The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-05
FUTURE RAILRQADING.
ENGINES WITH A THIRTY FOOT
DRIVER AND A WIDE GAUGE,

ProphecyTThat May Not Be FancifuL
Ten years from now there may be only
one rTnroad in this country. to which
truntl lines will be feeders.
I,he Americans of the near future must
travel faster.
There are no reasonable grounds for be-
,flieving that the present record of locomo-
tive speed can be improved upon while the
gauge and rolling stock continue az they
now are.
The diameter of the locomotive driver
wheels must be increased to secure greater
speed, but}Inaster mechanics are not at all
agreed as to how this can best be doue
The enlargement of the drivers beyond
seven feet would necessitate widening of
theygauge, and this experiment is not like
~ to be repeated while the present forms
OF rolling stock are in use.
But sixty miles an hour is not fast
enough for the American of today. The
locomotive has probably attained the max
imum of its efficiency. 1t makes a more
economic use of steam than any other form
of engine. The marine engine loses 81 per
cent. of the latent energy in the coal, but
the locomotive utilities fully SO per cent. Of
it. Therefore the problem is not to i'm
prove the locomotive, but to enlarge its ca
, pacity to get over the ground.
NEW ERA roRESHADowED.
This can only be done by some radical
change in the form of the roadbed and the
| rolling stock. To increase the diameter of
the wheels is the first requisite. This will
necessitate widening of the permanent
way Suppose the driver wheels to be
thirty feet in height, the gauge ought to
be twenty feet. The rails would have to
be foot high, and ought to weigh ton to
the rod. They will be bolted to ties made
of the largest tree trunks obtainable
Mammoth fish plates" will join them end
| to end.
The cost of construction will be trebled.
Bridges and viaducts will have to be built
of the heaviest material, and tested to bear
the weight of 200-ton locomotivei The
heaviest engines on the Pennsylvania rail-
road used in the passenger service weigh
forty tons, and one five times as large will
give power enough to pull the great cars
that will travel on 30-foot wheels.
The gigantic engine will be suspended
below the axles, instead of resting upon
them. The boiler will be built around the
| axles, and the smokestack will not be
higher than the tops Of the driver wheels.
The cab will be very commodious, and To-
| Gated just behind the smokestack atop the
boiler. Several fremen will be required,
and they will be provided for on platform
at lower level on the rear of the engine.
FIGURES DON'T DECEIVE.
If the same number of piston strokes can
be obtained by thirty foot driver wheels
per minute as attained by an engine with
six foot wheels, the increase in velocity
will be as ninety feet are to eighteen feet.
In other words, the train will travel exact
ly five times as fast. If the best speed of
the present passenger locomotive be sixty
miles per hour it may be hoped that the
engine of the future will attain 300 miles
per hour. Strange as it now sounds, it
will then be possible to run out to Chicago
after breakfast, take luncheon herewith a
friend and return to sleep in New York.
Chicago ought to be about four hour run.
The track will be kept absolutely clear, and
there will not be any stops except to change
engines at half way point.
Of course such a road can only be made
to pay between great cities like New York
and Philadelphia, Chicago or Boston. In
another generation there will be ten cities
in this country with million people each.
The saving of time will stimulate travel
ing, and every train will be filed. The en-
gines will burn tremendous lot of coal,
but the cost of driving the train will be
about the same as at present, because the
time consumed will be mere fraction of
what is now requisite. Nobody will travel
long distances by the old lines There will
not be any competition offered by the ex-
listing systems of transportation.
brin To e fJ,a
cars. They will be IS feet wide and prob
ably $50 feet long. The most scientific arti-
fetal ventilation and heating apparatus
will be adapted to the case. OF course no
windows can be left open on train going
$50 miles an hour. They viii have to be
closed with the heaviest plate glass-double
windows, in fact. The structure of the
will be much the same as those of t
LESS DANGEROUS.
Theywill be built wholly of iron and steel.
The walls will be steel plates, and the inte-
rior finish and furnishing will be beautiful
and luxurious. The size of the cars will
insure a single compartment for every trav-
eler. An aisle will run through the car,
and the staterooms win be arranged on
each side thereof, shut off by curtain or
wickerwork door. These rooms will be
seven feet in width and provided with a
large easy chair or sofa. The trains will
be vestibuled, so that it will be quite pos
sible to pass from one car to the other.
1t is very doubtful If the element of dan
ger will be increased. The cars Of steel
can be made of such form and braced in
such manner as to render them less liable
to go to pieces in case they leave the rails.
Collisions will be impossible because
trains will never be permitted to follow
each other within half an hour, and not
even then until the preceding train has
passed the station, situated at least thirty
minutes time distant, says 100 miles
Double tracks will be the rule, not the ex-
ception.
Difficulties about stopping the trains
when once under Roadway viii occur, but
they will be met by Improvements on the
brakes that will render the gigantic ma
chinery as tractable as any now in use.
An ingenious system of signals will be de-
vlsed, the bell and whistle no longer being
useful, because they cannot be relied upon
They will be drowned By the noise of the
monster train.
The local service of the present roads will
be utilized for intermediate points. II q
man wants to 60 to Detroit be will run
through to Chicago in four hours and
thence TO his destination by an express
Cleveland and Pittsburg Will be reached
by regular train from the station at which
the halt is made TO change engineers
Cor. New York World.
His Name IL Legion.
"Ee can't live comfortably in the coun-
try. Hes too much given 70 anachron-
ism"
What's that got 10 do with FTP"
He goes for trains at the wrong time"