Sir Nigel Gresley, builder, of famous railway engines and luxury, high-speed expresses, is a firm believer that even not yet Have all the potentilities of steam in the service of transport been harnessed.
For. some weeks now the Coronation streamlined express which he fashioned in secrecy in his workshops at Doncaster has been running between London and Edinburgh the fastest service train in the British Empire. King's Cross and Waverley are now linked, twice a day, in six hours.
The run of 392% miles with its innumerable checks, such as dips, hills, und curves, is not an easy one, and to maintain an average speed of 71.9 mp.h. between London and York, and thereafter of 61.42 to Edinburgh, is felt to be all that is desirable, "I do not see much chance of faster running to Edinburgh," Sir Nigel said, in discussing steam locomotives and railway travel in general. And he is certain that the only land traction that makes the six hours' run to Scotland technically and commercially possible is the steam locomotive.
How the' L.N.E.R. brought the singularly successful Silver Jubilee express into being, to be followed a little later by the more luxurious sister. Corpnation, might well become a separate chapter in: transport history. Sir Nigel told of a run he made from Berlin to Hamburg in 1934 in the Diesel-electric Flying Hamburger. It maintained speeds of 100 m.p.h. with smoothness on the pancake plain of Germany, The Neweastle Run "I was greatly impressed," Sir Nigel said, "and decided to see if the Germans could suggest something niler for our main line. T saw, the builders of the vain, and supplied them, with full data gradients, and speed re tions on the Cross-Newcustle route.
"With their usual thorough ne: German engineers made an exhaus tive investigation, and decided that for a train weighing 115 tons, of three' coaches for 140 passengers, the times would be 4 hr. 17 min. in the up direction and 4 hr. 15% min, in the down "We were not impressed, and felt that one of our own Pacific engines, drawing a train of greater weight, capacity, and comfort, could do better, and in a test run the mellow Prayrus reached King's Cross from Newcastle in 3 hr, 51 min, 43 sec., touching they then unheard-of speed of 108 m.p.h.!
"That: showed what could be done and decided our policy. The Silver Jubilee was built, linking London and Newcastle in exactly four hours, and to-day, after nearly two years of running, it is more popular than when it first began to run.
"Without doubt high-speed trains have come to stay. The Coronation, heavier and of more capacity than. the Silver Jubilee, will keep her daily schedule with the same ex-attitude.
"The success of these trains is entirely due to the developed efficiency of the steam locomotive, which in a thermal sense is becoming more and more powerful. The whole question is one of acceleration, and for accoloration steam is undoubtedly the best. The German engineers failed to produce a satisfactory schedule of: running between London and Newcastle because of the comparative slow rate of Diesel-electric accelera~ tion.
The Cost of Steam "For high-speed travel and normal railway running I have no doubt at all that the steam locomotive will continue to hold pride of place. Coal and not oil is our national.product, and, apart from other considerations, the steam locomotive is much less at first cost than the Diesel-electric locomotive, "The public, and business people in particular, want these extra high-speed trains, and are asking for their adoption between other great centres, but, until we have engines of still greater power the weight of the trains must necessarily be limited, as in the case of the Silver Jubilee and the Coronation, But if the demand for longer and heavier trains is pressed, there is no insuperable diffi= culty in providing the engines."
Density of traffic, however, is one serious drawback. Running difficulties in England, Sir Nigel pointed out, are immeasurably increased by slow running goods trains, It is all a question of braking, and in this Britain has failed to progress as have other countries because of the difficulty and cost of fitting all waggons with continuous brakes.
There are approximately 1,500,000 waggons running on the British rail ways, of which about 700,000 are privately owned in the coal industry. "To fit the 1,500,000 waggons with continuous brakes might cost about £30,000,000," Sir Nigel points out, and he, agrees that it is difficult to. justify this great expenditure.
One interesting effect of the high-speed services is the lessening demand for sleeping cars. This tendency is not unwelcomed, for sleep= ing-car traffic is unremunerative. For the fee of £1 for a sleeping compartment to Scotland, each first-class passenger takes up the quite unreasonable train-space of four tons deadweight.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.