VS.

railroad commuter service in the area between Chicago and San Francisco. In 1960 trains carried 104,030 riders (down from 149,119 in 1956) and grossed $32,770 out-of-pocket operating costs of $68,892. Mopac also wants to cut off Valley Eagle streamliners on HoustonBrownsville (Tex.) run. Move would end all rail passenger service to Corpus Christi, population 167,690.

[In view of the statistic that passenger fares account for only 5 per cent of its gross revenue, Reading operates a disproportionate number of first-class trains; in 1960 about 47 per cent of its total train-miles were run off by passenger schedules. In October 1962 the road will lose all of its mail and express to the highways at a loss of more than 2.5 million dollars annually, and plans to partially recoup by eliminating two Philadelphia-Reading round trips, two PhillyJersey City schedules (but not the Wall Street or Crusader), and the last trains on its Pottsville-Shamokin and Harrisburg-Allentown routes. Commuters will fare better, though, if Philadelphia's nonprofit Passenger Service Improvement Corporation can obtain 3 million dollars of Federal funds to buy and subsequently lease to Reading 12 Budd RDC-1's seating 103 each for service from Philadelphia to Pottsville and Bethlehem.

[For years airlines have quoted their fares along with schedules in the Official Guide, and on page 293 of the December 1961 issue Baltimore & Ohio broke with railroad precedent to do likewise. Another B&O passenger point: RDC-equipped Daylight Speedliners on the BaltimoreWashington-Pittsburgh run now terminate at the B&O instead of the P&LE terminal in Pittsburgh. This allows the equipment to make a Pittsburgh-Connellsville (Pa.) commuter round trip between runs, releasing four coaches, a combine, and a diesel hood unit for service elsewhere. Only hitch: through passengers to or from Cleveland on joint EL-P&LE Steel King must take a 10-mile walk or a cab ride across Monongahela River instead of the old across-the-platform connection.

often light by any standard and many of the freight facilities - originally provided in the horse and cart era- are hardly being used at all today. In order to streamline its freight traffic the Region is reducing the depots handling full carload traffic from 650 to only 300. Less-than-carload traffic will be concentrated at only 25 railheads throughout the region instead of the present 130 stations. This concentration will also enable marshaling yards many of which are very small- to be reduced from 40 to fewer than 30.

The effect of the new plan will be to send the majority of consignments direct from station to station without transshipment. At present only 30 per cent of all consignments go direct from dispatch point to destination point, whereas the new system will allow about 80 per cent of all shipments to go direct. It will enable the region to offer a faster service to shippers and to exploit the railway's natural advantage as a means of transport.

Apart from major gains in efficiency, the scheme will save the region at least 5.6 million dollars a year. Part of this saving will come from the reduction in the number of freight trains that will be required. Other savings: lower maintenance costs and a smaller, more intensively used freight car fleet. The land occupied by the closed depots will be available for use as automobile parks for the Region's passengers or for real estate development.

FINNISH CENTENARY: On March 17, 1862, the first railway line in Finland was opened for regular traffic-between Helsinki and Hameenlinna. This year the Finnish State Railways will mark the occasion with a number of centenary celebrations. The operation of a special festival train over the original line, commemorative stamps, a film, and a centenary exhibition train are some of the items planned in the year's program of events.

The 5ft. gauge Finnish system includes wood-burning and coal-burning steam power, diesel rail cars, switchers, and mainline units and (as yet) no electrification.

FROM SEA TO RAIL: For 135 years coastal freighters of the Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Co. have plied between DunIdee in Scotland and London. From November 20 the ships ceased running, and instead the shipping company sent their cargoes by train. Special trains chartered by the company from British Railways operate an overnight service to London three times a week. The reason for the transfer is that coastal services have suffered from land transport competition, high cost of operating ships, and rising costs of handling cargo. In other words they could no

ROBERT SPARK

FREIGHT RATIONALIZATION: The Southern Region of British Railways differs from other regions in that passenger traffic is far greater than freight traffic (80 per cent of its receipts come from passenger services). The freight traffic that is carried is

new arrangement would, as a spokesman of the company said, "avoid the dissolution of an organization which knows something about transport. . . . In fact, it is a practical example of a form of co-ordination of transport about which so much is said."

SWEDISH HOOD UNITS: Anyone visiting Sweden for the first time and traveling over the main lines gets the impression that electric traction is universal and that steam power has vanished. This is not quite the case, for a considerable annual mileage is still operated by a variety of

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distinctive steam locomotives. The latter are not looked on with favor by the Swedish State Railways. On lines which do not justify electrification the alternative is dieselization. So far the Swedes have not placed in service any great number of diesels, except in the switcher class. Now they are taking delivery of 50 1425 h.p. B-B hood units. The first of the new class-designated T43-was handed over at the end of 1961. It has appeared in an eye-catching livery of red, white, and blue, and in outline is typical of the present generation of European hood units.

