LOCOMOTIVES FOR STEEP GRADIENTS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 40, 7 October 1867, Page 3

LOCOMOTIVES FOR STEEP GRADIENTS.

A short time since we stated that some experiments had been undertaken by Mr Thomas Page, the eminent engineer, for the purpose of enabling locomotives to ascend steeper inclines than those practicable by the ordinary engines. These experiments have been attended with results, which, had they been established in the early days of the railway system, would have saved many millions of expenditure. On a model railway, about one-sixth of the full size, worked by a steam locomotive, the ascent of a gradient of 1 in 10 was witnessed by Captain Tyler, Colonel Yolland, Colonel Rich, and Major Hutchinson, the officers of the railway department of the Board of Trade. Since that time another model railway, on which the locomotive was worked by a spring, showed the ascent of 1 in 4, in the presence of General Sir John Fox Biirgoyne, G.C.8.; Captain Douglas Gal ton, C.R.; Major Wrottcslcy, Mr Brassey, Mr Blount, of Paris; Mr Merton, and Messrs Soldatenkoff and Clondoff, from Moscow; Mr Suturgin and Mr Grube, of St. Petersburg. On a third series of trials the ascent was made of a gradient of 1 in 3, in the presence of Mr Duncan M’Gregor and Mr Herbert, of the Board of Trade; and lastly, as witnessed by ourselves yesterday, the extraordinary result was obtained of the ascent of a gradient of 1 in 21, and there appeared to he no reason why even the gradient of 1 in 2 could not have been accomplished had the arrangements necessary for -such a trial been made. It is scarcely necessary to say that these inclines are more severe than anything known in railway practice in this or in any other country, and the experiments were made for the purpose of showing what could be accomplished by the fact of adhesion between the driving wheels of the engine and the surface of the tram. The principle of the arrangement is that there should be the least resistance given to the load to be drawn, but the greatest resistance to the driving wheels of the locomotive, and the surface of which, and of the trams on which they work, are such as to prevent any “ slip ”of the wheels. la the carrying out of this principle the peripheries of the wheels are made broad and and slightly serrated, and the roughness of the tram oil which the driving wheels run is made in proportion to the steepness of the incline. For Alpine locomotives the trains could be worked with facility at lin 10. The system appears admirably adapted for branch lines, and extensions, which may thus prove valuable feeders to main lines, and more especially valuable at the present time of depression to the railway interest. The tramway for locomotives of this description could be constructed at a cost of not mere than from £1,500, to £I,BOO, per mile, as there would be no occasion for incurring heavy expenditure for tunnels, cuttings, or embankments, such as have involved existing railways in so large a portion of their expenditure. The fact that the locomotives on this system would be able to travel on ordinary inclines points to the possibility of adapting portions of the existing turnpike roads to this mode of travelling, and we understand that this is in contemplation by Mr Page and the gentlemen associated with him in carrying out the new system.