PRIVATELY OWNED WAGONS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR - 1 Stn,—In
the issue of September 21st Mr. A. E. Ritchie gave some very interesting but scarcely well-informed reasons for supporting his opinion that the standardization of railway wagons and their consolidation under one ownership is an utterly impracticable-proposition.
The different traffics mentioned by Mr. Ritchie can all be carried in the same class of wagon, and the vast majority of these special. types are no more necessary on the British railways than they are abroad, where the same descriptions of traffics are carried and yet the number of types of wagons rarely exceeds a dozen. In this connexion, it may be mentioned that the railways of many other countries have, in recent years, drastically overhauled their wagon stock, and the Belgian railways have actually succeeded in reducing theirs to four types only.
The total traffic carried on the railways is, normally, 440,000,000 tons a year, of which 280,000,000 tons consist of coal and other minerals, which need nothing more than an ordinary open high-sided wagon. Of the remaining 60,000,000 tons, a very high percentage consists of heavy traffics, such as iron, steel, machinery, bricks, pipes, tiles, cement, timber, hay, grain, potatoes, beet, &c., practically all of which can also be carried in the same class of wagon. Special types are only necessary for exceptional descriptions of traflic, such as very long girders, cattle, and covered wagons for protecting general goods.
Apparently the colliery owners have now lost the oppor- tunity of advantageously disposing of their wagons to the railway companies. The latter have obviously recognized that their financial resources would be much better employed in getting quickly up to date by launching out on a wholesale building of 40-ton wagons (preliminary orders for which have already been placed) rather than in purchasing these obsolete and outworn colliery trucks, which will all be rele- gated to the scrap heap within the next few years.
All-steel 40-ton wagons, which make for an economy of 75 per cent. in shunting, train mileage and other working expenses, will enable the railways to offer the heavy industries, gas and electrical companies, coal merchants and other traders a rebate of 25 per cent. on rates on all traffic dis- patched in full truck loads—a rebate which will undoubtedly lead to an enormous demand for high capacity trucks, and at the same time restore prosperity to all the basic industries.
London, S.W. 9. —I am, Sir, &c., E. R. B. ROBERTS,
Late Traffic Department, Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway.
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