Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954), Monday 16 July 1951, page 5


BREAK OF GAUGE DEVICE PLEASES

London, July 15—Reports on the rail-way break-of-gauge device on the Franco-Spanish frontier have so impressed the N.S.W. Agent-General in London (Mr. J. M. Tully) that he is seeking authority

from the Premier (Mr. McGirr) to send Australian engineers from London to

investigate on the spot.

Mr. Tully said he and en-gineering experts in his office had been investigating the device for some time and had consulted a French railway engineer.

"From what we can tell, the system being employed between France and Spain, where the gauge difficulty is the same as between New South Wales and Victoria, may provide a solution of Australia's manifold gauge problems," he said.

AXLE CHANGE The French claim that by changing axles where the

two gauges dovetail, waggons laden with 15 tons can be tansferred at the rate of eight an hour.

Unloading and reloading

would take 30 times as long.

French newspapers say tests began in 1942, and 40 waggons with removable axles were made available

in 1948.

They were first used last January, when 12 waggons each laden with 15 tons of oranges made the 1,000 mile journey from Valencia to

Paris in 60 hours without any unloading.

A meeting of the Football League Commissioners' will be held on Wednesday night at 7.30 o'clock to deal with an application from Hos-kins, of Norths, for a tem-porary change of residence.