The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1912.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3513, 2 May 1912, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1912.

It might prove highly advantageous

Worth Watching!

if the railway authorities i n TV o w Zealand

were to keep ail oye on the results in connection with the trial in Victoria of motor railway cars in the more sparsely settled districts. As in this country the need has long been felt in the various States of the Commonwealth, for a cheap but much faster system of transport in respect of passengers and many of the lighter commodities (including perishable goods) on the branch lines. Now it is just this long-felt want- that this new railway system which has been in operation in America for some years, is designed to fill. It appears that the new type of car costs between £OOOO and £7OOO. Accommodation is provided. for about 70 persons, seat-ing-room, baggage-room, and motor being all in one long car. The firstclass smoker in the typo purchased by tlie Victorian Government seats about 15 people and the non-smoker another 15, while the second-class smoker provides for 10 and the non-smoker for 22. The baggage-room will take in aOcwt, Th 0 car, 70ft long, is thus engine and everything else, including lavatories, in one. Acetylene gas is used as an illuminant. Entrance is by side doors. The roof is curved, and the head is shaped to a wind-cut-ting edge, so that the vehicle presents a torpedo-like appearance, the round portholes accentuating the strangeness of the whole aspect of it as compared with what is usually seen on the steel track. It. is claimed that in a collision it is impossible to disrupt tho car structure, as it- is on the principle of the steel bridge—the steeltrussed frame- being reinforced by a solid steel sheet extending round the entire ear, over and under it. Telescoping is said to be also impossible. At the driver’s position there is a small turrot, carrying tho Westinghouse brake control, a change control, and the clutch control- They are capable of being run up to a speed of 70 miles an .-hour. When the new cars were landed in Sydney about a fortnight was occupied in preparing

them for the journey to Melbourne, which was started after one or two preliminary short trials, in the course of which a grade of lin I V as '' complislied. On the run to Melbourne a speed of 45 miles an hour was ate tained. The motor driving the cans of 200-horse power. The cyJmdei holds 88 gallons of Lenznm the oil consumption being estimated at about a half-gallon per mile, they, are of American make, and are constructed of steel. As might he expected there are numerous claims as to which lines in Victoria the new cars shall be operated upon. It appears to us that if the system should be proved a success no time .should be lost in introducing it in this co ntry. To-day many districts in the Dominion are served by what :r.e known as “mixed” trains, which are painfully slow besides being very costly to run. It would, therefore, seem—provided, of course, that the new system be an unqualified success that it might be availed of uith very considerable saving to the ratepayers, to give a fast service for passengers and light commodities m sparsely settled districts, whilst heavy goods trains would then only require to run as was found necessari