Wonders and curiosities of the railway; or, Stories of the locomotive in every land; with an appendix, bringing the volume down to date

Front matter

i^iaKJi

WONDERS MD GORIOSITIES OF THE RAILWAY

Book ■\ j1__

Chapter I

Sidney Smith and the Solan Goose, 1. The "Womb of the Dragon, 2. Balaklava-charge of the Locomotive, 2. Poetry of the Train, 3. Anecdote of the Ameer of Afghan- - . istan, 3. The Railroad a Good Democrat, 3, The Feat* of Steam, 3. From Cologne to London, 4.

CHAPTER IL

** Grasshopper Engines," 6. The Cornish Monster and the Clergyman, 6. "Na-noth-nothing to pay, my de-dear Mr. Devil!" 7. Road-engines with Legs, 8. **Owd Neddy's Quaker Line " (the Stockton and Darlington), 8. First Railroad Passenger Car in the World, 9. First Steam Passenger Car (George Stephenson's), 10. The '* Puffing Billy" and the Burning-glass, 12. Quaint Early Signals, 12. The Darlington Jubilee of 1875, 12. The Railroad Train of Thomas Gray, 14. Snapped Legs and Bursting Hearts, 15. A Thrill of Annihilation! 16. Downfall of the Bonifaces, 16. Eating a Stewed Engine-wheel, 16. George Stephenson before the Parliamentary Committee, — Roars of Incredulous Laughter, 17. Stephenson's Victory at Rainhill, 18. Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, —

T

Vi CONTEl^^TS.

The First Railway Accident, 18. Fanny Kemble's Locomotive Ride with Old Northumbrian George, 19 (note). The First French Railway, — '^ Triomphe merveilleuse ! " ** Flaisir inconnu /^' 20. A Grouty Englishman, 21. Old Samuel Breck of the Corps of Silver Grays, 23. Railway Mania of 1836, 23. " Wily, Slily, Gammon and Bubble!" 24. Railway Mania of 1844, 24. Spinsters and Scrip, 25. Speculations of a Fascinating Marchioness, 26. The Debate of the Crack Engineers, 28. Railway Magnate Hudson and his " Umbrageous Scrip," 28.

Chapter III

Oliver Evans's Steam-wagon on Wheels, 30. His Remarkable Prophecy, 30. Dr. Darwin's Fiery Chariot, 31. Mother Shipton a Myth, 31. Colonel John Stevens's Railway on Posts, 32. Old *' Granite Railroad" of Quincy (first in America), 33. First Snow-plough, 34. First Revolution on American Soil of the Driving-wheel of a Locomotive, 36. Peter Cooper, the "Father of the Locomotive System in America," 39. Peter Cooper building his Engine, the ** Tom Thumb," 39. Baron Krudener and the Sailing-car, yj 39. The ''Cowed'' Editors, 39. Race of the "Tom Thumb " and the ' ' Gallant Gray, " 44. The ' ' Flying Dutchman," 46. A Negro Fireman sits on the Safety-valve of the ' ' Best Friend, " with Unpleasant Results, 46. Silhouette-artist Brown snips out a Quaint Picture of the First Railroad Train in the North, 47. Thundering along toward Schenectady, 48. Wood-sparks, Burnt Umbrellas, and Merrywoful Deck-passengers, 50. Stampede along the Road, 51. Ludicrous Trial-trip of "Old Ironsides," 52. Old Car, "Victory," 54. A Novel Track-illuminator, 54. Pounding down * * Snake-heads, " 56. Old Custom of Registering Names

COi^^TElS'TS. vM of Railway Passengers, 56. The Early Railroads of Massachusetts, 57. Edward Everett Hale's First Locomotive Ride, 57 (note). Thick-headed Legislators, 59. Boston and Worcester Railroad, 59. First Locomotive-whistle in Ohio, 62. The Lexington and Frankfort Railroad in Kentucky, 62. Its Queer Little Locomotive with Hickory Brooms in Front, 63. First Puff of a Locomotive on the Prairies, 65. Charge of a Bull upon the Engine, 66. General Semples and his Prairie-locomotive, 66. View of Old Car on the Michigan Central, 67.

