FOR RAILROAD MEN
There are no less than six distinct classes of articles in the new
Encyclopædia Britannica which contain information of peculiar interest
to railroad men:—
1. Articles on continents contain authoritative and original accounts of
trans-continental routes and traffic. For example the article EUROPE has
a table in which the 19 chief avenues of trade are analyzed, showing the
direct distance, the distance by sea and the distance by rail from point
to point; another table comparing railroad developments in the various
parts of Europe, and also an account of the contour of Europe from the
railroad man’s point of view, discussing the mountain ranges pierced by
tunnels and the passes over which lines have been carried wholly or
largely in the open.
[Sidenote: Six Classes of Articles]
2. The articles on separate countries, on the individual states of the
Union, and on colonies contain detailed accounts of the railway systems.
For example, the article FRANCE describes the six great French
railroads, traces their lines and explains the financial system by which
they were constructed, the concessions granted to them by the French
government, and the extent to which direct state ownership and
management has been adopted.
3. The articles on cities show the relation of each centre to the
general railroad system of the country and describe the terminals and
the methods of urban communication. For example, in the article BERLIN
there is an account of the Stadtbahn, carried through the heart of the
city, 20 feet above the street, providing for through traffic as well as
for suburban service.
4. The maps as well as the many plans of cities, all of which were
specially prepared for the Britannica, show much more clearly than does
an ordinary atlas, the present development of railroads in all parts of
the world.
5. The articles on various branches of engineering and mechanics,
described in other chapters of this Guide, are complete treatises on the
technical subjects connected with railroad construction and management.
6. The articles devoted exclusively to the subject, of which a brief
account is given in the present chapter, are those to which railroad men
will naturally first turn.
The key article is RAILWAYS (Vol. 22, p. 819), equivalent in length to
more than 120 pages of this Guide. It is written by the foremost
authorities on the subject both in the Old World and in the New,
including:
[Sidenote: Technical Authorities]
ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY, president of Yale University, and author of
_Railroad Transportation_.
HUGH MUNRO ROSS, author of _British Railways_ and editor of the
_Engineering Supplement_ of the London Times.
RAY MORRIS, formerly managing editor of the _Railway Age Gazette_ of
New York and author of _Railroad Administration_.
LT. COL. H. A. YORKE, C.B., chief inspecting officer of railways of
the English Board of Trade.
PROF. FRANK HAIGH DIXON, of Dartmouth College, author of _State
Railroad Control_.
BRAMAN BLANCHARD ADAMS, associate editor of New York _Railway Age
Gazette_.
WILLIAM ERNEST DALBY, professor of engineering in the South Kensington
Central Technical College, and author of _The Balancing of Engines_,
etc.
WILLIAM BARCLAY PARSONS, formerly chief engineer to the New York City
Rapid Transit Commission and advisory engineer of the Royal Commission
on London Traffic.
MAJ. GEN. C. E. WEBBER, founder of the Institute of Electrical
Engineers.
EMILE GARCKE, managing director of the British Electric Traction Co.,
Ltd., author of _Manual of Electrical Undertakings_.
[Sidenote: The Key Article]
The article opens with an introductory historical summary which
describes the use of railways or tramways before the invention of the
steam locomotive in mining districts in England (just as in the article
_Mauch Chunk_, Vol. 17, p. 903, early mine transportation in America is
described) and the way in which their use induced the development of
high speed locomotives and how the first American trans-continental
railroads were built. The student will find next a section of general
statistics of railway mileage for the world, with a summary of American
railway building, especially in the Far West since 1896. The following
section is on economics and legislation in general, followed by separate
treatment of British railway legislation and of American railway
legislation. The great problem of government control and operation of
railways as practised in various European countries is also discussed
and is of interest in connection with contemporary American tendencies.
The safety of railway transportation is treated in a section containing
in compact form the most valuable classified statistics. A section on
_Financial Organization_ compares American and British conditions in a
most illuminating way.
