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

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WORKING POWER
132
oFOMILES
NoelpNt
iEO
oTPeyEx H
eTt
e 0 a
nNO HOUR WITH
much
7uEe
error A TRAIN
SEAVEuEchNT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.
respecting the extraordinary working power iosfcuarrepatn-t
pselonygeedr engine—the
inepi:g first of a class—that has been em-
some of the express trains of 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.
ar wad
threoedst
,o,wnbiytahnm(giar
tehtahet
ai
resistance st pi
c 1
aa
ly doaft ientific
Learned men ridiculed the absurdity of the pro aside
kTw
noe
dwy
elae cdu
gdt
eu
dr
ene
mhd
ooai sdt
lwe
‘to
Torei
hei
naa
gcv he
oanr vod ewe l
roa, c
di
ntar.iwloyfh2tra,o,kamianig
agl e sat
hga nee
ot
that a the
h i et
ihwo oureaos
ma bov sit hvl ue2:oesleo3lrirm3eoeployt os impossible
inisb.
Great Western heavy express trains, composed of first
and second class passengers, at a maximum speed of
sixty-nine cud seventy miles per hour, and at
tahnanavesicag,ye rmaitiee,:a expeelrusivheouortf
errors respecting osvwePrPaagcslineofnemaorl7-
othee
performances butesqoufitte uninten-
tionalhecine2oo miles in length. Some
have been published by a morning contemporary, and as
a deep and general interest is felt in th
railway system towards perfeetien, we eprprogrdtss at °llne
of
the
LO give the actual working of the engine ecfromn thenc
of our own reporter, who was present and timed notes
working of the engine.
The first trip of which our contemporary, upon tie
authority of a correspondent, gives the working, was an
experimental one, made from Paddington to Swied(li
arid back. It is stated by our contemporary, hi noticing
the power of the engine as displayed in tte journey,
that the engine and tender weigh fifty-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.
This is incorrect. The engine and tender, taking the
average weight of the latter with her complement of
water and coke over the whole distance run, weigh 43,
and not 56 tons; and the average speed' to and from
Swindon, deducting time lost in stoppages, was 50, and
tiits h,
the‘ vith
uwe tons,tr, 2
onB a tonsfa
not 56 miles per hour. Our contemporary states that
the engine, without her water, weighs 36 tons, whereas
w
lhwooaawds t h
an
l et xp
was experimental
engine would I°linnigY•gralideierntmoafxii m'ouurni feet spepeed;
mile, was 57 miles per hour. But the trip in question
e
mfond
eun ta
that°n thefor engine slid
clipodsenootf
workasce at ascertaining
work with a heavy passenger
required pressure; the blasto pipe was therefore reduced,
and she is now in very
egdr7v:aorking order, and running
call
The chief errors of our contemporary's "sweet."
are in the details of the workiet theordinary correspondent
45m. morning express down train of Monday last. On
9h.
that occasion the new engine took the train from
Pad-
dington through to Exeter. lie states that
the
193
miles were performed in 214 minutes, whereas the
actual time was but 208 minutes. The extra six
minutes reduce the actual speed of the train nearly two
miles per hoar. He makes the lime occupied in run-
ning the 53 miles to Didcot 55 minutes, whereas it was
but 52 minutes. This mistake reduces the rate of speed
three miles per hour. The time from Didcot to Swindon,
24 miles, is stated to have been 30 minutes, whereas it
was but 25m. 50s. This error makes the velocity above
four miles less than it really was.
It will be found that travelling at the speed attained
by the engine on Monday, and in fact every day
she has been at work, an engine loses about
five minutes in slackening her velocity when ar-
riving at, and getting it up when departing from
a station. The engine made five stoppages be-
tween Paddington and Exeter; therefore 25 minutes have
to be deducted from her working, exclusive of the time
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 at, and the getting into
speed when leaving, the five stations, it will be seen
that her average traetive_power withthe ordinary
heavy
express trains of the Great i'V'
estern can accomplish
194 miles in 183 minutes, or at a rate of something 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 also leave 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 sec., 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 20k 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., and the engine
came abreast of the 98th at 11 hours 52 min. 46 sec.,
performing, therefore, the 7 miles up the incline in 6 min.
53 sec., or at rather more than 61 miles per hour. The
train left Bristol (118 miles), at 12 hours 39 min., and
by the time it reached the 125th mile, it was proceeding
at nearly 70 miles per hour. A portion of the road from
Bristol to Taunton is practically a level, the remainder
being steep undulating gradients. The engine took the
train over the line, between the 125th and the 16Ist
mile-posts—viz., 36 miles, in 33 min. 25 sec., orat a rate
of more-than 64 miles and a half per hour. The jour-
ney from the 166th to the 191st mile-posts, running up
• • OW
of the engine was, as we nave—FlL reauy seLrtr, reautes f----
after passing Taunton. _
But with this reduction of speed
the train got into Exeter 9 minutes before time.
Between Swindon and Bath the engine was worked
much below her power. The distance, 29:1, was done
in 33 min. 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 6 min.
The time lost in stopping at the stations was, in conse-
quence of the engine 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 station at Exeter, the
30 min. unnecessary delay at the stations, and the 10
or 12 minutes that might very easily have been saved
between Swindon and Bath and Taunton and Exeter,
we see that this class of engine could work the express
train over the 194 miles in 3 hours and 40 minutes, hi..
eluding the refreshment stoppage of 10 min, at Swindon,
as well as the four other stoppages, or at an average rate
between platform and platform, of nearly 53 miles
per
hour. With 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 inco9-
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-
gi-nes, 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 words, he might
breakfast in London, luncheon in York, dine and trans-
act business at Edinburgh, and yet eat his supper in
London on the same day. On Thursday the express
train, weighing 90 tons, and worked by the same en-
gine,
travelled from Didcot to Paddington, 53 miles, in
51 minutes—that is, from station to ant. n. The speed
between the 47th and 2d mile posts averaged seventy
miles per hour ; and yet, twenty years ago, it was d_e •
monstrated to be impossible to make a locomotive take
20 or 30 tens at 13 miles per hour.--Herald.

Pti.ICE SD.