Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-10-28
FASTEST ON RECORD.
NEW YORK TO BUFFALO IN 8 HouHs,
Al MINUTES, AND 40 SECONDS.
Ovrr Seventy Miles IN Hour--Thst Was tho
Rate the Flyer Had to do to Make
Up for Lost Time.

The Empire-State express, the fastest
train in the world, did ali that had been
promised by the New York Central
management, says the New York
Herald.
1t did two notable things-two things
that have never been matched In the
history OF railroading. II made the
fastest schedule run Of 1891 miles on re-
cord, and it made the best record over q
given distance, considering its weight,
that any railroad train in any country
has ever done.
1t left New York at one minute and
fifteen seconds after 3 o'clock Monday
morning-one minute and fifteen seconds
behind time. IL arrived In Buffalo one
minute and three quarters late. accord
ing to schedule time.
The actual time consumed in sra-
versing the 1882 miles between New
York tidewater and the shores Of Lake
Erie was eight hours forty-one minutes
and forty nine seconds. This was an
average Of fifty-two and fraction miles
an hour, allowing for fourteen minutes
lost in stops at Albany, Utica, Syracuse,
and Rochester, in each OF which places,
with the exception OF Rochester, where
four minutes were lost in taking water,
and engines were changed.
The train consisted OF composite
baggage and buffet-csr, two standard
New York Central psssenger-cars, a
Wagner parlor-car, and the private car
OF Third VIce-President 81. Walter
Webb. These cars weighed altogether
17S tons, the engine and tender weighed
another 100 tons, making the grand total
weight of the train 27S tons.
SEVENTY MILES AN HOUR.
This enormous mass between Roches-
ter and Buffalo was whisked through the
air at the rate of trifie over seventy
miles an hour. This has never been
matched, any more than has the splendid
record Of scheduled speed between the
Grand Central station in New York and
the Union depot in Buffalo.
ii. Walter Webb is a very quiet, con-
centrated man who says very little, but
has o certain precision OF expression
when he does speak, and q certain deei
siveness Of habit and gesture which
makes it very easy to understand why
his personality is so strongly felt through
every artery Of the great railway system
with which he has become so strongly
identified.
He wore a light suit of gray and
brown derby hat this morning when he
quietly sauntered out on the railway
station platform of Forty-second street
and stood by the side OF the nimble
flyer which he has put on the Central
and which just now is his special pride.
He looked gloomily out under the great
arched entrance to the station at the
gray fog which hung thick over the
tracks, obscuring the approach OF the
tunnels. 81 think it will rain to-day"
he said, "and rain makes wet rails and
wet and slippery rails are against fast
going, yet | think We will get there"
1t was then ten minutes to 8 o'clock.
The train was due to leave at 8. The
passengers were already aboard. There
were 14S OF them. 1t was paying
train. It costs about SOC. mile to pull
first-class New York Central train over
the rails, and here were passengers
enough to make the receipts nearly So
mile.
There was an unusual interest mani
tested by all the employees about the
station in the new train. Even the
handsome darkies in their splck- and
span-new uniforms who stood by the car
steps were objects of admiring atten-
ton. They were prodigiously tidy, not
q speck or a particle Of dust on them.
They looked as shiny and new rs did the
IL. L.