Evening star., 1937-09-05
RIDING IRON HORSE
Woman Writer Travels in Cabs of Two Loco
motives-Diesef and Steam-and
Tells How It Feels.

before they enter the cylinder, while
In the Diesel the fuel and the air are
mixed inside the cylinder The gasoline
engine congresses mixture of gaso-
line and air which is ignited by an
electric spark. while the Diesel en-
gine congresses only a charge OF air
and ignition is accomplished by the
heat Of compression. The Diesel is
high compression, internal combus-
ton engine"
He then went on to expound upon
things, like compression ratios" far
beyond my comprehension, but SEEM
ing to sense my difficulty came to the
rescue with diagram.
Lets put it this way. Just imagine
q steep, icy slope. There are two
sleds on this icy hill; the sled start
ing one-sixteenth from the top of
the hill is the Diesel sled; the one
starting one-sixth the distance from
the top is the gasoline sled. Reason
will tell you that the sled starting
one-sixteenth the distance from the
top OF the hill will gather greater
momentum than the other one by the
time they both reach the bottom of
the hill. Hence the compression
ratio Of the Diesel would be is to /,
While that Of the gasoline engine
would be 6 to l."
NOW riding in the cab of a steam
locomotive-that is very differ
ent experience. You can't walk nom
chalantly from the baggage car into
the engine. And as for clothes, when
l travelled in the cab of the locomo-
tive which pulls the National Limited
l wore riding breeches, boots and
huge blue and white dotted bandana
to keep coal dust out Of my hair.
AS boarded the engine the fireman
was standing up there looking down
at me in a surprised sort of way, and
I was at the bottom Of the ladder
looking up at him. I handed up nv
sheaf of authority, plus my note
book, etc, and began my skyward
climb. The first step is as far of the
ground as stirrup on a tall horse
would be, and from there you 20 up.
After you arrive at the top, there
you are, without railing, without
anything to hold onto, in the open
space between the cab and tender,
out of which one may take a nose dive
If not careful.
The engine is like a colossal fur
mace. A fire god" seems to dominate
the cab and must be fed coal contin-
uously This is accomplished by
means of an automatic coal stoker
Engineer Jacobus sits on mar
row, black leather r-covered box to the
right Of the fire box, and the fireman
sits on similar one to the left.
This great. black iron steed makes
such an Internal racket at all times
while under way that one is reduced
to sign language and to a state of
deafness. When the train is moving
at so miles per hour it feels equal to
85 in Diesel, perhaps because of
the tremendous roar constantly in
ones ears. accompanied by the ear
splitting whistle that blasts out the
engines approach at all crossings
two long, one short, and one long
just as the crossing is being cleared
the conventional crossing approach
signal
This shrieking whistle is vastly diff
ferent from the piercing horn Of the
Diesel, which makes a sound similar
to that of the fog horn Of an ocean,
going liner
THERE were times while I sat on
the box in back of the fireman
that had feeling akin to that of
sitting a trot" on a rather rough
going mount. When the engineer
wished to reduce speed he would hold
up his hand and wait for the fireman
to do likewise: then at the drop of
their hands they would both start to
turn knobs, and the engineer would
pull and push, or so it appeared to me,
long levers here and there.
When passing other trains I had
the sensation that they were almost
touching me and I instinctively drew
as far back as I could. I could feel
the occasional prick Of a hot cinder
as it fell touching my arm, the terrific
roar of locomotives as they passed
one another in tunnel, Changing