, which is £50,000 less than the tentwelfths of estimate for the whole year. The working expenses amountedin ronnd numbers to £550,000, leaving a net profit of £250,000, or at a rate £300,000 for the year, for 1392 miles, as against £360,000 last year for 1358 miles, and £369,000 the previous year for 1319 miles. In view of the large increase of traffic on the Hurunu ; -Bluff line orders have been sent Home for twenty more locomotive!, of a very powerful type, so as to be able to grapple with heavier trains, and avoid both double-engine running and the loss of time. The new engines will be ©t two classes—first, ten goods engines of the satre type as the American consol : dation class now at work between Oamaru, Dunedin and Clinton, that is to say, they will have eight coupled wheels 3ft diameter (two middle pairs without Hinges, to suit Bharp curves); leading Bissel bogie cylinders, 15in diameter, with 18in piston stroke. The tender will run on two four-wheel bogies, but tie engines, though of American (ype, will be buill by English makers. They will be employed between Oamaru and Clinton for heavy goods trains on steep grades. The other class has Bome important elements of novelty, and will be by far the most powerful all round of any yet employed in the colony. There are to be ten pas-senger engines of this They will be a sort of combination of ' J ' and ' K ' classes, so long and successfully in use on the Canterbury-Otago lines, the former having six coupled wheels, 3ft 6in in diameter, and cylinders 14in by 20in, with leading two wheels bogie (much used both as passenger and goods trains, and sometimes in express) ; the latter being well-knrwn American express engines, with four coupled 4ft wheels, cylinders 12in by 20in, and both lauding and trailing Bissel bogies. The new engines will have 4ft coupled wheels, and leading and trailing bogies like the 'K' class, but they will also have six coupled wheels like the 'J' class, and they will have larger cylinders than either, namely, 15in diameter, and 20in piston stroke. The boilers will be proportionately larger, with no less than 900 square feet of heating surface ; and the weight will also be large, probably 35 tons, without tender, but the weight being distributed on ten wheels will not be excessive ; and the six-coup'ed wheels being close together, while the middle pair have no flanges, there will be a very small rigid wheel base, and the sharpest curves will be easily 'negotiated.' They will be able to run heavy passenger trains at a speed of forty to forty-five miles an hour, maintained over long distances, and will take steep gradients without assistance of a pilot engine. Both classes of engine are specially designed for burning native coal, and all will have large tenders. They also will have powerful stesim brakes for controlling trains in the descent of steep grades. They are to be out by next spring. Three of these passenger engines have been ordered by the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company.—Press.