TWENTIETH CENTURY LOCOMOTIVES-A Table of Sizes, Weights, and Power The above Tables give the principal facts about all the In the column of builders ALCO stands for the Amer- Wheel-base, as with automobiles, is the distance be- "Cylinder" H.P. or theoretical horse-power, obtained The outline drawings on pages 538 539 are drawn to teristic silhouette is carefully reproduced. The complete THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 1831-"DE WITT CLINTON," and train of 3 coaches. 1848 "GOVERNOR PAINE," an early aspirant for speed 1863-CIVIL WAR LOCOMOTIVE. Weight of engine about 1876-CENTENNIAL LOCOMOTIVE. 36 tons. Cost $9000, Service Number of Cars, Weight of Train, Speed, Grade, and Other Interesting Facts 1897 1905 1915 Cyl. H.P. P- "Fastest short distance train in the world." 6 cars-200 tons--55 miles in 46 to 52 minutes. Approx. * PP ** 1905 P Heavy Express. 13 cars-740 tons-at an average speed of 44 miles per hour. 1300 2000 1876 ** 1500 1915 PP "Broadway Limited," 1915-6 cars-450 tons Speed in 1915 much higher than in 1876. 2400 500 2400 2400 1915 1893 ** 1915 1915 * Heavy Fast Express. 9 to 12 cars on a difficult schedule over long heavy grades. P Heavy Ex. on Mountain grades. 10 to 12 steel cars at average speed inc. stops of over 25 m.p.h. 2700 F Heavy Through Freight. 100 loaded cars of average freight-3000 to over 4000 tons. PASSENGER AND FREIGHT GIANTS ATLANTIC-P.R.R. "1067," 120 tons. The most powerful of its type. The most advanced design, giving greatest capacity for sustained pull at high speed. Capable of handling same trains as Pacific engines. PACIFIC ERIE "2509," 135 tons. The 50,000th locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company. Designed, built, and tested as an experimental engine, it embodies the "last word" in design, materials, and construction. Considering power per pound of weight and amount of fuel consumed, it is one of the most powerful passenger-locomotives ever built. In service on the ERIE it hauls heavy trains on difficult schedules; in severe winter weather it made schedule speed, or better, on 163 out of 170 runs, thus showing remarkable sustained capacity. Pacifics are the standard high-class passenger-locomotives of to-day. On many roads, with drivingwheels of about 69 inch diameter, they are in use both for heavy passenger and fast preference freight. MOUNTAIN-C. & O. "316," 165 tons. The largest and most powerful passenger-locomotive in the world. MIKADO P. & R. "1704," 166 tons. The largest and one of the most powerful of its type. Because of larger cylinders and smaller driving-wheels, VIRGINIAN "462" has a greater tractive force. "1704" has 225 pounds boiler pressure-40 pounds more than "462"-which results in a greater cylinder horse-power. But SANTA FÉ-B. & O. "6000," 203 tons. The largest and most powerful locomotive in the world having all of its driving-wheels in one group. Note that the bell is at the side of the headlight, and that the sand-boxes are four in number, and are on the sides of the boiler as there was not room enough on the top. MALLET VIRGINIAN "604," 270 tons. The most powerful locomotive ever constructed having its drivingwheels in two groups (Santa Fé engines "3000 to 3009" are the heaviest, 308 tons, and the longest, 121 feet, 7 inches). Six of these locomotives are in service as heavy freight pushers. Two of them at a time push a heavy coal train weighing 4230 tons up a mountain grade that rises 1250 feet in 111⁄2 miles. The engine on the head end hauls the train over the rest of the division. Some slight idea of the power necessary in pushing this train is gained from the facts that the trip takes a little over one hour, five tons of coal are burned, and over 70,000 pounds, or about 9000 gallons, of water are made into steam and used by each engine. steep grades. It was named "Consolidation," to celebrate the consolidation of two or three small roads into the Lehigh Valley Railroad, so that the "2-8-0" class became the Consolidation type which developed into the heaviest freight haulers, until the introduction a few years ago of the Santa Fés and Mikados. The next year the "E. A. Douglas," the first Mogul, was built. In 1869, Westinghouse proved to the doubting railroad world that there was something very essential and important in his newly invented airbrake. And at about the same time, steel was being substituted for iron, in rails, locomotive construction, bridges, etc. Without these two important links in the development of the railroads-steel and the air-brake-we