Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-03-11
OUTPUT OF LOCOMOTIVES.
This Country Turni Uxt Three Tnou
sand Railway Engines Yearly,
Worth $40. OOO, 200.


not far from 5000 locomotives year,
worth approximately $40, 900, 900, says
the American Exporter. OF these
nearly one-fifth are sent abroad, al
though of Late the demands of the rail.
roads In this country have been SO
great and so insistent as to curtail the
quantity available for export mate
rally. During the last decade great
many noteworthy improvements have
been made in locomotive construction
and design. Ten years ago freight
car with carrying capacity of 10000
pounds was deemed adequate for all
ordinary requirements, but in ten
years the limit has been increased to
100000 pounds, while cars of even
greater capacity have been construct
ed. This increase has been made pos.
slble through the substitution of steel
for wood in the construction of freight
cars. The application of the air brake
TO freight cars has permitted freight
trains to travel with safety at higher
rates of speed than were practicable
few years ago.
All the changes mentioned, together
with the demand for higher rates of
| speed in the passenger service, have
given great stimulus to the develop
ment of locomotive having greater
tractive power and capable of running
at higher rates of speed than those
manufactured in 1890. The most inn
| portant features of this development
may be summarized as follows: A
marked increase in size and weight,
with increased tractive power and
| speed; the use of larger boilers, with
thicker shells; larger fireboxes and
| increased CRATE area, made necessary
| by the demand for higher steam pres
sure and greater steam generating
capacity; economy in the use of steam,
by compromising, and the substitution
of steel castings for wrought iron or
iron castings for several important
| parts.
1t is difficult to measure in exact
terms the increase in weight of loco
motives since 1890. Some figures
| taken from the records of a single
| locomotive establishment may be &C.
| cepted, however, as fairly representa-
| tive. In 1890 the average weight of
the locomotives built in this plant was
$4,000 pounds for the engine alone.
exclusive of the tender. In 1890 the
| average weight for the same estab
| lishment, and on the same basis, was
| 10000 pounds, an increase of $4,000
pounds, or 1872 per cent. Many loco
motives exceeding 100 tons in weight
have been constructed during the last
ten years. The largest engine thus far
built weighed about 1873 tons, or near
| ly 100 tons with tender, and it is not
safe to say that even this limit will
not be ceeded.
| Probably the most important inn
| provement during the last ten years in
locomotive construction has been the
introduction of the compromising prin-
ciple in the use of steam. The prin-
ciple is not new, even in this industry,
as patents for compound locomotives
| were issued in the United States as
early as 1916. Compound locomotives
did not come into any general use in
the United States, however, until with
in the last decade, although many en-
gines embodying this principle were
built in England and continental
Europe a few years earlier. The adj
vantages of compromising, so we'll
demonstrated in stationary engines,
have attained general recognition by
railroads and by the builders of loco
motives, and large proportion of the
i engines built each year are construct
ed upon this principle. During the
census year 1900 500 out of total of
1881 steam locomotives were built
with compound cylinders
Almost from the very beginning
American locomotives have been radi-
cally different in their general con-
struction from those used in Europe.
1t is marked tribute to the excellence
of the American locomotives, how
ever, that in recent years they have
been purchased in large numbers for
railroads in England, France and Rus
STA, where they have been put into
service in competition with types of
LOCOMOTIVES to which those countries
have adhered persistently for MANY
years. The growth of the export
trade in American locomotives during
the last ten years is noteworthy. In
the fiscal year 1890, which almost coin
cides with the census year, there were
exported from the United States 161
locomotives, valued at S1,2s0, COG;
while during the fiscal year 1900 there
we're exported 525, valued at 1852, 403
The time required for the construc.
tion of a completed locomotive from
the raw material varies greatly, &C.