Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-09-16
The Big Engine.
Philadelphia Weekly Times

"Class K, No. q" Engine is III,
first OF series of ten new locomo
tives now being built at the Pennsyl
vsnis Railroad shops a. Altoona fol-
passenger service between this cit,
and New York. As it is now, the
present limit to passenger trains il
five cars, and where there are more
1t is necessary TO run two sections
or feil TO make the schedule time oil
two hours from city to city. The
new engines are intended to Gil the
demand for the increased power and
speed. All of them will be patterned
after "No. 2" which weighs 10000
pounds, or As tons, and has driving
wheels ca inches in diameter snd le-
by.24 inch cylinders. 1t burns about
the same amount Of fuel as the ordi.
nary 33 or seton engines, and can
climb the various grades of twenty
FIVE feet and less to the mile with
seven or more cars successfully. 1t
has been running through for ten
days, and has never failed to meet
the requirements for draft and speed.
The object in building these large
locomotives is not so much for speed
as to combine rapid transit with per-
feet safety when heavy trains are to
be transported.
You ask-having by this time be
come accustomed to the easy motion
of the train-"when will we have
some running ?" SAT the top of the
bill" This means that grade two
and halt miles long will be climbed
at the rate OF forty. nine miles per
hour. So you watch, and while you
are watching you see on either side
of the tracks great fields of different
kinds OF plants, instead of grain as
up to this point, and looking around
for an explanation you observe thai
this is Bloomsbury and that the train
is speeding by Landreth's ed
farms. Then you think of the prom.
ised mile minute and are surprised
to find that mile has already been
covered in fifty some seconds. The
motion of the engine is the same and
except for the celebrated action of
the driving wheels and the increased
rapidity with which telegraph poles,
trees, houses, etc, are seemingly fly
ing to the rear, you would not know
but that the old forty i've mile time
was being continued. A mile or two
and the rear end of Trenton is seen.
The engine slows up as the train
passes from Ponnsylvanla into Jer,
sey across the Delaware, going to
the capitol. A slow run by the plat.
form in Trenton is made. 1t is
reached in forty four minutes, dis
lance OF thirty three miles, and the
journey is continued. Going out at
the other side You are attracted first
by the novelty Of seeing an in com,
ing train coaled in two minutes at
the elevated shutes of the company.
Princeton Junction, forty-two and
one.half miles, is passed in fifty FIVE
minutes and Monmouth Junction.
forty-eight miles, in sixty-two min,
utes Approaching Monmouth juno
ton a very interesting operation
takes place-that of taking in water
without stopping the train. A mile
back OF the station two long, sheeny
lines are seen ahead in the centers of
the tracks and near approach shows
them TO be shallow troughs, 1900
teet long, fourteen inches wide and
seven inches deep, filled with water.
Without any decrease in the speed
the fireman descends to the tootbosrd
and stands by an upright lever at
the right OF the tender Presently
signal at the side of the track is
reached and with rapid movement
the lever is thrown back and a rush
ing sound is heard. The lever drops
scoop at the bottom OF the tender
which leads to tho water tank and
the water is forced b. the momentum
of the train into the tank, which is
hlled before the 800 feet are trav
oraa1