The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-20
BIG ENGINE.
Veritable Battleship on the North
 ern Pacific.

Tacoma (Wash) Ledger.
 The Northern Pacific has received the last of a consignment of twenty -one of the biggest engines in America. The last one of the series arrived a few days ago, and Tacoma. the terminus. has the distinction of being also the greatest rail- road centre in the world in this respect. There are as big engines elsewhere. in twos and threes, but on no line and at no point are there a score of engines like the 1.2O0-class just received in Tacoma. Any ten of those engines could have done all the railroad business there was to be done here ten years ago. when the sage hens used to crawl up to Weston with eight and ten small cars that could be loaded into five modern cars, wheels and all The public sees little of these engtr the mountain division. Any one Of them can pull on level track all the loaded cars that can be hung behind them. The only limit Is the number of cars that can graphic language of Master Mechanic Bruce, You can string all the cars you can get behind one of these engines, chop the train off at mile or so. and swing 'em into Portland easy"
 Technical language will not convey to the average reader the impensity, or these wonders Of , locomotive oon oHo,d,ng cnnsst all over the road is ''bastieships," and . more descriptive name could not have been chosen. One goes two flights of 
 8 big they cannot be squeezed betwee the drivers, and perf9rce must be put on top of them. Their height is of three men standing on each others shoulders just low enough. to squeeze through the tunnels. Indeed, many tunnels had to oe raised to let them through from the East The cylinders are double on each side being arranged tandem: :he word tan dem" being adopted as the class name of the engine.
 Five years ago the ''Mogul'' engines, which could swing 300 tons up. the 12-10 grade to Lester at the foot of the noun fains, was considered a wonder, and ma1y believed the limit had been reached as to size. But the "Mogul' and its load is not a mouthful to the present battle ship" which weighs loaded nearly three times as much and rolls along without apparent effort with 1000 tons.
 If the freighting oyer the mountains were still done with hors aflesh as foNy years ago, 1t would take 50,O00 horses to do in Q week what a "battleship" does in a day. She carries Ao pounds of steam. The 'highpress' cylinders at the front of the tandem looking like young ffteen-inch cannon, discharge into the Flow press cylinders at 70 pounds
 From end to end tho engines are 6s feet long. for. as the master mechanic says, Since they can't build 'em higher, the only thing they can do now is to build them longer" Roundly speaking, one of the engines would run all the mills in Tacoma If it were not locomotive.
 
 the first of its 'Klondlke'' engines. then considered a masterpiece of engine con- structlon. Though monsters in size and power. the new engines exceed them just % per cent. in both dimensions. The ''Kiondiker" exceeded the "Mogul' by 300 tons up the grade to Lester, and the ''Battleship'' daily exceeds the 'Klon- diker by 200 tons.
 The engines are not comfortable for the engine crews and have occasioned a great deal of kicking. A bulletin was posted yesterday. cutting down the loads of en- zines, and till further orders the Battle Ship will only be required to draw 300 tons-still far in excess of anything which has preceded them. The object of the order is the speeding up of trains ohring the great rush of business now Gh.
 II is positively announced now, as oft times before, that the limit If locomotive tuiidng nas been reached It remains to re seen how many months 1t will be be- fore the limit siga is torn down and T Higher one substituted.
 He is a wise son who knoweth when his o,y, fafhAr will stand for a touch