features of railroad operation, has been progressively developed and
improved. One of the important elements of safety in the dispatching
practice has been the tendency to the same words in the same sequence
to convey the same instructions, insuring a uniform understanding of
the instructions instead of permitting a discretionary phraseology
in originating or a misunderstanding in construing the order
transmitted. The rules for train dispatching now prescribe the use
of standard forms of expression for orders governing the movement of
trains.
Within the past few years experiments have been made with a system of
train dispatching by telephone, now in successful operation upon some
important lines, and growing in extent. Advantage lies in the ability
to use trained railroad employes who cannot work under the telegraph
system, not being telegraph operators. The telephone-dispatching
system not only insures a rapid distribution of information, but by
its greater capacity enables a more complete knowledge of the state
of the line to be had in the controlling office, as well as in all
the offices tributary to the dispatching system.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.
While it is not our intention to take up your time with the recital,
even in condensed form, of the development of all the items which go
to make up the parts of a railroad, we cannot forego the opportunity
to speak briefly about the locomotive, the motive power, giving
action and effect to transportation.
As early as 1680 Sir Isaac Newton predicted steam-propelled
carriages, and even made suggestions bearing on their design. Through
the eighteenth century various types of steam vehicles appeared, more
as curiosities than anything else, some of them forerunners of the
locomotive and others of the automobile. It was not until 1803 that
anything really deserving the name "locomotive" was built. Richard
Trevithick, a Cornish miner, constructed the locomotive bearing
his name, curiously enough as the result of a wager. On trial this
machine did convey ten tons of iron for nine miles on a cast-iron
tramway by steam power, winning the wager. The desire of Christopher
Blackett, a mine owner, to use steam motive power in place of animals
led to the practical demonstration of adhesion. On this principle,
Blackett's Superintendent, William Hedley, built his "Puffing Billy,"
a complicated affair of levers, beams and gears. On the completion of
the Liverpool & Manchester Railroad, the directors, being undecided
as to the motive power, offered a prize of five hundred pounds for
a locomotive that would fulfill certain conditions. The test came
off at Rainhill, in October, 1829, on a level piece of track about
one and one-half miles long, between four competitors. Stephenson's
"Rocket" won and gave the world the mechanical combination
essentially represented in locomotive practice since that time.
American locomotive practice followed the Stephenson model. Among the
early builders were Phineas Davis, Ross Winans and Matthias Baldwin.
The four-wheel engines of the English type proved injurious to the
light rail and sharp curves on our early roads, and to overcome this
Mr. John B. Jervis, Chief Engineer of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad,
introduced the four-wheel "Bogie" truck. For some twenty years this
design remained, until in the '50s the demand for more tractive power
brought about the addition of another pair of coupled drivers, thus
evolving the well-known "American" type. Additional drivers were
added with the demand for increased tractive power, leading in turn
to the development of the "Mogul" and "Consolidated" types.
In the decade between 1880 and 1890 more drivers, such as in the
ten-wheel type, began to be used in high-speed service, and the
adaptation of wide fire-boxes to the American type necessitated the
addition of a trailer truck to support the rear end of the locomotive
frame, and brought about the "Atlantic" type, in 1895.
The "Pacific" type, or the most modern high-speed passenger
locomotive, is a development of this. In 1888 Anatole Mallett
designed the articulated locomotive. In 1904 the first one of this
type was placed in operation on an American railroad, and since that
time has gained favor where maximum tractive power on heavy grades is
required.
There is perhaps no more striking illustration of the progress of the
art than can be obtained from an examination of the illustrations of
the various types of locomotives built and operated since 1829. It
all bespeaks a tremendous growth, based on a tremendous necessity.
We can point to the strengthening of all parts commensurate with
the work to be done; to the perfection of detail in materials;
manufacture, maintenance and inspection; and possibly observe
with pride that the motive power of the railroads of the present
contributes an almost negligible part of the difficulties of modern
railroad operation, due to features of design or control.
CAR CONSTRUCTION.
One of the early problems in transportation was to secure the
carrying capacity of cars as well as safety. We have pointed out how
it was necessary to add a guiding truck to the English locomotive,
designed to adapt the same locomotive safely to American conditions.
Both the excessive wheel loads on four-wheel freight cars and the
greater liability to accident or derailment led at an early time to
the use of four-wheel trucks under cars. Between 1831 and 1834 Mr.
