The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-17

SiA DittcS dii ttOuI over the whole way.
Another record he made that railroad
men always talk about when fast time
is referred to was two years ago. when
he went from here to Cincinnati in
an hour and fifty-four gainutes. with
an ordinary train. This was on a spe-
cial occasion, however, and there were
no stops. The fastest single mile he
ever went was in forty-two seconds.
which is at the rate of ninety miles
an hour.
Mr.. Maggie was asked if there was
any certain trick in the running of
fast trains. and replied:
There is no difference in the run
ming of the fast train and the slow
one. There is one thing that man
should remember, though, and that is
not to get nervous, no matter what
turns up before him. The engineers
who run the flyers must also be men
of quick decision, because a little wav-
ering on their part might cause a
bad wreck. If 1t is the engineers
opinion that the train should be stop
ped he should do so at once; but if
he thinks he can get through, then
all right--throw her open and so
through, but don't hesitate. The sue
cess in running fast train lies in The
one fact of keeping your mind on
what you are doing and not getting
excited when something turns up un-
eXpectedly before you. An engineer
must always be on his guard, for go
ing over the ground at sixty or seven
ty miles an hour he must act quickly
when the time comes, as there is no
chance to consider what is best to do.
The engine l run makes from ten
to twelve miles faster time than is
ordinarily run. To be able to do this
l have got to know every foot of the
road between here and Cincinnati. For
in knowing the track l can tell just
where the long stretches of level road
are before l get to them, and in this
way l can calculate just where / can
make up any little time that / might
have lost at the beginning of the trip.
In some places in making a run | will
go way ahead of my schedule, but
what have gained here / will lose on
some other part of the road that is not
so good. An instance of this kind hap
pens coming from Cincinnati here. For
about forty miles out the road is rather
rough, and on account of the grades
for the smallest of them will take
away from an engines speed-it Is
hard to make any Roadway, but after
this there is a slight incline given to
the road all the rest of the way, and
as there are only two stops, the entire
distance, which is sixty-nine miles. is
made in few minutes over an hour.
In making fast runs 1t Is in the stops
and slowdowns where an engine loses
time. You take, for instance, a train
that has to be brought to a dead
standstill. 1t will require as high as
ten minutes before it can be got we'll
under way again, and when you are
going at sixty miles an hour ten min
utes counts a great deal.
aft SaarnE Gtppl1aT huf 10 a. naPSnn
who is associated with engines all the
time they almost seem alive. This is
on account of the sensitive machinery
about them. You can't any more say
what kind of time an engine is going
to make when you start out with 1t
than you can tell how a race horse Is
going to run. Some days when you
take the machine out 1t Will worry
along, and you can't get it to running
right during the whole trip, and then
at other times 1t will start off perfect
ly smooth and you will have no trou-
BILE whatever. The weather has much
to do with the way an engine works.
When the atmosphere is damp and cold
and the oil is thick the machinery
works much harder than in dry, warm
weather when the oil remains thin.
Then there Is the difference in coal:
some engines will burn one kind better
than another. And the way the wind
blows also has much to do with the
speed that is made.
THE thing that helps out the most
in making fast runs, and that which
makes them possible, is the Wosting-
house automatic brake. With this APP
pliance the engineer has absolute con-
troll of the train; and when he sees
danger anead HI can stop at will. Many
people think that it is putting too much
work on the engineer to have him
watch the brake. but it is not. He by
all that is right should have full charge
of the train. because he rides in front.
where everything that transpires on the
track is in full view 1t used to be
that we would have to sight danger a
long wav ahead so as to give the
brakeman a chance to get the brakes
set In those days when you whistled
for brakes the men in the train could
never tell what you wanted to stop
for, and, consequently, they would not
get them set as quickly as the en-
gineer would have liked. AS it is now,
when he sees anything that looks dan
gerous he can have the train nearly
stopped before the obstacle comes into
full view.
1t is generally thought that the
speed the engines are required to
IHdfHldiIlb WI. lNd6iG WCHI OfI W soy
greatly Injuries them, but I don't
find that thas is true. because It
seems that they are built for 1t. In
fact, the engines are much larger now
than they were some years ago. When
l first began to run we carried about
1870 pounds of steam, while now we
use from 215 to go boiler pressure. 1t
can easily be seen that If 1t requires
this much more steam to get the en-
gines over the rails now we must be
making much faster time and pulling
heavier loads. The engines now, while
larger, are not as hard to handle as
the old-sty1e affairs because all of the
improvements have been to make them
run easier. 1t used to be the pumps
on the machine would not work ex-
cept when the engine was in motion,
but now these pumps will work at
any time and full amount of steam
can be had when the engine leaves
the round house. The lubricating of
valves is another thing that is a great
help. AS it used to be a man would
have to go round and pour oil on,
while now the oil will run right OH to
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