X. J. HAYDON CARDEW. 



and the standard gauge left remaining, while the 5ft. 3in. 

 rail taken up will be used for an inside third rail on another 

 section of the mixed gauge line. 



Assuming that rails, &c., required for a third rail 

 between Albury and Melbourne may be borrowed from 

 stock, and returned to it later when the gauge is 

 standardised, the actual cost will consist of labour in 

 laying the third rail along a ready-made and sleepered 

 track and the cost of shortening the axles of sufficient 

 5ft. 3in. rolling stock to work the standard gauge track, 

 as also the cost of increasing the width of some of the 

 platforms. 



There are special features in the scheme of changing the 

 5ft. 3in. gauge to the standard by means of the third rail 

 that must not be lost sight of, the more important of which 

 is, that in the change from broad to the standard there 

 will not be any disruption of the traffic ; that the rolling 

 stock may be altered at any place along the mixed gauge 

 track, and when altered may be run out on the standard 

 gauge and resume work at once, as part of the 4ft. 8|in. 

 train. In fact, the change of the road and the rolling 

 stock from the broad to the standard will take place so 

 mechanically and evenly that no one outside the Depart- 

 ment need be aware that the change is in progress. 



A further feature that will weigh with those in authority 

 is that in reducing the broad gauge to the 4ft. 8Jin. there 

 will not be any occasion to touch tunnels, cuttings, bridges, 

 or viaducts; the only alteration in the road will be the 

 increase in the width by 6| inches of an occasional station 

 on the side where the rails are close together. 



I have given some study to this matter, and am satisfied 

 that the only commercially possible way of establishing the 

 standard gauge on the 5ft. 3in. road is by having recourse 

 to a third rail. 