f

CHAPTER IV. The Banding of the Continent _ . - - - 68-90

Trunk Lines, 68. Colossal Statue of Columbus, hewn out of the Rocky Mountains, 68 (note). "The Strong, Light Works of Modern Engineers," 69. Longest Railroad in the World, 69 (note). First Railroad out of Chicago, 70. Union Pacific, — The Spinning of the Iron Thread, The Steady Tramp across the Plains, The Last Spike, 70. Central Pacific, — The Battle with the Sierras, 7L An Avalanche of Earth, 72. Southern Pacific, — Tank-cars, Red Apaches, Sand-storms, 73. The Mexican Central, — " Viva la Republica de Mexico ! " 73. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway, the Iron Poem of the West, 74. Railway Exposition at Chicago, — Old Curiosity Shop, Electric Railway, 75. Nightbattle with the Indians on the Union Pacific, 78. Anecdote of the Tenderfoot Engineer, 79. Trains running the Firegauntlet, 80. Waterspouts on the Plains, — Lost Train, Buried Locomotive, 80. A Wonderful Hail-storm, 80. Snow-ploughs, — Charge of the Harnessed Engines, 82. Trains lost in Snow-storms, 83. The New Time-standard, 87.

VUl CONTEKTS.

CHAPTER V. The Locomotive in Slippees _..... 90-101

The Three-elephant Team in Ceyion, 90. "Change Cars for Nazareth ! " 90. The Steam Wagon in the Land of Roses, 90. The Locomotive in the Sunrise Land, — the Mikado opening the First Railroad in Japan, 91. How the " Japs " take to Steam Travel, 93. The First and Only Railroad in China,

— Disturbing the Spirits of the Earth and Air, 93. India, — Attack of an Elephant upon a Locomotive ; A Military Cordon of Stations; Feathery-foliaged Telegraph-poles; Novel Sleeping Cars; The Chota-hazare; The Railroad a Castedestroyer; Uproar of the Natives at a Station; The "Fra-

^ grance of a Monkey-house " ; Scarlet Turbans and Grinning Teeth, 94. Africa, — Balconied Cars; Tipped into the Nile; Prayer-carpets ; The Imperturbable Old Turk ; The Mish-mish, 98.

Chapter VI

Russia, — Sumptuous Two-story Saloon-Cars; Clean, Bright Restaurants, 101. Travel in Norway, 102. Sweden, — The Arcadia of Travellers by Rail; Paul du Chaillu and his Wonderful Dinner, 103. Germany, — No Broken Rails ; The Conductor in his Little Watch-tower ; Five Hours and Fifteen Beers from Cologne to Mainz ; The Jolly Buffets, 104. Spain,

— Take your Time ; * ' Quien quiere Aguaf " Fruit Vendors, 106. France, — The Missis of Mugby Junction relates her Travels, "The Universal French Refreshment Sangwich busts on your Disgusted Vision"; Traln^lunches, 107. England, — Shadowing a Thief in Woman's Apparel; Features of English Cars ; Description of the Underground Railways of London, Gigantic Subterranean and Subfluvial Tunnels, Weird Gliding of the Noiseless Trains, 111.

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER VII. A Handful of Curiosities 114-125

A Locomotive on Sled-runners, 114. Railroads on the Ice, 115. A Railroad in the Tree-tops, 115. The Old Fremont and Maumee Road, 115. Wooden Railways, 116. Bicycle Railways, — The Steam Caravan at Aleppo; A Two- wheeled Locomotive in New Jersey, 118. Toy Railroads, 118. A Submarine Railway, 119. The Marine Railway of Captain James B. Eads, — Transfer of Ocean Vessels across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec by Rail, 119. Atmospheric Railways (Compressed Air the Motive-power), 120. A Flying Locomotive, 121. Cars Propelled by Sails, 121. A Travelling Telegraph-office, 122. The Dynograph-car, 124.

