The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-23
4 GIANT LOCOMOTIVE
LAEoEsr AND MOST POWERFUL
EVER BUILT.
Fire-box Alone 10 as Large IS an Or
binary Bed Chamber-lt Is
seventy-dve Feet
in Length.

In view OF the Dig engines OIL w
Central mentioned by The Advertiser, the
following description Of an Eastern giant
in The Cincinnati Enquirer will be inter-
esting to railroad men:
The Schenectady, a. giant loeom9.N e;
Niagara Falls. and powerful enough TO
haul trains one and a half miles long,
has Just been completed and put into SER
vice on the Santa Fee Railroad.
motive ever built. During the past thirty
years each successive type OF engine has
been slightly larger and more powerful
than its predecessor. In this way the
have failed to notice what big locomo-
lives we. are getting. these days.
= But there was nothing gradual ABOUT
the Schenectady: The present type OF To-
connective. when compared side oy side
midget. The Schenectady's fire box alone
Is as big as the bed chamber in an av-
erase New York or Chicago fiat. With
out its tender. which alone weighs nifty
tons. the new giant locomotive tips the
beam at 100 tons-just twenty-one times
az much as the historic Dewitt Clinton.
which hauled the first passenger train
in New York State. and many more time
as much an the Peter Cooper, which In its
day held the title, now claimed by the
Santa Fe engine, Of being the biggest and
most powerful locomotive in the world.
No. $50. as the new worlds champion
will be officially referred to in railroad
circles. could haul the harvest of 10000
acres of wheat across the American Con-
tinent with ease. Perhaps on some of the
particularly heavy grades q little assist.
ance from another locomotive would not
be declined, but the Schenectady Is capa-
BILE OF carrying out the contract without
any help at all IL absolutely necessary.
Some idea Of the enormous size Of this
| modern railroad giant may be gathered
l~ T. AAAk t.zx ~ Adj
nary height. standing on tiptoe on the
top rung of a 12-foot ladder reared
against the front Of the engine. could
barely see down the stunted smokestack.
the other would equal the total height Of
the Schenectady. The boiler tubes. all
2 Ia inches in diameter, II taken out
and placed end to end would make a pipe
a mile and a half long.
The heating surface Of the Schenectady
measures exactly 4,682 square feet. Be-
tween tube sheets the American engines
boiler measures Is IL feet and In the big
barrel-big enough to live in!are massed
the one ana half miles of boiler, tubes.
From the rear end Of the tender to the
point of the pilot No. $50 measures ex-
actly 70 feet. The top Of the smokestack
is 16 fet above the rails. After the en-
CINE left the works of the American Lo-
connective Company at Schenectady, N.
Y, bound for the far West, the top of
the smokestack had to be removed be-
fore the locomotive could pass nj safety
under the overhead bridges between
Schenectady and Buffalo.
The boiler is perched so high in the
air that a tall man can stand under 1t
without STOPPING
But while the dome top is 10 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 its great stability from its massive
frames. cylinder castings, driving wheels
and driving mechanism.
|. Its great wheel base gives $50 this
worlds record hauling power. Ten mas
sive driving wheels. nearly all tall as a
man and so heavily counterbalanced that
they appear almost solid. grip 20 feet of
track. - =.
To make use of this unprecedented
driving weight of lis tons, $50 must pro-
duce steam as no other engine ever has.
Following the growing practice among
the railways of the Southwest. the Santa
Fe will burn oil in this, its best engine.
The firebox Is made of carbon steel
tested to a tensile strength of 10000
| pounds to the square inch. Its two thick
| shells are held together by nearly 2,0O(
| tough staybolts. each one capable of lift
| ing a yard engine without breaking.
The cylinders of $50 are the greatest
castings ever made in the Schenectady
was 23,B40 pounds. Much of this great
weight Is In the halves OF the saddle
the forward support OF the boiler.
The size of the modern Amedican
freighter is recalled when 1t 10 recalled
that the Dewitt Clinton, tender and all,
did not weigh as much as one OF these
castings.