The T43's are being built by Nydqvist and Holm AB (Nohab) and incorporate GM 567-D1 12-cylinder diesel engines. The main generators and traction motors are also of GM design, but have been built under license by Sweden's principal electrical equipment manufacturer, ASEA. The T43 is 46 ft. 81⁄2 in. long, 14 ft. 11⁄2 in. high, and 11 ft. 32 in. wide. It weighs 72 tons and has a maximum speed of 59 mph. The T43 is primarily intended for freight use, and at present, passenger train heating equipment has been installed only in the first example. This is not a steam heating boiler, but a small GM diesel driving a generator for electric passenger car heating which is standard on the Swedish State system. The cab is arranged for one man operation - the normal arrangement in Sweden.

The decision to order T43's was based on experience with an earlier Nohab-GM design, the T4, and the initial contract for 25 was doubled before the first example was built.

TRACK-LAYER: On lines with dense trafficas is often the case in Britain-track re-laying is a considerable problem. Mechanized equipment helps by reducing the time required to do the job, but a conventional track-layer still occupies both tracks of a double-tracked route. This entails traffic diversions or the provision of alternative services which are costly and inconvenient. The Eastern Region of British Railways is now trying out a prototype single-line track-layer, the German Arki-Endon, which has already been used on the Continent. Not only does this equipment occupy only one track, it also enables mechanized re-laying to be applied to single tracks and it is usable under the overhead wires of electrified lines. The machine consists of five self-propelled power-driven portal cranes, each fitted with a lifting bail of 3 tons capacity. The unit travels to the re-laying site on two cars. On site the portals are offloaded onto guide rails. Generators are fixed in position, electrical connections made, and the machine is then ready for work. The guide rails are 300 ft. long welded rails, laid previously, outside the normal track gauge. The appliance can Ideal easily with 60 ft. lengths of prefabricated track with concrete ties. After re-laying, the 300 ft. long guide rails are used to replace the 60 ft. lengths on the new tracks.

ELECTRIC PROGRESS: The German Federal Railways electrified network has now reached a total of 2547 miles, while a further 1304 miles are being converted.

Another 807 miles of electrification have

been approved, and by 1970 the electrified network should have risen to nearly 5300 miles. By the same date the system hopes to have retired steam power from the entire network, although this appears to be a practical impossibility. At present there are roughly 7000 steam locomotives still at work, compared with 1450 electric locomotives and 1250 diesel locomotives. In mid-1961 54 per cent of all motive-power mileage was handled by steam power, with 24 per cent by electric traction, and 22 per cent by diesel traction. When steam has been ousted, the proportion of traffic hanIdled by electric and diesel traction will be 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

HIGHLAND DIESELS: For nearly a century two of Scotland's most rugged and scenic railway routes - Glasgow-Fort WilliamMallaig and Glasgow-Oban - have echoed to the noise of hard-working steam power. Very soon the sharp exhaust of TenWheelers in double harness will be replaced by the less dramatic note of Sulzerengined diesel-electrics. These Scottish lines which serve sparsely populated areas provide a considerable problem since they are basically unprofitable, and the use of diesel power will help to reduce operating costs. Some 23 Type 2 1250 h.p. dieselelectrics plus four diesel switchers will replace 45 steam locomotives. Similar diesels have already taken over from steam on the Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh routeanother bleak but beautiful line in Scotland.

ITALIAN FASHION: Latest electric train sets of the Italian State Railways are made up of cars which are long for Europe - 89 ft. 10 in. The powered cars are also fast-having run at speeds of up to 112 mph on tests. The 66-ton powered car has a cab at each end and seats for 60 passengers. All axles are motored and the total output is 1360 h.p. The trailer car also has cabs at each end and seats 60 persons. There are two other trailer vehicles in the same series: one with a kitchen and 48-seat diner section and the other a kitchen, 36-seat diner section, and a bar. All cars are air conditioned.

BEYOND THE PACIFIC

WILLIAM K. VIEKMAN

IN STEAM AGAIN: The Manila Railroad, largest rail carrier in the Philippines, is enjoying a boom that involves not just the yearly sugar crop but general prosperity. Steam power, once slated for scrapping, is again burnishing the 3' 6"-gauge iron, and officials of the "dieselized" MRR frankly admit to a roster of 90 busy iron horses. In November 1961 2-8-2 MacArthur No. 894

(Vulcan 1944) was seen tending to yard duties at Tayuman in Manila. Shortly afterward a freshly shopped 2-8-2 of like vintage came chime-whistling by with manifest tonnage. Not far away, at the Caloccan Shops, the MRR was repairing not only its own power but smaller steam units of private sugar operators. Spotted at the back shops were two Pampanga Sugar Company 0-6-0T's with highly polished brass domes.

FLEXI-VAN IN JAPAN: High-pressure ethylene gas is being transported in Flexi-Van service between Kawasaki (between Tokyo and Yokohama) and the island of Shikoku, 580 miles, via JNR. The car involved was built by Kisha Seizo Kaisha in Osaka under a license agreement with Fruehauf International, and was purchased by the Maruzen Oil Company. The gas is contained in 18 high-pressure bombs which are group-loaded into two containers, which in turn rest on a special 3' 6"-gauge flat car. The system has been found operable within Japan's restricted loading gauge and clearance limits.

