Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-09-02
VES7IBULE TRAINS.
The Comfort Due t. This Feature Of
Railway Travel.
Present Perfection Only Reached Alter Years
Of Hard Work.

AS the Yankee rolled into the station.
the other afternoon, with its handsome
big sixwheeled engine, and solid yes
thule cars from the engine to the rear
gate of the 18th car, railroad man
who was standing beside the Journal
man who is around when the trains
and boats arrive, said:
THAT doesn't look much like the
trains which used to come in here 4
dozen years ago. Then we thought we
had pretty good trains, but these seem
veritable palaces beside them"
"How's that" asked the reporter as
portant arrivals of the occasion.
The makeup of the train. l mean"
went on the trainman. They don't
look like the stock that used to roll in
here daily from the West and East,
with their piano finish, plush chairs
and vestibules clear through from the
tender to the rear gate. l tell you.
that vestibule business has been a
Godsend to folks who travel and to the
companies that have to carry them"
That is probably putting it mildly, as
the reporter soon discovered when he
applied to an official for information.
Among the modern improvements
which have contributed not little to
the safety and luxury OF railway
travelling in this country a prominent
place must be awarded to the intro
duction (within the past ten years. of
''vestibuled' cars. which were first
tried on trains composed of so-called
palace cars only.
The advantages irrespective of the
comfort of passengers of coupling
separate cars together so as to make
one solid continuous train are Sc
numerous that there is but little doubt
that even freight trains will eventually
he coupled in an equally solid manner
III lit Cally udSS, tiit iotp-
motives We're small and light.
they did not have sufficient
tractive power to start train
Of loaded cars all at once, and so
IT, ''l.rk-and-pin coup was devised
in order to permit of a certain amount
of play between the cars. The loco
motive thus started but one car at a
time this car jerked the next one. and
so on down the line. In stopping the
companied by a succession of bumps
and jerks which We're very trying to
the nerves of the passengers.
1t is generally supposed that the idea
of the vestibuled train is quite modern;
but this is "A mistake. The idea dates
back almost to the commencement of
rairoading, and there are Il number of
patents on file dating back to 1852
which clearly prove the truth of this
statement.
on June %, 1852. Chas. Waterbury
obtained a patent for vestibuled car.
This provided a closed passageway be-
tween the rounded ends of the cars,
with doors at the steps for entrance
and exit. In his specification the in
ventor said this vestibulc was de
signed for the safety of passengers
while passing from one car to the
other, and for the purpose of keeping
dust out Of the cars when the train is
in notion
on August 8, 1865. S. II. Calthrop
which was evidently designed, more
over, to preserve the least FRACTIONAL
resistance TO the air when travelling at
high speed. This drawing is doubly
interesting from the fact that recent
designers of high speed electric trains
intended to run at rates of hundred
miles an hour and upward, all show
similar external shapes to their trains
Of cars intended to cut the air like n
knife instead Oh pushing IL OUT VI tlc
way, as is now the case
Some idea of the resistance of the
air to body moving at high speed
may be gained from the phenomenal
record of a bicyclist recently, who rode
on smooth board flooring (con-
structcd for the purpose) between the
rails of level stretch of track and
within partially inclosed hood con-
structed on the end of the rear car of
special train to shield him from the
opposing wind. He moved at a speed
of more than so miles an hour, in prac-
tically still air. that is. in a cushion or
compartment of air travelling behind
the train at the same rate of speed.
1t is not unlikely that eventually all
locomotives will be fitted with wind
cutters.
In October, 1882, a patent was grant
ed to c. S. Smith for a flexible and adj
Unstable hood permanently attached
hntu,ann ,are,