© Railway Wonders of the World 2012-20  |  Contents  |  Site Map  |  Contact Us at info@railwaywondersoftheworld.com

Part 8




Part 8 of Railway Wonders of the World was published on Friday 22nd March 1935.



This issue contained a photogravure supplement featuring Head On photographs of some famous locomotives.





The Cover

The cover featured LMS Royal Scot No. 6121 “Grenadier Guardsman” hauling an express. This cover was later used as the colour plate issued with part 27.





Contents of Part 8


Miniature Railways (Part 2)

This part moves on from 15 in and 20 in gauge systems to describe the Festiniog and Lynton & Barnstaple railways. Concluded from part 7.

(Pages 229-231)


Click on the small image to see a short British Pathe newsreel clip “Peter Pan’s Puff Puff” (1927) on the opening of the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.





The “Golden Arrow”

A vivid account of the luxury express which runs between London and Paris via Dover and Calais. This service forms one of Great Britain’s most important links with the Continent, and operates daily from Victoria Station. This is the fourth article in the series on Famous Trains.

(Pages 232-239)


Romance of the Railway Ticket

The story of "the slip of pasteboard".

(Pages 240-242)


Head On: Notable Locomotives

A photo-feature, comprising the central photogravure supplement of this issue. It illustrates “head-on” views of American, Canadian, British and German locomotives. The contrasts are notable, each type having almost a strictly “national” air about it.

(Pages 243-246)


Sorting Goods Wagons

An account of the Whitemoor Marshalling Yards. The inside story of how freight wagons are automatically sorted and made up into trains for different destinations.  The Whitemoor Yards are among the most remarkable of all centres for the sorting of wagons into trains for the distribution of goods to all parts of the country.

(Pages 247-253)


Click on the small image to see a short British Pathe newsreel clip called “See how they run!” showing the operation of Whitemoor Yard in 1931.





This Colossus of the Canadian National Railway


This colossus of the Canadian National Railways






A full page illustration of CNR No.6148 (a 4-8-4 Class U-2-c).


This colossus of the Canadian National Railways, weighing, with tender, about 290 tons, has no difficulty in starting from rest with its great train of cars. When running, control of the vast load is ensured by the Westinghouse brake equipment fitted throughout the length of the train. This type of engine ranks among the most powerful in the Dominion of Canada, its eight-coupled wheels giving a maximum tractive power of 69,700 lb.


(Page 254)






Stopping the Train

How the Westinghouse automatic air brake works. One of the most vital items of railway equipment simply described with special diagrams. The Westinghouse Air Brake is used on London's Underground and on electric trains of the Southern Railway. This is the third article in the series Design and Invention.

(Pages 255-259)


Engineering in New Zealand (Part 1)

A description of the railways of the North Island. The Auckland-Wellington line, with its twenty-two viaducts varying in length from 200 ft to 1,185 ft, and its thirty tunnels of from 250 ft to 3,515 ft, provides a striking testimony of the work and vision of man. The story of the railways is, after all, the story of great difficulties overcome by engineering skill backed by faith, and New Zealand is another example that illustrates the basic soundness of human ingenuity and courage. In that country the lines of the pioneers were frequently menaced by the then war-like Maoris, who quite naturally resented the intrusion of the steel highway. The New Zealand chapter is contributed by my colleague, Mr. Cecil J. Allen. This is the third article in the series Railways of the Empire. This article is completed in part 9. There is a sequel to this chapter in part 31.

(Page 260)