The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-02
RAILROAD NEWS.
Immense Orders for Steam LO-
cOmOtiyeS Tell a Story.
Electrical Motive Power in This
Country May Never Come.
TRIED AND FAILED.
TRIED AND FAILED.
Electrical Engine Falls Down
Under Best of Conditions.
Other Items of General Interest
in Railroad Circles.

Since the Santa Fe has purchased
their new Mallet compound locomotives
ct an expense of about 100000 each and
since the announcement of their inten-
tons to build more engines has been
Q1ade the question has come up in rail-
way circles-when will electricity take
the place. of steam and when will the
electrical locomotives be substituted for
the steam power driven monsters of
today?
The last reports from the motive
Lower departments Of the railroads over
the country show that during the last
year the orders for steam locomotives
were never so heavy. Orders and de-
liveries reaching up into the hundreds
are MADE daily. The two only locomo-
tive works in the Countrywide Amer1-
can and the BaIdwin-are making the
greatest output in history and the roads
that build their own locomotives are
assembling them in mighty rush.
Then. too, there has been an increased
demand for the electrical locomotives
but they have all been in the east
where the congestion of traffic, the f1ght
against smoke and the expense of OPP
Grafton together with the cost in fuel
is almost a minor matter when the
time and the schedule and the speed
of their trains is considered.
An interesting item to railroad men
that has just occupied the leading role
in the private car conversation has
struck Topeka and is untanglirg some
of the mysteries of the past that al
ways arose when new purchase OF
ef cam locomotives was made. The an
nouncement has just been made that
the Swiss railway administration has
decided to go back to the use of the
steam locomotives on the Seebach-
Wettingen railway after two years
trial of the electrical locomotives. 1t
was two years ago when they first made
their change from steam to electric
and it was thought at that time that
the modern motive power had changed
its course-the steam locomotives were
a thing of the past.
But this Swiss railway has been held
up as an example by many of the mod
ern American railroads of today. The
7 ain reason for the abolition of the
electrical driven engines was on account
of the cost of maintenance and opera
ton. 1t was found that it cost over
1000 per mile more to operate their
electri caI locomotives than it did TO pull
their trains with the steam power. This |
was enough to change the policy. 1t |
was thought at one time that the en- |
tire series of railroad system in Swift |
zerland would be electrified. But they |
are thinking different things now. |
AS result of the recent tests on the I
roads in America and other nations it |
has developed that the electric locomo- |
tive will be introduced only on lines |
with very heavy grades and dense traf- |
fic and on divisions where long low |
tunnels occur. And the conditions in |
Switzerland are far more favorable |
than in any other country-therefore, |
the outlook for electricity in the Uni |
ted States looks bad
Then there is another reason why the !
ecent Switzerland failure is a criterion |
of future conditions in the railroad |
work. In Switzerland the coal has to |
be imported at an immense cost. This |
means that the fuel supply for their !
steam locomotives is considerable more |
than in this country.
Then again the water conditions in
that country are most radically favor
able to the propagation of electricity. |
able to the propagation Of electricity.
are the best in the world and their dis
for steam are as promi-
nent. Failure to succeed under these
conditions is anything but encouraging
TO those who have looked forward to
the use of electricity for the operation
of the ordinary railroads of this coun-
try.