The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-18

was due to the excessively cold wealth
er. But il it should be disclosed that
this accident is to be traced to the
development from a little nodule in
the rail to a transverse fracture hid
den, although reaching practically to
the surface of the rail, then it is GER
tain that speedy and som what rad
ical action will be taken by the rail-
roads and by the manufacturers of
steel rails.
There are two features associated
with this accident which are of timely
Importance. One is the demonstration
that the steel passenger car affords the
highest measure of safety, at least for
trains running at the speed which is
maintained by the eighteen-hour trains
between New York and Chicago or the
tWenty-four-hour trains maintained
between New York and ST. Louis
rapid railroad service between the
larger cities of the United States has
entailed the construction of very pow
erful and heavy locomotives. The
percussion of the wheels of one of
these locomotives when it is running
in excess of fifty miles an hour is in
effect terrific blow. Therefore, in
order to meet this sudden and very
violent attack upon the rails it is vital
that the rails must be not only tough,
but yet in a sense elastic or ductile.
They must not be too brittle and yet
they must have firmness in which
brittleness is one of the qualities. In
addition to this, the roadbed should
be of practically granite-like consis-
tency and f1rmness and yet so con-
structed as to have the quality of elias
ITCHY. 1t must not be too stiff, but it
must be very strong.
Every competent railway manager
in the United States has, since 1900,
said either in public or in informal
conversation that the great railway
systems of the United States should be
practically rebuilt and re-equipped if
the railroads of the country are to
meet traffic demands which will be
made upon them.
1t was this which James J. Hill had
in mind when he stated, a few years
ago, that the railways of the United
States ought to expend five billion
dollars, chiefly in improvements and
in perfecting the roadbeds and equip
ment. E. H Hartman stated official
ly about two years before his death
that there should be radical changes
in the size and power of LOGON olives
and cars, in the weight and strength
of rails and in the ballasting and
construction of roadbeds.
But it SO happens that the rail
roads of the United States are unable
to obtain the vast amounts of money
needed for these improvement They
have been trying to meet the demands
made upon them for traffic and yet
at the same time they have been COM
PEELED to reduce operating expenses,
cutting as close to the bone as pos
sible. There are railroad companies
winch operate trains from New ork
city with cars which were archaic rs
years ago. The wood in some of them
is almost punk like. The expenditures
for heavier rails, the highest kind Of
ballasting and general track improve
ments have been comparatively small.
1t may be that the accident to the
Twentieth Century Limited would not
have occurred had the New York Cen
trail been able as greatly to perfect
its roadbed and its ballasting as
it has been anxious to do. For some
deterioration of the roadbed and bal
last may have speedily developed the
weakness in the rail which at last
broke
The accident to this train may serve
to focus attention upon the fact that
the railroad companies of the United
States are not improving and perfect
ing their systems as they should do
if they are to meet the requirements
of traffic. and they are not doing this
chiefly because they cannot find the
money with which to meet the cost
of expenditures of this kind. There
have been a succession of railway ac-
since the first of the year. and
while some of them have been due to
the carelessness of the signal men or
other employees, yet there is no Ques-
ton that others can be traced to the
inability of railroad companies to
make the great improvem ents which
are essential HOLLAND.