The Washington times., 1918-08-12
TOY RAILROADS"
HELP IN WAR

Uncle Sans most useful plaything
In this war d his toy railroad II
isn't too much to say that the defeat
and efficiency with which he oper-
ates It. u
Every moment Of the day and
night midget engines. boldly labeled
~. s. A." and drawing miniature
cars over tiny tracks, puff their way
along our battle lines in France. Pill
ing up bit by bit the material by
which the American army lives and
fghts. Jsrky little things, with
none Of the smooth rhythm of the
great locomotives that whirI Us from
city to city over here. they never
theless get through an enormous
amount OF work on the same plan
Of multiplied effort the ants adopted
several aeons ago.
Feed Army At Front.
No army today could exist without
its light railroads. They are the
immediate and necessary blood ves-
sells which throb just below the skin
Of war and feed the surface OF the
fighting front. Easily operated and
quickly laid. they follow the flag
with the very pertinacity that
George AIDE IN the bad old days once
ascribed to the cocktail And whsr-
ever their bumpy cadence Is heard
the listener may be sure the fore
most trench frontier 10 Just around
the corner. So death curves are as
frequent on this railroad system a.
telegraph poles on the lines At
home
It was soon found this wouldn't
work. The front" was far too i'm
permanent. both as to location and
surface. for the cumbersome and
permanent works OF peace-time rail-
reading. So the standard. OF broad
gauge systems, retreated from
trenches, a. II were, to make way
for the nimbler and more servieeAbIs
light raiiways-
Now, back Of the entire allied bat
tie line, there Is q zone from four
to five miles wide within which =
perfect net work OF light railways.
forms almost the whole function Of
transport. Grown-up trains bring
their freight-food. equipment, mu-
nitions and even men-to the "rau
heads" just out of ordinary cannon
range. There the toy trains pick
1t up and Distribute Il virtually into
the trenches themselves, jolting
along with charming sang-froie
whether Fritz's shells be breaking In
twos and threes or by the whole sky
full.
America Is not a pioneer in milf
tary light railroading. Our system
is borrowed pretty literally from
French and British uses as we found
them when we entered the war. Here
and there, It Is true. we have ineor-
-
In our own railroad or engineering
experience, and as time passes We
expect to embody other improvements.
But we are using the French sixty
centimeter tracks and in the main we
have INDUCED In no "new-fangled no
tions."
American Personality.
Our light engines. though. are dis
tinctly American-Ameriean built and
brimming with what one might al
most call American personality. They
are OF three sizes and two types-tno
gasolene engine which coughs over
the tracks in daylight when coal
smoke would attract attention from
the enemy and the heavier steam
locomotive which sleeps until sun
down and shunts its train around at
night But even this monster has q
weight OF only 23.1OO pounds on its
driving wheels, while some of the big
locomotives on our home tracks
weigh ten times as much
The "gas" engines are really onfy
big motors geared to a locomotive
drive. The 30-horsepower size weighs
just four tons and the 5Q-horsepower
but 1000 pounds. They have a queer,
squashed-together look. rather sug-
gestive of the old Philadelphia
'stoops" that descend invariably In
three steps, but their pilots say they
are some jack rabbits" Even the
more dignifed steam locomotive,
smartly enough turned out. has GER
tain lean and hungry air. a faint
favor of the original Stevenson
Rocket model. However, IL has more
pull than anything else in the army.
Indeed, these engines pull virtually
every type OF car. except the Pullman,
used on the standard gauge-au
built, OF course, on a TIMER scale
There are nat cars and gondolas, box
cars and dumps" and tanks" sim,
q tank car with a capacity OF $4,000
pounds isn't such a midget. at that
Such tools as these make enthusi-
astic workmen. Perhaps, IL you pin
him right down to II, you can't get an
admiring engineer to admit point
blank that the little engines will jump
through hoops or sit up and beg. But
he's perfectly willing to issue .
blanket Endorsement and affirm hatiy
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