RAILWAY GAUGES.

Thames Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 10350, 25 April 1911, Page 2

RAILWAY GAUGES.

We heardl a number of engineers and foundiy-haiids discussing' the question of railway gauges the other day and were sitamok at the diversity of opinion on the suibjecib. iSbm© hadl words of high praise for the Ntaw 1 Zealand gauge, while cither's roundly condemned it and said that the broadi gauge had been pi'oved to be in every way prefelrable. In a recent number of "Engineering," the subject is referred ■to and the testimony of the paper may come opportunely in -view of the? | local discussions. It doubts whether the! Nleiw 1 Zealand Government wnsi well | advised in the adoption of tlie 3ft 6in stlandlard and -the writer p'l'ocleteds to slay: "The) matter is now practically teyond recall, !but the question remains an interesting one, looking 1 to th<3 greater facility and less cost of sinbesquently increasing, the capacity afforded by the wider gauge, and the certain future 'expansion of traffic thr'ougflibut the dominion. It is easy to to wiste after tha event, but it is beginning to loofc as if those engineer's were right who thought that, in Africa generally, in parts of India and Australia, and in Japan, where na,rrbw lines- have been made, it would have been wiser to have laid originally light standlai-d-g.auge lines, equipped with light engines suitable to the beginning of traffic. On these wearing out, then* strength and power 1 might haVa 'Ijteen increased', in renewals from time to time, so* a,s to moot, in thd ei'-sicsfc and least expensive way, the inevitable expansion in business, wliilo in! India* and Aus-tvn-lia, if this had ibeen dbne, tliei unfoVtunatc break in the gauge would have been avoided."