Morris tribune., 1881-06-23
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OVER A MILE A MINUTE.
Description of the Locomotive Fontaine
Going at the Rate of One Hundred Feet
Per Second.

Description of the Locomotive Fontaine
Going at the Rate of One Hundred Feet
Per Second.
The papers recently published an account
of the famous trip of the Vanderbilt party
over the Southern Canada railway, after the
new Fontaine engine. 1t was written fror,
the standpoint of one on board, and as the
speed of train always seems greater to an
outsider who sees it 60 by, the following
from the Plymouth, Mass, Memorial will
be of interest: sts. q.
The train upon which was traversing
the Canada Southern had passed st. Thom-
as and was approaching Charing Cross
about the middle of the afternoon, misty,
drizzling suggestion of rain at the time
prevailing. One or two of those busy cir
culators of sensational news, always to, be
to be found on long distance trains
and, in fact, in every place where an assem-
blage of mortals is to be found-had been
informing passengers, right and left, that o
remarkable event was about to occur, and
that wonderful engine, of most singular
proportions, would soon make appearance,
and fairly fly past us, so peculiar was its
powers and construction. OF course the
most exaggerated semi-descriptions were
given of the new tangled machine, which
more so as they passed from mouth to
mouth. At last the train slowed, although
no station was in sight, side track appeared
ahead with its connecting switch, and We
were shortly at rest upon its iron, by this
time with curiosity fully aroused, and the
monotony of the Canadian journey fairly
broken by the apparent near approach of
notable event.
"All the males of the company on the
train deserted their seats, and finally the
car, while the ladies congregated at the
wide open windows next the passing track,
and all prepared to note minutely what
should take place. The original grading
had made bank from eight to ten feet high
on the side nearest the mail track, and up
on this elevation, and it's accompanying rail
fen e, the company squatted and perched.
1t was not long before the coming attraction
was heralded by little cloud of black smoke,
which, no larger than mans hand
when it first came into sight away
down the track, increased in breadth and
volume with marvellous rapidity as it ap-
preached, until it could be seen spouting
and putting from the jet black stack under
meath it, while the whole affair began to as
sumo proportions. So far nothing showed
different from the ordinary railway train,
and it soon became evident that whatever
estimate was made of the affair must be ac-
complished in hurry, at a mere glance
afforded while the appartons flying by.
The engineer of the waiting train leaned
far out of his cab and watched intently the
approaching mass, which had now taken on
the attribute of changing roar in addition
to the features presented to the eyesight.
The fireman steadied himself by clingingto
q section of his machine; the train men
hung on BY the lids of the doors Of the
/ fha lodi
their head coverings that they might stretch
their necks still further out from the win
dows. With sharp, yelping cry the flying
monster darted past, remaining but the
merest instant opposite any one point OF
view, actually clearing our waiting train In
less than one and half seconds, and not
giving time for the most ardent worshipper
of this worlds greatness to bestow even the
most insignificant wink upon the passing
Vanderbilt. ..
"At this point-as was proved when the
details of the trip were announced-the
Fontaine was making its best time for
that trip, and it actually passed over Sec
ton which included Charing Cross and st.
Thomas, distance of 113 miles, in SO min
utes, and was really travelling about one
hundred feet per second when it passed our
waiting train. Seen from the bank-upon
which I stood-the flying train presented
the very poetry of Locomotive motion, and
was impressive in a way hard to describe.
There are few roads in the country upon
which speed can be kept up as it was that
day on the Canada Southern, for hundreds
of miles of distance. with perfect safety,
and no unusual swaying or other movement
of the train to characterize the fact. Sholt
as was the time occupied in the passage,
one had time to distinctly notice the pecu-
liar construction of the Fontaine, or at least,
the most noticeable peculiarities IN
her make-up-the elevated driving
wheels and the machinery at the top,
instead of underneath or at the side of the
machine. The cylinders and piston rods,
pitched at an angle of apparently forty
five degrees, and working high up in the
crank of these elevated drivers, seemed
singular objects enough, while the driving
wheels themselves appeared to have no con-
nection with the motion Of the engine, SO
far were they from the track and so appar-
emily out of place, according to all former
experiences. The fact that these elevated
drivers played by friction upon another
pair, the last named resting in the usual
position upon the track, could not be noted
in the quick passage of the train-at least,
I could not discern the movement; and
perhaps I should not have been able to
catch all that I did of the movement and
features of the phenomenon, had not
known something by description of this
new-fangled affair"