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BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVES |
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the ballyhoo about stream-lining, a reduction of 50 tons in the dead-weight of a train is worth more than all the stream-lining — by faster acceleration, by better time on grades, and in general, by a substantial increase in that portion of the running time which is spent at speeds of 60 to 80 miles an hour.
You know what has happened since 1900. The development of the all-steel car in the interest of safety gradually doubled and then finally trebled the deadweight of cars. Most of the fleets of passenger locomotives in this country — largely Pacifies — were designed about midway in this process. They were supposed to be adequate for 10-car trains when the average weight per car was 65 or 70 tons. Today the average weight of these cars is around 85 tons. Instead of getting ten 70-ton cars, these locomotives are given eleven, twelve, thirteen or fourteen of these 85-ton cars. So instead of having 700 tons in dead weight back of the tender, these locomotives now have 1000, 1100, 1200 tons. When you consider that the acceleration of a train depends on the ratio between the tractive force of the locomotive and the dead weight to be moved back of the tender, you will realize why it takes longer to get these trains up to speed; why the top speed has been materially reduced; and why, in short, steam passenger speeds such as those of the Reading in 1897 have disappeared. What the manufacturer of these new lightweight trains has done is to seize control of the load that can be given to the motive power unit and to so rigidly regulate it that you fellows can't monkey with it. That is what he has done. But the same result can be accomplished with steam through your own intelligent direction. The truth of the matter is that the poor old steam locomotive, being capable of taking a substantial overload, has been consistently and persistently abused by giving it dead loads for which it was not designed, thus creating in the public mind the idea that modern speeds and steam power are inconsistent. The passenger schedules of the future are going to revolve around some control of aver- |
age or maximum dead weight back of the tender. As new passenger train cars are built there will be substantial reductions in dead weight without losing any of the standards of safety which have been established out of past experience, and these cars will be completely interchangeable with existing equipment. As a result, the dead weight of a train can be made up of a number of combinations of new and old cars and the capacity of any train can be increased without increasing the dead weight by the simple expedient of increasing the proportion of new and lighter cars in the total train load.
Unless this is the policy followed in improving the passenger service of the United States generally, the entire existing investment in passenger equipment will have to be scrapped. But the evolutionary is the method by which every other great improvement in railroad service has been brought about. Scarcely ever have the railroads taken a wild leap in the dark. They have taken a step forward and gradually that forward step has become a standard. With each passing year most new equipment purchased has embodied that standard, and the railroads have gradually achieved an ever-growing percentage of savings that can be effected over a reasonable term of years without the loss of existing capital investment.
If this policy be followed — and in my judgment it is the only safe one—you will see that it is essential that the locomotive should be kept separate from the train, because only by keeping the locomotive separate from the train can you be free to make up the train load out of an infinite number of combinations of new and old cars. And with air conditioning moving forward by leaps and bounds the drawbacks of smoke and cinders are removed from the steam locomotive, and the last objection to the use of steam in passenger service is destroyed.
Diesel Power Now let us move to the fundamental considerations which affect the use of Diesel or steam power. As you look up to the upper lefthand corner of Slide No. 2 you see the trac- |