TRAMWAYS FOR FARMERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 979, 24 February 1910, Page 7

TRAMWAYS FOR FARMERS.

Farmers in this country whose hold- j ings are some distance from a railway or seaport will be interested in j the following account of a tramway j or light railway, which a Mr Worth I —a farmer in the Holbeach district of Lincolnshire —is putting down. j In an interview with a newspaper reporter, Mr Worth—questioned as to what first gave him the idea of building the railway, said ha had noticed how useful such railways were to large factories and works in different parts of the country, but it was another private railway in Holbeach Marsh that finally decided him. Mr Caudwell, another prominent Holbeach farmer, and lines, one a mile long and the other a half mile, oi which to move produce from the bottom end of his farm to the nearest gravel road. As showing how useful even this limited scheme is, it may' be mentioned that recently Mr Caudwell was -threshing oats, and one horse took a load of these cats, consisting of 19 tons scwt on nine trucks from the bottom end of the farm to a shed close to the gravel road, a distance of a mile, but it took six horses three days to take them to the station, some seven miles away. Had there bsen lines all the way the one horse would hays taken all ths oats the whole,.: way to the station that day. Having made up his mind, Mr Worth had to faca the fact that his Holbeach Hum farm was a good three miies from Fleet Station, whil it his nearest land was nearly two miles from the railway. He therefore stt about buying a farm here, a field there, and.a comer of a field somewhere else, until he got a clear road through, entirely under his own control. In matters of this kind the task of- tn'e purchaser is doubly difficult, but at length it v>as accomplished. Then there was also the question of the route of the line, which after careful thought was arranged to branch out, so that no field was left untapped and the stack yards were also catered for. The sleepers were bought from Hull, and the rails from Germany. In regard to the latter, Mr Worth wrote to all the leading English makers, and one of the chief manufacturers came down to see him personally, hut all were unable to touch German quotations. The English manufacturer mentioned that he bad at the time a large quantity of the size and quality rails required all ready roiled in his mills, and that his works were only running at half their full capacity, but said sooner than seli his stocK at a loss he would quote for and supply Continental rails, on which he would get a commission. So the order went to Germany. Before the rails could be properly laid, drastic alterations had to be made in some fields —creeks to be filled up, hillocks and mounds to be levelled, and a tura bed made for the rails.

Not only has Mr Worth been his own engineer,- but the whole of the construction work has been done by his own men under hia supervis-

ion, apart from the sidings, etc., at Fleet Station, part of which the railway company construct, but give Mr Worth the privilege of paying. The rails have been laid in a very workmanlike manner, 'the line is a narrow one with a gauge of 2ft, the rails weighing 141b to the yard, and is laid on wooden sleepers, creosoted. The idea being to spread the weight out as much as possible and so ease the strain on the rails, only about two tons will be put on a truck. By an easy gradient the trucks will run on to a wharf 110 yards long, beside which will be a broad gauge siding connected with the railway company's lines The wharf will be on a level with the top of the railway trucks so that the produce can be loaded into them direct from Mr Worth's trucks, whilst arrangements will also be made to facilitate the unloading of feeding stuffs, etc., required on his farms. It will be possible to load 100 tons without moving a truck. The total length of the private

line will be about ten miles, and it will tap au area of 1,450 acres, the tonnage from which, in addition to

a farm of 450' acres lower down the Marsh (the produce from which will be put on at the nearest point), will be about 10,000 tons a year, in and out. The scheme will cost £IO,OOO by thejtime it is finished, including, of course, the land purchased. The ease with which heavy loads can be moved on the line was shown by a twenty-seven year old pony, which was ambling along at a contented joe trot with a load of six tons behind it. It may be gathered how this will relieve the roads.

The question of the saving that

will be effected in horses and labour having been mentioned, Mr Worth replied that, reckoning four horses to every 100 acres, he would be able to dispense with one in four, and as the cost of upkeep of every pair of horses might be put at £IOO a year, the saving on this item alone would be considerable, not to mention the time and labour saved. Mr Worth has no doubts as to tne utility of the scheme, and expects that in the course of a few years light railways of this character I will be found on most large holdings.