The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-11-07
HAHNvILLE, LOUISIANA, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER Z, 1885.

equipment. The cars are SmalI-thero
is no doubt of it. They are narrower
and they are shorter, and to the Ameri-
can eye they look even shorter than
they really are, because they have no
projecting platform at the ends, no
overhanging roof or hood, but are
buekled close up to each other, and
their contact controlled by small metal
buffers, the springs of which allow a
play of from eighteen inches to two
feet and a half between car and car,
The Miller platform, the Janney
coupler, the link and pin-of all the
familiar devices of the United States
there is not one to be seen. The brakesp
None visible. Nor, for the matter of
that, brakesman. This influential
and numerous person has no existence
in England. There is not even rudi-
mentary type of him. That you do
not find him is the first stern intima-
ton that you receive that in English
railroading there are no autocrats.
The wheels are fitted with brakes, how
ever, and the trained eye notes rub
Der hose connected between the car
riages, quite different in its application
to that known at home, but which,
| He takes account of the distinctions
of class and reflects upon his country's
yelled progress in that regard in the
matter of parlor cars and limited ex-
press trains. Then he finds that there
is no baggage master to watt the VIOLA
tile Saratoga to its doom, as his own
newspapers would express it. There is
perhaps a luggage van or two, or there
are in the carriages themselves luggage
compartments according to the way in
which the train is made up, the length
of journey it is to take or the custom
of the particular line under observation.
His final contemplation Is perhaps
devoted to the engine, and if he has
ever given any of his attention to the
American locomotive it fills him with
a deep concern. lie recalls the impos.
ing splendor of the latter, its comfort.
able and lofty cab of oiled and polished
wood, its gay brass bell. the soul-stir
ring whistle, the noble headlight and
the cow-destroying pilot, the great
understanding smokestaUk (unles'
it be hard-coal burner, in which CASE
that feature shrinks to moderate pro
portions,) the powerful drivers anC
compact cylinder, the eccentric con
Meeting rods and all its parts radian
with the glitter ofpolished steel or un
FURNISHED brass or decked with appro
pirate vermillion or emerald green.
In all of these matters the Englisl
locomotive compares with it much as
lawn-mower does with New York fire
engine. 1t is a humble, awkwar,
green or monochromatic machine.
has neither polish or decoration abou
it. There is no cab. The engineer an,
his firemen-that is to say, the engin
driver and his stoker as they are stylet
in England-perform their duties witt
only such shelter as is afforded by
!. board screen in front of them, pierced
by two-round apertures filed with stou
glass, technically known as "specta
cles. The smokestack is short AM
thick; there is an unsightly green hum
on the back on the boiler; the cylinder
, are under the front of the latter instea
. of on each side before the drivers; tn
wheels are all large and the engine
! perched high above them and looks TOP
: heavy and dangerous.
/. The whole thing is rigid and stiff
:. looking, and to the observer who ha
had to do with the external aspect of lo
, comotivesit isunprepossessing and III
lovely. The practical American engir
. eer whistles thoughtfully as he survey
! it, and wonders to himself how long
J. would be before he would ditch hi
train if he had to run on q new We'
f.. tern railroad with such an engine
y Where would he be on sharp cury
: or how would such q running-gea
:, adapt itself to an uneyenly ballaste
! track?-Hnrpers' Magazine.