CHAIRMAN S ADDRESS. IX. 



suitable for interlocking and use with standard gear, are a 

 complete solution of the break of gauge difficulty so far as 

 the 5ft. 3in. and the 4ft 8-J-ia. gauges are concerned. The 

 difficulty of bringing the trains alongside the railway 

 platforms, which will occur when the platform is on the 

 same side as the third rail, is overcome by laying down at 

 the station a length of rail on the opposite side of the 

 track to that on which the third rail usually lies ; that is 

 to say, the third rail will be shifted over to the opposite 

 side of the track at such platform, and the trains of the 

 standard gauge will run on to it and alongside the platform 

 by means of a very simple device. It is apparent that the 

 safety of the patent switches is absolutely assured by their 

 simultaneous action, which so simplifies the signalman's 

 work, that he need not trouble himself about the gauge of 

 the trains he is handling. 



I have purposely dwelt on these patent switches, as I 

 wish to make it clear that the objection made in the past 

 to the use of a third rail on the 5ft. 3in. track because of 

 the supposed impossibility of switches to w T ork the combined 

 gauges no longer holds good, and that it will be as easy to 

 work the 4ft. 8|in. and 5ft. Bin. gauges together as it is to 

 work the standard gauge by itself. Moreover, there will 

 not be the slightest difficulty in taking mixed gauges 

 through, or make them form a temporary part of, any 

 railway yard, or taking them to or away from any terminal 

 station, no matter how complex the yard or the approach 

 to a terminal station may be. The introduction of the 

 third rail principle will certainly make for uniformity to 

 the standard of the broad and standard gauges, for the 

 change to the standard is the natural corollary of the third 

 rail. So soon as sufficient rolling stock has been altered 

 to 4ft. 8Jin. to work any given section of the standard the 

 outer 5ft. 3in. rail of the mixed track will be removed 



