4-4-0 express train. This was attached to page 749, or the fifth page of this number.
The Cover
Our cover this week shows the “Lord Nelson”, which is one of the most powerful of the Southern Railway’s locomotives. It has four cylinders, of 16½ in diameter by 26 in stroke. The driving wheels have a diameter of 6 ft 7 in, and the engine and tender weigh, in working order, 140 tons 5 cwt. The “Lord Nelson” is the first of a class of that name, and has the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement. This picture was later used as a colour plate issued with part 30.
Unusually the final article in this issue was complete. This was arranged since part 24 completed Volume 1 of Railway Wonders of the World. Subscribers were invited to send off their individual issues to have them properly bound.
This chapter contains a description of one of the most interesting railway inventions of recent years. This is the Drumm Traction Battery, which has operated eighty-ton suburban train services on the Great Southern Railways for some years. At the moment, track electrification in Ireland is not considered an economic possibility, but the Drumm train, with its quick-charging battery, is claimed to have rendered excellent service. Trial runs proved that within less than a minute after starting the Drumm train can attain a sped of fifty miles an hour. Concluded from part 23
(Pages 741-750)
Leaving Dublin
LEAVING DUBLIN. A Great Southern Railways train, hauled by a 4-4-0 passenger express locomotive, is seen here, after its departure from Kingsbridge terminus. The Great Southern Railways Company is Ireland’s largest system and consists of lines solely within the Irish Free State. These lines were amalgamated in 1925.
Describing how engines are made. The locomotive is certainly the most important of the railway wonders. Daily we see the locomotive - a vivid, almost living machine, a hundred tons of steel travelling at perhaps nearly a hundred miles an hour. The care, the hours of thought and planning and superb craftsmanship that have gone to its making, provide a story that is as fascinating as any other that I have yet published. This chapter describes a visit to one of the largest, and certainly one of the most famous, locomotive shops in the world. This is Swindon, where the famous “King” class of locomotive is built by the Great Western Railway. You can read more on “How A Locomotive is Built” in Cecil J Allen’s Railway Wonders (1925)
How railways handle emergencies and seasonal crowds. There are the trains which are run for holiday excursions. There are trains that start from all parts of England, Scotland or Wales for the Football Association Cup Final at Wembley. There is the train that can be hired by private firms for outings. There is the special train run for an important race meeting; and in this connexion we can judge the importance of seasonal traffic, for at Aintree, during the Grand National, trains arrive, between 11 am and 1.30 pm, at the rate of one every two minutes. This handling of this special traffic calls for remarkable feats of organization, and that it is so successfully carried out reflects great credit on the railway staffs concerned.
(pages 761-767)
New Italian Cableways
The building of the Gran Sasso Aerial Ropeway. This takes the traveller 6,929 ft. Up to the Gran Sasso, the highest group of Italian mountains south of the Alps. This chapter includes a description of another famous Italian cableway, the aerial line from Clavières to Pian del Sole.
