The Topeka state journal., 1898-12-27
2 MONSTER ENGINES
With 2 Feet Driving Wheels,
Cylinders 1926.
Burlington to Haul 4 Nail Cars.
NOrthwesterns With 8 Cars.

Chicago, Dec. 27.-The most interest
Sng news In railroad circles now IS that
clustered around the race of the c. B.
& Q. and Chicago Northwestern for the
securing Of the fast mail contract be-
tween this city and Omaha
Additional facts continue to come out
aeide from the main story told yester-
day.
The contest viii begin on the night Of
Jan. 2. The Northwestern viii place in
service its SpeedieSt passenger engine,
having a 19 by 26 cylinder and driving
wheels higher than a tail mans head
The Burlington will follow suit. It's
speediest locomotive will be relied upon.
The Burlington engines cylinder is the
same as the Northwestern 19 by 26,
and its driving wheels are Z feet high.
When the Northwestern fast maH
pulls out of Chicago at 10 o'clock the
night Of Monday of next week behind
the locomotive will be two mail cars and
one express car. When the Burlington
flyer slips away from the Union depot
at 6: so o'clock the same night there will
be simply four mail cars failing after
the snOrting race horse of the rails.
The fight begins then and there. The
Burlington company expects it's engineer
TO get his fast mail train into Council
Bluffs, across the river from Omaha, at
l:45 the next morning The Northwest
ern people are just as anxious that
their train shall reach the same point
at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Jan. 3. If
either one fails-WelI, no one knows just
what might happen
Fourteen years ago when Walter Q.
Gresham was postmaster general, when
Frank HattOn was his first assistant
and when Colonel Thompson was super
intendent of the railway mail service
the government at Washington decided
that the mails should be transferred
west more speedily. 1t was desired that
a railroad running out of Chicago west
carry the mails to Omaha at a particu-
larly rapid pace.
The contract was accordingly offered
to the Northwestern. The Northwest
ern's directors and officials could not
see much profit in the bargain and re-
fused A $4,000 bonus was then offered
the same road and there came a second
refusal Thomas J. Potter was then
general manager of the Chicago, Bur
ungton and Quincy. The government
asked the 90 to accept the contract
and Mr.. Potter advised the step and
the contract went to that line. 1t has
carried the mail between Chicago and
Omaha ever since.
The Burlington has not made a for
tune on the contract, it is said The re-
ceipts in its best year hardly reached
$500,000, and the average was below
s400 000 but today the prospects are
decidedly brighter.
To railroaders, the Northwestern is
about to make a clever move in putting
on a fast mail The Burlington people
understand this and are determined to
Whisk their mail trains across the
pTalrleS so IaSG that Uncle sam viii
hardly be inclined to divide the con-
tract with the competing line. The
present time schedule of both roads
means that 492 miles will be covered in
615 minutes. or 10 hours and Is minutes.
The record for this distance, when the
tracks were kept open and everything
made most favorable for a fast run, is
about hours and 80 minutes The
record is therefore to be almost equaled
every night.
The mail contract is awarded by the
government to a road for no stated
period In order to get the contract
from the Burlington the Northwestern
must show a better record for seven
consecutive days. If the Northwestern
can make faster runs seven days in
succession it is likely to get the purse.
The engineers on both lines have been
getting in trim for fast running after
January 1 for the last thirty days
Should the Northwestern best the 20"
on the run two days in succession the
engineers of the latter say they will
give the people Of Illinois and Iowa
glimpses of the fastest running ever
made in the western territory. No one
doubts that one road may beat another
a couple of days a week, but for any
road on earth to beat the 90" fast mail
seven days in succession is something
that is doubted by most railroad men
here