Elements of railroad track and construction

Preface

In this volume no attempt has been made to treat the subjects of railroad track and construction with any considerable amount of detail, but rather to present a few of the fundamental principles in such manner that the inexperienced engineering student can form a general idea of the subjects. There are a number of excellent treatises on track which go into the subject with a wealth of detail and a thoroughness of discussion which is of immense value to the maintenance-of-way engineer with some experience; but, unfortunately, these books are not suitable for class-room work, both on account of the student not being able to appreciate the value of the details and also on account of the impossibility of reading these books in the time usually given to such subjects in an engineering course. Details of practice can be much more readily learned and appreciated from actual experience. There is not much time in the four years of an engineering course that can economically be given to the details of practice, but it is essential that the student should understand the fundamental principles of the subjects. In this volume some of the general principles of track and of the part of railroad construction with which the young engineer may come in contact early in his experience are presented. •

The author wishes to thank Prof. L. D. Conkling for his valuable assistance in preparing this book.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. History of Railroads in the United States 1

Art. I. Development of Railroads 1

Chapter I. History Of Railroads In The United States

Article I.

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILROADS.

1. Definition of Term Railroad. — The terms railroad and railway are synonymous and are about the same age. At present the term railroad is used in the United States Bnd railway in England; but there is a growing tendency in the United States to use the term railway in connection with trolley lines. Formerly the term railroad, or railway, included the roadbed, ballast, ties, rails, rail- joints, spikes, switches and switch mechanism, collectively called permanent way^ and the signals; but in common and accepted usage the meaning of the term has been extended to include not only the permanent way and signals, but everything necessary to its operation, such as the rolling stock and buildings, including stations, roundhouses, shops, etc., and also all other property of the operating company, such as stocks, bonds, and other securities.

2. Development of Railroads. — The railroad of today has developed from the tramway. The first tramways

1 1 consisted of trams of wood or flat stones laid flush with the surface of the road; these developed to stone and wooden stringers covered with strap-iron, and finally to the permanent way now in use. The date of the first tramway is not known; they were designed so that horses could pull heavier loads with less effort, the wheels being plain, or without flanges. In 1789, edge rails were introduced, the wheel running on the upper edge and haying flanges. The motive power on the first tramways was horses;* but as the rail was developed and became stronger, heavier cars could be used and something stronger and faster than horses was needed. Some of the tramways were operated, their length being short, by means of a stationary engine winding up a rope on a drum, the cars running back by gravity.

3. History of the Locomotive Engine. — James Watt, 1736-1819, for many years worked on the problem of perfecting an apparatus which would draw wagons on the common highway, and patented a locomotive carriage in 1784. Watt was an advocate of the lowpressure steam-engine, which proved unsuitable for the purpose. In 1802, an Englishman, Trevithick, built a high-pressure locomotive. It worked, but the velocity was low and the adhesion of the wheels to the rails was poor, so a system of rack rails was used. George Stephenson, 1781-1848, made a successful trial of a traveling engine worked by steam, over a tram road between the colliery and the port, at Killingworth, England, in 1814. The exhaust of this engine opened directly into the air, and people along the line objected to the * See Railroad Gazette, Sept. 22, 1905.

HISTORY OF RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 3

clouds of condensed steam, so Stephenson tried the experiment of turning the exhaust into the stack; thus by accident he discovered that he could double the original speed of three miles per hour. Stephenson made many other improvements, such as increasing the weight over the driving wheels in order to obtain better adhesion, and demonstrated that the locomotive engine was to be the motive power of the future.

4. The First Railroad. — Stephenson then became engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railroad, which was opened on Sept. 27, 1825, and was the first railroad to carry both passengers and goods by steam power. It was originally intended that the wagons should be pulled by horses. The locomotive used on this road could run seven miles per hour on the level places. As is usually the case with new ideas, public opinion was greatly against locomotives and predicted that a speed of fifteen miles per hour could never be obtained in this way. Stephenson, however, was of a different opinion. He continued his experiments and influenced others to begin similar work. In 1829, the Stockton and Darlington Railroad offered a premium of $2500.00 for a locomotive that would not cost more than $2700.00, that would draw three times its own weight, and reach a speed of ten miles per hour. A competition was held in October, 1829, and five locomotives were entered. The Rocket, manufactured by Stephenson, weighed seven and one-half tons, and pulled forty-four tons at the rate of fourteen miles per hour. Without the load, the Rocket made thirty-five miles per hour.

5. Railroads in the United States. — The first railroad built in the United States was at Quincy, Mass., in 1825. It was five miles long and ran between a stone quarry and an ocean pier. The rails were partly of wooden longitudinal stringers covered with strap-iron, and partly of stringers resting on cross-ties. *

The second railroad in the United States was built in 1827, at Mauch Chunk, Pa., and ran between Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill, a distance of nine miles. Coal cars were run over it by gravity and were pulled back empty by horses.

6. First Locomotive in the United States.— In 1828, the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company sent their engineer, Horatio Allen, 1802-1889, to England to inspect the locomotives of th6 Stockton and Darlington Railroad. Allen ordered a locomotive from a firm in Stourbridge, England. This locomotive had a lion painted on the front and was known as the ^^Stourbridge Lion.'' In 1829, this locomotive arrived in New York and was sent to Honesdale, Pa., and on August 9, 1829, it was put on the track and, with Horatio Allen as engineer, it was run six miles over the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. There were several timber trestles on the road, and as they were thought to be too weak to support the locomotive, the locomotive was abandoned temporarily. This was the first trip made by a locomotive in the United States. Allen lived for sixty years after this incident, and at the time of his death, Dec. 31, 1889, there were over 150,000 miles of steam roads in this country.

7. Locomotives in the United States. — The next experiment at locomotive running was made on the

HISTORY OF RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 5

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1830, by Peter Cooper, who took a stationary engine, mounted it on a flat car, connected it with the wheels by means of cranks, and by putting a bellows on the firebox, succeeded in making a trip at fifteen miles per hour. By this time the great success of the Rocket had become known and a foundry at West Point, N. Y., was engaged in building locomotives. One was built for a railroad in South Carolina, and in 1832 another was built and put on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad. This road claims to have run the first passenger train in the United States, in 1833.

8. Miles of Railroad in the United States. — As stated in ^ 5, the first railroad in the United States was built in 1825, and the second in 1827. By 1830, 122 miles of railroad had been completed and 154 miles w^ere in course of construction. The railroads forming this mileage were the Delaware and Hudson, Baltimore and Ohio, Baltimore and Susquehanna, Camden and Amboy, Mohawk and Hudson, and the South Carolina Railroad, which was the first railroad to have 100 miles of continuous track in operation. All of these railroads were commenced before the trial of the Rocket, with the intention of using horses for motive force. They were not built wdth the idea of growing into a system of railroads, mth the possible exception of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but were built where traffic demanded easier transportation to central points, being for way-traffic solely. After the success of the Rocket railroads began to develop in an increasing ratio until they formed the vast systems which now join the different parts of the

RAILROAD TRACK AND CONSTRUCTION.

United States. The following table shows the growth of railroads in the United States:

TABLE I.

Single

Second

Third

Fourth

Yards and

Total

Year.

Track.

Track.

Track.

Track.

Sidings.

Track.

Miles.

Miles.

Miles.

Miles.

Miles.

Miles.

2,816

9,015

30,600

. .

52,850

93,530

. .

. .

161,400

193,346

12,151

1,094

52,153

259,573

224,363

17,936

1,766

1,280

73,761

319,106