The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1901-05-30
RAILWAY IMPROVEMENT
REQUIREMENTS FOR MANAGERS WHO
KEEP UP TO DATE.

Possibly no one save the officers d.
rectly charged with such details COM
prehends fully the requirements lald
on the operative departments of rail-
WAYS. if lines are to keep up with the
procession and are TO be operated with
an economy equal to or approaching
that of competing road. To the casu-
al traveller these signs are apparent
in the development of special classes
of locomotives designed in strict ac-
cordance with the class of work upon
which the engines will be kept busy,
and in the widespread adoption OF the
steel car. For the carriage of weight
of 1900 tons. it is stated that the non
productive or dead weight to be hauled
is sixty-two tons less if the goods are
loaded in steel cars than if wooden
ears are used, with the additional ad-
vantage that the weight is nearer the
engine. and, therefore, easier handled,
and there is an incidental saving in
the requirements for sidings, yard
room and wages of train crews. One
of the lines doing a through business
to the West is about to be thoroughly
equipped with track tanks for taking
up water while trains are running at
full speed, for the reason that its most
active competitor has the use of such
appliances. On one road the engine
tanks on all engines were enlarged
last year, the water space being in
creased from 300 gallons to as high
as 1000 gallons. and the coal capacity
increased in a like ratio. Such facili-
ties as these mean lengtheninS OF
express train runs without stopping.
The Pan Handle road has three eX-
press trains which are not scheduled
to stop in 1915 miles, and on other roads
there are runs of over $50 miles with
stops only for water and coal. The
replenishing Of these necessaries for
the engine always seems to consume
deal of time, and a Pittsburg inventor
has come to the front with q common
sense substitute for the present time
wasting and dirty method. He pro-
poses TO have all engine tanks made
with an outside frame of strong boiler
plate, with perpendicular steel slides,
arranged to fit into an interchange
able water and coal tank. These
tanks are to be placed on a track
above the main line, and can be filed
with water and coal. When a train
arrives, the hydraulic lift is attached
to the empty tank and it is lifted up
to be filed for another train, and in
an instant the loaded tank with 1000
gallons OF water and seven tons of
coal is lowered down inside the tank
frame. The inventor claims that his
arrangement will permit the engine to
be coaled and watered in twenty sec
Onds, and that there will be no waste
or stirring up of dust and dirt. and
that leaking tanks can be repaired
without disconnecting the engine and
tender
On the Charleroi Canal, a narrow
waterway, about fifty miles in length,
in Belgium, there is an interesting
system Of electric haulage Horse
traction formerly used gave a speed
of one and q quarter miles per hour.
This has been increased to two and 4
half to three miles at the same cost
per ton-mile. The haulage is done by
five horsepower automobiles. with
three-phase motors, taking current
from overhead wires, through separ-
ate trolleys, which run on the wires
and are dragged by a slack rope. Cur
rent is supplied at 600 volts. There
are six wires in the system. The up
per three carry current at COCO volts.
and the lower or trolley wires are fed
from them through sub-stati0ns three
miles apart, each containing a step
down transformer. On the length of
fifty miles there are two generating
stations, tWenty-nine miles apart. The
automobiles do not pass each other,
but are confined to approximately the
same section of canal. Each one takes
over the boat that approaches it and
pro, IDS to return along it's track un-
til it meets another boat. Boats are
again exchanged, and the motors again
retrace their paths. Where the canal
banks are poor, electrically propelled
tugboats are operated instead, and
these VIII make about two miles an
hour with two seventy-ton boats. The
tug can turn without changing the
trolley and can also keep sixty feet
from the line, though the cable mast
is only fourteen feet high. Locks are
passed with the tug in four minutes,
which required fifteen minutes with
horses. In France there are double
tow paths, and in Germany on the
Finow Canal experiments have been
made with continuous current mechan-
ism and the pole trolley The expert
ence in these countries seems to indi-
cafe that canal haulage may be econ
omically done by electricity.
The Thule high-speed locomotive, a
French design, is of a decidedly spe-
cial type. 1t is carried ON fourteen
wheels, OF which four are coupled, and
set between a four-wheeled boyle in
front and a siX-wheeled one at the
rear. 1t is driven by two simple ex-
pansion cylinders and has motor by
which the entire train is lighted elec-