G.— ENGINEERING. 135 



1,()()3 miles. A confcreiico of tlie P^ngineers-in-Clue[ o£ the five States 

 imnniinously it'coininended tliat 4 ft. Hi- in. should be llie gauge of this 

 important hnc, and eventually tho line was built on tliis gauge. Tiiis 

 decision was later on confiinied at a meeting in 1911 of the Railway 

 War (.'ouncil, attended also by the Chief ("omniissioners of the various 

 State Railways. 



Mr. ITales, a well-known engineer of Launoeston, Tasmania, in 

 1911 urged the Commonwealth Government to reconsider the question 

 as to which gauge should be adopted as the standard for tlie wlrole 

 of Austraha : he was of opinion that the 5 ft. 3 in. gauge would enable 

 locomotives of 20 per cent, more power to be used as compared 

 with the 4 ft. 8i in., and 10 per cent, more traffic could be carried 

 on the same mileage, and that it would be easier to secure a market 

 for discarded 4 ft. 8i in. stock. Mr. H. Deane, the Chief Engineer 

 of Railways to the Commonwealth, was, as a result of Mr. Hales' 

 memorandum, instructed to reconsider the whole question of the stan- 

 dard gauge and to report, as to whether it would be advisable to reverse 

 the earlier decisions and to select the 5 ft. 3 in. gauge. Mr. Deane 

 in his report advised that the decision to adopt the 4 ft. 8^ in. gauge 

 should be adhered to ; he was opposed to the adoption of any narrower 

 gauge than that, and he pointed out that a 5-chain curve could be 

 used even on a 4 ft. 8| in. gauge track under certain conditions, and 

 that such lines had been constructed not only in Australia but in other 

 co'mitries. On the other hand, the speed limit for a 3 ft. 6 in. line 

 was far below that which could be safely adopted on a 4 ft. 8^ in. line, 

 even on a straight track in flat country. In concluding his report 

 Mr. Deane urged tlie need of a prompt settlement of the matter, as 

 each of the States was steadily increasing its railway mileage and every 

 year unification was postponed meant that the cost would be steadily 

 mounting up. Unification of the gauges would facilitate the transfer 

 of rolling-stock from one State toi another during any emergency, and 

 considerable economies in running expenses would be obtained by 

 better utilisation of existing stock ; for example, a train from Sydney, 

 reaching Albury (the change-of-gauge station) in the early morning, 

 was compelled under existing conditions to remain idle in that station 

 all day before returning tO' Sydney. 



With regard to the method of conversion, Mr. Deane advocated the 

 third-rail method, and he gave in his report a brief account of the 

 various methods which had been adopted in other countries where 

 unification of gauges had been carried out. In the United States, where 

 the rolling-stock is always of the bo'gie type, the method adopted had 

 been to remove tlie bogies of one gauge and substitute those of the other — 

 quite a cheap and convenient method, but obviously impossible with 

 four-wheeled stock. Various methods had been suggested for dealing 

 with the problem of four-wheeled stock, such as the use of divided 

 axles with inside bearings or a sliding axle, but there were serious prac- 

 tical difficulties in both methods, and both methods introduced a sense of 

 insecurity. Another method, which had been proposed by Mr. Bolton, 

 was to fit a third wheel just inside one of the wheels of the broader 

 gauge stock; again, there were substantial practical difficulties — the 

 third wheel must be kept always on one side of the track, without 



