ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 13 



of English and American engines, the weight of engine and tender 

 together is one hundred and seven tons. 



In the Permanent Way Branch attention is being paid to the 

 improvement of grades and curves. A fact particularly worth 

 mentioning is the completion of the renewal, in steel, of the timber 

 approach to the Wagga Bridge. The process by which this was 

 done was described in Mr. Shellshear's paper before Section H. of 

 the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. 



City Railway. — This important question has been advanced 

 during the year. The question was referred by the Premier to a 

 Royal Commission consisting of members of the Parliamentary 

 Standing Committee on Public Works. After a lengthy inquiry 

 the Commission recommended a scheme by which the terminus 

 would be in the north-west corner of Hyde Park with its front to 

 St. James' Road. Parliament afterwards referred the question 

 to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, who after taking 

 further evidence confirmed the previous recommendation. It 

 may be hoped that the question is now settled, that a bill may be 

 introduced to authorise the railway and that it may then become 

 law. 



An important step towards improving the means of transit in 

 the city of Sydney is now being carried out by the construction 

 of an electric tramway on the overhead system from the Circular 

 Quay to the Railway Station at Redfern, and thence along Harris 

 Street to the intersection of John Street, Ultimo. The power 

 house is being erected at Ultimo between William-Henry and 

 Mc Arthur Streets, and adjacent to the Darling Harbour railway 

 sidings, and will serve the purpose of containing not only the 

 generating plant for the above mentioned tramway, but for the 

 electrical power required for the conversion of the whole of the 

 present steam system to electricity. The power plant will consist 

 of four sets of horizontal cross-compound Corliss, surface-condens- 

 ing engines, each of 1,200 H.P., and direct coupled to four 850 

 K. W. generators mounted between the two cranks. These are 

 by far the largest generators in the Southern Hemisphere. 



