Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-20
THE PROBLEM SOLVED.
la5 Dummy Engines Would Settle the
-,r Country Road Troubles.
MAYBE USED ON Thee CITY STREETS
Even Electricity and Cables Considered
-- Too Expensive.
Cly EASILY OVERCOME HEAVY GRADES

Discussion as to the cheapest motive
power is likely some day to settle the vexed
question of better country roads in Penn
sylyania, and it is fortunate that practical
and wide-awake business men are the ones
who are doing the thinking, for the average
Pennsvlvania farmer is not built like his
Ohio brother The latter still fights to
keep up with far-Western competition,
while the former puts his finger into his
mouth and whines
George l. Whitney has given the subject
of motive power on street railways consld-
cradle thought and has come to the conclu-
sion that neither cable nor electricity will
move the street car of the future, unless
the mode of application of the latter be
radically improved. In the cable plan
there is immense waste of power in hauling
the cable, and vet some say the loss is
much greater in the use of electricity.
Figures are not at had, but some say that
pine-tenths of electrical power is lost in
application, making it very expensive on
roads where there heavy grades. Now
ME. Whitney has come to the conclusion
that the dummy engine IN extensive
use in England rs a wagon hauler on
country roads will be the motive
power on street railways, after an exhaust
i've test of electricity, unless, as before
stated, methods. be discovered by which it
can be used without so great waste as at
present
Almost as Cheap as Water Power.
These small locomotives are built so as to
overcome heavy grades and at the same
time draw considerable load, and they are,
next to water, the cheapest power yet found.
Anyone who has seen a traction engine
drawing threshing machine and separator
on our dirt roads knows that as puller it
is great, and unlike horse it eats nothing
when not in use and is no harder to groom
than horse, and is more manageable on
the road than the best trained horse. Small
locomotives have largely taken the place of
horses in England on country roads, where
they run without having tracks laid for
them.
n. F. Sanford, of the Pittsburg and Moon
Run Railway, and some other people were
discussing the road question the other day,
the talk arising ont of the contemplation of
single locomotive hauling 1000 tons of
coal day six miles, and making in addi-
tion three round trips hauling passengers.
1000 of them and 125 drivers, and each
team would be required to make two trips and
travel "a miles, which at present would be an
impoSsibilitv. Now this coal is sold at say
81 40 per ton, wholesale-it is less than that
but to haul it six miles with horses would
cost at least 5000 more than it sells for; and,
speaking of expense, these horses and wag-
ons would cost, at a low estimate, 5000, 600.
Mr.. Sanford thought if the farmers of this
fry onu11 ha ,oada m fbeir oIrn inf
est, ii would not be long until they would
have either macadamized roads, narrow
gauge steam or electric railroads on all the
main thoroughfares. Attorney Joseph C.
Young, in an address at Forest Grove few
nights since, gave some figures which con-
tain much food for reflection.
An Idea of the Freight Business.
According to his calculation all the ami |
NAL power in the United States would not |
to-day suffice to do the transportation of |
Pennsylvania alone-leaving out of consid- |
Grafton water transportation altogether. |
Now consider the work of the 600 locomo- |
tives owned by the Pennsylvania Railway |
Company alone-some say 800; A locomo- |
tive and half dozen men will haul from |
Pittsburg to Youngstown on the Pittsburg |
and Lake Erie Railway 200 tons of coal in |
five hours if not compelled to sidetrack TO |
let passenger trains by. This is equal to |
allowing the teams to consist of four horses |
each. Taking the lower number of Penr- |
sylvania Railway locomotives named, their |
work is equal to that of So 120, 900 horses and |
II, $50, 900 men, three and half times the |
entire population of the State, male and |
female, old and young; and the Pennsyl- |
vania Railway does not do all the trans |
portation business of Pennsylvania. No |
reference is had to the Ft. Wayne, Cleve- |
land aud piftShuru and nfhar il,roH-
operated by the Pennsylvania Company.
1t is objected by some that to fit country |
reads for use for steam locomotives or |
electric power would require considerable |
regarding, but it would not require as much |
as has already been done since the roads |
were first located. A specimen of the way |
our grandfathers did it may be seen by a |
walk up Sycamore street to Mt. Washing |
ton. Instead of winding around by the |
coke ovens, as at present, the first road laid |
out branched off about one-third wav up the |
hill, and from that point to the summit the
grade was almost as great as is that of the |
Monongahela Inclined Plane.
Some Great Feats of Driving.
Some modern drivers have refused to be- |
lieve it possible to have hauled goods up /
that road, but there are people living who, /
in their youth, saw the feat performed. The |
people of Crescent, Moon and part |
OF Robinson township during nearly |
century hauled their produce |
to this city over the Middletown road,
when they could not ship by river, and in
dong so they not only went farther but
surmounted a hill 400 feet high, though
they could have come on the strip of
ground now occupied hy the Pittsburg and
Lake Erie Railway and had a level road all
the way. Some of the old timers when
asked why they did not make road, along
the river, replied that they would not only
have been obliged TO bridge Montour and
Mocn runs, but several gulches also Now,
al she little bridges combined, and which
served to appall them, would not have
amounted to SOC feet. In the olden time
road Incators were such poor engineers that
they even frequently went over sugar loaf
shapea hills, never stopping to consider
that the distance over the top was as great,
sometimes greater, than around the base.
Another abuse which must be considered, if
ever there be attempted radical improve
ment IN the roads, is the prevailing ten
dencE OF the farmers to have roads run to
suit the personal convenience of each.
Some OF them are miles longer than
necessary simply to accommodate
the various farmers living along the
lines There will be some tall kicking when
it comes to reforming lines, but it must be
done if there be radical improvement and
@or hTc