Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1917-07-04
electricity IN USE
Heavily Laden Freight Trains Are
Handled With Ease.
LOCOMOTIVES DO Work WELL
Tractors Draw Their Loads up Steep
Mountain Slopes at Speed Of IS
Miles an Hour-Does the
Work of Four Engines.

Probably nothing proves more con-
vincingly the success of Identification
in the case Of q certain Western rail-
road than the ease with which heavily
laden freight trains are handled on the
steep mountain grades. Every q hours
five Of these trains, consisting Of some
thing like sixty cars each, r moved
each way across the mountains, and so
well do the big electric locomotives do
their work that there is an average
saving of four hours for each train on
each 100 miles of the run. This can
be understood when 1t is realized that
the electric tractors draw their trains
up the steep mountain slopes at a
speed of Is miles an hour, and even
better, where formerly three or four
steam locomotives painted and wracked
themselves in q violent effort to attain
half that speed with much smaller
trains.
All this is amazing when it is re-
called that only a little more than 80
years ago George S~tephenson's first
steam locomotive made its maiden trip
on a rail line between Stockton and
Darlington, England. The train was
composed of 81 vehicles, representing
q gross load of about ninety tons, and
the rate of travel ranged between i've
and ten miles on hour. A warning sig
mailman rode ahead on horseback.
New Type of Locomotive.
Last year a new type of locomotive
made it's maiden trip on the Rocky
mountain division of the road, running
westward from Harlowtown, Mont,
over the Continental divide. How radi-
cally different it was from the British
pioneer! It weighed 2S4 tons, three
times as much as S~tephenson's whole
train, and it's titanic hauling power
was such that it could draw a load
equivalent to 50 of ~Stephenson's trains
up a grade of 52.S feet in q mile at a
speed Of 16 miles an hour.
This capacity is typical Of all of the
electric tractors now used on the
mountain section of the line. Super
fcially, they quite fail to give that
hint of power which is characteristic
of their big steam rivals.
Within the carlike body Of each are
eight massive 430-horse power motors,
geared to a like number of driving
axles, which produce a motive force
of 3,44O horse power. Outwardly these
locomotives appear to be two, because
they are divided in the center; this is
done in order to insure greater fieNi-
bility in handling and when rounding
stiff curves.
Because these tractors can be con-
trolled with equal ease from either
end, like q trolley car, no turntable is
required at division points. From end
to end the huge engines have a length
of 112 feet.
Gain Made in Speed.
The electric locomotive does the
work Of four ordinary steam engines,
and is capable of handling its full
tonnage on a heavy grade at from
fifteen to sixteen miles an hour, as
against the eight to ten miles an hour
possible with four of its steam rivals.
On q 1 per cent grade, or q rise OF
52.S feet in a mile, the electric engine
is able to haul a passenger train OF
800 tons at q rate of % miles an hour,
while on level stretches it can do a
nile a minute. This is. a very con-
siderable gain over the speeds obtain