The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-24
WHY WRECKS INCREASE

From the American Magazine.
Have you ever seen prize fight, or read
about one? A pugilist strikes his oppo-
nent a mighty hlow which keels the man
over like child. He lies in a corner,
helpless for a time, and then, just as the
count is about to come, groggily arises
and continues the fight. perhaps winning
it. But suppose, instead of one knock
down blow, there were a series, a dozen,
q. score, a hundred or more All matter
has this in KIM 1t possesses certain re-
Operative powers. Iron and Steel wood
and stone, can reeuperate just as human
being does from a certain amount of
hammering. II the blows come at moder-
ate intervals, matter is prepared to meet
them. But if the blows come close to-
gether, matter fails under them.
Since 1902 railroad mileage in this eoun-
try has increased only y per cent, but the
number of locomotives has mounted up by
81 Fer cent; the number Of freight cars,
oil per cent; the number of tons carried
one mile, SO per cent, and the number uf
passengers carried one mile. 50 per cent.
In 1902 the heaviest locomotive on one
OF the greatest railroad systems weighed
10000 pounds. Last winter the same COM
pany had locomotives which tipped tho
scales at S005O0 pounds, an increase of 81
per cent? But there are now being built
locomotives which will weigh 752,000
pounds, machines SO vast that photo
graphs have lately been taken which show
an ordinary switching engine safely en-
sconced, with room to spare, in the lire
BOX of one of them. Perhaps you will say
these are extreme cases. But, in general,
locomotives have increased in weight 80
per cent in Is or 20 years and in a great
number of cases the increase has far ex-
ceeGed that figure. Cars. too, have grown
as much
But assume for a moment that the
weight on each wheel is no greater than
it. used to be, because there are more
wheels, the track is battered just SO much
longer; it has Just SO much less chance
to recuperate Put ten drivers, if you
will, on each side of the huge engine. Of
course, the weight is distributed over a
great length, say 125 feet. But the track
is battered for a longer period of time
But there has been no decrease even in
wheel loads. On the contrary. there has
been a slow increase in wheel loads in
addition to the tremendous increase in the
number of such loads. You may put 20
drivers on a great machine, but when
the machine weighs 100000 or 700 600
pounds, you still have weight per driver
far in excess of those in existence some
years ago.
The increase in locomotives has taken
place in both freight and passenger serv-
ice. On one railway, as we have seen,
the increase from the heaviest freight 10
eomotives in 1902 to 1911 was 81 per cent
In passenger engines it was Go per cent.
In 1911 the engines which carried the is
hour flyers between New York and Chi
cago weighed 10000 pounds more than
even the heaviest freight locomotive in
1902, and 60.000 pounds more than the
hesviest passenger locomotives in 1901.
I.cok at the mounting strain from still
another point of view In the last 10 years
the average freight train load has in-
creased at least 80 FER cent, and perhaps
10 per cent. There has also been a fairly
steady increase in the number of loads
passing over each mile. Density of traf-
tic has enormously increased, so that
with a roadway little heavier than it was
at the time whom far lighter rolling stock
was used, there is continually a greater
volume of traffic being carried over the
rails in given period of time. Upon the
tracks fall more blows than formerly, and
harder ones at that