The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1905-06-24
DAWN OF A new EPOCH
In RAILROAD TRAVEL,

| GOTHAM, ACTUALLY MADE IN
LESS THAN Is HOURS, SHOWS
| GREAT POSSIBILITIES OF RAIL
WAY TRAINS.
New York, June t9.-The Twentieth
Century Limited train has heralded the
dawn Of the fast-approaching day when
Chicago and New York will be but six
teen hours distant from each other.
Notice of this looked for epoch in trans
portation was given in no uncertain
terms today when the famous Century
pulled into the Grand Central station OF
the New York Central lines four minutes
ahead of her schedule and after loaf
ing trip all the way from Albany, 143
miles distant.
The fact that the four minutes were
not heightened into 120 is due solely to
the management, who issued orders that
the eastern terminal should not be
reached more than five minutes in ad-
vance Of the advertised tune. The next
best thing that the army Of operating
employees could do was to demonstrate
the ability of the lines interested to
make the Journey in sixteen hours.
From Chicago to New York. 96l
miles in 963 minutes is the record nailed
| to the mast by the Century and floated
as warning to all the eastern railroad
world that the supremacy of the great
railway system which Commodore Van
derbilt conceived and planned cannot be
challenged with impunity. The sum
total of the trip in minutes is found by
taking from the schedule, which calls
for 1,080 minutes, the sum Of the min
utes which the Century ran into diYi-
sion terminals ahead of time.
-
Here is the complete record, which
undoubtedly will stand unbeaten until
the management Of the New York Cen
tral lines decides to throw down the
gauntlet by clipping another two hours
from the time between the great lakes
and the Atlantic:
Chicago to Elkhart, fourteen minutes
ahead of time.
Elkhart to Toledo, thirteen minuses.
Toledo to Cleveland, twenty minutes.
| Cleveland to Buffalo, thirty minutes.
Buffalo to Syracuse, twenty eight
minutes.
Syracuse to Albany, eight minutes.
Albany to New York, four minutes.
Total, III minutes saved out of the
schedule time of ,080 minutes.
This remarkable feat was accom-
plished apparently without the slightest
effort, and there is no doubt that it
could be duplicated daily under ordi-
nary conditions.
The running time, including sched-
ule0 stops, between Chicago and New
York was, therefore, at the rate Of 59.94
miles an hour. To arrive at a right I'M
derstanding of the marvellous speed Of
the Century it is necessary to take over
! the "dead time, which includes all the
stops for passengers, for change Of en-
gines and crews and for water at Dun
kirk. The actual "dead time" was
forty minutes, making the actual run
nrng time Of the Century 923 minutes
for the 961 miles. Figured in this man
ner the average speed of the Century
was 61.8 miles an hour for the entire
journey of nearly 200 miles.
~
The run from Buffalo to New York
was not as sensational as the trip from
Chicago to Buffalo. Leaving the Buf-
falo yards on time the Century ran
through the outskirts of the city for ten
miles until a straightaway stretch was
reached at Depew, named after the only
Chauncy. The lights of Corfu were
disappearing in the darkness when the
engineer hit seventymile clip.
The western division belonged to the
Century that night, and every sema-
phore did its work with precision that
brooked no delay. Syracuse, 1853
miles away, was reached in 153 minutes,
or at the average rate Of $50 miles an
hour. Arriving in Syracuse ten min
utes ahead Of time, it was discoYered
that hot box had developed on the
forward sleeper. This caused a delay
of eighteen minutes beyond the sched-
ule time of leaving Syracuse. Eight
cen minutes are not. to be seriously re-
garded py train with a roadbed at
water grade, an engine guaranteed by
the makers to do eighty miles an hour
with twelve sixty-ton Pullmans trailing.
In speaking of the Century's trip
Captain G. j. Grammer, vice president
of the New York Central lines, said:
"One of the most interesting facts in
connection with the run to New York
in sixteen hours is that the limit of
speed that can be made on perfectly
equipped railroad with safety and COM
fort has not been reached. 1t must be
remembered that, while the speed of
the modern passenger train has not in
creased 30 per cent in five years, the
percentage of safety has increased more
than that. With road protected by
5000 miles of block signal system, laid
with the heaviest rails, ballasted deep
and scientifically constructed, an aver
age speed of sixty miles an hour, in