Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1885-03-13
FAST TRAINS.
The fine They and What Might be
Accomplished. by Higher Speed.

The fine They We and What light he
Acco,ipii he" by Higher Speed.
The real gain of time 10 a business
man obtai.lcd by difference OF few
m;i,.s an huur in the speed of a long
iiurlcv train is illustrated by an actual
case: \ man in New York wi>ht,; TO do
dav's 5 work in Chicago. He takes one
Of the fastest and bc.t-appointcl trains
he can find the Chicago limited. II
caves New Io"I a nine in the morn
ing and lands in Chicago at eleven the
next morning. having accomplished 9l4
miles III twcnty-SiX hours and tiitv-iivc
minutes. allowing for the difference ot
The time bc.wtrn the two cities. This
makes an average speed of 33.S miles
per hour. Including all stopragcs. But
~ ;ll,lc hat is surely not CXt:ava"ant
that aS hg,i Il speed can be obtained
on the P,nn>: lvania or any other first
class American road As on the English
main lire. and what shape does the
problem assume? On the English road.
the Great Northern, the distance be
tween Leeds and London. 1861 miles
Is done in three hours and forty-iire
minutes. including five stOppages: on
another. the Great Western, the l26
miles between Birmingham and London
is run in two hours and forty-tive min
utnS. inclu ing two ,toppages; and a.
ne ,hcr of thee routes is particularly
level or straight. and both pass through
numerous functions. with per
feet maze of switches and frogs.
'aay give full idea of what is posi-
be in speed on the railroads of
the country. These figures give, re
>pcrtivrlv. speed of 1913 and 47.2 miles
per hour. Taking as a fair average
forty-ei-ht miles an hour. including
stoppa@r'. the journey from New York
to Ihita~, should b" done in eighteen
hour, ilftvnine minutes. or say nineteen
hours. saving OF nearly eight hours on
the present time: SO that if the trair.
was arranged to leave ut 4:55 in the
afternoon. the whole of this time would
be saved in the busy part of the day.
thus c:lrctually adding day to our
imaginary Travellers business and dollar
making lit...
Ii may he thought that such deduc-
ton is unia r. is the English style of
car is SO much lighter than the Amcr-
can: but rs ! matter OF fact, the aver
age Er:.!;>.. cXprrSS-car is considerably
hcavic: 'iAl the Chicago limited, and
conveys about three times the number
of passengers: and As trucks and oil
fabricated axle boxes are not universal
there. the tractive resi>tanc" per ton is
probably higher. 1t certainly, there
fore. seems no, only possible. but feast
bic. 10 obtain these high Spccl> in this
country. where, owing to the long dis
tanccS to he Travelled. they are more
valuable than i'm England: and the great
step toward attaining that e,d is the
adoption of proper and efficient signal
ing arrangements. All the other steps
are achieved. The American passenger
locomotive of the present day is per-
frctly competent to drag Il heavy train
at a speed Of $ Nty miles an hour; the
ears. as now constructed, can travel
safely and smoothly ut that speed. and
Tie steel rail ard the we'll -baliaStcd tie
aud perfect workmanship of the
modern iron bridges can well support
the laundering conclusion of an eX-
press train at full speed. But this speed
can onlr he maintained for 4 few NILS
at time if the engineer who guides
this train he doubtful whether the ;'imly
seen '-nals imply safety or danger. or
if the laws of the State bring him to a
full stand where his road is crossed by
small corporation with high-Sound-
ing title. which owns one locomotive
with split tube sheet and two cars
down ditch.
To run fast train clear. unintcr-
rupted road is absolutely necessary. and
the reason is not far to seek. To move
holv from state of rest to Il velocity
feet per second. an amount of work
must be performed equivalent to lifting
that body III feet. Now it is apparent
to the simplest capacity that it requires
pretty powerful engine to overcome
the res stance of train running sixty
miles per hour without every few miles
putin = on brakes to destroy the velocity.
and then TO lift it l2l feet again to at
tain speed. the resistance of the air and
the friction of the bearings of journals
and of l:an"cS against rails going on ali
the time. As matter of fact, showing
what severe work this is on an engine
the Zulu express on the Great Western
Railroad of England. which is the fast
est tram in the world. has been re-
pcatcdly carefully timed. and it is
found that. though running over an al-
mos, absolutely level and straight road.
it takes 4 Il stance OF twenty-six to
twentv-ciyht miles to attain its full speed
of fifty c.ght and One-half miles an
hour.-BrOoh'yn Eagle.