CHAPTER VIII. Mountain Railways -.. 125-145

The Locomotive a Good Climber, 125. The Gravity Road of Honesdale, — Magically Propelled Cars, 125. Old Switchback Road, 126. Old Portage Railroad across the Alleghany Mountains,—* * One of the Wonders of the World, " 127. All Aboard for Pittsburgh via Horse-car, Canal, and Inclined Plane I 128. Old jMountain-top Track of Virginia, 129. The Mt. Washington Railroad, 129. The Rigi Roads,— Up the Swiss Mountains by Rail, 130. The Mount Desert Railway, — bolted to the Solid Ledge, 131. Up Mt. Vesuvius by Steam-power, — Appalling Steepness of the Track, Cisterns dug in the Solid Lava, Road insured against the Volcano ! 132. The Magnificent Tunnels, Viaducts, and Snow-sheds of the Alpine Railroads, — Whirling through Mountains in Corkscrew Fashion, — Cattle as Small as Ants on a Tablecloth,— St. Gothard and Mt, Cenis Tunnels, 134. The Hoc-

X CONTENTS.

sac Tunnel, — History of its Construction, Its Cost, Terrible Accident in the Central Shaft, Five Miles of Solemn Gloom, Torpedo Signals, 138. The Wonder of the Andes Mountains, — A Railroad among the Clouds in the Empire of the Incas, The Highest Track on the Globe ; Gorge of Los Infernillos, Tuflel de la Cima; Thrilling Descent in a Hand-car, 141.

Chapter IX

The First Freight Elevators in the World, 146. The Seven Boxes of Sugar and the Air-cushion of Albert Betteley, 147. Otis Tuft's " Vertical Screw Railway " in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 148. Great Curiosity of Visitors, 149. The Huge Spiral Shaft and its Wheels, — The Brakes and the Fluid-retarder, 149. The First Rope Elevator, 151. Hydraulic Elevators, — Soaring of the Wingless Bird in Paris, 152. The Old Spy-glass Elevators of the New York Post-office, 153. Accidents, — Decapitation of a Negro, etc., 154. The Serio-comic Air-cushion Experiment at the Parker House, Boston, 155. Air-cushion Feats at Chicago Exposition of 1880, 156. The Architectural Grandeur of recent City Buildings due to the Vertical Railway, 156.

CHAPTER X. The Lightning Harnessed — Tramways _ - . 158-178

Electricity, the Coming Motor and the Benefactor of the Poor, 158. Around the World in a Train of Flying-cars, 159. Tissandier's Electric Air-car, Paris, 1883, 159. Prof. Werner Siemens, the Father of the Electric Railway System, 159. The First Electric Locomotive in America, 159. The Berlin Roads, — A Horse strikes Lightning with his- Shoe, 160, Runaway Car in Paris, — Hop, Snap, Flash I 161,

CONTENTS. XI

The Splendid Old Genie at Work in the Mines of Saxony, 161. By Lightning to the Giant's Causeway, 162. Edison's Enchantments at Menlo Park, — His Electric Locomotive, 163. Leo Daft's Electric Locomotive, the Ampere, on the Saratoga, Mt. McGregor and Lake George Railroad, 165. The Low-tension Current entirely Safe, 165. Pull of the Electro-magnets, 165. Electric Railways in London, 166. In the United States, 168. The First Street Car, 169. Old Harlem Line in New York, 169. *'Whoa!" Crash I 171. The Cambridge Horse Railroad of Massachusetts, 172. L'Americain, 172. George Francis Train and his Grand Street-railway Banquet in Liverpool, 172. The Trumpeters of Buenos Ay res, 173. The Cable Railroads, 173. The Elevated Railways of New York, 174. Brick Viaducts of London, 174. Grease Splashes, Burnt Coats, and Rapid Transit, 176. Quaint Report of the Massachusetts Legislators in^l827 on a Bicycle Railway with "Sidelings," 176.

CHAPTER XL

The Functions of the Railway in War . _ 178-189

Railways, the Delicate Nerve System of a Country, 178. The Great Railroad Riots of 1877, 178. The Railway a Precarious Reliance when within Reach of the Enemy, 179. A Lacteal Tube for Sherman's Army in its March to the Sea, 180. The Strade Ferrate in Italian Wars, 180. The Hospital-trains of Germany, 181. Our Sanitary Commission's Railway Ambulances, 181. The Military Railway Organization of the German Army, 182. The Lack of such an Organization in France, 182. The Practice-railway of the German Corps, 183. General Sherman again, — The Construction Corps during his Atlanta Campaign, — Whistle of the Yankee Locomotive, 184. Story of the Capture of a Locomotive by Twenty-two Picked Soldiers, — Their Wild

XU COKTEKTS.

Railway Dash, Capture, and Subsequent Adventures, 185. An Armored Railway Train in Egypt, 188.

