Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-07-20

/, gin with, the fast train is made up CT
the best equipment and manned by
the best men the company has en-
ployed. The flyer never has as many
/. cars as a slow train and there is less
/ to smash when the crash comes.
| Every employee of the road that
has flyer is always on the lookout for
the fast train. 1t has clear track
and extraordinary precautions are tax
en- for its safety.
Few fast trains have been wrecked
and when one does meet with that
misfortune it makes a great impress
sion upon the minds Of the public The
general public has a sort of fool no.
ton that all wrecks are due to high
speed. This is false impression as
any one can learn by taking the trou-
BILE to investigate.
eff you are walking briskly and you
bump into man who Is walking SLOW
ly you will bump that man out OF the
way. If you are running and hit an
other person coming toward you slow
ly you will hit him with more force
STILL
1.-THE same principle holds good with
the fast train. If it runs into solid
wall it is going to be wrecked, but if
1t hits an obstruction on the track the
chances are that it won't. 1t will
shunt the obstruction aside just as
the running man stunts his slow NOV
, ing brother out of the way.
"The train that is running slowly
and hits an obstruction is apt to be
derailed at least. The Twentieth
Century once hit a freight car and
cut 1t in two and none of the passen-
gers knew of the accident.
Tresspassers a Nuisance.
''The greatest trouble the railroads
in this country have to contend with
is the tresspassers, the persons who
walk on railroad tracks. A good per-
centage of persons killed by the trains
of this country are tresspassers.
England, France and Germany are
free from this trouble. In those coun-
tries it is a misdeneanor to go on a
railroad track. Persons who do 1t and
have no right to tresspass are pun
! ished. In this freeborn land of ours
there would be an awful howl if the
railroads got together and tried to free
themselves of tresspassers.
~ udu Wdlhlu6 dlOuS d IdllIOdu
track might suddenly become insane,
or he may see switch and tamper
with it and be sane. The result is a
wreck.
mo one knows what the railroads
suffer from tresspassers. The inter-
state commerce commission reports
that nearly 5000 tresspassers were
killed by the railroads in this coun-
try alone last year.
This railroad man voiced the senti-
I ments of majority Of railroad men.
AS to the limit of speed, few will con-
tradict him.
This country still holds the palm for
high speed trains, although it may be
taken away from it if the syncidate
that was recently formed in Brussels
makes good it's boast. This syndicate
was formed to construct a straight
line railroad from Brussels to Berlin,
the motive power to be electricity.
1t has been planned to make the run
in seven hours, and to do it will re-
quire speed in excess of ninety miles
an hour. To do this the railroad will
have to be built as nearly in straight
line as possible and high power cleo
tr1c engines VIII be used.
Grman railroads have done a great
deal of experimenting with electric
engines and for short distances they
have attained great speed What the
railroad men of this country want is
high power engines that can make
fast time on long hauls, that is,on trips
of 300 or more miles.
Talking about speed limit and safe
ty,' said General Manager A. H.
Smith of the New York Central, 'look
at the Empire State express. It's been
running since October, &c, 1891 and
has never had a fatality"
The Empire State and Twentieth
Century Limited of the New York Cen
trail (the latter the eighteen hour
train, are the two fastest trains in
the world The next fastest train is
the Pennsylvania eighteen hour train
to Chicago.
On certain stretches of road any one
OF these three trains could be speeded
at the rate of seventy miles an hour.
Railroad men say they make this
speed when they are a few minutes
behind time
The Empire State Express runs the
44o miles from New York to Buffalo in
8 hours and Is minutes. The average
speed including stops is 1888 miles an
utes The average speed of this train
is 405 tons.
The Central's eighteen hour train
runs from New York to Chicago a dis
lance of 965 miles, in IS hours at an
average speed Of 1851 miles an hour
The Pennsylvania's eighteen hour
train has to travel 905 miles in IS
hours at an average speed of 5O.2S
miles an hour.
The fastest foreign trains are:
The Sud express which travels he.
tween Paris and Bordeaux a distance
or 4SS.Ol miles In 8 hours and 81 min
utes. The average speed of this train
is 1880 an hour. This train went AZ
the rate of 81 miles an hour until it
ran down an embankment Then it's
running time was increased.
The East Coast express Of the