Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-05-22
RAILWAYEXHIBlT
Sights To Be Seen in Transport
tation Building.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGINES

| catcher Because English Railway Tracks
| Are Never Bothered by Cows-English
and American Sleeping Cars and Day
Coaches-An Interesting Comparison.
WORLDS FAIR, May 20. - [SpecialJ -
There is one spot in the big Transportation
| building where a crowd of visitors may al
| ways be seen. 1t is an aisle on one side OF
| which is a typical American railway train,
| and on the other a train from the London
| and Northwestern railway of England. A
| fully equipped English railway train is a
novelty sure enough, and the polite young
| men kept here for the purpose by the Brit
| ish corporation are busy from early morn
| ing till late at night explaining to inquisi-
| tive Americans the mysteries and pecul-
iarities of the locomotive and coaches. 1t
| is a rather odd appearance that the Eng
lish train makes in such close proximity
to a locomotive and coaches of our own
build The foreign locomotive is without
that graceful and sometimes useful ap-
pendage known in this country as 'cow-
catcher" This is not needed in England
because the track-or permanent way"
as the English have it's never bothered
with cows. The line is protected by fences
or walls which are cow-proof. The top of
much like one of our engines for many
reasons. 1t has no bell, probably for the
same reason that it has no cow-catcher,
and for the additional reason that there
are few if any grade-crossings in England.
The streets and roads are all run under or
over the permanent way. The foreign To-
connective has a whistle, but it is so little
like an American whistle that you would
irc "a of he
big boiler has no huge dome, no orna-
mental work of brass or iron to win the
Cndving admiration of the small boys
along the route over which it runs. 1t is
locomotive, of course, but it surely doesn't
.ook like one, according to our standard.
THE Queen is the name Of this i'm.
ported flyer. 1t is an express engine, of
the type used to make the rapid runs for
which the road which sends it over here is
Justly famous. One of these locomotives
will take train of ten or twelve English
cars, which are not as heavy as our Amer
lean coaches, and haul it from London TO
Aberdeen, a distance of $50 miles, in twelve
hours and five minutes, making dozen or
fifteen stops en- route. This is very nearly
fifty miles an hour for the whole dis
lance and is a fast run-faster than any
of the long distance runs in America. For
shorter distances, such as between London
and Liverpool, London and Edinburg, the
express speed Is fifty-siX miles an hour,
and is made many times a day and every
day in the year.
All these English locomotives are made
on what is known as rigid frames. They
have no trucks before or after the drivers.
1t has been supposed they could not be run
over our American roads, with their
sharper curves, but this train was brought
entire from New York to Chicago over the
New York Central line, and, as the British
railway men say, without any trouble and
with every journal cool and nice. Still,
the English type would not do on the
average American road. just as soon as
il attempted to round some of the sharp
curves at q pretty good rate of speed it
would find itself in trouble and perhaps in
the ditch.
1t may well be doubted if an American
engineer could be hired to run one of these
British machines. He might admire il as
a piece of Observation-Disclosures American
engineers by the score visit the aisle every
day-but he would not care to stand with
his hand on the throttle without more pro-
lection from the weather than is afforded
by the hood of the locomotive. The only
protection offered is a mere upright,
through which two holes are cut and
glassed over-the English railroad man
calls this lookout window SPECTACLE
and but the narrowest pretense of roof.
In practice the rain and the snow, the hail
and the sleet beat in upon the engine
driver Just as if he were standing in the
open air. OF course the fireman or stoker
is no better OFF. Neither driver nor stoker
has seat, either, and must be on their
feet all the time. The polite and intelli-
gent young men in charge of the train ex-
plain that by act of parliament railway
company is forbidden to work an engineer
more than nine hours, and that stations
and signals are 50 numerous along the line
the engineer could not sit down if he
wanted to. Re says also that no demand
for seats has ever been made by the driv-
ers: and as to the exposure, the company
provides storm coats for the engine men.
While it is of course true that the weather
in England is not so severe as it is in this
part of America, visitors wonder why such
a simple contrivance as cab and curtain,
in use on all American locomotives, is not
attached also to the splendid machines of
the English build.
The tender of this English locomotive is
much like an American tender, except that
il has no trucks, but instead three wheels
on a side also of the rigid frame pattern.
Underneath is seen the water-taking de-
vice in use on the Pennsylvania and a few
other American roads. 1t is simply a
snout which is let down into trough be
tween the rails, and the motion of the
train causes n stream OF water to rise ana
fall within the tank. This is one of the
very few railway devices for which Amer
lea is indebted to England. This method
of saving the time consumed by filling
tanks on the old plan was first used by the
London and Northwestern road, and was
introduced in this country by an English
engineer In return for this improvement
we have given our foreign friends the air
brake, the sleeping car, the dining car, the
vestibule, the baggage checking system,
interlocking signals, the block system and
many other important features of modern
railroading. some of which are taken kind