15 AUGUST 1958, Page 18

HOLIDAY QUESTIONS SIR,—May I point out a small inaccuracy in

one of the answers ,to your Holiday Questions? In 10 (b) you give the 1 :.37.7 of the Lickey incline as the steepest gradient on a British main line. There is, however, a short pitch at I in 36 on the Dainton Bank, just west of Newton Abbot on the Western Region main line, which is, incidentally, the steepest main- line gradient in Europe.

The reply to 10 (e) is also not strictly correct. Though in the Netherlands the. State railways have abolished steam locomotives, these arc still found, I believe, on various private colliery lines.—Yours faithfully, 53a Marlborough NW8 J. A. B. HAMILTON