Evening star., 1893-07-29

ules are worthy of note. On March IS. of
this year. Engine s3s ON the Union Pacific
fast mail. ran from Julesburg to North
August August Is. n iss0. $50 Engine SIS same line. ran
from North Platte to Grand Island, 13s
miles. in 1i3 minutes, including stops The
fast mail is made of two mall cars and a
baggage car. and the road receives a
bonus from the government for, special ex-
pedition. In order to make its time its
night must take it up and down the Rock
les Ike a roller coaster. The schedule OF
No. limited coming eastward from Ogden
across Sherman Hill in 81 hours, is a very
credltable one. while that from Omaha to
Denver, 56s miles with six cars. making
eighteen stops, in II hours. is about as
good as can be found anywhere in the
country.
Care In Construction.
1t is natural to ask how locomotives can
in safety endure such strains upon them.
The reason is that every part Of the mate
rial used in their construction Is selected
and tested with as great care as is the
mechanism of a fine repeater watch. The
boiler sheets are separately tested. and a
thin strip cut from each sheet must show
an ultimate tensile strength. with the grain.
or twenty-five tons, and an elongation of
not less than one-fifth. Brass or copper
tubes must be of uniform thickness and
sond-drawn. From the tube under test a
piece four inches long Is cut. annealed,
sawn lengthwise and then doubled inside
cracks in this operation. and so on. down
through all the materials used. The cost of
the best express locomotive now In use Is
Although these modern flyers are capable
OF whfrling the traveller along 50 smoothly
that a glass of water filled to the brim
can be easily held without spilling. yet it
can be very easily shown. nevertheless.
thae fast railroading does necessarily in
schedules are lowered. Railway accidents
occur. as a rule, from causes other than de-
fectiye rolling stock. They result from
which would certainly do much less dam
age to life IL the train approached them at
a moderate speed.
The fact is the lightning engine is the
result of genius, study and fine mental
training. When 1t is evolved 1t must run
upon the rails. subject to carelessness and
errors of ordinary track employees, who are
paid low wages for guarding the bridges,
switches and signals. and whose vigilance
does not always keep pace with the con-
stantly improved trains.
Danger of Accidents.
The momentum acquired by train
travelling at the rate of seventy-fve miles
an hour, drawing heavy coaches, could
hardly be stated intelligibly. and thus when
bridge is out of plurnb. or a rail broken
by the frost, 1t requires no argument to
show that the danger would be less IL ap-
preached slowly. While the roads have
generally increased their celerity during
the last ten years, accidents upon them
have correspondingly multiplied. The best
proof of this IS found in the records Of the
railway mail service. whose cars run upon
the best and fastest express trains as a
rule. For ten years the number Of casual
ties to the mail cars has steadily increased
from about one weekly to more than one
daily. Take the last four years for ex-
ample: In 1889 there were 1893 accidents, in
1880 there was an increase to 261. in 1891 the
number was 3l3. and the last year there
We're 345 casualties. Moreover, the character
of these accidents has grown more serious
and ii must increase to do so as trains
lower their schedule time.