Page:Professional papers on Indian Engineering (second series).djvu/91

 No. CCXCII.

ON A METHOD OF AVOIDING TRANSHIPMENT OF GOODS IN THROUGH TRAFFIC BETWEEN BROAD AND METRE GAUGE RAILWAYS, BY THE USE OF VEHICLES WITH MOVEABLE BODIES.

By Cart. W. SEDGWICK, R.E.

The body of a covered goods wagon costs about one-fifth of the price of the entire wagon. The cost of the body in ballast, high-sided, low-sided and timber wagons is less than the cost of the body in covered goods wagons, and in the case of third class carriages, horse boxes, carriage, powder and luggage vans, the cost of the body is somewhat greater than in the case of covered goods wagons. Hence the present mode of construc- tion, by which the bodies of all classes of vehicles are permanently fixed to the frames and wheels, does not seem a very economical one: for it obliges a railway to provide as many frames and wheels or expensive portions of vehicles as there are vehicles on the line; and it also obliges the frame and wheels of a vehicle to remain idle, while the body or inexpensive portion is being loaded, unloaded, repaired or kept in reserve for contin- gencies.

There seems no valid reason why there should not be one pattern of frame for all the commoner descriptions of vehicles, or why the bodies of these vehicles should not be mounted on small trucks or runners, so as to be readily run on to or off from the frames and wheels when neces- sary. Then, if lines of light rails were laid on platforms raised nearly to the level of the tops of the frames of the vehicles, the loaded bodies of the vehicles could, at the end. of a journey, be run off the frames, and 53