Evening star., 1902-09-13

to see a demonstration. of British supreu,-
acy. Bravely the engine set out to dupli-
cate the previous performance, the drivers
moving merrily round and round, keeping
time to the rapid exhaust. When the grade
Was struck the machine began to move
slower and more slowly Presently the
single pair Of drivers began to slip. while
the exhaust was Quickened into a nervous
succession of snorts. Then before half
the grade had been overcome, the machine
came to full stop and all hands had to
acknowledge that the despised Yankee en-
CINE had done better than the best OBJ
tainable machine of British make. Then
there was Jeering a-plenty and the crowd
dispersed much disheartened at the result.
How American Engines Excel.
The chief point in favor Of the American
locomotive on that occasion lay in its
coupled driving wheels American builders
had learned early that engines with two
pairs of driving wheels coupled could haul
much heavier loads and could climb much
sleeper grades than engines with only one
pair of drivers. That was because two sets
Of drivers afforded two bites on each rail-
whereas one pair had only one bite" Or
just half as much tractive power
1t took the English railroad men many
years to grasp this simple theory. albeis
it was amply backed up by experience and
fully demonstrated in England on that
Indeed, English engines furnished with
only one pair of drivers are often to be
seen to this day, and it was not till few
years ago, comparatively, that coupled
drivers were seen in any numbers on Brit
1sh roads. 1t should be explained, how
ever. that with relatively light trains a
single pair of drivers is efficient on the
best English roads as double drivers
coupled are on the average American line.
rms is because the English lines were
from the beginning much better and more
eXpenslVely built than American ones. The
early English railway builders spent thou
sands of pounds in fills and cuts to AVOID
grades and curves that the early American
builders would have cared nothing about
Ihus the American and English types of
locomotives, practically identical at the
start, when American as well as English
machines were built with one pair of driv-
ers only, diverged rapidly, being furthest
apart some twenty or thirty years ago. To-
day they are much closer for many of tn,
new and heavy British locomotives have at
least two pairs of drivers coupled white
a Few have three. The American heavy
freight engine of the latest type almost in
variably has four pairs. but the English
have not yet gone that far.
A Curious Experiment.
Notwithstanding the now generally ac
knowledged superior tractive power of the
engine with coupled drivers, American en-
gines are occasionally to be seen with only
one pair of drivers. One of the famous
fast trains between Philadelphia and At
lanuc City. for instance, is hauled regu-
larry by such an engine without trouble
since the road is virtually without grades
curves.
The coupling OF the drivers was not the
only ool1t in favor Of the Yankee engine
away back in 1888. Its drivers were SO
placed as to bear the greater part of the
machines weight. thus holding down" the
machine to its work. while the drivers of
the competing English ma chimes bore little
more than third of it's weight Ten or
fifteen years later the Hudson River rail-
ROAD authorities. being anxious to increase
the speed of their passenger trains to
match English railroad speeds, which then
led the world, threw all practical American
rallroading experience to the winds. They
bullt a number OF locomotives possessing all
the defects of the English type and none
of its excellences. First of all, they fitted
each engine with single pair drivers eight
1eet IN diameter, quite as large as the driv-
These experimental engines ran like
grea ased lightning when not loaded, and the
trial of the first one light reused the most
extravagant hopes for mile a minute"
trains. With load, however the new type
engine could not compete with the reguIa-
ton American type mounted on coupled
drivers only fur feet in diameter
For some time all hands and the cook in
the Hudson River railroad management
were puzzled nightly, but after a while
an engine driver told them wherein their
mistake lay. Besides adopting the single
pair driver tyre the axle of the drivers was
set back IF the boiler, so as to bear only a.
small fraction of the machines total weight
1t rested mainly on the forward trucks and
thus the drivers bore no weight to speak Of
and naturally they slipped as soon as they
were called upon to haul a load. Of course
the new machines had to be rebuilt before
they coula be put into active service.
Present Tendencies.
Not only are the locomotive builders of
the world approaching one another as to
types of engines-though still wide apart in
many things-but railroad managers the
world over are coming closer together in
their general practice.
Thus, while the block signal system was
an accomplished success abroad long before
1t was introduced here the block systems on
our great lines are now the best in the
Is actually being introduced on one of the
big English roads.
So 1t Is with regard to roadbeds. Origi-
nally the American roadbeds were incom-
parably inferior to the English and Euro
pean roadbeds, but the roadbeds of some of
the best American lines are now the finest
In existence and the work of improving
them has hardly begun, though since 1897
nearly or quite a billion dollars has been
so laid out. This year the combined ex-
penditures in improving American road
ways-cutting down grades, strengthening
curves and laying heavier rails and abolish
ing grade crossngs-wll amount literally
to hundreds of millions, perhaps half bill
lion, a sum quite vast enough to bankrupt
score of the most important old-world
lines,