The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-18
W Growth Of
 The Locomotive
From the Baby Five Ton Toy of 1882 to the 188
 Ton Giant of Today

Eighty years ago there were 95 miles of railroads in operation in the United States. To-day there are ov7 CT 242,47S miles. a length that ii extended in single line would en- circle the earth more than nine times.
 This enormous growth of our rail- roads has naturally been accompan- iedz by the expansion or increase in size of the American locomotive, but with this difference, that while there is practically no limit to the eXten- sion of a line Of railway there is a we'll defined limitation to the size of the engines, which must be kept within the measurements of the tract and the height and width of bridges and other permanent structures. These rigid dimensions are known as the loading guage, and are substantially the same to-day as they were at the beginning of railroad history. Thus the problem of designing engines to haul the constantly increasing weight of trains is one of exceeding difficulty and it's solution may be regarded as one of the greatest achievements of modern engineering.
 In the year 1881 Matthew Baldwin, feundsr-of the famous Baldwin Loco- motive Works received an order for a locomotive from the Ph1lad delphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad company, whose short line of six miles was operated by horse power. In designing the engine Baldwin was guided by the plans of the planet en- zine designed by George and Robert Stephenkon for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1850. When completed the engine was christened 9ld Ironsides and was tried on the road November 230 1882. Old Iron sides weighed something over five tons. The driving wheels were feet inches in diameter. The cyl finders, were, g 172@ inches diameter by Is incz1esl strike. S} It's stractive effort was about 1, 200 pounds. It attain ed a speed of 30 miles an hour with it's usual train, but it only ran under favorable conditions for in rainy weather the cars were drawn by horses.
 Duringsthe next seven years great Improvements were made in Ameri- can locomotives and the leading truck ciasszran on the jersey city s4n1 New aSep SRnsssk wess a!Is M as4heter hes eEt by IS inches stroke. Driving wheels 4 feet. 6 inches in. diameter Weight about 10 pounds. The cylinders were inside the frame and the valve gear, having the hook motion, was on the outside.
 The time during which this engine was ip service was an interesting pe- rfbn Of .railroad history. Business was increasing faster than the means for handling it. Our railroads were like boy of the awkward age who is constantly outgrowing his clothes. They were getting unmanageable. Rough-and-ready methods of hand ling trains-well enough for the pion- ger days-were causing bad wrecks that alarmed even the free and easy American. public. The writer has in- terviewed old railroad men (some of them scared and maimed by fearful accidents) whose memories go back to the fortiess and a recital of their experience would be truly surprising
 How many of us who travel in the 1uxuriously appointed trains of to-day with an almost perfect service, know or stop to think of the hardships and