Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1895-10-28
SPED LIKE THE WIND.
President Webb Takes Few Sec
onds Off the Worlds Rail-
way Record.

Buffalo, N Y, Oct. 24.-The worlds
record for railroad speed over a great
distance was broken today by a special
train on the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern railroad, which ran from One
Hundredth street, Chicago, to Buffalo
creek, Buffalo, distance of 51O.1 miles,
in 4S1 minutes seconds, an average
speed of 63.G0 miles an hour. This time
includes stops. Exclusive of stops, the
run was made in 40 minutes 10 seconds,
an average speed of 64.9S miles an hour.
The New York Central's record of Sep
TENDER IL was an average speed of 63.61
miles an hour, including stops, and 64.26
miles an hour exclusive of delay.
The train left Chicago this morning
at 3:29:27 a. m. Central time) and ar
rived at Buffalo creek at 11:30:34. -Four
minutes later the train came to a stop
in the Central station in Buffalo. The
train was made up of three coaches, en-
gine and tender. The coaches were two
Wagner drawing room cars and DR..
Webbs private car, the combined weight
of which is 304 800 pounds. The weight
of the engine and tender was 1S4, 900
pounds, making the total weight of the
train 4SS,5OO pounds.
Different engines were used on each Of
the divisions and the runs for the di-
visions We're: Chicago to Elkhart, S7.4
miles, in 50 minutes 26 seconds; Elkhart
to Toledo, 1884 miles, in 124 minutes
30 seconds; Toledo to Cleveland, 1913
miles, in 1O6 minutes seconds; CIeve-
land to Erie, 95.5 miles, in IS minutes
81 seconds; Erie to Buffalo, S6 miles,
in 70 minutes 16 seconds. Between
Chicago and Elkhart the train was
obliged to slow down for railroad cross
lngs eight times and to scoop up water
once.
The engine which pulled the train
over this division was No. 957, Mark
Floyd, engineer. This engine is a stand
ard Lake Shore passenger engine eight
Wheeler) built by the Brooks Locomotive
works at Dunkirk, n. Y, and designed
by George w. Stevens, superintendent
of motive power Of the Lake Shore &
Michigan Southern railway. The diam
eter of her drivers is y inches, size of
cylinders, 17x24; weight Oh drivers, g.
600 pounds; total weight exclusive of
tender 104, 900 pounds.
At Elkhart 2 minutes IL seconds were
,ost III changing engines. Engine 500,
David Lucenger, pulled the train to To-
ledo. and on this run eight slow-downs
were made for crossings and water At
Toledo 2 minutes 38 seconds were lost
in changing engines. Here No. 1850 was
attached. James Lathr0p, engineer. and
the most trouble was experienced in de-
lays. Besides the inevitable stops for
QfdWDflQgeS ana railroad CROSSINGS. one
dead stop was made for red flag, where
the actual time standing still without
computing the loss by slowing down
from a speed of II miles an hour and Of
getting up speed again, was minutes
and seconds. AT Cleveland / minute
40 seconds was consumed in changing
to engine 59S, which. piloted by Jacob
Gamer, drew the train to Erie at the
fastest average speed yet attained. But
the greatest record was made on the last
lap, from Erie to Buffalo, where the
big ten-wheeler, No. 564, William Tun-
key, engineer, picked up the train and
pulled her into Buffalo at an average
speed of over 20 miles an hour.
Cleveland, o.. Oct. 24-The run from
Chicago to Cleveland was made at the
rate Of 1O.6S miles per hour, which ex-
ceeds the New York Central record Of
63.26 miles per hour. The east coast
EseeeTgd 9n. tie Great GNortt1arh Toad of
is 523 miles in 512 5,inuies, OF 60.3 miles
per hour. The West coast record on the
London & Northwestern is $40 miles in
512 minutes, or 63.2S miles per hour.
The run from Chicago to Buffalo wa.
made for q practical object It was
neither to beat the record of the English
roads nor TO show what absolute speed
could be attained on the roadbed but
to ascertain at what rate Il commercial,
ly-paying train could be made to go safe
N. ~