Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-18
THE RAIL ROADWAY.

THE RAIL ROADWAY.
| The Author Of the Iron Track idea Defends
| It-Soms Criticisms Answered-How
Half the Problem Has Been Solved
Already.
! To the Editor OF The Dispatch,
In your editorial In The DISPATCH Of the
| I'd inst, on "The Road of the Future" you
have fallen into an error in making an un-
analogous comparison. which you will prob
ably see when attention 10 called to It. You
said: ''Pittsburg has had experience of
street railway tracks laid on unpaved
Streets" You then ask remembrance to
the condition to which the space between
the tracks was reduced by the tramping Of
the horses and mules; all of which Is logical
enough as applied to Pittsburg, but which
does not apply at all to common roads
throughout the country. Traffic Of the
heavy character and of the immense volume
that the foremost iron city on the Western
Hemisphere affords, would justify the ex-
pendfture of money for a style Of street that
elsewhere would be entirely uncalled for.
The hustling little city Of Youngstown, O.,
had q street car track for seven years on an
unpaved street-her principal thorough
fare; but, where 1t is necessary to cross and
it is necessary, it is imperative to have the
entire space paved. But throughout the
country this side business does not consti-
tute per cent of the travel. Yet on any
paved street in any city, an iron track Is
still necessary feature, as 1t allows OF much
easier hauling, is comparatively noiseless
and can still accommodate 90 per cent Of the
traffic without any particular wear on the
roadway.
He Files Some Exceptions.
You are moved to say further: SIT fol-
lows that the proposed track must be used
in connection with an improved surface,
either by macadamizing, graveling. cinder-
ing or planking. This would make the most
expensive kind of road"
To this the writer files the following ex-
ception, always keeping the fact in view that
he is considering country and not municipal
roads:
1t is not a fact ''that the proposed track
must be used" in connection with any of the
surfaces indicated.
Is it not fact that the roads are now
used with none Of the features mentionedf
Is q half a loaf not better than no bread?
Is not the greater part OF this problem
the the
The horse, on an unpaved footway, is in no
worse plight than now and not in such bad
plight even, for, with an easier draft of load,
fulcrums would not sink into tho roadway as
This is an important feature in the case,
readily take into the reckoning.
On country road, 80 per cent Of the haul
ing IS done right on the track, and conse-
suffice to meet che remaining per cent than
would be necessary II all the traffic had to
be done on the stone, gravel cinder or plank
roadway. But exception is further taken to
"a fat ma he h IN
be ''the most expensive kind Of road"
Here are some facts. On this track the ca
pacity of a team in hauling material for con-
struction is increased 500 per cent over the
team that hauls material over new pike to
construcr pike, II this be denied, the
writer is prepared to prove prove that i5 the differ differ
strate that less than one-fourth the other
material and less than one-half the other
labor of getting the surface into shape will
smR is sasG sha se
roads could each be made more economi-
cally by laying down an iron track on which
70 tora nau1 na sne H,da dWay
trestling to be used in filing up, and which
is only of service until the fill is made.
One Boyle That's Ever Present.
The trouble with nearly all persons who
endeavor to see an iron track road mentally,
is, that they cannot bar out Of their vision
the picture of the churned-up-mortar-bed
condition of dirt road they have so many
times seen, but the great factor that has
been doing this in all the ages is, in the plan
under consideration, expelled, and the road
can no longer present such condition. Take
the continuous cutting action of the wheels
out OF the case, ease up on the constant dead
pull of the team and a small amount of ma
terial, sand or gravel to destroy the sticky |
adhesiyeness OF clays, VIII suffice I'M s r,,.
too simple q matter to waste words on. At |
given distances the track can be doubled,
paved places can be provided but all this
along at an easy gait with two.ton load;
let no one imagine that the tedious pull |
Of the present is to be continued.
To put this road down in all necessary and |
complete condition at from $500 to "a, 900 |
per mile, would be as fine a "picnic'' in con- |
tracting as any reasonable person should
desire. The great road of the future will be |
made for less than the figures mentioned. /
But the suggestion of wheels with 12-inch |
tires and the rear carriage set out wider |
than the or Of es Tew Is
comical, although on old-style roads, it is
not illogical. But the fact IS, the plan is |
simply to add circular roadway to the
wheel. In other words instead of increas-
ing the solidity of the road, put the eQuiva-
lent in wheel surface and eternally haul SO
much additional road, because once in
while it iS needed.
1t is only in order now for some mechanical
genius to suggest that, instead of wheels.
immense drums be used-a number of broad
pulleys strung on SHAFT to facilitate turn
ing-and let this entire matter be solved in
non-cutting rotaries that must remain on
the surface, and which would close up even
the horse tracks, leaving no trace OF their
passage. Such an idea would not begin to
present as much unadulterated and un-
toolishness as we can read of every
day.
There is something barbarous in speeding
4 horse on Il stone or asphalt pavement; it is
, terror to q dumb brute and one to which
man owes as much as lie does to the horse
to put him on such q roadway for hard SER
vice.
Let us hope that the scientific genius Of
the age Is capable of conceiving and the mo-
genius capable of constructing
road to yield to the horse the full ma xfmum
Of power with the minimum of hurt. 1t is
title else than mechanical treason to pro- |
pose the Same hard. unyielding surface to
,he hoof that is necessary for the wheel.
Brethren, let us reason together. N.
A STREET SUGGESTION.