The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-07

to defect It's course without making pro- visions necessary for the resistance to cause such denection. In rounding curves provision is made for the reaction neces- sary to change the couse of the train, but slight kinks occur In straight tracks without provision for taking care or the disturbance set up. Lateral kinks in the rails are provided for by loose fits of journals and Journal bearings, and swing and roller motion devices which permit the wheels to move sideways, back ana forth, without defiecting the main mass of the car body from it's line Of travel. Vertical irregularities are usually taken care of by the truck springs which permit the wheels to move up and down relative to the car body without changing its course.
 "There are times, however, when by reason of violent side rocking of the car body or traversing a warped track sur face, the truck springs are compressed solid, and when this happens coinei- dentally with a vertical change in the rail surface, the whole of the loaded car has to be deflected from it's course rms causes a portion of the stored energy or the moving car to be converted into vertical impact on the rail.
 Weight on Axis
 "Talxe the weight centered at the axis of a wheel on an engine tender, say 2OOo pounds, which includes the wheel axle, journal box, and contents. This mass, or weight. moving along the track at tne rate of a mile a minute, or sS feet per second. will have a stored energy Of 2l2. GOO foot pounds. When this strikes raised part of the rail, or a switch crossing, the truck springs are llkefy to be compressed solid at time colnci- dent with the wheel coming into contact with the frog point. In that case the great nf with the wheel and the mass lifted may be 10000 pounds instead of 2000 pounds.
 sarhe natural result Is derailment either from rails spreading or the wheel fange crossing over the rail, or breakage. It is all the same the train is dltched and somebody geta busy with report on the wreck.
 ..The real cause is defective equipment defective in design; defective because of the gradual increase in load and speed of trains without taking into account the necessity for nexibility between the truck and the heavy, rigid car body me en- zine boiler has been taxed for heating, liphting, brakng, signaling, more tonnage and higher train speed. The engine ten der has been built higher. longer and heavier, it's center of gravity being In some cases as high as eight feet apove the rail, its spring capacity almost nil. Too much spring movement causes too much rocking with thls hlSh center oi gravity.
 ..Wrecx after wreck has occurred rom this cause, often attended with loss or life The defective track may be low or high joint loose joint with one rail having a solid support and the other none. There are many conditions of frost or frost-heaved track that produce the re- suit. What I wish to call attention to Is the fact that there is an unbalanced reaction on the wheel. sufficient to slew the truck which will either spread the rails ol. break a wheel hange, or cause the aanfes to mount the rail and go over, or something to give way from the ex- cessive stress set up, causing derall- ment. and that it can be remedied by more flexible connection between the trucls and the oar which does not permit of tho concentration of all the load on half of the springs or wheels"