New-York tribune., 1905-06-19
THE SPEED OF TRAINS.
Restricted by Strength Of Rails-What Has
Been Done Heretofore.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: have read in several newspapers accounts
80 tba performance of the new trial train on the
I,o,,ev1,ania Railroad between New-York ana Chi-
caoo In most of the papers the points given are
really only confusing to the puphc iiiilio N
matter of fact there is nothing either eHtraoiu-
nary or new in a train going at sixty ihieS "
hour for long dstances-as. for instance, tne ua.i
~-o,, Calais to Paris has been accomplishing ''e
tourney at that rate of speed Tor nuiiipei -
wars past But TO try and go at a msheA 'P'
though entirely possible from the point Oh 'ieW -
mower has been proved by long experiments 10 DC
most dangerous to the public safety 1t is' there
fore not likely that great company IKE the eiih
svlyania would indulge in such fanchui speeuS do
recorded in some of the papers
The London and Northwestern and the Great
Nortbern Railway companies, In England rleo
throughout a fortnight to run trains as 1ast aS
possibe from London to Glasgow and Edlnpuish'
and they succeeded in doing so at an average ra'e
of between sixty-three and sixty-four miles an
hour but at the end of the fortnight the damage
TO the track was great that they mutually
agreed to revert to the old speed of from ffty 10
hfty-two miles an hour. 1t is evident that there Is
no reason why any speed should not be optaiheo ol
any line provided the power was sufhclent. 1t 10
only a question of building locomotives powerful
enough But what is not easy is to construct
track which will stand safely, for any length oi
time such high speeds not to mention the hnpossi-
bility of travelling at such speeds on steep
and sharp curves To illustrate this graphically
in England some years ago by the breaking OF
rail A royal commission appointed TO lnVesu-
gate the construction of track to be safe SO Iar
as the strength of the rails is concerned al certain
speeds Sir Ben iarin Baker, member of the COM
mission went thoroughly into the question and cal
culated the now we'll known Bakers formula LOT
rails (Which be found in any engineering
pocketbook) in which for the first time the element
of speed entered into the calculation OF a. secuoh
of rail; and, in accordance with that tornu
which is the only safe one known at present tie
rail on two-ral track to be able to StaIid sdIeIS
q speed OF one hundred miles an hour must nave d
weight of 13e pounds to the yard, and Tor a spe9u
of 13O miles q weight OF 100 pounds to the yaro. II
is therefore, not likely that any company would at
tempt to such speeds such rails ana sleep
ers and with such attachments as are used on the
present railways.
The trials at Zossen. near Berlin. In the year
1902, tested Speeds ight two-rall railway
up to $50 miles hour. and the conclusion arrived
exceed speed of sixty miles hour on the pres
ent main lines railways with rails not exceeding
100 to 105 pounds a yard and with the grades and
curves usually found such lines. There is there
fore nothing extraordinary in the proposition to go
to Chicago in eighteen hours. the distance be
tween New-York and Chicago over the Pennsyl-
vania Railway is 9O5 miles. equivalent to journey
of fifteen hours at sixty miles an hour But why
such excessive speeds should be tried. with great
risk to the public, two-rail railway appears
quite unintelgible VERITAS.
New-York, June 13. 1901