... AND IN AUSTRALIA: Co-ordinated Flexi-Van road-rail service is now being operated between Melbourne and Adelaide by the Victorian and South Australian Railways and two trucking firms. SAR built four special rail flat cars for the service while Flexi-Van equipment was supplied by an Australian subsidiary. It is expected that this service will be expanded to include the Melbourne-Sydney route once the standard-gauge link is completed. Will Flexi-Van eventually connect all six continents?

CORRECTION DEPT.: The gauge of the Daito Sugar Company's railway on Minami Daito Jima [page 14, January TRAINS] should have read 22 feet instead of 2 feet. Our apologies.

WILLIAM S. YOUNG

COMING ATTRACTION: Steam-powered excursion trains are becoming uncountable - at least on the fingers—and short lines are starting to get into the act. Now Wisconsin's Hillsboro & North Eastern Railway and the Railway Historical Society of Milwaukee have coupled up to form the Mid-Continent Railway Museum and haul passengers behind steam on the 5-mile H&NE line from Hillsboro to Union Center. The southwest Wisconsin short line hasn't had steam power in something like 30 years, but the fan group owns three engines: Consumers Gravel Company straight 0-4-0 No. 701 from South Beloit, Ill.; Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company 2-6-0 No. 2, a recent arrival from Ponchatoula, La.; and Chicago & North Western 4-6-0 No. 1385. It also has a Copper Range Railroad open-end combine and an 85-foot private car formerly owned by the

State of Wisconsin. All that's needed is an I.C.C. clearance for one of the steamers.

U. S.-BUILT DIESEL-HYDRAULICS: Plymouth Locomotive Works, now in its 49th year of building internal-combustion locomotives, has announced a new line of dieselhydraulics ranging from 40 to 120 tons. The biggest would have a C-C wheel arrangement and develop 1500 h.p. Although virtually its entire output goes to industrial and foreign customers, the Plymouth (Ohio) Works does bid fair to become the first U. S. builder to turn out heavy-duty diesel-hydraulics on a production basis. It has been building smaller "Torqomotive" diesel-hydraulics for several years.

Plymouth has already turned out four 65-ton B-B units for a foreign steel mill which look much like any center-cab diesel switcher, develop 670 h.p., and have a four-speed power-shift transmission.

DEATH AND TAXES: As far as the I.C.C. is concerned, the 71-mile Arkansas & Ozarks Railway has had permission to abandon since last April. But A&O, one of the Salzberg roads, made no move last summer to pull up its track from Seligman, Mo., to Harrison, Ark., even though it had been shut down by flood damage since May 1960. Local businessmen were strongly opposed to abandonment, and early last year the Arkansas legislature just happened to enact a tax on railroad salvage that effectively delayed the scrapping of the A&O. The Salzbergs, however, appear to have won a legal test of the tax law, and recently, while the state of Arkansas was mulling over an appeal, the two A&O diesels were loaded on flatbed trailers and moved out by highway from the isolated Harrison terminal. Nos. 800 and 900, M.U.-equipped GE 70-tonners, were set down on MoPac rails about 10 miles from Harrison and have since joined the roster of Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern Railway in Iowa. The pair of 70-tonners from Georgia's abandoned Tallulah Falls Railway have also turned up on the Fort Dodge road [see page 53, February TRAINS].

ERIN GO ABROAD: Ireland, known to narrow-gauge enthusiasts for adherence to a favorite American width-between-rails, closed down the last of its public 3-footers last year. But Dr. Ralph Cox, an aviation executive from Cape May, N. J., plans to re-create Ireland's County Donegal Railways at Cape May by importing some of the original equipment — and, to help set it up, some of the line's former employees. APPEARANCES DO DECEIVE: There are times when it appears that Graham County Railroad [page 25, January TRAINS] has only one Shay left to send down into the Nantahala Gorge to interchange cars with the Southern at Topton. This is because the western North Carolina road's other Shay often sits outside the Robbinsville lumber mill for months on end, missing some parts, looking in general like a candidate for the scrap heap-and, indeed, has been more than once so reported. But when tube time draws near for the active Shay, the other one moves into the shop, later to emerge refurbished and in steam. Shay No. 1926 went back on the road last fall, and No. 1925 is now due for shopping. I

Editor and fireman

THE other day a reader in

Tulsa, Okla., spent 44 cents in postage alone to air mail and special delivery to TRAINS a pair of 8 x 10inch glossy photos of Frisco's brand-new GE U25B 2500 h.p. hood units. No letter was enclosed; the envelope simply bore the notation NEWS PHOTOS. Now, that is the caliber of reader rapport which makes this magazine possible, unique, worth while. For this man hurried to lineside in Cherokee Yard, Tulsa, to photograph one of railroading's newest tools; and he obviously took it for granted that TRAINS would be eager to rush such a picture into print. He's quite right, of course. The point is that specialized, limited-circulation magazine could not possibly field a reportorial force for such news coverage yet TRAINS keeps on top of what's fresh through its readers. A reason why TRAINS is the magazine of railroading.

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