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Part 10




Part 10 of Railway Wonders of the World was published on Friday 5th April 1935.


This issue contained a black and white art plate depicting Snow-sheds in the Andes, and formed a further illustration to the article The Magic of the Andes.



The Cover

The cover featured an unidentified LMS tank locomotive with its motion being oiled by the driver.

railway wonders of the world


Contents of Part 10


Editorial



 Train Ferries (Part 2)

Remarkable examples of trans-ocean transport, concluded from part 9.



The Magic of the Andes

A survey of the trans-Andean railways of South America, climbing through the clouds. This chapter includes the line that runs from Mendoza to Los Andes, on which trains are operated on both rack and adhesion principles. At one point this line is 10,512 ft above sea-level. The engineering resource that made the building of the line possible cannot fail to win the admiration of all readers.



Devastated (art plate)












DEVASTATED. Snow-sheds must be built to protect many sections of the line that cross the formidable barrier of the Andes. But Nature sometimes gains a victory in her fight against the forces of civilization, and this photograph shows over sixty yards of snow-shedding destroyed by an avalanche in 1921.















Diesel Locomotives

The construction of and performance obtained from the oil engine. This chapter clearly explains how and why a Diesel engine operates and shows that in certain circumstances the heavy-oil engine is superior to the steam locomotive, although no responsible writer would ever claim that the age of steam is yet anywhere near to passing.



The Post Office Railway

The operation of the Post Office tube railway. This automatic tube railway runs for approximately six and a half miles from Paddington Railway Station to the Eastern District Post Office Of London. The object of the G.P.O. tube railway is to provide a rapid means of carrying some of His Majesty’s mails, and one of the peculiar features is that the trains are driverless. The trains are controlled electrically from operating cabins at the various stations along the route. Speed on the level reaches thirty-two miles an hour.

This is the second article in the series on The World’s Strangest Railways.


Click on the small image to see a short British Pathe newsreel clip of the  “Tube that takes no travellers.”



The Great Apennine Tunnel (Part 1)

The engineering marvels of the Bologna-Florence “Direttissima” route. On this line is the Great Apennine Tunnel, second largest in the world, and eleven and a half miles long: and seldom has construction been fraught with so many dangers, including explosions of poisonous gases, incursions of water and outbreaks of fire. This article is completed in part 11.