BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVES |
13 |
|
This poor little thing, beginning in the summer of 1897, hauled the Atlantic City Express of the Reading Railroad SS1/^ miles from Cam-den to Atlantic City in anywhere from 48 to 461/2 minutes, or at a scheduled speed from start to stop of from 69.3 to 71.6 miles an hour. And after it got outside of Camden and before it got to the corporate limits of Atlantic City it only averaged from 82 to 85 miles an hour!
Miles per hour Start to stop Before the days of the all-steel passenger coach Camden to Atlantic City—55.5 miles.......... 69.3 With interchangeable all-steel passenger coaches substantially reduced in weight Chicago to St. Paul—410 miles. .............. 63 With interchangeable all-steel Pullman and passenger coaches of standard weight Chicago to St. Paul—408.6 miles.............. 58.8 Twentieth Century Limited (New York Central) Broadway Limited (Pennsylvania) New York to Chicago—961.2 miles via New York Central ............................. 56.5 The Columbian (Baltimore & Ohio) New York to Washington—223.6 miles........ 55.9 Wall Street Special (Reading) Philadelphia to Jersey City—90 miles. ....... 55 Empire State Express (New York Central) New York to Buffalo—435.9 miles............ 52.8 Southwestern Limited (Big Four) St. Louis to Cleveland—535.9 miles........... 51.5 Yankee Clipper (New Haven) New York to Boston—229 miles.............. 50.9 The St. Louisian (Pennsylvania) New York to St. Louis—1,051.7 miles......... .50.1 The Miamian (Atlantic Coast Line) New York to Miami—1,388 miles ............ 49.7 With interchangable all-steel Pullman and passenger coaches of standard weight New York to Washington—225.2 miles........ 57 With rigidly limited carrying capacity, non-interchangeable with any other form of passenger equipment Chicago to St. Paul—431 miles............... 66.3 The Streamliner (Union Pacific) Kansas City to Salina, Kansas—187 miles...... 53.4 The Zephyr (Burlington) Kansas City to Lincoln, Nebr.—251 miles...... 45.6 |
Now you know the foregoing steam schedules are made by trains carrying interchangeable all-steel Pullman and passenger coaches; performing through service from many different points; having terminal delays which are a part of furnishing this service; supplying a much larger seating capacity and more facilities; and still most of them make better time than any of these new Diesel stream-lined, light-weight trains except the Twin Zephyrs. These latter go 431 miles from Chicago to St. Paul, making a schedule of 66.3 miles an hour. It just happens that the Milwaukee's mileage from Chicago to St. Paul is 21 miles shorter than the Burlington's. Otherwise the scheduled speed of the steam-drawn Hiawatha would be identical with that of the Diesel-drawn Burlington Twin Zephyrs.
The speeds that are being made with these Diesel stream-lined trains are not because of any fundamental characteristics of the Diesel engine, but in spite of them. As I will develop shortly, a fundamental characteristic is a rapid loss of drawbar pull at speed, so that at 70 or 80 miles an hour a Diesel locomotive can hardly exert one-tenth of its starting power. The only way in which this characteristic of the Diesel engine can be overcome is by trimming the weight to be hauled down to a negligible relationship with the motive power available at starting. But the price of this trimming down is the creation of rigidly limited trains incapable of expansion or variation, and absolutely non-interchangeable with any other form of passenger equipment. Do I need to argue that this development cannot possibly be the means for general passenger service to the people of the United States? I am one of those who believe that passenger service in this country can and will be substantially accelerated and that this can be done at a profit to the railroads. But in the main, this improvement in passenger schedules is not going to be brought about by running 110 miles an hour, except in isolated spots and for very brief spaces of time. It is going to be brought about by a safe reduction in the dead-weight of trains—and here let us note that, with all |