The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-18
HAplp RUNNING.
Tho I,i:h Eato OF Speed Attained by Fast
Trims.

Tho IGl:h Eato OF Speed Attained by Fast
Trains.
When railroads were FIRST introduced
the engineers. Us we call thcn-or the
cnGinc-trivcro. ns they arc called in
EnCl2nd-rap their trains almost Us
they liked. making up tirac when they
had fnllcn behind, picking up such in
formation ns they could Us to the state
of the track ahead of them, and for the
most part plunging ahead with their
rlachinc5 without much more than
surUisc whether they should bring up
ut their destination CIR 1T the bottom Of
so,nc high crabanknent.
Some Of the results Of this want of
system. says Youths Companion. would
have been crlusing If they had not been
d.sa7trous. Mr.. Laurence Oliphant. IN
English traveller nrd autllor. tolls in
one OF his books rather grim story OF
trip which he made by rail in 1875
from Chicago to New York. Over q part
Of the distance tho trcin made tho OK.
tracr.ir2ry speed. for that time. OF fifty
Elilca en- hour. and presently it ran of
the trlc!:.
Fortunately the cars were Embedded
il u soft clay ditch and no enc WIS
seriously hurt, and in the rnidut Of tho
corlr1ctlcn Mr.. Oliphant says he heard
the cn,-iaccr thus adraonish the switch
man whose carclcssncss had caused tho
accident:
Now. Tom, this is the third time
you've forgot to set that switch, and
the last tirae there was twenty people
went under. and the rest was bruised
So mind what you're about and don't
forget that switch again, for if you DO
II tell the bossr'
In the course of time il was found
necessary to limit the running of trains
to very strict system. which almost
makes the engineer n part of his ma
chine; but even as late rs within the
past two years races between express
trains running between London ard
Edinburgh have been run, and great in
tcrcst has been shown in the results Of
the contests
In Franco steam races are not per-
raittcd. Instead. m official test Of the
power. speed ard stcadincss Of loco
motives on different lines of the Rcpub-
lie has been mode lately end prize
awarded to the winner, Locomotive No.
GA of the "Chcrain de Fer dc l'Eat," or
Eastern railroad.
out nny load to pull attained speed OF
from ocvcnty-Gvc to ciJhty-nvc miles IN
hour. The locomotive No G01 just
spoken of accornplis.lcs REGULARLY the
feat Of hauling 1t full speed the heavy
trains OF the Swiss express between
Ehciras and Dele 1T Il single pull. n dis
t2ncc Of about two hundred and forty
niles.
! The cnCinc always arrives after this
lonT haul with stcarn still on and in
perfect running condition.
/ The raa,;Ilnr1 speed which french
passenger trains are permitted 10 make
i abou. seventy miles an hour, and this
i UNCOMMON.
In England the fastest schedule time
is sixty miles IN hour. though in some
of the races sevcuty-Gve miles an
hour have been made. There are reg
ular freight trains in England which
make speed of frcni thirty to forty
miles IN hour.
In Germany the ordinary speed Of
passenger trains Is only about thirty
Owe to forty miles m hour. and this is
probably about the average rate OF
spcca In other European countries
In the United States the speed OF
! tfsius varies so much on different rail
wovs ,>od in different parts OF tho conn
try TINT /, Is practically impossible te
st,;l,e nm n, erage. Thirty to forty
,;lca mn hon, y regarded as q vcr,
rood roc but n sne ed OF frori sixty u
.L.rortu>cre n,;lns nm hour is often at
t.sinc, by fast trains un W. etNe'A' .A