The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-05
TOP VIEW OF NEW RAIL JOINT AND METHOD OF
ELECTRIC BONDING.

Under the wheels OF our carriage are rails
OF steel weighing from 90 to 100 pounds for
each yard in length; under them again are
broad faced ties. spaced 50 close together that
it is uncomfortable to walk upon them. and
these in turn rest on a roadbed OF broken
stone a foot or more deep. You no longer feel
the old bump. bump. bump. in passing the
rail ends. and. In fact. there are not so many
OF those ends to pass. Instead of sixteen-foot
rails there are none less than thirty feet long
and some are Of double this length. Still.
when riding on the engine. with its greater
weight pressing down the tracks. one can feel
a bump at each rail end. and an examination
Of the tracks themselves after a few weeks OF
use shows that there is still an improvement
needed to give a really smooth roadbed. the
equivalent Of continuous rails.
The making Of perfect rail joints is perhaps
to-day the greatest need Of the railroads. 1t
Is not even to be supposed that such an i'm
portant matter has not attracted the alton
ton OF the inventors. AS a matter of fact. the
inventions, in this line are 20 numerous that
large, book. but those which come even near
TO solving the problem 9re few, When steel
rails got actually to be cheaper than.iron ones.
and SO cheap that railroads could easily af-
t9rd TO put down 80 70, 100 pound rails. it
seemed oemne for a while as IT, the problem might be
that they seemed scarcely to give under the
wheels Of the heaviest locomotive and the
metal so firm that u was long before it showed
the result, OF pounding at the ends Of the rails.
Many railroad men. seemed content to, use
and let the joints go at that. The heaviest To-
comotives, that were built Ave years or SO ago
i ny;SIhH p eari To-Day Sds ~" ioc tSna W .n are S,f baiis
S IoaGs Of yf fWalv mere eons than nn e 115 t2p fss and ar fSE5y
wheels, Rail ends on a busy road would be
battered out so much under the lighter roll
rails every eight or ten years. Under this
new and heavier stock the results are likely
a most serious item Of expense unless some
adequate device be brought out 10 cure the
ends, a rail would last under the worst condi-
ti9Es from fifteen to twenty, years,
II Is one OF the facts OF the worlds history
remedy has been .ouId for the trouble. and so
I is, safe to assume hat there is probably at
give the greatest promise Of safety to passen-
holders is a foreign invention which has been
under test on a section OF the track OF the Penn
years. Its inventor. Max Barsthall Of Berlin,
Induced General. Manager Loree to put in ten
W WlhIeI 81 Il t smb,ec l2' not " %piT 10 q fbe say2 tI OF the trStl
hc. blu! also TO fast passenger traffic. The test
has been so satisfactory thqt another ten miles
delphia and Pittsburg, is to be equipped With
the Joints. and 1t is safe to assume that If this
assume that, II the Pennsylvania Railroad
adopts the Joint. there Is no better one known,
This Joint uses on one side Of the rails an or
binary fshplate Of whatever design a railroad
has in use or prefers. On the other side II
uses what seems to be at first glance an old de-
vice. IN the, form OLA short section Of rail 10
rail is indeed intended to carry the Wheels
smoothly over The Joint. and II it were made
and supported by the main rails In the man
that IT would fail OF It's purpose and be more OF
. detriment to the track than q help. For