The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1902-02-19
BIGGEST ON EARTH
LOCOMOTIVE THAT PULLS A
TRAIN OF CARS A MILE AND
A HALF LONG.
It Weighs Two Hundred and Sixty
Thousand Pounds--Perilous
Experience of Santos-Du-
mont With His Air
ship.

SCHENECTADY, N. Y, Feb. 12.-
The Worlds biggest and most pow
erful locomotive, built here, has left
for the far west, where it will haul
heavy freight on the Santa Fe. It
represents the highest achievement
in locomotive design, the most not
able effort of American builders to
produce an engine of enormous
tractive power adapted to the rug
ged roadbeds of the transcontinent-
al lines. AS bold venture in mas
siveness, "9S9's" rigorous service
tests in the mountains of the trans.
missouri attracts the attention Of
the railway engineers of the world.
The builders of England and the
Continent builders judged Ameri.
cans insane when they passed the
hundred.ton mark. but here is o
monster weighing, without the 80
ton tender, 100000 pounds-twen-
one-times as much as the historic
De Witt Clinton.
From the end of the tender to the
point of the pilot this giant of the
rail measures seventy feet. Two en-
gines of 1885" type. if they could
be suspended in the air, one above
the other, would reach a height as
nearly as great as that of Niagara.
The top of the stunted smokestack
is sixteen feet above the ties, and
to such a great height does the
dome reach that its top had to be
taken off before the locomotive
could pass in safety under the over
head bridges between Schenectady
and Buffalo. The massive boiler,
nearly seven feet in diameter, is
perched go high in the air that a
tall man can stand under it. But
while the dome top is thirteen feet
above the driving-wheel ax1es, the
centre Of gravity is very low-sev-
eral inches below the top line Of the
drivers. The engine gets its great
stability from its massive frames,
cylinder castings, driving wheels
and driving mechanism.
On a level track 1889" could haul
train mile and half long car
rying the harvest Of 10000 acres Of
wheat. Its tractive power is exactly
$4,000 pounds-that is, it could lift
this amount of dead weight. Its
great wheel base gives 1889" this
worlds record hauling power. Ten
massive driving wheels, nearly as
tall as man, and SO heavily coun-
terbalanced that they appear al
most solid, grip twenty feet of tack.
On these ten drivers-which give
the name decapod to this type OF
engine-a weight Of $4,000 pounds
is carried. The pony truck carries
but fourteen tons, much of the
weight of the saddle ard cylinder
castings being distributed over the
drivers by the equalizer beam SO
distinctive of American design.
To make use of this unprecedent-
ed driving weight of 115 tons,
1889" must produce steam as no
other engine ever has. Following
the growing practice among the
railways of the Southwest, the San
ia Fe will burn oil in this, its best
engine. It's fire box, made of car.
bon steel tested to a tensil strength
of 10000 pounds to the square inch,
is as big as the bed chamber of a
New York fat. Its two thick shells
are held together by nearly two
thousand tough staybolts, each one
capable of lifting yard engine
without breaking.
The great area is sixty square
feet, unapproached in any locomo-
motive ever built. The bottom of
the fire box reaches out over the
tops of the drivers, after the fash
ion of recent American locomotives.
Monaco, Feb. 14.-santos, Du-
mont the aerona,1t met with dis.