SPEED AND COMFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1938, Page 7

SPEED AND COMFORT

TRAIN TRAVEL IN LUXURY. AUSTRALIA SETS EXAMPLE. A giant steel monster, without visible funnel, dome, whistle, grid cowcatcher, or even buffers! It sounds most remote from the childhood conception of a train engine, but of such appearance are the four named locomotives which haul Australia’s “Spirit of Progress” at 70 miles an hour on the Melbourne-Sydney run as far as Albury. On his return a few days ago from a conference of Railways Commissioners of Australia and New Zealand, the general manager of the Dominion’s network, Mr G. H. Mackley, said that one of the things which impressed him most was this stream-lined, air-condi-tioned, sound and vibration-proof express de luxe. Unless the permanent way is kept in a tunnel underground, or suspended from the mountain tops, New Zealand, it is stated, will never-be able to have trains as fast as those in Australia. That is not the Dominion’s fault, and everyone except the railway engineer and the unfortunate sleeper over the wheels will readily agree that the picturesque curves, roaring ravines, and defiant mountains have a lot to recommend them against long flat stretches.

Conditions in Australia make fast travelling possible, and the chairman of the Victorian Railway Commissioners, Mr Harold Clapp, made it materialise in the “Spirit of Progress” last year. Now from the six-foot high driving wheels which are eager to turn faster even at the permissible maximum of 70 m.p.h. down to the flaky ice-cream served in the luxurious dining car at the end of the seven-course dinner, Australian travellers have —for the present at any rate —everything they can ask for. No longer does the traveller catch the limited or 6.30 out of Melbourne. It must be called by name. “I’m going on the Spirit of Progress tonight,” and at the Spencer Street station as you walk along the train, like an unbroken steel corridor, painted royal blue and relieved with two continuous lines of gold, you wonder who will be pulling you. “Is it the Edward Henty, or Matthew Flinders, Sir Thomas Mitchell, or C. J. Latrobe?” These almost human engines are marvellous memorials to prominent explorers and pioneers of Victoria. A stewardess (in uniform to match the express and with a pert Glengarry cap) travels each way with the nightflier. She is there principally to look after mothers with babies, and children, but she will do anything to maintain the pleasing interior of the train. Each compartment is differently furnished. It may be panelled in Queensland maple and have an all-over rich brown carpet. Then again the veneer may be of Tasmanian blackwood, and another carpet is needed to harmonise with that. Victorian trains run oh the broad sft 3in gauge, a great factor in comfort and speed. The interior of the dining car looks as though it has been moulded in one piece. And here is the end of the “Spirit”—the parlour observation car is plate-glassed right round. It is a cosy place to lounge in. The “Spirit” is non-stop to the border 190 miles away —and she must do it in 3 hours 35 minutes.