Ross Winans, of Baltimore, made improvements on cars on the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad. He applied the swivel four-wheel truck, the outside
bearing for axles, and the application of the draft gear to the car
body and not to the trucks. The increase in lengths of passenger
cars, with corresponding increases in weight, led, about 1880, to
the quite general employment of a six-wheel truck instead of a
four-wheel truck, and even eight-wheel trucks were used for a time,
but rejected on account of the excessive length of wheel base and
other complications.
In 1879 the Allen wheel, consisting of built-up construction with
forged-steel tire, was introduced and rapidly became applied to cars
in the most exacting service. Originally the tires were imported from
the Krupp Works, in Germany, but later were manufactured here.
Great interest attaches itself at the present time to the manufacture
of solid-steel forged wheels, on account of the reduction in parts.
In the latter '80s experiments were made in the development of steel
framing for car construction, and built-up steel underframes were
introduced shortly after; at first on cars for mineral traffic, where
excessive weights and capacities were required. The success of this
type of construction has led to its adaptation at the present time
to all classes of equipment, and not only steel underframes, but
complete steel construction in certain classes of service where the
conditions require.
With the increase in through passenger service we note the appearance
of the vestibule, protecting the communication between cars.
Originally this vestibule was narrow, about the width of the car
door, and was introduced about 1882, although experimented with as
far back as 1845. The equipment of the "Exposition Flyer," operated
from New York to Chicago during the World's Fair, was the first, we
believe, to appear with full-width vestibules, these being originally
designed as offering less atmospheric resistance to high-speed
trains, but having subsequently been found a more economical,
attractive and safer form of construction.
The question of steel cars and composite steel and wooden cars is
having very careful investigation and experiment at the present time.
While considerably used, the results of the use of these cars must be
awaited. After the factor of safety has been determined the question
of tare weight per passenger carried will naturally arise. In this
country our weights are now far in excess of all foreign railroad
practice. This enters into the resistance and cost to produce the
service.
CAR HEATING.
The original method of heating passenger cars by direct radiation
from coal or wood stoves was a source of discomfort to the passengers
as well as a menace in case of disaster. This brought about in the
late '80s the introduction of the "Baker Hot-Water Heater," which was
a great improvement for the comfort of passengers, but still left
a fire in the car. In many instances of collisions and derailments
during this period, especially in winter, the cars were set on fire
and the wreckage consumed from the fire scattered from the stoves or
heaters. Experimentally, steam from the locomotives was used, but the
difficulties in securing satisfactory couplings between the cars, the
drain on the boiler, and the fact that the locomotive was sometimes
detached from the train, were obstacles. One of the Western roads
even attached a separate car for the sole purpose of supplying heat
and light. The growth in the capacity of locomotive boilers, and the
perfection of the couplings between cars, have led to the present
practice of car heating, which entirely eliminates the presence of
any fire or source of danger from that source.
CAR LIGHTING.
Car lighting has passed through the same stages as house lighting,
possibly more gradually, on account of the greater difficulties.
The old low-roofed passenger cars were illuminated by candles about
two inches in diameter, placed in racks along the sides of the car.
With the advent of mineral oil, just before the Civil War, the
candles gave place to oil lamps. Great difficulty was experienced
in maintaining a steady flame, until the principle of the student
lamp was adopted. The flame was shielded from the outside air by
a chimney, and the central draft to the burner provided the air
necessary, at the right point, to insure combustion. For more than
fifteen years this method prevailed, and while the presence of oil
lamps in wrecks contributed fuel to the flames, the proof that they
were in any way the principal cause was lacking. Still, to eliminate
this contributory feature, attempts were made to use ordinary
coal gas, compressed in tanks on each car. This, however, proved
unsatisfactory. In 1870 a system of compressed gas made from crude
petroleum had been invented by Julius Pintsch, of Berlin, and by 1887
had been put into a number of cars on European railroads. The light
was too dim to satisfy American conditions. It was only a question of
time, however, for its proper and adequate development to our needs,
when its use became general, on the perfection of the lamp and burner.
For the last fifteen years electric lighting of various types
has been in use on cars in an experimental way. While possessing
advantages, perhaps, in safety, owing to low voltages and small
quantity of current, its general use has not yet been entirely
practicable, owing to the complications involved, either in
generating and satisfactorily controlling the current upon the cars,
or in supplying it at terminals through storage batteries.
So far we have been considering largely features either of equipment
or train control. Perhaps more important than these is the permanent
way. Compared with engines, cars, signals and dispatching, the
variety of problems presented in the construction and maintenance
are many. We perhaps owe to the ancient beginnings and highly
scientific development of the profession of civil engineering and
its branches the fact that these problems of construction and
maintenance are so well met and the source of so little anxiety in
connection with railroad transportation at the present time. American
engineering ingenuity and courage have devised structures to meet
every requirement of railroad development. In bridge construction for
centuries the simple beam or the arch were the only spans employed.
