Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1913-08-16

growing motive power PICK UP j.
500 tons Of West Virginia soft coal
ii $4,000 worth Of modern steel
equipment wiggie it to the summit
Of the Alleghanles and roll it over the
top toward the Atlantic seaboard, You
begin to perceive how largely mans
work consists Ii moving tn ngs from
where they are to where he needs
them lie needs his coal at Baltimore
Nature left it in the mountains.
Therefore, you see the great Balti-
more and Ohio locomotives toiIing
with It up the western side Of the Al
leghanles day and night without end
or rest.
1t is impressive, IT. gives You a sen.
sation of pride N the mechanical and
engineering skill of your country.
Ralroading, you say, is a wonderful
business. You feel, without thinking,
that it must have been going on like
this for a very long time. because It
seems so well established and that
the means are now highly perfected
Neither is the case. 1t has only be-
gun It will continue on an expand
ing scale so far into the future as the
imagination dares run, unless way
be founded to burn coal in the ground
and distr butte its energy. As for the
mechasicaI means, these fall so EAR
short of satisfying lot of practical
tired-looking men that they spend all
of their time thinking how to Inn
prove them-how another car may be
added to the coal train in order to
increase the train load and thereby
enlarge the capacity of the road TO
carry coal from where 1t is to where
ii is wanted. There are mairly two
ways of increasing the train load Ono
is to ease the roadway by reducing
grades and eliminating track eurya.
ture. The other is to increase the eff
cheney of the equipment, especially
the locomotives.
Only recently on the big p. Z, o.
locomotives automatic stokers wee
introduced. It was an experiment. The
theory was that stocking might be
done more efficiently through a
trough with worm turning inside
than by shovel. When the general su-
perlntedent is asked il it is a sue
cess he says
Now that the men are learning
how to use it it is a great success.
The egineers no longer have to trade
steam for water on the heavy grades.
That is, they do not lose steam pres
sure when they inlet water into the
boilers. The automatic stolSer keeps
an even fire only SIX inches deep on
the crate, and it is so much hotter
than a fire stocked by hand that the
engineer can put his lever away over
in the corner. keep his throttle wide
open and have two injectors going at
once. That a very comfortable feel
ing for the engineer to have
We'll, doesn't il use up an engine
pretty fast to be fired so hard?"
Eyes" he says. but the foster you
use up an engine in a legitimate way
the more money you mako. That 50
what an engine is for"
The harder an engine is fired the
more coal it viii haul over lie noun
ia MS
It is not so much q question of put
ting coal down to seaboard at a low
er cost as a question Of putting it
there at all in the quantities required.
When Daniel Willard became presi-
dent of the Baltimore and Ohio rail-
road a committee of West Virginia
coal producers interviewed him.
There was no limit to the amount of
coal they could produce; neither was
there asy limit to the ultimate de-
mand for coal in the East. But the
limit of the facilities of the Baltimore
and Ohio for lifting It over the top
of the Alleghenies and rolling II
down to seaboard had been reached,
and something would have to be done
Mr.. Willard promised to increase the
coal hauling capacity Of the railroad
80 per cent. lie is doing IT, In three
years, to increase the capacity of the
b. & o. to move things from where
they are to where they ought to be
he has just spent $6OOOO.ooo.
The main artery Of the Baltimore
and Ohio is from Baltimore to Cum
berland. From Cumberland two arter
les diverge, one running through
Pittsburg to Chicago and the other
through Wheeling and Cincinnati tc
St. Louis. Mr.. Willard found these
o. cyf Y