Of even greater importance to the technical student are the remaining
sections of this great article, namely:
(1) CONSTRUCTION, with subsections on _Location_, _Cuttings and
Embankments_, _Gradients_, _Curves_, _Gauge_, _Permanent Way_ (including
ballast, ties, fish-plates and other rail joints, and rails), _Bridges_,
_Rack_ (or cog) _Railways_, _Cable Railways_, _Mono-Rail Systems_,
_Switches and Cross-overs_, _Railway Stations_ (for passengers and for
freight), _Round Houses for Locomotives_, and _Switching Yards_. This
treatise on construction is equivalent to 22 pages of the type and size
of this Guide, and is in itself an adequate brief manual for the use of
the construction engineer, with valuable illustrations in the text.
(2) LOCOMOTIVE POWER, including subsections on _Fundamental Relations_,
_Methods of Applying Locomotive Power_, _General Locomotive Efficiency_,
_Analysis of Train Resistance_, _Vehicle Resistance_, _Engine
Resistance_, _Maximum Boiler Power_, _Draught_, _The Steam Engine_,
_Tractive Force_, _Engine Efficiency_, _Piston Speed_, _Compound
Locomotives_, _Balancing of Locomotives_, _Classes of Locomotives_,
_Current Developments_. This section of the article is a little longer
than the preceding,—it would fill 25 pages of this Guide,—and has
illustrations, tables, and formulae. It is written by Prof. Dalby, the
principal British authority on locomotives.
(3) ROLLING STOCK, dealing with dining, sleeping, passenger and
vestibule cars, wood and metal, their heating and lighting and their
weight and speed; with freight cars, their weight and speed; and with
car-couplers and brakes.
(4) INTRA-URBAN, or city street railways, elevated and underground, by
W. B. Parsons, formerly chief engineer of the New York Rapid Transit
Commission.
(5) LIGHT RAILWAYS for rural and interurban service and portable
railways.
[Sidenote: Other Major Articles]
The next article to be read is _Tramway_ (Vol. 27, p. 159), dealing with
the earliest railways used in coal mines, American and English, without
locomotive power; and with modern street railways,—surface lines, steam,
cable and electric, the last being subdivided into three classes,
overhead or trolley, open conduit and closed conduit. The different
types of street cars are discussed, and there are summaries of
legislation and of commercial results, with general statistics.
The article TRACTION (Vol. 27, p. 118, equivalent to more than 20 pages
of this Guide) is by Louis Duncan, formerly head of the department of
electrical engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It
deals principally with electric traction and thus supplements the
article TRAMWAY. _Steam_ traction, as treated in the section on
_Locomotive Power_ in the article RAILWAYS, by Prof. Dalby, may be
studied further in the article STEAM-ENGINE (Vol. 25, p. 818), and
especially that part of the article which deals with locomotives (§ 104,
p. 841).
The civil engineer engaged in railway work will profit by reading,
besides the articles already mentioned: Professor W. C. Unwin’s article
(Vol. 4, p. 533) on BRIDGES, especially pp. 545 and 547 seq., dealing
with railway bridges; and the article TUNNEL (Vol. 27, p. 399), by H. A.
Carson, engineer-in-charge of the Boston Subway and of the East Boston
Tunnel, which would make about 30 pages if printed in the form of this
Guide. This article classifies tunnels into river, mountain and town
(subway) tunnels, and gives special information about rail corrosion and
ventilation in tunnels.
The equipment engineer will add to the topics already listed (cars,
engines, etc.) the article SIGNAL, § _Railway Signalling_ (Vol. 25, p.
73; as long as 15 pages of this Guide), by B. B. Adams, of the _Railway
Age Gazette_, and H. M. Ross, of the London _Times_ Engineering
Supplement; and BRAKE (Vol. 4, p. 414).
[Sidenote: Legislation]
On the history of railroading and on statistics there is much
information in the Britannica in local articles. It has already been
remarked that each article dealing with a state of the United States, or
any of the commercial countries of the world, has a section on
_Communications_, giving railway mileage and describing the principal
railway lines in the area; and that articles on cities and towns give
accurate and minute information about railway service. In pursuing the
study of legislation bearing on railways, and especially on rate
legislation, the student should read the article INTERSTATE COMMERCE
(Vol. 14, p. 711), by Prof. Frank A. Fetter of Princeton University, a
part at least of the article TRUSTS (Vol. 27, p. 334), by Prof. J. W.
