The Portland daily press., 1872-09-11
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE

Even the freight cars !ook as if they had been
gotten up for holiday amusement II is i'm
| possible TO have much faith in these babv
looking, oblOng boxes until YOU have rode in
tnem and seen how smoothly and steadily
they fly over the track.
A FEW FIGUREs-coMPARIsoN OF ROLLING
STOCK.
The engines are modelled after the Pennsyl-
vania railroad company's standard patterns.
| Passenger engines have 40 inch drivers. 4
| wheels coupled. One pair small leading
wheels, cylinders 9x16 inches; weight on
| drivers, 10000 pounds; total weight
of engine, $4,000 pounds. Freight engines, 36
inch drivers, 6 wheels coupled One pair
small leadiug wheels; cylinders 11x16 inches;
weight on drivers, 10000 pounds: total
weight, $4,000 pounds.
Passenger and baggage cars have "A inch
wheels. They will seat 35 passengers. The
seats are arranged with two on one side and
Cne on the other side of the passage. They
are handsomely furnished, well ventilated
and exceedingly comfortable. A comparison
of train weights with those of broad guage
will show some of the advantages of the mar
row guage:
Freight engine, 4 feet 81 inches gauge,
weight of driver 10000 pounds; total weight
OF engine and tender, ia, 900 pounds, or 574
tons; load on level, exclusive of engine and
tender, 1440 tons.
Denver and Rie Grande railway, feet
gauge; weight of driver, 1000 pounds; total
weight OF engine and tender, Al 900 pounds,
or 205 tons load on level, exclusive of engine
and tender, 722 tons.
Ofthis load on fnl gauge road. proportion
ate weight of cars being one to one of freight,
there win be: weight of cars, 72O tons weight
of freight, 720 tons.
On three feet gauge the proportionate
weight Ofcars being to 24 of freight, we
have: weight of cars 206 tons; weight of
freight, SIG tons, or nearly two-thirds the
paying matter hauled by the large engine.
The comparis n will be still more startling
when we consider the question of dead
weight. Statistics show that on full-gauged
roads, the proportionate of dead to paying
weight is to 1. Thus on full gauge with
load as above OF 1440 tons, we get:
Weight of freight. .......................: 2ss "
On three feet gauge, with load as above of
| 722 tons, we get:
Weigt Weight Of Of fSeis, Safs ~ tons
Or within ten tons of the paying matter haul
ed by an engine of twice the power.
The constructing engineer of the Denver
and Rio Grande railroad, in special report,
says that the weight of passenger train on
the Pennsylvania Central railroad, of four
cars carrying SO passengers each, with loco
motive, teLder and baggage car, is 421 tons,
while train carrying the same number of
passengers in six cars on the Denver and Rio
Grande road weighs 67f :ons,o less than one
half of the train weight on the full gauge.
On freight trains the comparison is equally
| favorable to narrow gauge. Here are the
| figures:
The weight of iron is generally regulated
by the heaviest weight on any single wheel;
this is invariably on driving wheels of engines.
| Conditions of speed, etc., remaining the
same, if half this weight be taken from driv-
| ing wheels, the same actual duty still being
| performed, the weight of iron can be reduced
one half, and still retain as great or greater
| proportionate strength; the height of rail be-
ing reduced but one-fourth, the head and
| flange remaining OF proportionate weight,
(one-half that of full gagged RAIL- the great
est reduction being made in thickness Of web,
! where weight counts for little in supporting
| strength. Weight and cost of bridging as
regulated also by greatest weight of trains can
be materially reduced. Machine shops,
round houses, car shops, can be made smaller
! and machinery lighter by nearly thirty per
| cent Graduation in plain 1r comparatively
smooth countries is reduced thirty per cent !;
| in rough countries fifty per cent, and in
mountainous regions it amounts often to a
difference between entire practicability and
lmpOSSlpilIy as OeIWeen tue Two gauges.
But the great advantage of narrow guage is
its comparative cheapness. 1t can be built
across level country for little more than
one-half that of the broad gauge, and over a
mountainous country for much less. The
| Kansas Pacific broad gauge, built over a level
plain, cost per mile, with equipments, about
S23,5OO. The Denver and Rio Gr.nde, over
a rougher country, cost per mile, with equip
ments, S13,e 900. A broad gauge railroad tCol-
L 10 r fnE 10 hQAn
built some twenty-five miles toward the coal
and other mines in the mountains. 1t was
proposed to extend it some thirty miles fur
ther; surveys were made and estimates Of
cost obtained, which showed 1t could not be
built for less than S85, 900 pei mile, owing to
the heavy grades, deep cutting, bridging and
extensive tunneling. The project Of exten-
sion on the broad gauge was abandoned and
estimates obtained for narrow gauge. What
do you suppose the cost to be? 1000 per
mile and with no tunaels! The line is, | be-
/ lieve, already under contract.