The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-26

wheels sell for S64 each. But our wheel
must ntSst De watched Just as carefully as the
Oener everything made by human hands
Is liable to accident, and there is no safety
Ior company or passenger but in constant
when you travel in an express train of
ordinary cars you hear the men testing
the wheels with hammers at every stop.
IN Train OF Pullmans, with paper wheels,
you 90 not near that But IL is because our
wheels do not give the same loud ring
ers.
''Yar!aties OF wheels? There are moro
kinds of wheels than you would care to
mention, even. krupp, the big gun man,
sends great many over from Germany.
Ihey are used on some of the Wagner
cars. All over this country there are car
wheel shops of various kinds. Krupps
wrought steel center wheels are largely
USED, About eighteen years ago he expert
mented with cast steel, but these wheels
were all out of service in six months or
less. The. cast steel wheel has not been
THE Pennsylvania Company makes Its
own wheels. in the Altoona shops, and
makes them very carefully. The rim is
chilled by body of water kept around it
in the casting flask so that it becomes
harder than the body. They run a set of
wheels 10000 miles on a passenger coach,
then put them on a freight car. Those fig
ures are from memory, but it is in the
neighborhood of 1900 miles. That is very
short life for a wheel, and shows great
care. We have one of our 42-inch wheels
inch wheel that has run 100000 miles. OF
course, they are exceptional cases, and on
north-and-s0uth roads,
What difference does that maker
asked. Does a wheel last longer running
north and south than when running east
and west?'
Il cannot tell you why 1t is, but it is GER
tainly the case. Wheels always last longer
on a north-and south road than on an
That is only one of a hundred queer sto-
rieS the car wheels tell as they rumble over
the joints. But one must keep on the
right side OF them and always a little
above them. The idea of paper car wheels
Is startling, but it is only yankee adap-
tation Of an old English plan. There has
always been a demand for block that
will not crystalline. Years ago wheels
with a center of teakwood were used in
England, and in that moist climate and
with the lighter traffic of the time they
answered the purpose very well. But
they would not do everywhere, even then.
An English company built a railroad in
In that dry climate the teak shrunk and
the wheels became worthless before they
were once used.
The hardest state on carwheels is Flori-
da, where the. sand grinds them down.
The inside of the fiange is not entirely fiat,
but somewhat fiuted, and the sand wears
off the huting, and in that condition the
mounting the frogs, which makes bad
work. Send it to the shop and grind it
out, ana you destroy the chill, Whlcn is
railroad language for take out the tenn
per. A locomotive. driving wheel that is
good for from $4,000 to 10000 miles in the
north often will not run more than 1900
miles in Florida, on account of the sand.
The sandy roadbeds all over the south
make increased wear on wheels, axles and
trucks.
The main question to those of us who
own no railroads is whether a car is
bound to have an accident when a wheel
breaks under ft-supposing the car, of
course, to be in rapid motion. The rail-
road mans answer to this question is
safe one: ut depends upon circumstan-
ces.
where the tirerof an iron wheel breaks
there is bound to be a wreck" the rail-
road man says. THE greatest danger is
with a change of weather, when the frost
is coming out of the wheels. Then look
out for wrecks"
Every passenger, car has two trucks un-
der it, one near each end Each truck
for an ordinary coach has four wheels;
for Pullman car, six. The ordinary
cars wheels cost perhaps $50 for the set;
the PullmanS cost $768. Every Pullman
car has paper wheels, and some Wagner
cars, and 80 per cent. of the private cars.
private car of its president is pretty sure
to have paper wheels.
Mr.. Tracy says that no passenger has
ever been injured through an accident to
a paper wheel. But our greatest safety
lies in the fact that a bad accident may
easily cost a company more than a new
set of wheels for every car on its road.
They watch their wheels rather than pay
for our broken bones.