more perfect installation on the Midi showed, for eight months, 129 failures, equal to 63 per 100,000 operations, none of which were dangerous.
The automatic signals on the Austrian Southern were made by an electric company of Budapest, and the same road is going to try another system invented in Vienna. On the Paris Metropolitan there are automatic signals worked by track instruments, without a track circuit. The Dutch State Railroads have 249 miles of line equipped with non-automatic signals; there are 128 cabins, of which all but four are attended by station men, gate keepers, etc., who would have to be employed anyway.
The arguments concerning the relative merits of automatic and non-automatic block signals are set forth at considerable length. An officer of the P.-L.-M. in a statement favoring manual signaling, says that at 36 signal stations, where the number of trains per day is 80, the signalmen in one year (1901) stopped 97 trains on account of defects or difficulties in the cars, or their appurtenances, things which, of course, the automatics could not do. All of the different roads replying to the reporter’s circular emphasized this feature—the desirability of having watchmen on duty to perform other duties than block signaling. Most of the roads give as a principal reason for not adopting an automatic system, the fact that they have men stationed at frequent intervals along the line who can manage the manual signals without much additional expense.
The Kaiser Ferdinand-Northern Railroad has 172 miles of line equipped with the manual block system; the Hungarian State Railroad, 262 miles; the Belgian State Railroad, 1,015 miles, and the Orleans of France has 932 miles.
The South-Eastern & Chatham, of England, expresses a favorable opinion of automatic block signals, but has not adopted them. The Lancashire & Yorkshire, of England, and the Cape Government Railroads of South Africa are going to try the “American block system.”
Mr. Margot concludes that lines already equipped with non-automatic signals will find no advantage in changing to automatics, except in special cases, as, for example, where an intermediate section is required in a long tunnel, or elsewhere. But on lines not yet fitted with a block system it may be advantageous to adopt the automatic. The automatic is without doubt best suited to metropolitan lines and under certain conditions “to lines on which it is desired to increase safety without excessively increasing the working expenses.”
His two principal final conclusions are:
1. The automatic block system, using a track circuit which substitutes the intervention of the train for human agency, satisfies most completely the conditions of working, from the technical point of view.
2. The automatic block has not yet attained any development outside the United States of America. Nevertheless, some applications made on main lines are, at present time, beyond the experimental stage. It has been observed, more particularly, that the track circuit is compatible with high speeds, without entailing appreciable difficulty in the maintenance of the track.
Superheated Steam Locomotive for the Royal Prussian State Railways.
The engine shown herewith was built by the Berlin Machine Building Company (Berliner Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft Vormals L. Schwartzkopff) from the designs of Gen. Baurat Garbe, and is intended for hauling fast goods trains, passenger and express trains on heavy lines. The following are the principal dimensions:
Total weight, lbs. |
125,400 |
Weight on drivers, lbs. |
97,020 |
Cylinders, in. |
21.3×24.8 |
Diameter of drivers, in. |
63 |
Heating surface, fire-box, sq. ft. |
124 |
Heating surface, tubes, sq. ft. |
1,264 |
No. of tubes. |
220 |
Grate area, sq. ft. |
23.7 |
Mogul (2-6-0) Locomotive with Superheater for Prussian State Railroads.
The engine is the 2-6-0 type. The cylinders are simple and the valve motion is of the Heusinger type with piston valves 5.9 in. in diameter. In the smoke-box is a Schmidt superheater, in which live steam is superheated, before entering the cylinders, up to 570 to 660 degrees Fahrenheit. The superheater consists of bunches of pipes, bent to the shape of the smoke-box shell and ending into two steam chambers in top of the smoke-box. The superheater is heated by gases of high temperature (1,470 to 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit) coming directly from the grate through a flame tube of 12 in. diameter. This superheater has given excellent results on all the locomotives to which it has been fitted, and upon the lines of the Prussian State Railways, the use of these superheated locomotives is increasing very rapidly. During recent months a series of important and exhaustive trials I have been made with the locomotive illustrated herewith, in order to ascertain its relative efficiency, in respect to speed and economy, in the operation of goods as well as in the heavy mountain express services. The superheated steam mogul locomotive has proved itself superior to an ordinary mogul locomotive of the same weight and also to a four-cylinder compound ten-wheel engine of 15 tons heavier weight, the average saving in water amounting to 18 to 20 per cent.; in coal 12 to 15 per cent., while the cost of maintenance and repairs were less. The superheated engine hauled on a line 124 kilometers (77 miles) long, with many curves and with grades of 1 in 100, an express train of 42 axles, 322 tons, and a total weight of engine and tender of 424 tons at an average speed of 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, the maximum speed reached being 105 kilometers (65.3 miles). The average cut-off in the cylinders on this trial was 23 per cent. With the heaviest of loads, the starting is effected without any difficulty, which in a great measure demonstrates the advantages of superheated steam, which also, with cold cylinders, only gives a small loss of condensation. All parts coming in contact with the highly-superheated steam—such as pistons, piston valves and stuffing boxes—have worked satisfactorily while there has been found no difficulty whatever with the superheater. The average temperature of the steam was 626 degrees Fahrenheit, and the steam pressure has been throttled down to 135 lbs. in the steam chest, so that there was an abundance of steam in the boiler during the trials. The engine is fitted with pneumatic sanding apparatus on the Bruggeman system, and with a speed indicator of the Haushalter type. The pistons and piston valves are lubricated automatically by means of oil presses.
Unjust Sugar Rates to Wichita.
The Interstate Commerce Commission has decided in the case of the Lehman-Higginson Grocer Company and other wholesale grocers in Wichita, Kan., against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and other carriers. The complainants alleged that the carriers, having in effect on sugar in carloads from New Orleans rates per 100 lbs. which were 25 to Wichita and 20 cents to Kansas City and other Missouri river points, increased those rates to 47 cents to Wichita and 32 cents to Missouri river points, thereby increasing the differential as between Wichita
