The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1869-05-22
Something About Railroads.

We. on the outside, hear great dqa'
about ballast Tor railroads. Now "iia' %
ballast, and why do they call 1t So
Well, those tons OF iron, men, woihe''
cattle and merchandise, which Gaily 20
rushing over the rails must rest on some
firmer foundation than the natural soy.
So, often after the track is laid and me
road seems finished to the uninitlated eye,
the ties, track and all must be ralssa
again and gravel or broken stone deposit
ed underneath to the depth OF from qne
to two feet. This makes a hard, secure
foundation. not given to settle, and allow
ing the rain TO drain throgh those eAfi'-
vations alongside the track BaiastInS
on a first-cla.s road is always going on:
The essence of a railroad safety is hard
aud perfectly level track What if it
settle in one. place even Il couple OF
inches There comes bent rail, and
when twenty five tons of engine and
many moro tons OF cars rush over it, there
is an unequal strain somewhere. One
train passes, and maybe it cracks; the
next, it cracks a little more by-and-by
there is broken rail, train of the
track, smasil-up, coroners jury inVes-
tigatloa over your insured remains, and
all the other concomitants of railroad life
and death Such is ballast. The Lon
don Golfers threw their gravel ballast
into the Thames The railroad men
found it to be just what they wanted to
make road foundations. So they called it
ballast, the name answering for one pur-
pose as well as for the other.
Fast running wears out track in fast
time. On certain road there was a
double up-and down track on a grade OF
forty feet to the mile. The up trains ran
slow the down trains ran fast; the down
tracks wore out one fourth faster than the
up The outer rail on q curve also wears
much faster than the inner one. Passen
ger locomotives running from twenty-five
to forty miles per hour do not wear out as
fast as those used in hauling freight
trains Not drawing such heavy loads
the strain upon the boilers and interna
machinery Of the passenger ensinc is not
so great.
Small freight cars are now being pre-
ferred to large ones. They are more cas-
| lily and cheaply loaded, more conveniently
handled at stations, carry more freiSht il
proportion and in case Of accident stant
smashing better than large ones. Tn,
slower freight trains are run, the les
wear on the rails. Rails wear out at tn,
joints first. American iron for rails Ii
now preferred to English. Col. Wilmo
of the Royal Engineers, in testing th'
English iron, found none which woult
bear strain Of $4,000 pounds to tn,
/ aI NJ, XNola e hn TnIt
States, got tests averaging from 40,00t
to $4,000 lbs., to the square inch. Botl
were testing metal for ordnance purposes
! The American cast iron wheel drove TIL
English wrought iron wheels from tn
railway Of Canada. The English max
better roads than we; but our rollin:
stock, especially the locomotives, is super
ior.
\ rail lasts about five years. The Pc
tent causes of its destruction are lamIna
tion and splitting. Locomotives hung OIL
imperfect and rigid springs, hammer
to pieces. Steel rails are in Englan'
coming into general use. The directo
of one Of the principal Pennsylvani
roads remarks that the first railway tai
ent we possess, openly avows that th
only salvation Of our railway system Wi
be found in the use of steel metal 70
our rails
There sould be on every mile of rail
road 2,400 cross ties Broken axles an
wheels as we'll as most other accidents
the running machinery occur from tn
shock occasioned by passing from fu
bearing on a cross tie over the vacan
space between them. Some railroad me
advocate a continuous bearing Of timbe
underneath the rail, doing away wit
cross ties One hundred dollars wort
of car, rail or locomotive will wear out t
the amount of fifteen dollars yearly.
WELL DEMONSTRATIONS afte
generation have felt as we now feel, an