HC Deb 07 August 1879 vol 249 c393
MR. ANDERSON

asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether, seeing he has made a Parliamentary Paper of the North Eastern Railway Engineer's Report on the Westinghouse Brake, he will ask the Caledonian Railway Company to get a Report from their Engineer on the Steel-McInnes brake, and make that a Parliamentary Paper also?

MR. J. G. TALBOT

Sir, a copy of the Report to which the hon. Gentleman refers, which has been sent to us by Mr. Harrison, the Engineer of the North Eastern Railway Company, was presented to the House on the Motion of the hon. Member for Forfarshire (Mr. J. W. Barclay); but the President of the Board of Trade has repeatedly stated that we decline to give any opinion as to the relative merits of competing brakes. With regard to Papers on the subject of continuous brakes, my noble Friend (Viscount Sandon) has stated that as this controversy excites so much interest, in Parliament, he thinks it right to lay upon the Table any Papers of interest concerning the various brakes which are sent to the Board of Trade, which hon. Members may wish to have made public in this way; but we must entirely decline to ask particular railway companies for reports as to particular forms of brake.