Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-29

| III minutes-at the rate of 61h miles per
hour. This, for its distance, is said to be
| the fastest run in the world, just as the
| Paris Amiens Cs1 miles at the rate of 63 p
and the still faster Camden-Atlantic City
are the fastest for their respective dis
tanceS.
Another swift French train is the express
for the Belgian frontier. 1t is timed to run
from Paris to st. Quentin, So miles, in 80
minutes. and from st. Quentin to Joumont,
So miles, in 5S minutes
In regular service this one company of
the north shows by it's time tables fifteen
runs at 56 miles hour and upward
eleven above 81 miles hour, eight at SO
miles an hour and upward, three above 50
and two above TO miles an hour.
Some Smart Runs.
In spite of it's accelerated Things, the
down trip of the Sud express still furnishes
a cluster of fast breaks that have no equals
in England. They are Orleans-Tours, 20
miles in % minutes; ursPoitiers GO
miles in 8s minutes; PoitiersAngouleme, II
miles in "A minutes, and Angouleme-Bor-
deaux 81 miles in OF minutes. The through
Scotch expresses have no run of any length
above fifty-four miles per hour. An Eng
lish expert who has been over here looking
up the question explained to me these SUI
perior French speeds partly by the greater
weight Of English trains The Paris Calais
train weighs never more than ITO tons. the
Sud express never weighs more than 100
tons; the Riviera Rapide Of the P. L. M.
line weighs $50 tons-two baggage cars, one
dining car, one drawing-room car and two
salon sleepers' On the other hand, the
Flying Scotchman weighs at least 22O tons.
These high speeds In comparatively light
weight trains, over still rather inferior
roadbeds with numerous pronounced curves,
are often attained at the expense Of some
picturesque swaying. There are moments
when the American tourist, innocently
promenading in the drawing-room car,
finds himself deposited in some lady's lap
or sent staggering down the corridor as on
the deck of a pitching transatlantic liner.
At certain point beyond the Fontnottes
station, on the Paris-Calais line. there is
switch whose passing never jolts less than
half the dinng-car material on the floor. in
spite of the of racks as on steamship,
and the head steward recently told me
that these ShockS-arOund curves and the
like-smash something like $40 worth of
crockery per day on the two runs!
New Engines Revelation.
That the new American locomotives were
revelation to French railroading goes
without saying. Heretofore the ingenuity
of French constructors had been rather
spent in devising economical coal consum-
ers of three classes: ID for light, cheap,
moderate speed passenger traffic; (2) for
cheap. heavy moderate-speed passenger
traffic and 60 for cheap, slow and very
heavy freight transportation. France is
small country-you can run across its
greatest length in twenty hours-yet even
today the grande Vitesse express service re-
serves three days for the delivery of no
matter what trunk, although in actual
practice the service IS regularly much
quicker.
In their search for force and cheapnesS
at the expense of speed the French con-
structors are still turning out some ma
chimes that would look mighty queer in the
United States-burners of dirty coal dust,