LIGHT RAILWAYS FOR NEW SOUTH WALES. 5D 
by the greater curvature would entail. It has been found also 
that the tires of rolling stock do not suffer much by curvature, the 
flanges get worn instead of the treads; that is the chief difference. 
As regards grades, it is like asking incompatible things to say that. 
an engine is to be flexible and also that all or nearly all the wheels 
are to be coupled drivers, so as not only to utilize all weight for 
adhesion, but to lighten load on a single pair of wheels, and thus 
to enable the constructing engineer to increase his grades and 
lighten his works and permanent way. Nevertheless it must be 
done, if we are to have light railways in heavy country. In fact 
we want an engine as like a snake as possible, sinuous in motion 
and using all its length for adhesion and propulsion. Some time 
ago there were some successful experiments made in obtaining 
adhesion by means of a current of electricity from wheel to 
rail, but nothing seems to have resulted from it. If such a con- 
trivance were effectual without counterbalancing defects, it would 
do more to make light railways possible in undulating country 
than anything else. The author is quite aware of the evil of 
introducing additional types and of limiting, as regards engines, 
the economical advantages of reserving the branch lines as asylums 
for aged and infirm locomotives unfit for the main line service, 
but this latter disadvantage tends to disappear, as the present. 
policy, which is no doubt a good one, is to increase the power and 
weight of main line engines to such a degree as to render it hope- 
less to use them eventually on any line having any pretension to 
be called a light line at all, and there are a good many existing 
substantial branch lines which could use them up with slow speeds. 
As regards the traffic department : if we are to have such light 
railways as this paper contemplates, passenger stations, in the 
existing sense of the word, must be cut out, the guards doing for 
the most part what is now done by the station masters. Shelter 
will be only provided for goods, and that only which is absolutely 
necessary to prevent damage. As slow travelling only is in view, 
signals and interlocking, the latter being a most expensive item, 
would be unnecessary. Passenger platforms should be abolished, 
