The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-11 00:00:00

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OFT LOCOMOTIVT,
SEVENTY M ILES PER lii; W . 'MAIN
OF NINETY TONS WEIGHT..
• Mach misconception exists end much error i : current
respecti amerg-the—exsttrat_iary working power of—n-pas'
senger engine—the first o
,a Isasetnner eM-
ployed in propelling some of the express trains ef, the
Great Western during the•past week. A few years since
the world was unwilling to believe that 20 or 30 tons
could be taken at 13 miles per hour by a locomotive.
Learned men ridienled the absurdity of the proposition.
They lectured and wrote with great display of scientific
knowledge about adhesion and the resistance of the
wind, and demonstrated " by mathematical data" that it
was absolutely impossible to reach a velocity of 20 mites an
hour-with-20 or 30 tons. We have now la Lew bread gatego
loComotive, scarcely in working order, daily taking the
Great Western heavy express trains, composed of first
and second class passengers, at a maximum speed of
sixty-nine and seventy miles per hour, end at
an average rate, exclusive of stoppae,es, or spore
than sixty miles per hour, over a fine nearly
200 miles in length. Some serious but quite uninten-
tiontil errors respecting the perineenauees of the eneiee
leave been published by a morning contemporary, and as
a deep and general interest is felt, in I e progrsre of the
railway system towards perfection, ue proceed at once
to give the actual worhitig of the engine from the notes
of our own reporter, who was present and timed the
working of the engine.
• The "first trip of which our -contest:Forney, upon tl
authority of a eerrespoudent, gives the work:pg., ta.s rn
experimental one, made from .iniddington to. Swit.d, n
and back. It is stated by our contemporary, in noticing
the power of the engine as displayed in tee journey,
that the engine and tender weigh filty•six tons, and that
it was ascertained the engine could; with a load of 140
tons, travel at the average speed of 55 miles per hour.
Tais 'is incorrect. The engine and tender, taking the
weighte over
of thehe
e k
latteroi
e dniitstue
with herrun,
complementweigh43,
of
aWaetre?ae ndeok
-and not 56 tons; and the average speed to and.from
.Swindon, deducting time lost in stoppsges, was 50, and
t
not 56 miles per hour. Our contemporary states that
the engine, without her water, weighs 36 tons, whereas
it is, with water, 281 tons only. tier maximum speed,
with the 140 tens, on a falling gradient of four feet per
mile, was 57 miles per hour. But the trip in question
was an experimental one, for the purpose of ascertaining
foundl:er
een;engine-drivers
iktnehea.b:
fl
rat
ihslte,
episinpgeeai
sweet."
dtwk. notee(r
how the engine would work with a heavy passenger
laolanalmost required
stlwt wasartestsi waste,.f,7,:roer work
at
reduced,the
and she is now in very good working ortler, and running
The chief errors of our contemporary's corespondent
are in the details of the working of the Ordinrit3. 9h.
45m. morning express down train of Monday lest'. On
that occasion the new engine took tie: Hain from Pad-
dington throligh—in- Exeter. Ile states that the 194-
miles were performed •in 214 minutes, whilkiti the
actual time was. but 208 minutes. The extra six
minutes reduce the actual speed of the wain manly two
miles per hoar. He makes the ime occupied in run-
ning the 53 miles to Dideot 55 minutes, whereas it was
but 52 minutes. This it istaise reduces the ruin of speed
three miles per hour. The time from Dideot to Swindon,
24 miles, is stated to have been 30 minutes, whereas it
was but 25m. 50, This erri.r mikes the velocity above
four miles less thin it really t, as.