CHAPTER XII. The Luxuries of Travel 189-199

Mr. Breck and his Little Jeremiad, 189. The Travelling Coach of Napoleon I, 189. Contrasted with the Imperial Suite of Railway Coaches employed by Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, 190. The Travelling of the Queen of Sheba and Queen Victoria, — The Royal Night Train from Windsor to Balmoral, 191. Senator Sharon orders out his "Wagon for a Drive over the Continent, 191. Vanderbilt's Flying Palace, — A Hundred Miles in a Hundred Minutes, 193. The "Railway Age" Car a Marvel of Beauty, 193. Invention of Sleeping and Palace Cars by Woodruff, Wagner, and Pullman, 193. The Mann Boudoir Cars, 195. Smoking Cars, — Adventure with Two Feminine Meerschaums, 186. Speed, — The Fastest Trains of Europe and America, 196. A Train stopped by Mushrooms, 198.

Chapter XIII

"Staym-ingynes, that Stand in Lines," 199. "Grip and Go," the Requisites of a Good Locomotive, 199. Camel-backs and Moguls, 199. English and American Engines Compared, 199. The Crimson Plume of the Locomotive Funnel, 200. A Cunning old Hawk flying in the Smoke, 200. Appetite of the Fire-steed, — Dishes he Eats, 201. Grooming the Locomotive and Oiling up his Joints, 201. The Midnight Ride of an Engine-Cleaner, 202. Asleep on a Locomotive, 203. Trials of Locomotive Engineers, 203. Heroic Death of Engineer Joseph A. Seeds, 204. Railway Yams

CONTEifTS. XIU

of the West, 205. Chased by a Locomotive, 206. A Locomotive's Tour through a Depot, 207. Fight for an Engine by the Seaside, — A Merry Tug of War, Steam versus Mules and Men, 208.

Chapter XIV

The Making of a Steel Rail, 212. Gauges, Broad and Narrow, 213. A Railroad Ten Inches Wide in Massachusetts, 214. Stations, or Depots, — American Barracks versus Italian Frescoes and Orange Trees; Fountains, Flowers, Damask Curtains, and Oil Paintings in European Stations, 214. Something about Railroad Signals, 216. The First Telegraphic Signalling (on the Erie Road), 217. An Accident in 1841, 218. The Train-despatcher in his Den, 218. The Block System, 220. Automatic Electric Signals, 220. The Old Train Staff and Ticket System in Great Britain, 221. The Signal and Interlocking Towers and Cabins of London, one of the Wonders of the World, 221. Sixteen Hundred Trains a Day at Clapham Junction, 223. London enmeshed with Labyrinthine Curves, 224.

CHAPTER XV. The Train 225-244

The Manufacture of a Car-wheel, — The Silver-diamond Filaments of the ''Tread"; Swinging the Hot Wheels, in to the Annealing-pits, 225. Paper Wheels, 226. The Miller Coupler, Buffer, and Platform, 226. Description of the Westinghouse Brake, 227. The Baby Elephant and the Air-brake J Rope, 228. Invention of the Conductor's^ Bell-rope, 228. Electric Signal-bells on Cars, 229. Lighting Cars in Europe, — Edison's Incandescent Lamps, and Phosphorescent

XIV CONTENTS.

Paint, 230. The Eastman Non-freezing Car, 230. History and Description of the English and American Postal-car Systems, 231. Story of the Express-car Business, 232. Railroad Tickets, — their Invention in England, Description of the Delicate aad Ciuious Machinery used in Printing tliem, First Use in America ; Coupon Tickets, first used on tlie Baltimore and Ohio Road ; The Cheap Excursion Ticket, 233. About Conductors, — Fight of a Man with a Railroad, 237. Embezzlements and Spotters, 238. Petty Thieving by Railvpay Employes in Europe, — Appropriating Wine and Fat Dairy Clieeses, 239. Dare- Devil Train Robbery, 239. " In as Nice a Little Trap as ever I saw," 241. Heigho ! a Man inside a Box, 242. Train Robbery in Missouri, 242. Conclusion, — Shortcomings of the Railroad ; Its Future, 243.

