Tramway rail imperfections.
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NVe pointed out several weeks ago that it had been alleged, at a meeting of the Leith Town Council, that motor-wagon traffic had damaged the tramway rails in that town. This naive suggestion has been taken up in various quarters, and it is, therefore, not out of place that
we should direct attention to the other side of the question. There arc a great number of cases, and particularly is this so when local stone instead of hard granite is employed to pave the road surface adjoining the rails, where the projecting metals constitute a serious menace to all forms of traffic, let alone motor vehicles. The wrenching icIe strains which are imposed by the rails make themselves apparent in heavy wear and tear, if not actual fracture, upon the wheels, axle flanges, collars and washers, and even upon the axles themselves. We have known an instance in this country where the rails projected so much above the paving that it was impossible for a motor wagon to draw over the metals for more than one hundred yards at a stretch, and it is notorious that American street railway companies deliberately lay their rails above the street surface with the avowed object of keeping off other wheeled traffic, which is only able to cross the rails at angles approaching ninety degrees, and never to run upon them. Tramway companies and local authorities in this country are required, by the terms of their orders, to keep their tracks in proper condition, and, if the tops of the rails are not flush with or slightly below the normal road surface, the owners of the rails deserve no sympathy when their property is damaged, and when they are held responsible for die extensive injury which is sustained by vehicular traffic generally owing to the imperfections in question. Popular indignation will rise if there is any failure to maintain tramlines in a safe condition.