Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-17
ADVISE Sending
ROLLINGSIOCk (
To AID RUSSIA
American Railway Commission
Says This Would Boost
Efficiency

|
MOSCOW, Aug. 3-tCorrespondence
of the Associated PressI-John F.
| Stevens and his associates on the
American Railway Commission now
yisiting Russia for the purpose of as
sisting the administration OF the Rus.
| sian railways in increasing their ef-
ficienCy have discovereI many ways
in which transportation may be speed
ed up on all Russian hines without ad
ditional equipment.
The commission has advised the
! United States government to supply
| Russia with $500 more locomotives
and 10000 more freight cars as soon
as possible. However, ii will be con
siderable time before this rolling stock
can be manufactured and shipped TO
Russia. The shortage of bottoms Oh
both the Atlantic and the Pacific will
delay the delivery Of the new rolling
stock and additional shops must be
erected at Vladivostok before such
great quantities of locomotives and
cars can be put together speedily.
Meantime Russia must make the
most of its available rolling stock
and locomotive power and the Ameri-
can engineers are busily engaged as
sisting the Russian railway officials in
study of the immediate problems.
The Russian roadbeGs are in excel
lent condition. Virtually all the lines
were we'll built originally, and the
tracks have been kept up, chiefly
through the work of peasant women,
in spite of the shortage OF labor Great
ed by the heavy draft the war has
made upon the male population.
After travelling the .ulI length of
the Trans-Siberian line and inspecting
many of the important lines in Central
and Southern European Russia the
American engineers have found that
Russian railway men are working at
great disadvantage in not having up
to-date equipment for coaling, water.
ing and cleaning locomotives.
At nearly all stations in both Euro
pean and Asiatic Russia. engines are
watered by means of eight-inch pipes.
From twelve to twenty minutes is
required for work which is accomp-
lished in the United States in four or
five minutes. By the installation of
twelve-inch supply pipes this delay can
be eliminated
BY the Russian methods "a hours is
required to clean a locomotive, coal it
and get up steam again. Coal chutes
are lacking and the fuel is transferred
from piles to the tender by means OF
steam shovels. Work that could be
done in five minutes with modern
coaling apparatus requires much time.
Then the Russian engine houses lack
the hot water equipment necessary for
the washing out of boiler engines as
soon as the locomotive comes off its
run. Engines are allowed to cool be.
fore they are washed. Then the boil
ers are washed with cold water. Steam
must then be raised in a stone cold
boiler before the locomotive is ready
to 60 on its run. With modern coal.
ing apparatus and facilities for sup.
plying abundant hot water to cleanse
boilers, the American railways coal
and clean an engine in four hours, a
saving of twenty hours over the Rus.
sian system.
Oil is used as fuel for locomotives
in Southern Russia but, in Siberia
and Northern European Russia, coal
and wood are the fuel. The facilities
for loading wood are also bad and
plans are under way for improvements
in the system. Water is supplied to
passenger cars by means of buckets
at most railway stations. Few sta.
tions have the hose necessary for wa.
tering cars in hurry. These have
not been required because engines
took water so slowly and l4bor was 50
abundant that it was pOss,0le to sup
ply the cars with water oy hand while
the locomotive was being cared for.
/; But now even the labor or women