The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and AppliancesClarke, Thomas Curtis
History
The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances
Clarke, Thomas Curtis
Railroads -- United States
To combine the two features, engines have been built with the
driving-wheels and axles arranged as in Figure 32. The frames are
then extended backward, and the water-tank and fuel are placed
on top of the frames, and their weight is carried by a truck
underneath. This arrangement leaves the whole weight of the boiler
and machinery on the driving-wheels, and at the same time gives a
long wheel-base for steadiness. This plan of engine was patented
by the author of this article in 1866, and has come into very
general use--since the expiration of the patent. In some cases a
two-wheeled truck is added at the opposite end, as shown in Figure
33. For street railroads, in which the speed is necessarily slow,
engines such as Figure 13 (p. 110) are used. To hide the machine
from view, and also to give sufficient room inside, they are
enclosed in a cab large enough to cover the whole machine.
The size and weight of locomotives have steadily been increased
ever since they were first used, and there is little reason for
thinking that they have yet reached a limit, although it seems
probable that some material change of design is impending which
will permit of better proportions of the parts or organs of the
larger sizes. The decapod engines built at the Baldwin Locomotive
Works, in Philadelphia, for the Northern Pacific Railroad, weigh
in working order 148,000 pounds. This gives a weight of 13,300
pounds on each driving-wheel. Some ten-wheeled passenger engines,
built at the Schenectady Locomotive Works for the Michigan Central
Railroad, weigh 118,000 pounds, and have 15,666 pounds on each
driving-wheel. Some recent eight-wheeled passenger locomotives for
the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad weigh 115,000 pounds,
and have 19,500 pounds on each driving-wheel. At the Baldwin Works,
some "consolidation" engines have recently been built which are
still heavier than the decapod engines.
The following table gives dimensions, weight, price, and price
per pound of locomotives at the present time. If we were to quote
them at 8 to 8¼ cents per pound for heavy engines and 9 to 22¼ for
smaller sizes, it would not be much out of the way.
_Dimensions, Weights, and Approximate Prices of Locomotives._
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