The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1895-08-31
aREAT RAILROAD RACING.
$40 Miles in 5l2 Minutes, and a Pro-
test in Parliament


London and Northwestern Railway Com
pany new fast train between London and
Aberdeen, which left London at : o clock
last evening. arrived at Aberdeen at T. 32
. clock this morning Part of the jour
ney Of $40 miles was covered at the rate
of seventy-tive miles an hour
Sir John Lang, in the House of Com
mons today, asked whether the Beard Of
Trade could not control the speed Of rail
way trains which were now racing daily
between London and Aberdeen The
extraordinary speed attained by these
trains. he declared was certain to result in
a terrible accident.
Charles I, Ritehie President pf the
Board of Trade. replied that the Board
had no power To interfere in the matter
The public. he said. must rely upon the
common sense Of the railway companies.
The New York Ssa Of saturday. in
commenting on the above, saws
The run reported in the above despatch
eeliIses anything before recorded To make
this time the average speed maintained
must have been 63 % miles an hour. in
elnding all stops Unfortunately the cable
does not tell the number of stops and the
time occupied BY each. There are four
regular stops foF fas, trains ON the road
between the two points. When the speed
rivalry between railways in England began.
u month ago. the grea, Northern read.
which covers what l. known as the eastern
route, ran its T. NJ train from Euston
station, London, "a Aberdeen in I hours
aud So minutes The Northwestern ran
its tTuiR in hours and 30 minutes
Both trains were regarded then as remark
ably fast The improvement has been
almost daily since the rivalry began Fif-
teen minutes sometimes would be clipped
from the schedule time, and then the
trains were arriving always ahead of time
The record run was not reached until We'd
nesday. The Northwestern train then
GOT into Aberdeen whole hour ahead of
time. having made the $40 miles in 53S
minutes. The New York Central people
here still claimed the record of the world
with their 1864 miles in 1855 minutes,
actual running time The running time.
including all stops was 4395 minutes
On Thursday the Great Northern made
the smashing Of the record emphatic with
it, 527 mile run in $50 minutes. The
Northwestern, on the same day, was last
a little behind with $40 miles ia a35 min
utes, aud then followed it up with the
wonderful run of $40 miles in 5l2 min
utes, a. told above.
No American railroad can show any
thing ike this, although on short runs
better time has been made Both Of these
English railroads have many advantages
over the American ruads for fast running.
In the first place, neither one has single
grade crossing on its whole line Grade
crossings are forbidden there. Each has I
a much straishter road than the Ameri-
can lines, and because of the absence of
grade crossings top speed can be made /
through towns Where the New York |
Central passes through large cities speed |
has To be reduced To eight OF ten miles an
hour, In Syracuse, for instance. the road !
runs through one of the main streets Of /
the city, aud any sort of rapid running is
forbidden, but one Of the chief reasons
why American roads are handicapped is
the tremendous weight of the trains. The /
Empire State express weighs more than /
500, 600 pounds.
The question of safety of fast travel is
still undecided The only accident in /
America that might shed light on it was
one in which the Empire State express
was involved The express ran into a
gravel train near Peeks&ill once, and nearly |
ran through it, Practically all the dam
aye was to the gravel train. 1t was said +.
at the time that if the express had been /
running more slowly it would have heen
thrown from the track, As it was, the
express acted as poaderous battering ram.
The best long -distapce run IN this coun-
Try was made in 1891 over the New York
Central, The train consisted Of engine
No SO, weight 200, 600 pounds; New
York Central private car No. 247, weight
50. 500 pounds; Wagner Palace Car Com
pany private ears Traveller, weight II,
800 pounds, and NIariquita, weight 93,-
900 pounds-total weight of train, go
tons, or 400 600 pounds, about equal in
weight to an ordinary passenger train of !
FIVE cars. The run from New York to
Albany, LA miles, which was made with
out stop, occupied lao minutes; the dis
tanee from Albany to Syracuse, l4S miles,
was covered In LAG minutes, and that from
Syracuse to east Buffalo, LAG miles, in 147
minutes and 81 seconds
The change of engines at Albany re-
quired 3 minutes and IS seconds, the
change at Syracuse = minutes and So Sec
nnds. and hot journal at Fairport oc-