Preface to the Tenth Edition (190G) xvii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Modern High Speed Locomotive xix

Locomotive No. 199, drawing the Fastest Train in the

World xxii

Electric Locomotive and Train (N. Y. Central System), xxiii

" The Experiment " 9

George Stephenson's Passenger Car 11

Thomas Gray's Idea of a Railroad Train 13

Firsn American Railway (The Granite Road) 34

The ' ' Stourbridge Line " 37

Peter Cooper's Locomotive 40

The " Best Friend " 45

The " De Witt Clinton " and Coaches 49

First Railroad Train in Pennsylvania 53

The "Victory" 55

Old Railway Time-table 60

Michigan Central Railroad Car, 1848 67

The " Arabian " 76

A Locomotive on Sled Runners 114

Logging Railway Train 117

Sailing Car (Kansas Pacific Railway) 123

Mount Vesuvius Railway Car 133

Waterman's Elevator 147

The First Passenger Elevator 149

Edisons Electric Locomotive 163

The Daft Electric Locomotive 167

The First Street Car in the World 169

Armored Railway Train 187

Interior of the " Railway Age " Car 193

Interior of a Pullman Palace Car 263

Interior of a Modern Passenger Coach 264

Brakes were hugged about the wheeli.

All the cranks a stillness kept, Shadows on the polish slept, And the demon under seals Quiet lulled the murmuring ire Of our iron heart of fire.

Till we chafed it into toil, Gave It blast and gave it oil.

Now we nurse a mad delight.

Dash the iron leagues behind, Horse a wrath and drink a wind.

Run outrageous through the night. ***** Water boil and fire burn In the oily steaming urn; Let the fire and water waste.

They that tarry wind and tide.

Safely to the harbor ride; Ruin cracks the skull of Haste.

Best though life may be in action,

Action is not all in all; Till the track is clear for traction

Stand we, though the heavens fall; Stand we still and steady, though From the valve the vapor blow.

From the fire the fuel go.

Who shall dare to antedate By a step the step of Fate?

—E. W. Elhworth, xvl

Preface To The Tenth Edition

The transformations effected nowadays by ever-new mechanical inventions in war, navigation, agriculture, commerce and the arts are momentous indeed, but none of them seem quite so rapid and startling as those already brought about by recent devices and improvements in land transportation. Twenty-three years ago, when the first edition of this book was published, China had no railroad in operation at all ; she now has ten. Then no one dreamed of realizing Jules Verne's imaginary tour around the world in eighty days ; but that figure has recently been reduced to sixty-nine; and, were it not for the Russo-Japanese war, and the consequent obstruction on the Siberian railroad, the trip around the globe could be made in thirty days. In 1883, street and suburban trolley and interurban electric third-rail lines were not in existence, and the electric propulsion of cars of any kind had scarcely begun on any large scale; to-day electric transportation by trolley and third-rail, electric locomotive, etc., is installed on a vast scale in all parts of the world ; is effecting, and will more and more powerfully effect, the redistribution of city populations, and is just on the eve of capturing the steam railroad line§ for heavy freight and passenger business, (has in fact done so in New York State on a large scale).* In

* The writer well remembers seeing the boys of Cambridge, Mass., run after the first trolley car, as if it were an Arabian Nights' wonder.

xvii

1883 the modern automobile was not in existence (the first one — Daimler's gas engine — coming the next year) : at present, both of the railroad giants, steam and electricity, are threatened by a vast army of self-propelled hot-air vehicles swiftly flying about the world — over road, prairie, steppe, city street, and up mountain steeps — without the aid of rails at all. And, to crown all, within two or three years the haunting problem of the centuries, the navigation of the air, has actually been accomplished, in a rudimentary way, and promises to take the laurel from the brows of the inventors of both rail-car and road-car, and transform the life of man on the globe as these never have done and never can do.

Looking at the steam railroads alone, it is to be noted that, even within the last dozen years or less, a radical change has taken place in the bridges, rails and roadbeds of most American railways, owing chiefly to the introduction of heavier rolling-stock (locomotives and freight cars).* Freight trains are now often, or generally, thrice as long and heavy as formerly, and are drawn by locomotives three times as massive. It is not unusual to see, on favorable grades, as many as ninety cars in leash behind one of the powerful motors of our great trunk lines. The largest modern traction locomotive compares with the old-style as a Normandy dray-horse with! a carriage-horse of light racing-stock. Railroad men nickname the new engines " whales " and " battleships." An American " tandem compound " or " decapod " engine sometimes weighs as much as two hundred tons, the latter being the heaviest locomotive in the world. Individual freight cars are also many of them three times as large as before. It follows that a freight-train " crew " (conductor, engineer, fireman, and two brakemen) can now regulate the

* See the World's Work magazine, March, 1904.

