The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-09-27
LARGEST IN THE WORLD.
LOCOMOTIVES OF GREAT POWER
FOR THE SOUTH.
Fully Double the Strength of the New
Norli's Central 090-Sixty Miles All
Hour.

The Southern Railway Company, re-
marks an exchange, has just had com
pleted at the Boldwin locomotive
shops in Philadelphia, the three larg-
est locomotives in the world. These
monsters which viii be run upon the
main line between Washington and
Atlanta, and which will soon be put
into service, have, after careful test
developed speed of sixty miles an
hour, while drawing a train equal to
thirty-three loaded Pullman cars of -
tons each.
Some idea of the strength of these
engines may be formed when it is stat
ed that each is fully twice as strong
as the celebrated 1899" which is own
ed by the New York Central Railroad
Company and which hauls the Empire
State Express daily between New
York and Buffalo, maintaining steady
run of a mile minute.
They are nearly three times as big
as the locomotive which hauls the
"Flying Scotchman" between London
and Edinboro, and more than three
| times as strong as the engine which
brings the train from London to Holy
head To put the matter more plainly
each of these engines can pull load
equal to that drawn by four ordinary
passenger locomotives.
| DESCRIPTION OF THE MONSTERS.
The six coupled driving wheels of
these engines are six feet in diameter
and the working setam pressure is 200
pounds to the square inch. The cyln-
ders are of the ordinary simple type,
each 81 inches in diameter. with a pis-
| ton stroke of IS inches. This gives Il
/ tractive force or drawbar pull of ~
AGO pounds. sufficient to haul q train
/ load of 1870 tons. equal to about SIS
of the largest loaded freight cars, at
slow speed. on n level track. No loco
motives now running have so large a
combined cylinder area and steam
pressure as these new giants.
"You may make the moving parts Of
a locomotive as powerful as you please
but unless there is fire box and a
boiler big enough to match the run
ming gear the engine will soon be short
of a steam, with a probable slow down
/ between stations. This catastrophe is
not likely to happen to one of these
engines as long as the coal holds out.
for the fire box is 10 feet long and
319 feet wide, with a total heating sur
face of 1914 square feet The boiler is
) feet 2 inches in diameter. with tubes
which give a heating surface of not
less than 229S square feet. Soft coal
of which about eight tons will be put
in the tender at the starting point will
be the fuel
UTILIZATION OF POWER.
AN engine may also have great
power and yet be unable to utilize it,
owing to insufficient weight on the
driving wheels. The total weight of
each of these locomotives will be rs
tons, of which SO will rest on the six
driving wheels, the remaining seven
teen tons being carried by the four
wheel truck in front. Reckoning the
bite or grip on the rail at onefourth
the weight of the drivers we get an
adhesion of 14% tons, or $4,000 pounds
which is 1910 pounds more than the
tractive force of the engine, thus leav-
ing a good margin for wet weather
and slippery rails. The weight of
10 13 tons on each pair of drivers is
also unparalleled in the history of rail-
roads. To carry this weight with safe
| ty and without heating the journals,
each axle is SH inches in diameter by
II inches in length. Fancy locomotive
journals feet and 1h inches in cir
conference.
"The tenders attached to these en-
gines will be worthy Of them. Each
will carry 1900 gallops of water and
which loaded to its full capacity will
weight 42% tons. This will bring the
total weight of engine and tender to
| 111M tons.
"The object of having such power
! full engines is not so much to make
speed on the level as to maintain it
on the grades. The maximum grades
of which there are several from 2 to
miles long, vary from 20 to SO feet
to the mile (roughly speaking from
~ to 1h per cent?. and the curves on
these from 3 to degrees"