The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1871-10-05

the world. Place yourself on any good
road Of the ordinary gauge, glide along
with scarcely jog, at the rate Of TWEEN
ty-ive miles IN hour; and you have an
idea of our ride on the narrow gauge no
iolting or humping, no rocking, up
grades and down grades. Without the
least trouble we 90 to Littleton, eleven
miles distant, and return. The rest can be
told in figures. We will only add that .
speed Of twenty-five miles an hour is At
tainable, a. we saw it practically tested.
THE ROAD BED
is 8 feet in width tics 81 feet in length.
The ties of the ordinary gauge are feet
long. The narrow gauge ties are rather
longer than necessary, projecting con-
siderably on each side. The gauge is
exactly feet; rails 30 pounds to the
yard; length. "a feet.
ROLLING sTOCK-ENGINEs.
The freight engines have SO inch drive
whecls-six wheels coupled cylinders
g l6; pair small lead wheels, and
weigh, exclusive Of tender, 8 tons; with
tender, Is tons. The passenger engines
have AZ inch drive Wheels wheels
coupled; pair small lead wheels, and
weigh, exclusive of tender, tons; with
tender, ID tons. The engines are coal
burners, and arc accompanied BY 4
wheel tender.
PASSENGER CARS
have 8 "a inch wheels length, SO feet;
over platform As feet. Width outside,
Z feet; inside, 81. Height inside to cen.
ter of dome, u feet height above rail
to floor beams, q inches; height above
rail to top Of dome, 10 feet 2 inches.
Seats tor IS passengers, arranged with
double seat on one side and single seat
on the opposite side. Aislcs between
seats, 2 feet wide. Each car is divided
into two compartments and is well-vcn-
tilated and handsomely finished in the
best style. Another style of car is 10 he
added, with revolving chairs, seating %
passengers.
FREIGHT CARS
have four wheels and are of two sizes,
twelve and sixteen feet in length, respcc-
lively; width outside feet; inside, 81;
Height, 6 feet inside. Door on the end
of side.
PLATFORM CARS
have 4 wheels, and have same length and
breadth as freight cars.
A comparison Of the relative weights
on the ordinary gauge with those Of the
narrow gauge, will give clearer idea Of
the difference between the two.
We take an ordinary local train on the
Pennsylvania Central AS representative
of the old width track.
ORDINARY GCAGE.
Four passenger cars, each seating So
passengers, each car weighing 20 tons,
80 tons; l baggage car, II tons; l engine
and tender, 524 tons; total train weight,
1861 tons. This train will seat 2l2 pas
sengcrs.
NARROW GAUGE
to carry the same number of passengers {:
6 passenger cars, eacl, seating IS passen-
gers, and each car weighing tons, AZ
tons, baggage car, 4 tons; engine and
tender, 20 tons; total train weight, Y
tons.
WEIGHT ON DRIVERS.
Ordinary gauge, 20 tons; narrow
gauge, 10 tons.
This gives the narrow gauge engine
half the power Of the other with less than
half the load to draw, so that it is obvious
that the smaller engine can carry its load
whenever the other can carry its load.
80 . q oh Qvsn
unusually heavy and based on the suppo-
sitiOn that the trains are full. AS the cars
are seldom loaded to their capacity, still
greater advantage is claimed tor the mar
row gauge in the smaller proportion of
dead weight carried.
Freight trains load OH level. exclusive
Of engine and tender: ordinary gauge,
lao tons; narrow gauge, 722 tons.
The proportiOnate weight Of cars to
freight on the ordinary gauge being ! to l
we have weight of cars, 72O tons; weight
of freight 72O tons.
On the marrow gauge, with the proper
ton of cars to freight l TO u, we have:
weight of cars, 2O6 tons; weight Of
freight, SIC tons, or two-thirds of the
paying matter hauled by the large en-
ginc.
Statistics show that the proportion of
dead to paying weight on the tull gauge is
4 to l, or that each Car carries one quarter
Of its capacity. This tendency would rea-
sonably be lcsscned on the narrow gauge,
but taking the same proposition as the
other, with the ordinary gauge with loads
Of 1440 tons, we have: weight of cars,
1852 tons; weight Of freight, 2.s tons.
On the narrow gauge, with load Of 722
tons: weight of cars, HI tons; weight of
freight, 27s tons or within 10 tons OF
paying matter hauled by an engine Of
twice the power.
COST OF CONSTRUCTION.
1t is hardly necessary to add that the
cost of building q narrow gauge IL greatly
reduced in weight Of iron, bridging,
building OF machine shops and round
houses, where less material in all cases is
required. In track laying three men han
die the rails, two headers and one hecler.
Gradation in level countries. according to