The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-29
ARE FAST TRAINS SAFE.

If railroad speed continues to in
crease at the present rate the two
miles-in-a minute steam engines may
be here as quickly as the mile-in-two-
minutes trotting horse. The recent
great runs on the Northwestern and
Great Northern roads from London TO
Aberdeen have attracted the attention
of railroad men here, and it is not I'M
likely that something will be done
soon to bring the speed record back
to America.
American railroad men do not admit
that the record has ever left here. All
they will admit is that for $40 miles an
English train has made a faster run
than any American train ever did for
the same distance, and one reason why
no American train has ever done 1t,
they say, is that there does not happen
to be any stretch Of track $40 miles
long except on the Lake Shore road.
The officials of that road do not believe
In extraordinary fast time, and will not
permit trains on their road to make
record time.
A reporter talked with General Sup
erintendent Van Etten, OF the New
York Central railroad, about the pos
sibility of fast running.
THE New York Central" said Mr..
Van Etten, runs the fastest regular
trains in the world, and it is going to
continue to do so. I'm not talking
about the exhibition runs now; I'm
talking about business runs, day in
and day out, the year around.
''Our Empire State express is the
fastest regular train in the world. The
recent remarkable runs in England are
exhibition runs, although they were
made by regularly scheduled trains.
We have run only one exhibition train
and we made remarkable time with it,
but we can do a great deal better. We
can maintain, with a regular train, a
speed of II miles an hour for any dis
lance We may take you on en- ex-
hibitiOn trip some day and I'll war
rant that we will do 4 great deal better
than they have done.
''Our machines here-thoSe that are
in use every day-are capable of main
tanning a speed of 100 miles an hour
At that speed the question with us is
largely a matter of curve angles. To
make it safe travelling at that rate
around our curves, We would have to
10 hot
pull freight trains around them. but
the engines are here and the speed
* here. The cabled stories Of this
last remarkable English run say that
for part of the distance the speed was
- miles an hour.
The Empire State express has run
a; HE rate of 112la miles an hour. Sew
eT3l times it has made 100 and 102
miles an hour. on one occasion the
Empire State was 40 minutes late al
Syracuse. She had been delayed be-
tween Albany and there. In the run
from Syracuse 10 Buffalo this time was
made up. and she ran into The Buffalo
depot on the minute. This included 4
five-minute stop at Rochester. The dis
lance between Syracuse and Buffalo IS
202 miles. The schedule time for the
run * 221 minutes. Deducting the 10
minutes on this occasion, the running
time, including the stop. was Isl min
utes. That is at the rate of O.. 06 miles
an hour. Allowing for the stop the
actual running time was l.6 minutes.
or ar the rate OF 60 miles an hour for
the whole 202 miles. This is three
miles an hour faster than the English
run with the stops and 5.53 miles an
hour faster without the stop. SO you
see we have demonstrated our ability
in that line"
The races between trains on the rail-
ways between London and Aberdeen
have evoked discussions as 10 the daa-
GERS To passengers and THE nervcs,s
strain on the drivers The best opln-
ion published comes from Us1a WAC
for II years was the engineer u m *
press train on The New York Central
railroad. He says he never met a
driver who preferred a slow To a fast
. train II is utter rubbish. he declares.