The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-04-27
SWIFT RAILROAD TRAvEL.

Jay Gould's late trip from Omaha to
Chicago broke the record of fast railroad
travel. The whole trip, covering stops, was
made in nine hours and forty-five minutes,
which, as the distance is about 500 miles,
showed an average speed of nearly Fifty
miles an hour. But from Omaha TO Clinton,
a distance of 362 miles, the speed was sixty
two miles an hour; and between La Fox
and Geneva, a short, level, straight stretch.
the engineer drove his locomotive at the re-
markable speed OF 1902 miles an hour. Spurts
nearly, though not quite, as fast as this have
been made on the line between New York
and Philadelphia, and the train known as
the Wild Irishman, which carries the fast
mail from London TO Holyhead, frequently
goes faster than mile a minute.
OF course it would not be fair 10 ask rail-
road companies to run all their passenger
trains at this rate Of speed. The wear and
tear of the track and the injury done to roll
ing stock by such swift trains would involve
too much expense. But between sixty miles
an hour, which Mr. Gould's train covered,
and thirty miles an hour which is the aver
age rate of speed Of passenger trains on this
side of the Missouri, tile difference seems
unduly wide. In crossing mountain ranges,
and traversing broken country in which the
line is full of curves and grades, it may not
be possible to run trains much faster than
twenty or twenty-five miles an hour without
danger of accident; but on the level plains,
where there are neither grades nor curves of
any moment, it seems that cur trains might
be moved at, say, thirty five to forty miles
an hour without loss to the companies,
while the gain in time would be boon to
the travelling public.
The fast overland, which now leaves San
Francisco at o'clock in the evening. reaches
New York in 100 hours from Oakland, and
three hours must be deducted from this for
the stop at Chicago. This is pretty nearly
at the tate Of thirty miles an hour. The
actual running time through the Serras and
up the Rocky Mountains On the Central Pa
cific line is not much over twenty miles an
hour, but this is brought up to the average
by increased speed on the level parts OF the
line. From the eastern base of the con-
tinental range to Chicago, over the Union
Pacific and the Chicago and Northwestern.
the country is level and the road is straight.
There appears to be no reason why trains on
that portion of the continental trip should
not add eight or ten miles an hour to their
schedule speed.
The more miles a locomotive and train of
cars can be made to cover in twenty-four
hours, the more money they earn for their
owners, up TO the point where increased
speed involves undue exI enditures for re-
pairs. Whether they stand in the yard or
are kept moving on the track they represent
so much capital invested, and the problem
for railroad operators is how to make them
earn the largest interest on that capital.
Study of the subject leads 10 the conclusion
that their earnings will be in proportion to
the distances they cover, or in other words,
to the work they do, and that slow trains
and small dividends necessarily 90 hand in