The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-29

thev can be subjected. Tho American
sleeping car weighs about forty-two tons,
while the English tirst-class carriage
occupying . relative position TO our
sleeper will average only ten tons. The
ordinary passenger or day coach will weigh
about ten tons. Handicapped by the
weight in cars 1 think we make even better
time than the English railways where the
average speed is fifty miles an hour: NOW
an American train, like the western
limited, will weight with six sleepers, bag
gage cars and the usual number OF coaches,
fully 400 tons. A similar train to accom-
modate the same number of passengers on
an English road will weigh not more than
$50 tons. So the future speed of our trains
must depend after. OF course, the roaa-oed
is IN frst-class condition, almost entirely
on the weight of our trains. What We
must do is to reduce the weight OF our
cars and at the same time retain their
strength"
what inventions have been made in
this line?n
There have been quite number sug-
gested. The steel car is perhaps the most
important Of these, and | would not Of IN
the least surprised to see steel passenger
and sleeping cars run on our fast lines IN
America. Mr.. Buchanan, the superintend,,
ent of motive power, has in mind steel
car which is shaped like cigar:
by building your car cigar-shaped and
OF steel you get the reduction IN weignt
and the benefit in speed that is sure to fol-
low reduction of the resistance of atmos-
phere.. The idea, believe, is to have the
cars linked together after the manner OF
the present vestibule system. The circu-
lar form of the cars will not permit the
wind to eddy about and between them,
which of course is check to speed. On
what. we call our limited trains With the
number of cars carried by them, the en-
gines are taxed to their utmost capacity.
We must decrease the size of trains as well
as reduce the weight Of cars. This branch
OF course necessitatcs an additional num-
her of trains; vet the population is not
large enough to justify taking such step.
Ten years from now things will be differ
ent"
Vow as to the engines, Mr. Depew. Do
you believe electricity viii supersede
steam as means of propelliny cars?"
.'Ah, that is very difficult question to
answer. While it would not surprise me
to see electricity rushing our railroad
trains along at the rate of fifty or sixty
miles an hour. recognize there must be
more great secrets of the mystic power re-
vealed before we accept it. When we can
get electricity cheap enough that we can
produce il as we go at the same cost as we
now generate steam, We can talk about
electricity as motive power. Many rail-
road men are Of the opinion that the steam
locomotive, as means of propefling cars,
Is doomed. They say its use involves too
great q waste, and that electricity is
already successfully employed for the pro-
pulsion of street and suburban cars. That
is all well enough and glory in the in
yentiyeness of our Americans, but cleo
tricity will need to be juggled great
deal more before we can run through ex-
press train to Chicago with it,
What is the finest and fastest engine
now running in the country?'
I'VE have new engine on our run from
this city to Chicago that is a splendid ma
chine. She can make sixty miles and even
seventy miles an hour without strain.
She carries an extra long firebox. 1t is
now eight feet. The old style was six feet.
Her boiler is four inches larger, which en-
abieS her TO generate steam more freely,
and her cylinder measures 1924 inches.
The old was lI.24 inches. The weight on
the driving wheels is 5000 pounds. and
the total weight Of the machine is l04 coo
pounds. / believe our driving wheels must
be made larger, and while reducing the
weight Of the cars to make fast time, We
must have heavy engines.
81 have been on our trains where the
rate of speed was eighty miles an hour.
For instance. in 1885, made the run from
Buffalo to Rochester at the rate of eighty
miles an hour. On November is, 1886. q
special train carried Mr. Cornelius Van
derbllt on the Canada Southern from st.
Clair junction to Windsor, a distance of
lO1 miles, In l hour and 50 minutes. The
average rate of speed was sixty-nine miles
per hour, although at some points it was
seventy-eight miles per hour There were
but two cars in the train. Another fast
train was run on the West Shore road
from Buffalo to Weehawken on July 8,
1879. distance of 4o2.6 miles, in 8 hours
of that train was II a miles per hour.
mr.. Buchanan has under consideration
q new device for increasing the speed of
cur latest engine, which can already make
eighty miles an hour if forced. This new
idea have not yet examined very care
fully, but it strikes me as being practical
bic. 1t is no more nor less than o steel
plate covering for the engine, reaching to
the tender, with openings for oiling the
machine. The covering could be raised
and lowered at will. In fact, it is shaped
ike ships bow and retreats in fike
manner. It would, Mr.. Buchanan saws.
cut through the atmosphere at the rate of
ninety miles an hour ii it had the proper
backing of steam. He believes by this de-
vice at least ten miles an hour can be
saved. Ihe currents of air would be
thrown off instead of eddying around the
machinery and cab and thus retarding
progress. A series of pipes might be utii-
lied for oiling the machine at stopping
points. There is one thing about this de-
vice: il will set people to thinking, and if
this scheme does not prove of use some
thing else viii soon replace it,
"H6w about the brakes and electric sig.
nals?''
The brakes are very satisfactory, and I
see little chance for Improvement in that
direction, but what have already stated
applies TO the brake. Everything in this
progressive country is constantly adyanc-
ing and new ideas are coming to the front
every day. am satisfied that the best
automatic signals are very safe as they
stand today. They have been thoroughly
tested and not found wanting.
"The train of the future will travel at
q much greater rate of speed if conditions
l have named prevail in detail. But TO get
fast trains for the country the municipal
corporations will have to lend belnine
hand in aiding to abolish grade CROSSINGS
and permitting roedbeds either under or
over the highway"
The proStfatiar Shocks