The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-09-27
The RAILWAYS OF INDIA.
Grounds for Popularity Of the
American Locomotive.

! Views of n Manager as 80 the Merit,
Of the Engines Built in the United
Stntcs-Thcy Haul Greater Loads
Than the English Mnchines
| American locomotives continue popular
on the railways Of India where they are
| in competition with English engines. Col
| Onel Constable. manager Of one Of the
great railway lines Of India, recently Wis
/ tied the United States TO study the rail
way system, and the Treasury Bureau OF
Statistics has just received a summariza-
| ton Of ms report submitted TO the Indian
I Government and, through it, laid before
| the British Board Of Trade
Colonel Constable states in his memo
randum that no doubt the American en-
/ CINE burns more fuel and wears out soon
/ er than the English locomotive. and the
former is UnQuCstionably dirty looking
machine, but Americans do not expect
their engines to last more than fifteen
years, by which time they are ready to
put them on the scrap heap and adopt a
different design and a more efficient arti-
Gle. and il must be remembered that coal
/ is exceedingly cheap in America Col
Oucl Constable also states that their great
hauling capacity makes up for any de-
fects in their details and that, in his opin-
ion, weak and out-0f-date engines are not
discarded often enough in India
The memorandum continues as follows:
| The first duty OF an engine is either to
run fast OF to pull a big load. and [ would
sooner have = dirty looking engine that
would haul $500 tons than beauty to
look at that could only haul GOO OF 200
tons. as ia England. or I,200 tons, as in
India The cost Of coal is only one factor
in the cost OF carrying a unit. and the
East India Railway would be better il,
with It's cheap coal, its engines hauled
American loads even if its coal consump-
tion per engine mile were doubled and its
engine had 10 be scrapped at the end Of
( fifteen years"
Colonel Constable concludes by saying
that as a matter Of practice American
lines like TO run an engine for all it is
worth, provided traffic is Offering, just
allowing sufficient time Cor cleaning and
repairs, and that some engines on the
Pennsylvania Railway are said TO do l5.-
O1o miles month keeping remarkably
good time.
At the end Of 10000, the total length OF
all railway lines open in India was p 03j
miles, and there were 2,0I9 miles under
I construction. The rate Of progress in
be apparent from the following figures OF
the average number Of miles opened an
nuaIly in each Of the last five quinQueu-
NAL periods: 1876 10 1850. 5s2 miles. ISL TO
1855, CD miles; 1Ss6-s7 70 ISgJ-9I sos miles;
1912 10 1885. 526 miles: 1851 70 1g10-J1
J. l57 miles
The gross earnings in 1900 were 315.957,-
81 rupees, and the total expenses l59. 9s5. -
SCI rupees which made about IS per cent
Of the receipts. the excess II receipts be-
ing 1881 $50 rupees. Very nearly two
thirds COZ per cent? OF the receipts were
I contributed by five lines with an aEgTe-
gate length Of $500 miles, being One-third
Of the whole open mileage; namely, the
East Indian. the Great Indian Peninsula,
! the Northwestern. the BOmbay-BarOda,
the Rajputana- Malwa.
OF the total earnings Of the railways. IS
per cent are derived from goods traffic
the receipts from passenger traffic giving
the small proportion Of 3 per cent. The
number Of passengers carried on the rail-
ways in 1900 was about 10. 900. go, the rail-
ways carried in the same year over 3d..
10000 tons Of goods and minerals
During the last ten years, that is since
1881, while the number Of miles open has
increased from 1876 TO Z5,0G5. the Increase
being al the rate Of ~ per cent. the gross
earnings have increased from 4)4Ug. 90
rupees 10 3l5 900 rupees, being at the
rate Of q per cent.