The natural barriers to construction of railroads required something
more than either. Between 1830 and 1850 many wooden trusses were
built in the Eastern and Middle States after the design of Burr
and Palmer. S. H. Long's introduction of counter-braces in truss
construction in 1830 was a long step in advance, and after ten years
the celebrated Howe truss was brought out by the inventor. Four years
later came the Pratt truss. In 1859 several riveted lattice trusses
were built for the New York Central, varying from 40 to 90 feet in
length, by Howard Carroll. The Lehigh Valley built a Whipple-Murphy
pin-connected bridge of 165-foot span.
This progress in truss construction enabled the railroads to bridge
streams and secure continuous roadway.
As an interesting historical note in connection with railroad
bridges, we find that the first railroad bridge was built across
the Mississippi River at Rock Island in 1856. It had hardly been
completed, at great expense, before St. Louis steamboat interests
demanded its removal as a nuisance and an obstruction to navigation.
The United States District Court so adjudged it, and ordered its
removal within six months. The presiding judge in his opinion stated
that "if one railroad is able to transfer freight and passengers
without delay and expense of changing at the river, financial
necessity will compel competing roads to provide themselves with
the same facilities," which led him to foresee great interference
to river traffic and great mischief in the establishment of such a
precedent.
The case was appealed, and Abraham Lincoln was the counsel for the
bridge company before the United States Supreme Court. He argued that
both the river and the railroad were great highways for the people,
and while at the immediate time the water traffic was possibly
greater, he predicted that the time might come when the railroads
might equal or exceed the traffic on the river, and he consequently
felt that each interest was entitled to equal consideration. His
broad grasp of the subject secured for his company a reversal of the
decision of the lower court, and the bridge remained.
With the advent of steel the possibilities of bridge construction may
be said to have become almost unlimited, and their design exceedingly
simplified and standardized.
EVOLUTION OF THE RAIL.
Equally important is the evolution of the rail and its fastenings.
The type of metal rails of which the bottom served as the running
surface for flat wheels guided by a flange on the rail gave place to
"edge" rails on which flanged wheels used the upper surface of the
rail before the day of the steam locomotive.
Of the edge type, the first were cast iron, fish-bellied, in sections
about three feet in length. They were supported by stone blocks or
in cast-iron chairs which were in turn made secure to the stone.
Later the same type was made of wrought iron by John Birkinshaw, in
England, who rolled it up to 15 or 18 feet in length.
From 1820 to 1850 the flat strap rail, spiked to longitudinal
timbers, in turn supported by cross-ties, was largely used in this
country, as it was the only shape that could be rolled here. In 1834
Mr. Strickland designed the Bridge, or "U"-shaped section, which was
used on some of our earlier roads and was the first style of edge
rail rolled in this country, in 1844.
The present "T" section was invented in 1830 by Colonel Stevens,
Chief Engineer of the Camden & Amboy Railway, and until 1845,
when it was first rolled in this country, had to be imported from
England. The poor quality of the iron at this time required such
a broad support, in the design of the rail, for the head, that no
satisfactory plate fastening could be secured. Iron shoes, into which
the rail ends fitted, were the means of connection.
The greatest improvement dates from 1855, when the first steel rails
were rolled in England. Ten years later they were experimentally
rolled here. In 1867, through the introduction of the Bessemer
process, which made possible their manufacture at a greatly reduced
cost, began a revolution in track construction.
While the decade from 1880 to 1890 witnessed the greatest rate of
railroad building in this country, it also witnessed the substantial
substitution of steel rails on our lines. The earlier rails weighed
from 50 to 70 pounds per yard. The increasing weight of equipment
brought out a heavier section, and fifteen years ago there was
a large percentage of mileage on which weights of 90 pounds and
over--and even 100 pounds--per yard had been introduced. Under
special conditions rails weighing as high as 140 pounds per yard are
used.
With the increasing weights of rails, and the development of steel
manufacture, greater attention has been paid to details of analysis,
process of manufacture, shape and laying, and it may be briefly
stated that all these matters are uniformly prescribed at the present
time.
Our rail fastenings, ties and ballast have kept pace with the
development of the rail and equipment. An orthodox part of the rules
governing the maintenance of railway property places in the hands of
the maintenance force standard plans and specifications, not only for
the elements, such as rail and ties, but for the complete make-up of
the finished track structure and roadbed, and these plans are the
result of current experience and study of the several railroads, and
of the various associations of engineers, maintenance officers and
manufacturers, and it is safe to say that these plans, specifications
and standard practices represent the best known state of the art.
