Evening star., 1900-12-15
the average speed of all lines fast trains

Z
ce!ves only hand baggage. 1t Is a daily
train and it makes four stops-at Albany,
Utica. Syracuse and Rochester-for which
deduction of minutes ought to be made.
Its rate of "a miles an hour throughout is
admitted to be fast. But the other express
trains of this line, 1T is pointed out. are
timed to go much slower 40 hours II min
utes, 10 hours q minutes, etc, correspond
ing to average speeds of 49.47 and 40 60
mics an hour. The Great Northern does
better over the 1893. 20 miles of its London
Newcastle Edinburgh line. This line has
six trains whose average speeds an hour
add up to divisible total Of 300.94 miles
while the average speeds an hour OF
the six best trains between New York
and Buffalo add UP only 2vl miles Nor
Is the Great Northern the only British
line to give such broad average speeds for
several daily trains. The six most rapid
trains of the Northwestern Company from
London to Glasgow, by way of Crewe. add
up a total of 2I9 miles, nearly Al miles an
hour, while the six most rapid trains Of
the Midland-London to Carlisle-add up a
total OF 216 miles-again superior to the
S.l miles of the six fastest trains between
New York and Buffalo.
Really a Special Train.
The French engineers carry out the same
comparison for the rapid trains of their
own country, admitting. Justly, that the
SUD express is. after all, special train.
making only four trips week 1t was
daily service was put on. 1t has been
taken off. 1t receives only first-class trav-
elers, who are obliged to pay, above the
nrst-class rate, a special surtaxe of 90
per cent for the high speed it offers, while
tne number Of PAGES is limited to The,
point Oh obllging one to book his seat sew
erai Gays In advance. There is nothing of
t!li5 on the American or English express-s
ne SIX most rapid daily trains betwee n
"a, arls ana bordeaux add up grand aver
ase toial Oh 2'3t2 miles an hour. winch, dl-
Vlded by six, gives grand average of 45 81
mics an hour for each of the six trains
i ms is inferior to the British averages of
5oo94 miles. 219 and 276 miles an hour. and
pl, pu. slight,s superior to the 2G1 miles an
hoGr added up by the six fastest trains be-
tween New York and Buffalo. 1t is also
Claimed in favor of the British lines that
the intensity of their traffic has led the
tiiee great companies already named to
e9tdoiish as many as seventeen and nine
teen last expresses between London and
scotland daily, multiplicity of fast trans
not found anywhere in Europe
Of the German trains the most imnortant
are found on the Berlin Hamburg and Ber-
lih-CClogne lines. The first named has two
ualiy trans, the second four daily trains,
ana the sum of their average speeds is 80
mn, illIes lhese trains, however, are also spe-
ciai ones, in that, like the Sud express.
they regularly receive only first-class pas
SenSers who are also charged a surtaxe
lhey can scarcely be looked on therefore
u iHiiis'iS StiNlte, 10 be COmDareI with
mat or the democratic American and Brit
ish flyers.
Quickest Fastest.
The French engineers while lova1Iv re-
counting these "averages'' of British origin
which go to prove the British trains s,-
perior to all when properly considered
have not hesitated to crticise these "ar-
hltrary averages arrived at by .'tortur-
ing time tables If the British view be
the correct one, Frenchmen and Americans
nave nothing but to "weep in the same
handkerchief" 1t remains the fact. never
thtlesS. that the Camden-Atlantic CITY ex-
whlie the unfortunate Sud express is the
fastest, while for the middle distance of
lS4 miles the Paris-Calais express holds
the record The English, in racing have
do it.
These European records have been paid
Tor dearly. Twice almost in the same week
the people of France have been shocked nv
the news of frghtful accidents on two Of
their principal railroads. and in each case
the SHINING train was one of their boasted
record breaking expresses. Coming as
they DO, Immediately after the catastrnphe
to the racing Frankfort express at Often
bach. in which thirteen persons were burn
ed alive, these accidents are making an
eXtSaord1nary sensation all over the coun-
try.
c
of peculiar atrocity. In thick fog the en-
gineer of the flyer mistGok the block signal
and, imagining that the train known to he
ahead of him had cleared the line crashed
into it. The explosion of the express. gas
reservoir set fire to the mass Of piIed-up
cars. with the horrible result. None of the
passengers occupying the last car of the
forward train could escape. The doors at
edch extremity Of the new fas shiyned cars
were Jammed up so as to be impassa BILE
something which TO he conservative French
speaks volumes in favor of the old-styIe
continental cars, with their two side doors
to each compartment. Those who sought to
escape by the windows were killed by the
purhlnG II their lower eXtremities.
Shocking Accidents.
In commenting on the German catastrophe
the French Journal des Transports notes
how differently the two peoples receive
such news The French chamber of depu-
ties has almost had Its regular business
stopped for two weeks to discuss the nun-
ishment due to guilt in high places and the
means to be taken for preventing future
accidents
The victims at Ofenbach were more
numerous than those at Choisv-Ie-Roj and
no less numerous than those in the accident
to the Sud express, yet in the chamber of
representatives they listen calmly t. the
discourse from the throne. In France. on
the contrary, all the parliamentary thun-
H.
paEies, and nothing less than the guillotine
IS called for everybody"
Al ChoiSy-le-Roi 1t was almost a repetitIon
OF the German disaster. An express train
crashed into an empty way train that had
noe been taken off the track on time
The accident to the Sud express il would
seem, was due almost entirely to immoder-
ate speeding. To obtain the average ra ta of
81 IL miles an hour for 4S6.25 miles. which
makes the Sud express the fastest long-dis-
tance train in the world. spurts of much
greater speeding are required. The secre-
tary general of the Continental Sleeping
Car Company did an unusual thing when,
abandoning his reticence, he drew for the
reporter of the Paris Matin the picture Of
his companys president, watch in hand
timing the Sud express as it flew over the
ground of the accident at the rate of sew
enty miles an hOur-'and that over a track
Win pronounced curves. 1t seems that
even this Vertiginous speed has to be sur
passed-up to seventy-four miles an hour
in order to square the train with the time
table. 1t was this speed that was fatal to
the train which the minister Of Peru
and fifteen others met their deaths The
careering train simply swung off the track
over a lightly balasted stretch. and all the
explanations imagined by ingenious en-
gireers to screen the guilty will not make
the plain account read differently. The Sud
hf1hv ,,lya