The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-07
AN ELECTR1oAL LOCOMOTIVE.
Designed to Pull Heavy Trains at a
High Rate of Speed.
From the Boston Globe.


A powerful high-speed electric locomo-
tive has just been completed at the Lynn
works of the General Electric Company
and is to be shipped to the worlds fair
for exhibition
1t is a remarkable machine, and is de-
scribed by the company as the first cleo
trio locomotive devised for work upon
steam railroads and for maintaining a
speed of any consequence.
While it Is not calculated to do any
thing in the shape of lowering or even APP
preaching the records of fast time made
every day by steam locomotives, still il is
in advance in electrical development. 1t
is only expected to make thirty miles an
hour, which is considered a very good
rate for an accommodation train.
The locomotive is fitted with safety ap-
planes such as are attached to steam
railroad engines. 1t has air brakes, the
air being obtained from a special electric
al air compressor, which also furnishes
the force to sound the whistles. The os-
cillating cylinder of the compressor,
has 6-inch stroke, and is capable of pro
viding 5000 cubic inches of air minute,
with a pressure of 10 pounds. The motor
operating the air pump is controlled by a
special rheostat, which is automatically
regulated by the pressure Of air.
The locomotive weighs 30 tons and COM
pactness of machinery is at once apparent
in its build. 1t is is feet inches long, II
sect 6 inches high and feet inches wide
The drawbars are set feet inches from
the top of the rail- while the whole rests
on four 44-inch wheels
Two electric motors, one at each axle,
provide the power. the motors being gear
less and supported upon spiral springs
having their base on the side frames of
the truck. This arrangement gives the
wheels a certain freedom of movement
irrespective of each other, which per
mits them to adjust themselves 70 any
unevenness sof the track, making the
locomotive ride easier and diminishing
the wear and tear upon the tracks and
the motors.
The motor fields are solid iron castings
and the hollow fields spools are b6lted to
them. The ironclad armatures have each
separate windings, embedded in a mica
lined slot in the curved surface Of the
Illuminated iron armature body
The locomotive axles pass through the
hollow shafts upon which the armatltres
are mounted. They rest in bearings \Qf
the motor frame and are connected to the
axles by universal couples, which allow
of considerable freedom of motion The
commutators are of.substantial construc-
tion, and each one has four sets of
brushes
1t is claimed that the series parallel
controller, which takes the place of the
throttle in the ordinary locomotive,
makes ii possible to start and stop the
motor easier and with less straining than
is needed for the steam locomotive, while
the speed, by this arrangement, can be
more readily controlled
The truck, suspended from the journal
boxes, is constructed of heavy l-beams
and forms the foundation for the loco
motive cab. of sheet-iron, OF symmetrical
design, and so curved of as to diminish
the atmospheric resistance as far as pos
sible.
The interior is finished in hard wood
Two sliding doors are placed at each side
of the cab, and the windows are so ar
ranged as to permit of an unobstructed
view in all directions There is ample
space in the cab for the motOrman' S
movements, and it affords him considera-
bly, better protection than that usually
vOuChsafed the steam locomotive engin
Ger.
The use of these locomotives over very
long distances is at present limited only
by the cost of long lines of electric feed
ers, and until the problem offered by this
condition is solved restriction of this en-
plOyment must necessarily exist.
But for places comparatively near each
other, and where traffic is dense the
denscr the better, the electric locomotive
is peculiarly adapted, for here all the ad-
vantages of electric propulsion are availa-
Bile, unhampered by the extreme expense
involved in long feeder lines.