This illustration had previously appeared as the cover to part 12. The plate was attached to page 653, or the fifth page of this issue.
The Cover
Our cover this week depicts a giant American locomotive running at full speed at the head of a heavy train. The picture clearly shows the American type of cow-catcher on the front of the engine, above which will be seen the big buck-eye central coupling used on all American trains. These couplings provide a very strong yet flexible union between the locomotive and vehicles of the train.
This part includes a comprehensive survey of the entire Southern system, including some interesting details regarding the famous docks at Southampton, and the various types of locomotives that ran on the several systems that were incorporated into the Southern Railway. The company’s cross-Channel services from Dover to Calais, Folkestone to Boulogne, and Newhaven to Dieppe, are also dealt with. Concluded from part 20
(Pages 645-654)
The Night Journey
THE NIGHT JOURNEY. A mixed-traffic locomotive of the Southern Railway negotiating a cross-over on its way to the south. Modern mixed-traffic locomotives on British railways are often of this “Mogul” or 2-6-0 type. They are used for slow passenger and express goods traffic.
This illustration had previously appeared as the cover to part 12.
How express trains are divided at speed. Slip coaches are an interesting feature of railway travel. Some companies use an ingenious apparatus which enables a main-line train to cut off its slip coaches at the desired point and proceed on its way with only the slightest check in speed. The Cornish Riviera Express, for example, in its winter formation includes two slip coach sections. The details of this device are fully described in this chapter.
The story of ambitious schemes for a non-stop journey from London to Paris. In Spite of the splendid cross-channel services which the Southern and other companies give us, their efforts cannot avoid a bad Channel crossing. Those of us who have had to endure a bad Channel crossing must frequently have wished that the much-discussed Channel tunnel ran below the stretch of water, which in actual mileage is so short, but which, in rough weather, seems so endless. This chapter surveys the proposed railway tunnels beneath the Channel.
A railway through the African jungle. The Gold Coast, which is spread over three areas - the Gold Coast Colony, Ashanti, and the Northern territories - has a total area of 91,960 square miles; it is served by some 500 miles of railway. Trains were first run on the line north of Sekondi in 1901; in 1903 Kumasi was reached, and in 1923 a complete through line from Sekondi was run to Accra, where my correspondent lives. To-day the railway also serves the important harbour of Takoradi. The railway on the Gold Coast was first planned so that gold mines could be exploited by machinery. Not only has this been done, but, because of the railway, new industries have also been developed, The Gold Coast to-day is a prosperous unit of the British Empire. This is the seventh article in the series Railways of the Empire. The article is completed in part 22.
