VIII. J. HAYDON CARDEW. 



The only way in which the mails can be materially 

 accelerated is to provide some means of allowing the mail 

 train to run through to Sydney, such assaying a third rail 

 on the main 5 ft. 3 in. track, to create another track of 

 4 ft. 8j-in., to let trains of the standard gauge run through. 

 The mails could then be sorted in the same van in the run 

 through, while upwards of twenty-seven hours would be 

 saved in the journey from Adelaide to Queensland border. 

 The journey now, including waits at Melbourne and Sydney, 

 takes about sixty-seven hours, while with the third rail 

 down it could be done in about forty hours. It is therefore 

 more imperative to-day than ever it was before, that the 

 unification of Australian railway gauges should be put in 

 hand without delay, and that all the State systems should 

 be Federated. 



As engineers, we are more particularly interested in the 

 first part or the problem, and as regards the break of gauge 

 at Albui'y, we have seen many propositions put forward by 

 practical and unpractical men for adapting the rolling 

 stock to fit the different gauges. Hitherto it has been 

 supposed impracticable to adapt the latter to carry the 

 former, owing to the difficulty in fitting the points and 

 switches in the confined space between the 4ft. 8 Jin. gauge 

 and the 5ft. 3in. gauge ; but latterly it has been demon- 

 strated that the problem is quite easy of solution, and in a 

 simple and inexpensive manner, by Brennan's switches and 

 crossings for compound gauge railways, the drawings and 

 models of which I am privileged to exhibit here this 

 evening by permission of the inventor. 



The apparatus is so exceedingly simple in design that we 

 wonder that the idea has remained undiscovered so long, 

 especially when so many have been searching diligently for 

 some such solution of the problem. The switches, which 

 are quite in keeping with well-known railway principles, 