Jenks, of New York University (formerly of Cornell), parts of the
article on the history of the United States, in the same volume,
especially pp. 315, 316, 353, 367, 394, 395, 396, 406, 407, and, in
separate state articles, the sections on laws and history, notably NORTH
CAROLINA for the rate cases of 1907 (Vol. 19, p. 778), NEBRASKA for the
maximum freight rate of 1893 (Vol. 19, p. 329), WISCONSIN on radical
rate legislation and on physical valuation for _ad valorem_ tax of
railways (Vol. 28, p. 744).
[Sidenote: Biographies]
The biographical articles in the new Britannica also have much important
information for the student of railways.
Among the names of inventors whose lives are outlined are: THOMAS
NEWCOMEN (Vol. 19, p. 475), JAMES WATT (Vol. 28, p. 414), MATTHEW
BOULTON (Vol. 4, p. 324), GEORGE and ROBERT STEPHENSON (Vol. 25, pp. 888
and 889), RICHARD TREVITHICK (Vol. 27, p. 256), OLIVER EVANS (Vol. 10,
p. 2), JOHN ERICSSON (Vol. 9, p. 740), PETER COOPER (Vol. 7, p. 80), and
SIR MARC I. BRUNEL (Vol. 4, p. 682); among the names of engineers and
railway and bridge builders GEORGE PARKER BIDDER (Vol. 3, p. 918),
THOMAS BRASSEY (Vol. 4, p. 435), JOHN COCKERILL (Vol. 6, p. 625),
ERASTUS CORNING (Vol. 7, p. 174), JAMES BUCHANAN EADS (Vol. 8, p. 789),
SIR WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN (Vol. 19, p. 129), SIR JOHN FOWLER (Vol. 10, p.
761), JAMES HENRY GREATHEAD (Vol. 12, p. 398), SIR JOHN HAWKSHAW (Vol.
13, p. 99), WILLIAM KINGSFORD (Vol. 15, p. 817), SIR ROBERT GILLESPIE
REID (Vol. 23, p. 50), JOHN RENNIE (Vol. 23, p. 101), and J. A. ROEBLING
(Vol. 23, p. 450); and among railway financiers,—to take only a few
American names,—the VANDERBILTS (Vol. 27, p. 885), JAY GOULD (Vol. 12,
p. 284), ASA PACKER (Vol. 20, p. 441) and E. H. HARRIMAN (Vol. 13, p.
18).
In such articles as STRIKES AND LOCK OUTS (Vol. 25, p. 1024) and TRADE
UNIONS (Vol. 27, p. 140), each with American sections by Carroll D.
Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor, the reader will find valuable
assistance in studying railway economics as affected by the relations of
labour and capital.
For marine transportation see the next chapter in this Guide.
The following is a brief list of articles, and of sections of articles,
of interest to all railroad men:
Analysis of Train Resistance
Anthracite
Atmospheric Railway
Ballast
Balancing of Locomotives
Blasting
Bearings
Bogie
Boiler
Boring
Brake
Brickwork
Bridges
Cable Railways
Caisson
Canal
Cantilever
Car
Cement
Classes of Locomotives
Coal
Cog Railways
Compound Locomotives
Concrete
Conveyors
Cranes
Cross-overs
Curves
Current Developments
Cuttings
Dock
Draught
Dredge
Elevators
Embankments
Engine
Engine Efficiency
Engine Resistance
Felloe
Fire brick
Fish-plates
Foundations
Freight
Fuel
Gauge
General Locomotive Efficiency
Gradients
Horse Power
Hydraulics
Iron and Steel
Location
Locomotive Power
Maximum Boiler Power
Masonry
Methods of applying Locomotive Power
Monorail Systems
Mortar
Motors, Electric
Oil Engine
Permanent Way
Pier
Piston Speed
Rack Railways
Rafter
Rail
Railways
Railway Stations
River Engineering
Roads and Streets
Roadbeds
Rolling Stock
Roof
Semaphore
Sewerage
Shaft Sinking
Shoring
Shovel
Signalling
Siphon
Sleeper
Smoke
Steam Engines
Steel Construction
Stone
Strength of Materials
Switches (or points)
Switching Yards
Ties
Timber
Traction
Tractive Force
Tramway
Tunnels
Vehicle Resistance
Ventilation
Welding