never could have had our present mile-long freight-trains, "All-Steel Overland Limiteds," and Mikado locomotives of such tremendous power. At the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, three types of locomotives for road service were shown: Consolidation, Mogul, and American. The heaviest and most powerful was a Consolidation weighing fifty tons. It had a "diamond" smoke-stack (see page 538), as was very characteristic of that period. The American type was thought to have reached the acme of perfection. The latest Baldwin locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad weighed thirty-six tons, and had a straight stack and other details which became characteristic of the locomotives of the eighties (see page 538). It could haul ten cars, weighing 250 tons, at an average rate of about thirty-five miles per hour. If there were more than six cars, or about 150 tons to the train, helpers were used on grades. In 1891, the first Decapod, or "ten-driver," went into service, "pushing" on the Erie's Susquehanna Hill-doing the work of two Consolidations; but this was very special service. Late in the same year, the New York Central put on the "Empire State Express," running from New York City to Buffalo at an average rate of over fifty-two miles per hour. A special trip made the same distance of 4361⁄2 miles in 42534 minutes, or over a mile a minute. Both of these runs were world's records. In 1893, "999" hauled the Empire State Express and made ten miles in five minutes and twenty seconds, or at the rate of a mile in thirty-two seconds, or 1121⁄2 miles per hour-a record that has never been broken. two-wheeled leading-truck, two pairs of drivers, and a pair of trailer-wheels, and named "Columbia." Although a type little used, it was the forerunner of many interesting "trailer" types. Many historical types were gathered together at the Chicago World's Fair, and remain in that city as a permanent collection in the Field Museum. The "John Bull" is now in a place of honor at the National Museum in Washington. In 1895, the Baldwin Works built, for the Atlantic Coast Line, a new type similar to the "Columbia" but with a leading-truck of four wheels. This design allowed a larger and deeper fire-box, and a larger boiler placed lower than in the American type, as the drivers were in front of the fire-box. Then followed, for the fast trains to Atlantic City, another pattern of the same wheel arrangement, more like the present type, with a wide overhanging fire-box, for burning hard coal, and a huge boiler. So there were two reasons for calling the type Atlantic. It is interesting to note that the Atlantic City engine was a "Camel-back," with the cab over the center of the boiler; also, that an earlier type for the fast New York-Philadelphia trains had only one pair of drivers, or belonged to the "4-2-2" class. About 1900, it was considered that the locomotive had practically reached the limit of size and capacity. Rails, road-bed, and bridges could stand no more strain of weight. Owing to the size of bridges, tunnels, etc., the clearance-space would not permit any increase in width or height. But with the new century came great industrial prosperity, and a tremendous demand for the movement of freight. Steel freight-cars of large capacity, quite double that of a few years before, came into use, vastly increasing the train tonnage.1 "Double-heading" and "pushing" were resorted to, but were expensive. The enormous tonnage had to be handled more cheaply and with less interference with other traffic. So locomotives of a size and power undreamed of before were built, although it necessitated the rebuilding of road-beds and bridges to withstand the increased strains. In 1901, a new type, developed from the Mogul and trailer and designed to handle heavy trains at high speed over the western plains, was the Prairie. The next year, "the largest locomotive ever built," a 134-ton Decapod, was turned out by the Baldwin Works for the Santa Fé Railroad, to haul long heavy through-freights over divisions having difficult grades. A year later, in 1903, heavier locomotives were built for the same road, quite similar to the Decapods but with 1 In 1900 coal-cars carried twenty-five and thirty tons of coal. By 1905, steel cars carrying fifty tons were in common At the present time, some coal-cars are carrying seventy-five and ninety tons each. At the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, the Baldwin Locomotive Works exhibited a high-speed compound-engine with use. |