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

actually to have gone and come part way
back as the saying is, in sensational re-
| turn to old French principles. These are
the jealousy guarded "chocolat' locomo-
tives, SO nicknamed, of the Lille express.
No one has ever been allowed to photo
graph the "chocolats, even to examine
them, but if / am correctly informed their
story Is as follows:
Up to the arrival of the four-cylinder
American compound machines, with four
cylinders and four to SIX coupled driving
wheels, the persistent French idea had been
enormous driving wheels. The American
locomotives were found to turn smaller
wheels with wonderful quickness. yet the
Frenchmen still regretted the force lost In
the 1essened leverage and this in spite of
the well-known tendency to instability of
gh-perched machines. Sticking close to
the compound device, therefore, the con-
structor of the "chocolats'' found means
to put gigantic driving wheels on a very
low-swung locomotive.
The secret of the "chocolats resides In
that device. The superior leverage of their
phenomenal driving wheels-four or six,
cOupled-doeS away with the need of four
cylinders The "chocolats are two-cylin-
der machines; also, they are very slow in
starting, because of their great develop
ment but once under way their speed is
anything you please.
"Chocolats" in Experimental Stage.
1t ought to be added that the "chocolats'
are even now scarcely out of the expert
mental stage. The Atlantic and Amer
lean type of high-speed passenger engine
is common to the six leading companies
and the state lines. namely, what they call
the De Glenn four-cylinder compound with
lading boyle, four or six driving wheels
coupled and often a pair Of trailing wheels
under the footplate.
The heating surface of these mammoths'
boilers is far greater than in any English
locomotive. Their steam pressure goes as
high as $40 pounds where only the latest
Great Western and Caedonian engines
have a pressure of 800 pounds The King
of the Belgians Own of the Northern line
has driving wheels feet 10 inches high,
and it draws the Jeumont express up in
cines with such steady speed that the Eng
lish practice of 'coastng down hill is rem
dered unnecessary; happily, because, as l
have already said, the French law limiting
any speed above IS miles per hour. even for
short periods, is strictly enforced.
So the proudest British speed records
broken by French railways To make a
single comparison of fastest rains for equal
distances take the Paris-C Calais luxe and
running between Leeds and Kings Cross,
London. The distance in each case is 1856
miles The English inclusive average is
524 miles per hour. The French inclusive
average is 81 % miles per hour, And so for
all the others. The English have but one
worlds champion break remaining-for
its distance, remember. This is 1914 miles,
between Paddington and Exter, done at the
rate of "a miles per hour!
How is it, unused the English expert
taken all round. the great average of
French general express trains is still well
below the English How. therefore, do
crack trains? Can it be that the French
engineers have suddenly surpassed our own
IN locomotive constructions
1t looks like it. STERLING HELLO.