Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-06

lutionize modern railroading is being
materialiZed at the expense of the
Boynton bicycle railway company, OF
which Mr. Boynton is at the
head, of New York city. Scores OF
people visit the Portland company shop
every day to get glimpse of the new
machine, and the other day James 6
Blaine, Jr., the enthusiastic young ma
chinist, came all the way from Water
vile to see if and was very much inter-
ested in examining the odd locomotive.
In month IS time, perhaps less, the ma
chine will be ready for trial; already a
track about 800 feet long has been con-
stTucted oil which to experiment with the
locomotive. This track extends from
the engine through the yards in
a westerly direction, and was built by n:
S. Haseltine, superintendent of the
Portland company car shop. Spruce
posts, seven inches square, rest on ties
eighteen feet long. The posts are set ten
feet eight and one-half inches apart,
and between them the locomotive will
go.
Resting on the top of the posts and ex-
tending over the road bed are
spruce tmbers of the same
dimensions as the posts which are
line of the road. Fastened underneath
the center of the cross tim beers is a rail
6xS inches Resting on the center of the
upper wooden rail is fixed an ordinary
steel rail and upon this one rail all the
weight of the locomotive is made to rest.
From the top of the steel rail to the under
part of the upper wooden rail is just four
feet, the height of the locomotive.
Tie posts are braced and
held firmly in place by
boards which are nailed in a
manner to prevent the structure from
spreading or breaking in any way. OF
course it is understood that this track is
only temporary one, for 1t is intended
eventually to have the tracks made
wholly of iron and steel. The track is
curved in one place, side track some 80
feet long is made in order that the loco
motive may be given fair trial in
going around curves and switching
upon side tracks; in short it is
proposed to test the invention as it would
be tested if IN practical use. The loco
motive over all is about forty ave feet
long, the one driving wheel is eight feet in
diameter, and the tire is deeply grooved,
so that the fianges of the wheel will
drop on each side of the rail aud
thus prevent the machine from run
ming off the track: and under the tender
there are two wheels, each four feet in
diameter and each grooved like the driv-
ing wheel and made to run on the same
rail. These small wheels are closed to-
gether with the giant driving wheel are
the only trucks under the locomotive. To
prevent the machine from at once topling
over, iron trucks, which are made fast to
the top Of the boiler directly over the
driving wheel, and others directly over
the pony wheels on the tender, are
made to run on each side of
the upper rail prevents the
from swaying the least dis
lance to either side. These wheels are
twelve inches in diameter aud four inches
thick. That is not all. To make it alb
impossible for the locomotive to .
jump the track, - another wheel, stu
ated between the two small upper wheels
that run on each side of the rail, is made
to run on the under side of the upper rail,
and this prevents the machine from the
possibility of being thrown upwards off
the lower rail.
81 tell you, " said an old machinist to
the press reporter, sit is n great inyen-
ton. -
"Do you think it win ever be in practi-
eal operation? " asked the reporter.
"'Do 1? What's to prevent it? 1 tell
you it Is going to do all that is claimed
for it. It viii revolutioniZe railroading.
Everything has been done to make it
nothing has been omitted that
would make it safe for practical use It
s amusing to see people come here and
ook at it, shake their heads-even laugh
outright and declare the folly of the I'M
lertaking. 1t viii never work, they
say but 1 say it will. The posts that
support the upper rail are made fast TO ;.
The ties on which the lower rail is laid, SO |
hat the action of the frost viii be the |
same on both rails If an axle on the |
locomotive should break no other |
damage would result, because an iron |
safeguard is arranged close to the |
'ail, and when the axle broke, the |
machine could drop but a very little dis
ance, and then il would slide along on |
he track until it stopped. So you see
everything has been provided, every |
)recaution taken. The extreme width /
# the locomotive and cars is to be fifty /
inches. They are made in this manner /
u that common railroad track bed can
,e used as double track for the bicycle |
q Gill AZ SAiAOSACSliGh VI LIE lOCOAlO-
i've is just under the upper rall, and |
shield is arranged in the top of the
in manner TO divide
he volume Of smoke, sending half on
ne side of the upper rail and half on the
ther. The cars will be between forty
nd fifty feet long, and win carry about
ne hundred passengers each. They will
re two stories high. The lower story will
e divided into compartments like the
English ears, and each compartment will
e made TO accommodate six persons. The
over story Of the car will carry fifty
our persons. The upper story wiz con-
ain chairs but win not be diyied into
We viii make one car
/ wood, but it is intended eventually TO
make them of steel. The cars VIII have
wo two-wheeled trucks under them, and
ill weigh at most six or seven tons.
he Pullman cars weigh from twenty
We to fifty tons, and few Of them