GRADE-CROSSING ELIMINATION.
In the early days both the railroads and public ways used the natural
surface of the ground, as a matter of economy. The public question
then was how they were to get the railroads, and _not_ how they were
to restrict them in the manner of their construction. The districts
traversed were sparsely settled and trains were few and slow in
their movement; the highways were little used; all of which made for
freedom from accident where the two crossed.
The conditions in England were vastly different. There the country
was thickly settled and an assured traffic was evident from the
inception of the enterprise, which would warrant expenditures on
original construction that could not be entertained by the promoters
of our first companies. So it was not through any blindness that made
grade crossings grow up in this country, but it was purely the result
of economic conditions which precluded their elimination.
With the increase in population and the development of the country
came the need of increased transportation facilities. More frequent,
faster and heavier trains were moving up the railroads and a greater
number of people came to use the highways. The inevitable result
followed, and at length the great number of accidents occurring at
the grade crossings attracted public attention.
The Legislature of Massachusetts took the first action in 1869,
when it provided for the appointment of a Railroad Commission, to
investigate and report upon "Safer and Better Methods of Construction
and Operation." They very promptly took up the Grade-Crossing
question.
At this time in
Massachusetts there was 1 mile of track to 5.47 square miles
New York there was 1 mile of track to 14.12 square miles
United States there was 1 mile of track to 46.72 square miles
Great Britain there was 1 mile of track to 8.60 square miles
This showed that the railroad network in Massachusetts was more
extensive in proportion to the area of the State than existed in
Great Britain. In their report the Commission suggested the avoidance
of future crossings of railroads and highways at grade, and the
propriety of the railroads changing some existing crossings which
presented no great difficulty or expense.
In 1873 a law was passed providing for the separation of grade
when a town and railroad effected an agreement. The cost was to be
apportioned by a Commission appointed by the Superior Court. This law
did accomplish something, but hardly abolished existing crossings as
fast as new ones were built. Under it the Fitchburg Railroad did away
with twenty-five between 1875 and 1890, bearing varying portions of
the expense.
In 1885 an Act provided that the County Commissioners could order the
abolition of a grade crossing on a petition of twenty legal voters
if the cost would not exceed $3,000. Again, in 1888 the Legislature
asked the Governor to appoint another Commission to investigate
and report upon a scheme for gradual abolition and the method of
apportioning the expense. In February, 1889, this Commission,
composed of Kimball, Weber and Locke, submitted systematic plans,
with estimates, etc., in which they fixed forty years as not an
unreasonable length of time for the completion of the work. The next
step came in 1890 with the passage of the Grade Crossing Law, which
provided that the directors of a railroad or the authorities of a
town or city could petition the Supreme Court for a Commission on
the Abolition of a Grade Crossing. This Commission was to determine
the manner of the separation and by whom the work was to be done, and
how the expense was to be divided as between the railroad, city and
State. Before the report was presented to the Court for approval it
was incumbent upon the Commissioners to ascertain that the aggregate
proportion of the State's liability in this connection would not
exceed $500,000 per year for ten years. While on the one hand the
Legislature authorized this expenditure of $5,000,000 to abolish the
crossings of highways with railroads at grade, they granted charters
indefinitely to electric lines to cross steam roads at grade.
The New York State Board of Railroad Commissioners was created
in 1882 and its membership appointed by the Governor. Among the
functions which they immediately assumed was the question of public
safety in connection with crossings at grade of railroads and
highways. The consideration which this received and the complaints
of unsafe conditions, as well as the complications and adjudications
involved, led to the passing of the Grade Crossing Law, which went
into effect July 1, 1897.
Not only by the New York State law, but by the Massachusetts law,
the method of elimination, as well as the apportionment of expense,
is specific. The initiative is open to both the railroad and to the
community, and the rapid progress of eliminations in these two States
may be taken as an endorsement of the wisdom of such legislation,
paving the way, as it does, for more progress on the question of
eliminations than it is believed would ordinarily take place where no
specific rule existed for the undertaking.
While the exact conditions throughout the country are not definitely
known, it is believed that progress is being made quite generally
in this direction. The influence of grade-crossing elimination upon
the safety of operation is of such importance as to deserve serious
consideration, as I will further suggest. Perhaps the elimination
of grade crossings, thereby separating the public from the railroad
except as authorized in connection with their patronage of it, is one
of the most important factors as safety.
HUMAN ELEMENT IN OPERATION.