It will be found that travelling at the speed attained
by the engine on Monday, anti in feet very day
she has been at work, an engine loses :sheet
five minutes in slackening her velocity when ar-
riving at, and getting up when departing from
a station. The engine made five stoppages be-
tweet Paddington and Exeter ; therefore 25 minutes have
to be deducted from her working, exclusive of the titre
lost while the train was at a state of rest at the stations,
in order to arrive at the actual working speed of the
engine. Deducting, therefore, 25 minutes for the de-
crease of speed when arriving a', and the getting into
speed when leaving, the five stations, it will be seen
that her average tractive power, with the ordinrry heavy
express trains of the Great Western, can eccomplish
194 miles in 183 minutes, or at a rate of some thing like
sixty-three miles per hour. But even this does not
fairly show the real power of this extraordinary loco-
motive. If we exclude the comparatively slow rate at
which the engine driver ran down, not up, the inclines,
and the loss of time when arriving at and departing
from the stations, and if we seso le ave out of the
calculation the whole distance from Taunton, from
which place to Exeter the power of the engine was
reduced to prevent the train running into the latter
station too much before her time, the rate of travelling
varied from about sixty-two to sixty-nine miles per
hour. The 34 miles between the 13th and 47th
mile posts were performed in 31 min. 30 EtC., in-
clusive of the time lost by shutting off the steam,
while going through the Slough station, at or nearly
65 miles per hour. In this distance there are about 4
miles of falling gradient of 4 feet per mile; about 81
miles of level and about 20i miles of rising gradient, 18
of which are 4 feet per mile. At the 91st mile-post, we
come to a rising gradient of 8 feet per mile, which
reaches beyond the 98th mile post. The 91st Mile-post
was passed at 11 hours 45 min. 53 sec., undone engine
came abreast of the 98th at 11 hours 52 min. 46 see.,
performing, therefore, the ? miles up the incline in 6 min.
53 sec., or at rather more than 61 miles per hone. The
train left Bristol (118 miles), at 12 hours 39 nun., and
by the time it leached the 125th mile, it was proceeding
at nearly 70 miles per hour. A purlieu of the road from
Bristol to Taunton is proctietely a level, the remainder
being steep undulating gradisnts. The engine took the
train over the line, between the 125th and the 161st
mile-posts—viz., 36 miles, in 33 min. 25 sec., orat a rata
of more than 64 miles and a half pre hour. The jour-
ney from the 166th to the 191st milespests, running up
au incline of 1 in 79, and 1 in SO, at an average speed of
not quite 48 miles per licair, vees performed in 28 min.
18 sece•or at the'rste of 53 miles per hour. The power
of the engine wasnas we have already stated, reduced
after passing Taunton. But with this reduction of speed
the train got into Exeter 9 minutes before time.
Between Swindon and Beth the eneiue was worked
much below her power. .The diStance, ten, was done
in 33 ruin. 15 sec., bat it could have easily been gone
over in 28 minutes. The keeping back the train between
Taunton and Exeter, occasioned a loss of about fi min.
The time lost in stopping at the stations was, in conse-
quence of the engite arriving at them before the stated
time upwards of 52 minutes, whereas the time should
not exceed 22 minutes. if we therefore deduct from
the 4-hours and 21 min, occupied by the journey from
the station at Paddington to the teflon at Exeter, the
30 min. unnecee-ary delay at the its-times. and the 10
or 12 minutes that might very ea •ily halve been saved
between Swindon and Bath and Taunton and Exeter,
we sae that this class of engine could work the express
train over the 194 miles in 3 hours and 40 minutes, in-
cluding the refreshment stoppage of 10 min at Swindon,
as well as the four other stoppageseor at an average rate
between platform and platenrm, of nearly 53 miles
per hour. IN'ith engines such as this Birmingham
might be reached in about two hours, Liverpool and
Manchester in four hours, and Edinburgh in eight
hours. Dover, by its present circuitous and most incon-
venient route might—as only one stoppage to take in
water would be requisite—be reached with ease in an
hour and a half, and with a direct line in an hour and a
quarter. Upon a line worked with these powerful en-
gines, the traveller might leave. London at six o'clock in
the morning, reach Edinburgh at two in the afternoon,
remain an hour in the city, and return to London by
eleven o'clock at night. In other works, he might
breakfast in Loudon, luncheon in York, dine and trans-
act business at Edinburgh, ane yet eat his supper in
London on the same day. On Thursday the express
train, weighing 90 tons, and worked by the same ene
gine, travelled from Dideot to Paddington, 53 miles, in
51 minutes—that is, from station to station. The speed
between the 47th and 2d mile posts averaged seventy
miles per hour ; and yet, twenty years ago, it was dee
wonstrated to be impossible to make a locomotive take
20 or 30 tens at 13 miles per hour.—Herald.
e