Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-10-24
A Mile q Minute.

A Mile a Minute.
Any one who will trouble himself to
look at the published timetables of the
Great Western Railway, England, or at
Bradshaw's Railway Guide, will find it
announced that train leaves London
ut twelve o'clock and arrives at Swindon
at leo. The distance is Tx miles,
and the time, from platform to platform,
50 minutes. With heavy train run
ming at this velocity, it is matter of
time to get up the speed and slacken it
so as to have the train we'll under con-
troll on reaching a crowded terminus. I
once heard MIR. Brunei say that such
trains lost seven minutes every time
they were brought to stand-still, by
signals or otherwise. This unquestion-
able authority leaves, therefore, 70
minutes to run 77H miles.
have proved the performance of this
feat repeatedly by sitting in the train,
allowing about five minutes or four
miles at starting for getting up the
speed, end then observing the mile
posts. The train daily does sixty-three
or sixty-five miles in the hour after the
attainment OF full speed. She must do
SO, for she is SO punctual that people
set their watches by her as she goes
past. As stoppages become more fire.
quent as the train travels west from
Swindon, this speed is lowered to about
| fifty-tive miles an hour, and journey
of 200 miles takes four and one-quarter
hours, stoppages for refreshments, etc.,
included.
A train similarly speeded leaves Exc
! ter for London daily, ana the two thun-
derbolts are Tor were) timed to pass
each other at Swindon, and could
nearly every day be seen standing there
side by side. This is not an unexcep-
tional performance. but has been one
daily, Sundays excepted, for more than
twenty years.
| To those readers who take interest in
the mechanical science that achieves
these results will say that the locomo-
tives that draw the passenger trains on
this railway have nine-feet driving
wheels, one pair only. They have two
pairs OF leading wheels and one pairso of
trailing wheels on the engine. the ten
der running on three pairs of wheels.
The four wheels on either side of the
engine almost touch each other, thus
fully utilizing the wheel base, and the
springs are very heavy, consisting Of
thin plates of the finest steel. The en-
CINE rides with wonderful ease, in spite
of her immense weight, engine and
tender weighing about sixty tons.
venture to predict that this speed
will never be surpassed in daily traffic.
The railway on which it is to be seen is
a splendid piece of work, the rails being
as if screwed into solid rock and it is
the only seven-feet gauge line in exist
ence. 1t is not likely that any other
lines of this or wider gauge will ever
be constructed, so that the locomotive
boiler has here attained its maximum
diameter. TO lengthen the boiler is to
impede circulation and draft, and the
365 or more tubes and 1000 square feet
oil. heating surface are figures that prob
ably will never be exceeded. Three or
four cylinders are no better than two,
which can we'll utilize all the steam the
boiler can make, if provided with ade-
quate driving wheels; but six-feet
wheels two pairs coupled y are mere
toys to run at sixty miles an hour with,
ut any distance.
The engines used for this traffic are
chiefly built by the company at their
Swindon works, a few engines of SINH
lar proportions being constructed by
firm in Lancashire. The freight en-
gines on this line have three pairs of
driving wheels, each pair coupled to
the next; but for those engines draw
ing heavy loads, when high speed is not
required, the small six.feet driving
wheels are considered large enough.
1t is with this diameter that some of
your readers assert that sixty miles an
hour cannot be made. l should he
surprised if it could.-ANGLo-AMERI-
CAN, in Nep York Sun.