The mirror., 1923-05-31
RAILROADS
(Continued from page y


But the most wonderful progress made
in recent years towards railroad efficiency
probably lies in the electric locomotive.
Their performances have astonished some
of the chief supporters of electricity The
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Co.
has given the electric engine a strenuous
tryout on long stretch of its transcon-
tinental line crossing the Rocky Noun
tains. This section of the c. Nj. and St.
+. crosses three ridges and at one place
climbs to a height of $500 feet The
whole stretch between the eastern ap-
proach to the Rockies and the Pacific coast
with the exception of about 200 miles is
now electrified, giving the United States
the longest electrified railroad in the
world. When the electric locomotive was
Put to work hauling trains over this sec
ton with three mountain ranges to cross
and all kinds of weather to face, it took
the opportunity to show its superiority
over the steam engine.
The big motors demonstrated their
power to pull trains up two per cent
grade at a speed which three steam loco
motives could not equal. And they have
taught new lesson in going down noun
tains as well. When the train is rolling
down a mountain, the electric motor, by
the throwing of switch is transformed
into a dynamo and the momentum of the
train is then expended in driving this
dynamo and sending the electricity thus
generated back into the transmission line.
All the momentum the brakes would have
had to absorb and waste, goes back into
the transmission line. In this way they
can pay back from fourth to half as
much power as they borrow to climb the
grade.
When a locomotive has its fires banked
in the roundhouse it burns approximately
two hundred pounds of coal an hour;
when getting up steam it requires eight
hundred pounds; when standing on side
track or at station it burns five hundred
pounds and when coasting downhill 1000
pounds. The electric locomotive elimi-
mates all this waste for it requires no
power at all in any of these situations.
The c. M. & St. P. Co. finds it can
operate its trains more efficiently with
forty-two electrics than with one hundred
and twelve steam engines, or in other
words the electric can increase the capac-
ity of a single-track railroad to a point
approaching double-track capacity under
steam operation.
How much could be saved by univer-
sal electrifcation of the railroads of the
United States was disclosed by recent
investigation. 1t was shown that cleo
tricity can be produced at two and one
half pounds of coal per kilowatt hour,
and that 53,0O0,000 tons would suffice to
produce all the electricity required to
move the freight of the United States in
a normal year, saving of more than
1e0,000,000 tons year.
If all the steam lines were electrified the
railroads would be relieved of hauling
approximately 150,0O0,OOO tons of coal a
year for their own use. This would mean
a saving of more than 100000 carloads
of freight or $4,000 trainloads of fifty
cars each. The coal train required to
haul the fuel used by railroads alone in
one year, would fill eight tracks reaching
from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate
The rolling stock of all the railroads
in the United States consists of 2,34S,000
freight cars, $4,000 locomotives, and 49,
600 passenger train cars. To vizualize
the immensity of it one must imagine all
these cars and engines coupled into one
extensive train. The freight cars would
reach distance of 1920 miles; the pas
senger cars 700 miles and the locomotives
would extend the train 1000 miles more
a train 20,42O miles long!