The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-08-23
Exigencies of War Marked Pass
ing Of Compound Loco
motive.
COMES ALONG THE BOOSTER
cowcatchers Vanish as Arc Lights
Show the Way--New Idea From
Lima, O., Is Being Tried Out on One
Of the Big American Railroads
Compounds Go to Scrap Heap, as
Costing More for Repairs Than They
Could Save in Coal.


Gould Save in Coal.
Changes more important in the mo
tive power of steam railroads have
taken place since the world war be
gan than in the half century which
preceded it. True, the vital organs Of
the iron horse remain precisely as they
were when George Stephenson frs
gave him to a world astOunded.
The full blast of the exhaust steam
used to draw vast quantities Of oxygen
through the firebox to make the fue
blaze with almost explosive fury, and
which idea alone made the steam 10
connective possible; the horizontal boil
er with it's enormous heating surface
and low center of gravity, the furnace
submerged in water and twin cylinders
are all practically as the "Father OF
Railways" left them, and so far as
any present-day engineer can foresee
will so remain until the last steam
engine shall have rolled the rails.
Perhaps the change which first at.
tracts the attention of casual travellers
is the outside valve gear, now practi'
cally universal. 1t gives a sharper,
cleaner cutoff to the steam following
the pistons than the Stephenson link
motion in its original form, and it re.
verses the engine just as readily, but
another great gain is that it leaves
the space between the frames free for
increased size of boiler and firebox,
with consequent gain in steaming ca
pacity. The swinging rods and Os-
cillating links, being in plain sight out
side of the wheels and driving rods,
gave the popular name of "grasshop-
pers" to the engines when they were
new and monkey motion" to the gear
itself.
Freed From Double ThraII.
OF far greater Importance from an
engineering standpoint is the practical
abandonment of the compound locomo-
tives, which ten years ago were hailed
as the browning triumph of nearly a
century of locomotive building. Now
they have all gone to the scrap heap,
as costing more for repairs and de-
lays in traffic than they could possibly
save in coal. AS a. veteran railroad
executive put it the other day, "they
were in the back of the shop all the
time"
All that are left of these engines
that it was thought would work almost
revolutionary changes in railroad trav-
ell are few of the heaviest type and
they are in the freight service exclu-
sively. This change does not strike
the lay observer so forcibly, as the
compounds were not startlingly diff
ferent in appearance from the straight
or single expansion engines, although
their music on the road was of very
different quality. They started off with
only half the number of puffs Of the
older machines, and without the artil-
lery detonations which mark the start
ing of a heavy train, and when the
compound mounted into full cry across
the open country the note was soft
and purring, far different from the
deep organlike diapason Of the others,
Evolution of the Compound.
After many experiments on both
sides of the ocean, the locomotive
Warehouses of Stafford built for
the London & Northwestern railway
of England, was hailed as the sue
cessful Inauguration of the new type
of engine in which steam was bound
in double letters, the principle being
that the steam, after being used in
one set of engines to turn the rear
driving wheels, was discharged into
another engine where its remaining
energy was expended in turning the
discharged in the atmosphere through
the smOkestack as in all other rail
road engines from the Rocket to
the present day. The "Marchioness"
was followed by the Queen Empress"
built for the same road, and exhibited
at the Chicago worlds fair, at the
head of a complete and luxurious train
In charge of uniformed crew all
ready to take the road at an hours
notice.
Compound locomotives during the
following years were built in great
numbers and with many differences in
design and arrangement of working
parts, some with four and some with
three cylinders and after the Chicago
fair some American railroads ex-
changed a few of their finest engines
with similar types with British roads,
and they were subjected to severe
competitive tryouts in both countries,
but the result was not such as to lead
to continuing the practice.
American engineers can be found
who admit that the English engines
are the best in the world, for mas
much as a stout wicker basket will
outlast a rigid packing case of like
original strength in its life of travel
So the American locomotive, with its
greater feasibility of frame, and joints
more readily adapts itself TO the I'M
fOre>cem strains and shocks of more or
less crudelT-built railroads laid in new