Part 22 of Railway Wonders of the World was published on Friday 28th June 1935.
The issue contained a black and white art plate depicting Building the “Rocket” at Darlington. The plate was attached to page 685, or the fifth page of this issue.
The Cover
The cover features an express train passing under a signal gantry at sunset. Unusually, the Editorial included no notes about this picture.
BUILDING THE “ROCKET” - IN 1935. This full-size replica of a famous locomotive was ordered by the Science Museum, South Kensington, from Robert Stephenson & Co, of Darlington. The original “Rocket”, built by the same firm at Newcastle in 1829, won the £500 prize at the decisive Rainhill Trials of that year, organized by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Fascinating routes through the lovely Highlands. This chapter includes a description of a journey through the Scottish highlands from Glasgow to Fort William and Mallaig on the West Highland Railway, now operated by the LNER. On this trip the trains pass over the notorious Rannoch Moor - a basin among the hills which is full of a fluid peat bog - and stop at places, such as Fort William, Morar, and Glenfinnan, whose names are redolent of the glamour of history. The first Scottish mountain lines were owned by the Highland line, which now belongs to the LMS. This chapter is a sequel to the article on the Railways of Caledonia, which appeared in part 16.
Remarkable engineering devices on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. The Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway is one of the wonder lines not only of India but also of the world, and it is fitting, therefore, that it should find a place in this work. The line, about fifty miles long and adhesion worked, goes from Siliguri to Darjeeling, and has one of the most startling loops and zigzags that the ingenuity of railway engineers has ever contrived. The summit of the railway is at Ghoom Station, 7,407 ft above sea-level. The route contains short gradients as steep as 1 in 23, whilst its steepest average gradient is about 1 in 29. You can read more on this railway in Frederick Talbot’s Railway Wonders of the World (1913).
A survey of the fastest runs across Britain by Cecil J. Allen. It seems there is a never-ending interest in this fascinating topic. Since the LNER express “Papyrus” achieved the world’s record run of 108 miles an hour in March of this year, this interest has increased. The chapter deals with such noted trains as the “Cornish Riviera Express”, the “Cheltenham Flyer”, the “Queen of Scots”, and so forth.
Railways that span the World’s waterways. This chapter describes some of the famous railway bridges in the world, with special reference to the world’s longest railway bridge, the Lower Zambesi Bridge in Portuguese East Africa. This was built by British enterprise and cost over £1,400,000. It was completed in 1934. Another of the most interesting railway bridges built in recent years is the one across the Nile in Uganda. When the Kenya and Uganda Railway decided that the main line westwards from Jinja to Kampala had to be extended, they found that a bridge across the Nile was necessary. Operations began in 1929, the bridge being open for traffic in 1931. The bridge carries a single metre-gauge line. The article is completed in part 23.
