The age-herald., 1901-06-17
John II. Converse Tells of
 Our Locomotives Abroad
BY JOHN H. CONVERSE.

Within the last ten years American To- cry country in the world where railroads are in operation, and within the last three or fcur years to England, France and Germany. These three countries in particular have been extensive producers of locomotives. both for their own uses and on foreign account, and they have competed with American builders for South American trade.
 It Is therefore remarkable that indus trial conditions in the United States have so changed that American builders are able to sell locomotives in Europe at profit in the face of the keenest compe- tition. It is hardly necessary to state that no foreign locomotives are imported into the United States; there has been no such importation for the last twenty five years, with one or two unimportant exceptions.
 Change in Weight of Locomotives.
 At the beginning of railroad construc- tion in the United States the locomotive had but single pair of driving wheels and weighed perhaps from twelve to six
 
 American locomotives was about forty tons for freight and thirty-flve for pas enger engines. Today freight engines of one hundred tons and passenger engines of from seventy to eighty tons weight are the rule These figures are exclusive of the tender. which has been propor- tionately increased in size
 The demand for greater speed has been constant from the beginning American tixrn t1oa 6aA A. this demand in such O manner that the increase in speed of railroad trains has been one of the most noteworthy devel- opments in the problem of transporta- tion. It is not 50 long ago that experts on railroad subjects seriously discussed the question of whether the speed of mile minute had ever been attained by any railroad train. At the present time there are trains in this country scheduled to run seventy to eighty miles an hour, and it is done every day. Some of the fastest time in the world Is made by the Pennsylvania and Reading roads be- tween Philadelphia and Atlantic City. The distance Is from f1fty-f1ve 70 fifty nine miles, and in the summer time trains are run daily between Camden and Atlantic City in from forty-five to fifty minutes. It has, of course, required many years to accomplish all this, g. 5 hSdt Oulidy LII hOucy loI iOOiS, chinery and general equipment. Tn a general way, then, 1t may be stated that one of the reasons for American suprem- acy in the locomotive trade In the mar kets of the world is the preference for our engines as to their type. size and de- tails.
 Another reason for this supremacy lies in the fact that American locomotive shops have facllities for filling large or ders in O short space of time. which makes 1t possible to deliver the engines much sooner than any European works could do it. A case in point is the build ing of one hundred and fifty locomotives for the Russian government by the Bald win Locomotive Works. They were or- dered for the Trans-Siberian Railway, and for the simple reason that no works in Russia could turn them out in the time required The policy of Russia is to build up its owf manufactures, and they will not order locomotives abroad if their works at home can meet the demand.
 Prices Are Lower Than In Europe.
 A third reason. and perhaps the most important one, bearing upon our com