Preface To Tenth Edition

XIX moving of 4000 tons of freight as cheaply as 1000 tons a fewyears ago, — and with a fraction only of the risk to life; for the old pin-and-link coupling are no more, and the Westinghouse brake, worked from the engine, makes unnecessary the old style of braking, with men knocking off their heads by overhead bridges and falling from slippery roofs.

Not only our freight, but our passenger, locomotives (with tender) now weigh much more, — about 142 tons against tlie

Modern High Speed Locomotive.— New York Central System.

Courtesy of the Scientific American.

75 tons of the engines of a decade ago, — and draw trains of from twelve to sixteen passenger cars of the new style.

A very recent feature of freight traffic are the " gravil.' yards " for the shifting of cars. By the aid of an incline J grade and the " diamond " track cutting diagonally all the tracks of the yard, one shifting engine can now do the work of four or five of the old method. (World's Work, mag., March, 1904, p. 453.)

Finally, architectural improvements in the terminal pas-

XX PREFACE TO TENTH EDITION.

senger buildings of the large cities, as well as those of way-stations have been marked in recent years, making a sharp contrast with the dingy, unsightly infernos in which people were forced to spend so much of their lives during the greater part of the nineteenth century.

While all the foregoing modifications of steam traffic, occurring as they have done on so vast a scale, have been very striking and noteworthy; yet they will probably soon pale their ineffectual fires in the light of the changes to be wrought by electric motive power applied to the rail, — changes signalized by the relegation to the barbarous past of the smoke and smut, dust and steam, and the diabolical noise of steam locomotives, and by a vast increase in the frequency of light-gliding, swift and clean electric suburban and interurban trains. For, even now, look at what actually exists.

Fifteen years ago not an electric trolley line V;"as in existence, and few of any other kind. To-day there are in the United States scarcely any horse-car lines, but one thousand electric systems operating over thirty thousand miles of track. New England and Ohio and Southern California are netted with them, — city and suburban, cross-country and interurban lines, with passenger cars, freight cars, baggage and smoking and dining cars, and, on a few of the longer lines in the West, even sleeping-cars. Such cities as Boston and Newport, Boston and New York, Indianapolis and Zanesville, are connected by continuous trolley lines. From Corry, Pennsylvania, to Kalam.azoo, Michigan, there is an unbroken line of four hundred and eighty miles of trolley road. At Indianapolis nine interurban electric car lines center at or.e great terminal, whence they radiate to all large towns within one hundred miles of the city, and run at a speed often as high as forty-five m.iles an hour. From Indianapolis to Zanesville, — an eleven-hour trip, — coaches of the Holland

Preface To Tenth Edition. Xv]

Palace Car Company rim over the electric rond just f^s T^i^-lmans are run over steam roads, — namely, by arrangeiiKM^.t with the electric company. In every respect they are the equals of the Pullman and Wagner cars, — wicker chairs, meals served, smoking-room, individual reading-lights, electric cigar lighters, etc., etc. As I write (1905) announcement is made of a new high-speed interurban road between Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana, to be built by Boston cai)ital; total distance seventy-two miles, of which fifty-two are to be new built.

The interurban electric lines of the Middle West also do an extensive freight business, in some cases paralleling and rivalling the steam roads, thus making a future pooling of their interests inevitable. The Harvard and Lake Geneva electric railroad does a business one-third of which is freight, carried in their milk, fruit, and live-stock cars. In Southern California there is a lemon-growers' trolley express line; and such electric roads as the "Cleveland and Eastern " and the " Detroit, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor " do a heavy business with farmers along their routes every day in the year. The electric current also operates the cars of the 20-milo freight subway of Chicago, as well as those of elevated roads and subways of London, Glasgow, New York and Boston. In the case of all Ainerican electric railroads, I believe the new turbine engine is emploj'^ed in the power-house which furnishes the initial motive force, the electric locomotive not being as yet a favorite, owing to its great weight. The multiple-unit system is in use, and each car of a train forms by itself a live locomotive, capable of self-movement if cut off from the train. The system of the future, it is said, is illustrated in the alternating-current road now operating between Rushville and Indianapolis, Indiana, with Cincinnati as its ultimate goal. The peculiar feature of this system

XXli PREFACE TO TENTH EDITION.

is a number of small transformer stations at intervals along the lines for the purpose of receiving and reducing a high voltage to such as can be used by the cars.

