52 Book of Engineering 



town or village is situated some distance 

 from the terminus. It is frequent in Britain 

 for the railway to miss a town or village by 

 a couple of miles, possibly due to the 

 foolish opposition of landowners when rail- 

 ways were in their infancy. That town or 

 village has suffered ever since, and now 

 the road coach or bus is trying to take its 

 traffic from the railway. Here the latter 

 has an ally in the new vehicle because it 

 can serve all the intermediate places on 

 the branch line then, where necessary leave 

 the railway and rejoin it at a spot later 

 on, having given a direct service to the 

 villages and towns which lie off the rail 

 route. 



In addition, whilst travelling along the 

 railway, the Ro-railer can stop and pick 

 up passengers without undue delay or 

 trouble. 



When the vehicle is running on the road 

 the rail wheels are also revolving; these 

 latter are of the laminated wood wheel type 

 familiar to most of us in another form 

 upon the railway coach. Such wheels are 



