The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-11-20
The American Locomotive.


testify toward a continual = and, all
things considered, rapid-increase in
the size, weight and speed of railroad
trains. The demand for locomotives of
greater power and speed follows as a
natural consequence. A few years ago
public opinion, which received some
countenance in technical and scientific
circles, was voiced in the prediction
that the attainment of the maximum 10
connective speed under present conditions
had been reached. The fallacy of this
belief has been most eloquently dis
proved by the performance of an
eighty-five ton locomotive of American
manufacture which has drawn train
at the rate of ninety-fve miles per
hour, and by the achievements of Amer
ica's fastest transcontinental train.
which regularly travels a distance Of
5000 miles in 100 hours.
Thus, with the picture Of locomotives
weighing from eighty to 100 tons trav-
cling upon hundred pound rails and
drawing trains of seventy cars a pres
ent reality, it is not difficult to treat
with tolerance prophecies regarding the
future which might at first seem highly
over, that development has been stimuli
taneous in the case Of the types Of loco
motives designed for passenger and
freight service respectively. Present
exactions in the case of the latter are
we'll exemplified by the guarantee that
each of the locomotives furnished to a
company whose line extends from Buff
falo to Chicago shall be capable of haul
ing fifty cars, aggregating 5000 tons,
the distance of SAB miles, between the
points mentioned, in thirty hours To
the designing of powerful engines for
passenger service an especial stimulus
has been impaired by the dispatch de-
manded Of recent years in the trans
portation. of the mails.
The evolution of the American loco
motive from the standpoint Of design
has been quite rapid during recent
years. AS the size has increased, the
number of driving-wheels has grown
from four. originally, to eight or ten.
and ia ratio as the number of driving
wheels has increased the smokestack
has been reduced in hight. With the
increase in size the duties of both en-
gineer and fireman have become more
dTQuOuS. with CenQeT-JdIlkS HOiu1iis
from 5000 to 5000 gallons of water an
engineer may occasionally speed past
a water-tank where in the old days he
would have been obliged to stop, but
additional duties in other directions
more than counterbalance the saving.
With the fireman, duty means even
sterner exactions. No more eloquent
portrayal of this could be made than
the fact that to many of these men a
days work means shoveling twenty
tons of coal into the throat of fire
splitting furance within ten hours.
Probably the most powerful locomo-
lea are in use on a New Jersey rail-
road Each weighs over a hundred
tons and will take trains of 1000 tons
along without difficulty. Two f1remen
are employed on each engine. AS has
been mentioned, the new requirements
of the Government in connection with
the mail service have called into requi-
sition the enterprise which has spurred
several Western railroads to the ac-
QUESTION of a most admirable equip
ment Thus we have eighty-ton loco
motives making 300-mile trips out of
Chicago each day, with trains weighing
almost four hundred tons behind the
engine, and which they haul at the rate
of forty-two miles an hour. - Self
Culture Magazine.