On the twelfth day of November, 1904, there occurred on the New York Central tracks — near Schenectady, by a curious coincidence — a scene as dramatic and history-making (because signallizing the advent of a new epoch in transportation) as was to be witnessed on the same road and near the same city on the ninth day of August, seventy-three years

Locomotive No. 999, Drawing the Empire State Express, the Fastest

Train in the World, Running Between New York and Buffalo.

New York Central System.

Courtesy of the Scientific American.

previous, (1831), when the " De Witt Clinton" locomotive and its train of now quaint and curious cars (often painted and engraved) carried passengers over the first passenger railroad in the Northern States. Reference is had to the successful trial of a powerful electric locomotive and its train of eight ears, during which it happened to be brought into visible competition with the regular fast mail drawn by a steam locomotive over a parallel track. And lo and behold ! the quiet, smokeless, smooth-running, lightning-fed train drew

PREEACE TO TENTH EDITION".

XXIU slowly away from ils rival, both f?orr.g in tlie same direction at the top of their speed. The incident seemed to mark the death-knell of steam, as it, in turn, out-ran and signed the death-warrant of the old stage coach three-quarters of a centniy before.

The result of this, and further practical tests, was that the New York Central road ordered thirty electric locomotives of the same kind and size, with a promise of order for twenty more. These engines weigh eighty-five tons each, — not

Electric Locomotive and Train.— New York Central System.

Courtesy of the Scientific American.

much more than half that of a modem steam locomotive. Their task will be to take in tow all trains when they approach to within thirty-five miles of New York city, and draw them swiftly in through tunnels whose smoke and gas now half strangle the unhappy victim.s of the coke and coal-burning locomotive. These new motors and their cars, with hundreds of other suburban electric trains of the same road and the New York, New Haven and Hartford road, are to arrive at and depart from a new underground station in the

XXIV

PEEFACE TO TENTH EDITION.

rear of the Grand Central terminal, to make room for which nineteen blocks of buildings have been torn down. Furthermore, all the other main lines of railroads entering New York, have decided to use electric power for drawing their trains into the city.

In England and in Australia, in Connecticut and in Colorado, electric cars are running over steam railroad tracks. London has — either furnished or constructed at this date — in all, twelve subway, or tubular, electric lines of road and her sulphurous and sombre old underground tubes will soon,

1000 Horse Power Electric Locomotive for the Simplon Tunnel. (Between France and Switzerland).

Courtesy of the Scientific American.

let US hope, see the last of that coal-eating monster the locomotive.

Of course new inclined, or cog-wheel, mountain railways are adopting electric motive power. One of these is " the most wonderful railway in the world," now nearing completion, — the eight-mile track that winds up by tunnel through the glaciered sides of three mountains, the Monch, the Eiger and the Jungfrau in Switzerland, and is to terminate in a vertical elevator two hundred feet high, which will land tourists on the summit of the Jungfrau, 13,670 feet above

Preface To Tenth Edition. XXV

the sea. All the power for driving the tunnel and operating the road comes from the falls of the Lutschine at the foot of the mountains. The train of two cars is drawn by an electric locomotive which takes its power from overhead wires in the tunnel.

It must be said of electric motive power in general, that, except in the vicinity of waterfalls or where passenger or freight traffic is very heavy, the cost is as yet too great to permit a successful rivalling of the steam locomotive, wasteful in the extreme as that contrivance is. But even as it is, a vast field of work is ready for the new motive force. What its full development is to bring forth no man can now say. But evidently we are on the threshold of a new era in transportation.

What of new and curious in the story of the locomotive and the rail' the last two decades have brought forth (or as much of these as have come under my observation) I have presented in as condensed and graphic a form as possible in an appendix to the volume.

W. S. K.

Belmont, Mass., May, 1905.

WOJSTDEES AND CURIOSITIES OF THE RAILWAY.

CHAPTER L