Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-30
FASTEST LOCOMOTIVE PULLS
SLOW TRAIN IN GEORGIA

| JACKSONVILLE, Fla, Aug. 81
Pulling a slow local passenger train
in Georgia is the stem Wheeler
which one day twenty years age
travelled at a speed greater than that
of any steam locomotive ever built
| 100 miles an hour.
This engine, now Atlantic Coast
Line No. 210, was Plant System No
III when it set the worlds record
for sprinting. At the same time ii
won a United States mail contract
between Washington, D. c., and
Jacksonville.
The Seabooard Air Line and the
Atlantic Coast Line-Plant System, in
under observation of postal authori-
ties. Each road, it was agreed,
should run three trains to determine
which could handle the Florida and
Cuban mail the quicker. It was
while pulling the third test train
that No. Ill, of the Savannah, Flor
ida and Western, just delivered to
the railroad by her builders and still
stiff from lack of use. unexpectedly
set it's record that still stands.
Shortly after leaving Savannah.
No. 107, new locomotive, assigned
to the test, developed a hot driving
ed it at Burroughs, eleven miles out,
the two railroads paralleling to that
point
At Fleming, twenty-three miles
from Savannah, No. LOT was still ex-
periencing trouble and when passen-
ger train No. %. southbound. with
neer Lodge, overlook the test train,
officials substituted the Ill for the
107, ordered dispatchers to clear the
road between Fleming and Jackson
vile and instructed Lodge to push
his engine to the limit.
A fire some years ago destroyed
Fleming and Waycross, but reports
show that No. III made the 76 miles
between Waycross and Jacksonville
in SO minutes, an average speed of
70 miles an hour.
The worlds record was set near
Jesup, where No. Ill and her train
covered five miles in two minutes
and thirty seconds.
No. Ill arrived at the Union sta
ton in Jacksonville ahead of the
Seaboard test train and the Atlantic
Coast Line and Plant System was
awarded the mail contract.
Some time later the Atlantic Coast
Line absorbed the Plant System and
No. Ill became A. c. L. No. 210.
There is nothing out of the ordinary
in the design Of the engine, which is
Of the typical "ten wheeler" type
three pairs Of drivers and four-pony
truck wheels. She has nineteen-inch
cylinders with a stroke Of twenty
eight inches, seventy-two driving
wheels, and carries a boiler pressure
of $50 pounds. The engine weighs
10000 pounds. Her rated tractiva
power is ,21,4so pounds.
The old Plant System track be-
tween Savannah and Jacksonville is
known among railroad men in the
southeast as 1.-THE Speedway" be-
cause of the fast time that has been
made on it. No. Iii made her no.
table run in 1901, and after the At
lantic Coast Line took over the
Plant System a special train was
handled at rate Of 1856 miles an
hour. This instance was on March
| 8, 1903, when a train chartered by
the family Of George Gould was run
the 172 miles from Jacksonville to
Savannah in 1872 minutes, or at a
speed Of TOT miles an hour. Engine
271, with Engineer Thomas Leake in
charge, which pulled the train, ran
the seven miles between Wa1thour-
Vile and Mcintosh, Ca, in four min
utes, exceeding 105 IL miles an
hour.