The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-05-29
MARROW GAUGE.
More About the Narrow Gauge Rail
ways.

for $1,000 per mile, when it costs 81 ,OOO
per mile to build a four-foot ten-lnch
gauge track on the best located routes.
The cost OF building and equipping a
railroad OF narrow gauge is in the pro-
portion OF its cube root to that Of a
wide gauge. The cube of 3 feet is q.
The cube OF feet 81 inches, which is
the narrowest of existing gauges, equals
lO4, and in this proportion does the cost
OF building and equipping roads Of these
respective tracks differ; $27OO will
build as much three-foot road as $l0,-
400 will construct Of 4 feet 81 inch
track.
To illustrate this principle: A man
t,oice the height of boy will weigh
eight times as much. If the boy is
three feet high, and weighs, say, 4Ol
pounds, a man ) feet 8! inches, built in
the same proportion, will weigh l56
pounds, although he is only = feet s!
inches taller than the boy. A common
freight car weighs eight TO ten tons, and
carries a burden of ten tons. A freight
locomotive weighs about thirty tons.
On a three-foot track it has been found
that iron-made fret ght cars need weigh
but 1900 pounds, and were amply strong
enough to carry three tons OF freight.
In this case the car can carry four times
its own weight, whereas on the wide
track it can bear load only or slightly
exceeding its own weight Twelve mar
row gauge iron cars only weigh as much
as an ordinary wood and iron freight
truck, but they will convey thirty-six
tons OF freight wherever the big truck
can safely move under OIL y one-fourth
as much freight. An empty freight
train of one locomotive, tender, and ~
trucks will weigh over 200 tons, and,
when fully loaded, as much more, or 400
tons. One-half OF the power OF the To-
conceive is, therefore, consumed in car
rying "dead,weight," and the other half
in moving burden. A locomotive, as we
said, weighs 80 tons; its tender, with
coal and water, weighs IL tons, and the
two together Il tons; SO that the dead
weight OF the engine and tender Is "A
per cent. OF the empty train, or IL per
cent. OF the laden train. The weight
on each driving-wheel Of u locomotive
is between Zee and Sir tons. The injury
sustained by the track, under this enor-
nous pressure on single point OF the
rail, must be obvious at glance. One
locomotive, exerting pressure OF six tons
on each Of its driving-wheels, will do
the rails more harm than hundred To-
comotives running at the same speed
whose wheels press the rail with but
one ton and a half OF pressure. In the
one case the iron is pressed Beyond It's
resisting power; It's fibre is strained
and crushed, and the rails soon wear
out under such excessive weight. But
TO obtain the necessary adhesive power
to move the train and its load up grades,
locomotives must be built enormously
heavy, which speedily deteriorates and
DESTROYS the rails; but there is no help
Tor il on wide track except by the use
of steel rails, and they are liable to
snap like plpe-stems under the lnfiu-
ence of frost and the weight OF the loco
motive.
On the narrow gauge track the IocomO-
tive may be a tank engine, and carry
its own coal and water and dispense
with a tender. 1t need not weigh but
six or eight tons with its supply OF fuel
and water. The pressure OF its wheels
will, therefore, be but one and half to
two tons each. A pony locomotive,
weighing six tons, with ton aud a
half pressure on the rails from each
wheel, will draw at the same speed
more than one-quarter as much load as
thir,yton locomotive, because part
of the weight OF the latter has to be
thrown on the guiding wheels, which
subtracls rather than adds TO the pow
er of the machine. Four such pony
engines will do the work Of the big one
with ease. Together they will weigh
with their fuel and water, about thirty
tons: whereas the big. locomotive and
its tender weighs forty-seven tons.
The former will move three tons OF
freight for each ton of "dead-weight
the latter will scarcely move but one
ton Of freight to ton OF dead-weIght.
In passenger locomotives and cars the
relative superiority Of the narrow over
the wide track, in an economical point
OF view, is even greater than in freight
trains, as can easily be demonstrated by
ANALYSIS OF the respective cost OF opera
ting each style OF road. No material is
Eound anywhere in illinois with which
10 make good country roads, except at
few points where the limestone crops
out OF the surface OF the ground. In
nine-tenths of the State there is abso-
lutely no material to be had for macad-
AIMING or planking roads. There can
be nothing better for the turnpike
prairie mud roads, which are almost i'm
passable for most of the very portions
of the year when the farmers have most
time TO take their crops to market, than
narrow track railway. 1t is the best
solution OF the difficulty that, perhaps.
will ever be devised or provided. They
are so cheaply constructed that they
NAV run through every township, and
in sight OF every farm in the State
The repairs needed on such roads and
rolling stock would be light, in compar-
ison with that on the common kind,
and accidents would be less frequent and
altogether less, destructive to life and
property. the unproftableness of the
New York and Erie railroad, and It's
inordinate cost for repairs, and greater
frequency OF accidents are justly attrlbu'
table to its six-foot gauge, which must
ere long be abandoned, as the road will
never yield satisfactory profit till that
is done
Sowing Grass Seed In Minnesota.