Evening star., 1940-01-22
Carriers Still Debate
Merits Of DieseIs
And Steam
r
Number Of StreumIine
Truins to Reach New
Peak This Year
BY SMITH REAVIS,
Associated Press Business Writer


NEW YORK, Jan. 22.-More fast
streamline trains will be skimmine
along over the Nations railroads
this summer than ever before In
history. Some will be Diesel
powered. Others will be steam
driven. The controversy over the
relative merits of the oil-fed Diesels
and the traditional coal-fueled To-
comotives still RACES.
Chicago. Burlington & Quincy
one of the first big roads to put
streamline Diesel-driven passenger
trains in service at the time they
were introduced back in 1884, still
thinks the Diesels are tops. The
road has just ordered new
Zephyr" train. Diesel-driven, the
10th of a series. The new train is
to be delivered in the spring and
will be put in operation between
Lincoln and Kansas City via Omaha
The new unit will be composed of
Diesel-electric locomotive, combina-
ton mail and baggage car, baggage
express car, two de luxe chair cars
and diner and observation car. Cost
$555,000. The present streamliner
the pioneer zephyr" will be as
signed to another division of the
road.
In addition, the Burlington has
plans drawn up for two proposed
Texas zephyrs, to operate overnight
between Denver, Fort Worth and
Dallas.
Central Fav0rs Steam.
New York Central Railroad, on
the other hand, stoutly approves
stream line steam trains Its stream
line steam driven Twentieth Gen.
tury Limited, operating between
Chicago and New York City, has
now become an institution.
Moreover, the roads stream line
steam-powered Mercury" plying
between Cleveland and Detroit, so
pleased the management that a
second Mercury" train was built
and now operates between Detroit
and Chicago.
Altogether there are between rs
and 80 Stream-line trains now in
operation, with Diesel-power most
prominent in the West and steam
power in the East. Which, one un-
biased railway official says, is as
it should be.
He holds the Diesels are pre-
ferred west of Chicago mainly be-
cause tracks are straighter out there,
towns are further apart, and the
oll-electric units prove highly eff
cient in swinging the trains along
at 80 and 100-mile-an-hou clips
across the Plains Moreover, coal
mines are overwhelming in the East,
and oil fields in the West.
Preferred in East.
On the other hand, some rail
executives contend steam will al
ways be preferred in the East. They
claim steam trains accelerate faster.
making better overall average speed
winding around curves, slowing for
frequent towns and climbing grades
in the more hilly and thickly popu-
lated territory this side of the Mis-
sissippi.
Most rail experts seem to think
that even though there may be
great expansion in the use of Diesels
for passenger service and for yard
switching service. that steam will
never be supplanted as the basic
rail motive power for freight trains.
They claim steam still is best of
the two for moving long, heavy
freights big distances from the
standpoint of power, operating eff
cheney and locomotive life. To back
this up, they point out that prac-
tically all users of Diesel-power pas
senger trains still cling to steam for
long freight hauls.
Pennsylvania Railroad has been
the one big Eastern road to lean
away from steam, Shun oil and elec-
trify some of its important lines
past committing territory. Electric
power, before the Pennsylvania be-
gan extending it on long lines, had
proved successful on such short-line
passenger carriers as the New York,
New Haven & Hartford and the
Long Island.
The Pennsylvania now has main
lines electrified between New York,
Philadelphia, Washington and out
to Harrisburg. But steam carries
traffic from there on to Chicago and
other Western points.