of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, read before the International Railway Convention of 1895, we take the following: .. The engineer of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland, comparing our American practice with the English says: • As the steel rail (American) is imme diately in contact with the sleepers, the result is a very smooth running road ; at the same time there is no doubt that our steel bull-headed road, with the chairs keyed inside, is far superior, stronger, more perma nent., and better in every way than any flange rail road.' " The chief engineer of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R_. report ing on the American type to the same body. says: .. Rails supported in ' chairs ' have been out of date in this country for many years past, the Viguoles type, or • flange ' rail, as it is termed in this country, having proved immeasurably superior in service and economy on American railroads." The committee being of the opinion that the A. S. O. E. sections are a step in advance, is of the opinion that no new sections should be suggested until we have had full time to learn from experience the merits of these sections. It is recommended that all members of this association whose lines are not using these sec tions be urged to have them adoDted and used on their lines. The results should be carefully compared with results from the old sections. Mr. Manning writes us that II the A; S. C. E. sections are by far the best with the exception that the head should be a little deeper for rails under 90 pounds." Of course, you all know that Mr. Manning has a section of his own for curved track, which he thinks can be applied to straight Jine also with good results. The percentage of curved tracks on a majority of lines is small, so that in the opinion of a majority of the committee, no additional sections are needed to meet the situation. Referring again to the A. S. C. E. sections, we must always bear in mind that the best results from these sections will not be obtained until better work is done at the mills, and this brings us to the chemical con stituents and the mechanical treatment, the latter being probably the more important. Chemical Constituents.-Experiments are being con ducted on a small scale with open hearth nickel steel, Bessemer nickel steel and high and low carbons. These special rails are very high priced, and in the opinion of t.he committee are not likely to come into general use at least for some time. We do not consider it advisable to treat this matter at length at this time any more than to call attention to the fact that in many cases of rails giving good service, we have to look beyond the chemi cal constituents, as we shall see later. Your attention
