L. C. 0. BURGE. 



gross value of the passenger traffic is said to be £170,000 

 per annum, or £550 per day. 



The Vienna - Buda-Pesth line, which was proposed as a 

 bi-rail express line, is in abeyance at present. But the 

 most ambitious proposal of this kind was made, about five 

 years ago, by Messrs. Davis and Williamson, for connecting 

 New York with its four millions of people, with Philadelphia 

 with one and a half millions, by an electric bi-railway 85 

 miles long. The maximum grade was to be 1 in 500 except 

 the retardation ones at ends ; sharpest curve 4 miles radius, 

 with a superelevation of 3^ in. Oar 150 tons, holding 140 

 passengers, 120 ft. between centre of 6 wheel bogies. 

 Maximum speed 170 miles per hour or 250 feet per second, 

 which means a revolution of the 7 ft. wheels of 680 per 

 minute. Acceleration to full speed was to take 6 minutes 

 at 0*70 feet per second per second, covering 8J miles, and 

 requiring the maximum power of 1,450 HP. per car. Retar- 

 dation 3 feet per second per second, operating to full stop 

 in 2 miles. A number of details including braking, signal- 

 ling, permanent way and the electrical equipment, are given 

 in the Engineering Magazine of October 1897. 



Various proposals have been made towards a stable per- 

 manent way, other than those mentioned, for such high 

 speeds as those contemplated. In the Vienna Oity Rail- 

 way where, however, ease of motion at ordinary speeds is 

 the principal object, the rail joints are fished, on the out- 

 side, with short lengths of the rails themselves, the space 

 between the two webs being occupied by a filling piece. 

 The inside member of the joint is an ordinary angle fish 

 plate, the whole extending over the joint sleepers. The 

 International Railway Congress have had proposals before 

 them of a somewhat similar nature, the outer fish plate 

 being so formed that its top is flush with the top table of 

 the rail, thus adding to the mean depth of the ordinary 



