The Virginia enterprise., 1902-02-21
OF THE RAIL.

MONSTER Of THE RAIL.
The Largest and Most Powerful To-
comot.ve in the World
Just Completed.
Chicago, ILL.,, Feb. 12.-One of the pair
Of monster ''decapods," or engines with
ten drivers, recently delivered to the
Santa Fe railroad, has just passed
through Chicago. The locomotives are
intended for the mountain division, and
will run in California and Arizona. They
will burn oil for fuel and will carry 225
pounds of steam pressure. Their mas.
siye drivers are ffty-seven inches in di.
ameter, and each engine can haul a load
of 210O tons up fifty foot grade. It is
intended to have the single engines do
ble-header" trains.
These locomotives are the largest and
most powerful in the world. They were
built at Schenectady, N. y, and repre-
sent the highest achievement in loco
motive design, the most notable effort of
American builders to produce an
engine Of enormous tractive power, adapt
ed to the rugged roadbeds of the trans
l.
land and the continent judged Americans
insane when they passed the 1OO-ton
mark, but here is a monster weighing,
without the fifty-ton tender, 26O,OOO
pounds-tweGty-twO times as much as
the historic Dewitt Clinton.
From the end Of the tender to the point
of the pilot this giant of the rail meas
.:989's'' type, if they could be Suspended
i'll the air, one above the other, would
reach height nearly as great as that
of Niagara.
Fifteen Feet Above the Ties.
The top of the stunted smokestack is
16 feet above the ties and to such Il
great height does the dome reach that it's
ton had to be taken off before the loco
motive could pass in safety under the
overhead bridges between Schenectady
and Buffalo.
ameter. is perched so high in the air
that a tall man can stand under it. But
while the dome top is 13 feet above the.
driving-wheel axles, the center Of gravity
is very low-several inches below the.
top line of the drivers
The engine gets it's great stability from
it's massive frames. cylinder castings,
On a level track, "9897 could haul a
train mile and a half long. carrying the
harvest Of 10000 acres of wheat. It's ac-
tive power is exactly So 900 pounds-that
is. it could lift this amount of dead
weight. Its great wheel base gives "9S9''
this worlds record hauling power.
Ten Massive Driving Wheels.
The massive driving wheels, nearly as
tall as a man, and so heavily counter
balanced that they appear almost solid.
grip twenty feet of track. On these ten
drivers-which gave the name Decapod
to this type of engine-a weight Of 232.-
OOO pounds is carried. The pony track
carries but fourteen tons, much of the
weight of the saddle and cylinder cast
ings being distributed over the drivers
by the equalizer beam so distinctive of
American design.
To make use of this unprecedented
driving weight of 115 tons, '989'' must
produce steam as no other engine ever
has
Its irebox. made of carbon steel. test
ed to tenstile strength of 10000 pounds
to the square inch, is as big as the bed
chamber of a st. Louis fiat. It's two
thick shells are held together by nearly
1000 tough staybolts, each one caDable
of lifting yard engine without break
The crate area is 60 square feet.
unapproached in any locomotive ever
built. The bottom of the firebox reaches
out over the tops of the drivers. after
the fashion of the recent American loco
motives.
Beats the Briton Two to One.
The most remarkable feature Of s989's'
construction is the unprecedented heating
surface. The other day an eight-coupled
mineral hauler was put in service on one
Of the English railways and all of the
toreign technical journals spoke of it's re-
feet, the record in English construction.
The Santa Fe's great freighter measures
nearly double that Of the English record
breaker, or exactly 1852 square feet.
Between the tube sheets, $685. boiler
measures 1872 feet, and in this big barrel
eter. Placed end to end these fiues would
make a pipe mile and half long. It