CONTENTdm
Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection
Williams, Archibald, 1871-1934
96 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 25 cm
application/pdf
^^m mm Trail? ARCHIBll ■ 1 n ft h u it The University of British Columbia Library THE CHUNG COLLECTION ■a M4 1 ti AN ELECTRIC TRAIN -■=*- THE BOOK OF TRAINS B J ' I ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS THOMAS NELSON &. SONS LTD. Incorporating T.C. & E.C.JACK L">- IN THE SAME SERIES THE BOOK OF ANIMALS OLD FAIRY TALES NURSERY RHYMES PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE PRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS ^H £**«£&? CONTENTS I. WHY RAILWAYS ARE USED . . ... . II. MAKING A RAILWAY III. RAILWAY STEAM LOCOMOTIVES .... IV. OUR TRAINS AND OTHERS V. SOMETHING ABOUT RAILWAY SIGNALLING . VI. HOW TRAINS ARE STOPPED VII. ELECTRIC RAILWAYS VIII. TRAINS AND RAILWAYS OF OTHER LANDS . 5 13 25 40 58 7i 79 07 COLOUR PLATES An Electric Train . Frontispiece A Powerful Express Engine 32 A Railway Map 48 Trains and Engines 64 A Mountain Railway .80 ill A RAILWAY MAP (page 48) The following objects are shown on this Map. Can you find them ? &S3B 12 Locomotive Engines. 1 Sea-going Steamer. 32 Railway Carriages. 1 River Steamboat. 7 Signal Boxes. 1 Loch Steamer. 24 Trucks (Railway). Docks. 3 Signal Gantrys. 1 Breakdown Crane. 8 Signal Posts. 1 Loading Crane. 4 Wayside Stations. Golf Links. 2 Foot Bridges over Railway. Pier. 1 Road Bridge over Railway. Bathing Boxes. 1 Tunnel. Factories. 1 Railway Cutting. 4 Electric Tramcars. 4 Junctions. Motor Cars. Telegraph Lines. Football Field. 3 Level Crossings. City Church. 2 Railway Bridges over River. Cathedral Town. 4 Road Bridges over Rivers. Village and Church. 1 Viaduct. A Hill. 1 Locomotive Shed. A Moor. 1 Colliery. A Loch. 10 Coal Trucks. Ruined Castle on Island. Colliers' Houses. I Castle within Grounds. r mmm lirl^RRWjj^^s^MHifflKD CHAPTER I NO doubt you have, at one time or another, tried wheeling a laden barrow across soft ground. It was very hard work, which made you very hot. And no wonder. For the wheel had to keep pressing down the earth until it was packed hard enough to carry the weight. The work really fell on you> as you had to do the pushing needed to make the wheels act. If you had copied a bricklayer's labourer and laid down some planks end to end to form a hard path for the wheel, the barrow would have run quite easily, and you could have taken twice as heavy a load with far less fatigue. But no doubt there were no planks handy. Easy transport on land can be effected only by making paths for wheeled vehicles whicl| are hard enough to prevent wheels sinking in ; smooth enough to make movement free from bumps —which, by jerking the vehicle up and down, are a great hindrance ; and as free as possible from slopes, for it is a fact that downward slopes do not make up for the corresponding uphill stretches. ROADS Since easy transport is necessary for the prosperity of a nation occupying large tracts of land, we find that, as nations became 5 The Romans were first-class Road-makers. highly civilized, they gave more and more attention to roads, if they could not do their carrying by water. The Romans, the greatest race of olden days, were first-class road-makers. They did their work so thoroughly that some of their roads are still in use after the lapse of two thousand years. It is not too much MM to say that only within the last one hundred and fifty years have roads been made to equal theirs. Roads still are, and always will be, of great use, and they grow in number as the population of a country increases, since it is necessary to have a means of bringing vehicles up to one's very door. In this country we pride ourselves upon having the finest roads in the world, over which vehicles run with a speed and smoothness that would have made even the old Romans open their eyes, could they return to earth again. Vast sums of money are spent every year in keeping this great network in good order, and in adding to it, for the motor vehicle has given back to roads much of the importance which railways took from them about a century ago, when stage coaches disappeared, and grass began to grow on many of our once busy highways. Indeed, there is an exceedingly bitter struggle being fought between the road and the railway for certain kinds of traffic. The private motor car, the motor bus, the motor char- a-banc, and the motor or steam lorry, do a great deal of carrying which, but for them, would be done by the railway. On the other hand, they undoubtedly bring to the railways some traffic which they otherwise would not get, acting as " feeders " to them ; and we may be certain that there is plenty of room for both railways and roads. WHERE THE RAILWAY SCORES The fact is that for fast travel and the hauling of heavy loads over great distances the railway beats the best of roads. With its hard steel tyres, rolling on what may be considered perfectly smooth rails of the same metal, so strong that they do not " give " under enormous weight, the railway vehicle moves wonderfully easily. Have you not sometimes noticed a couple of men pushing along a truck, which with its load might weigh 15 or 20 tons ? On any other surface they could not stir it. Here is the secret of the railway's success—easy traction, which means cheap transport. If coal had to be taken long distances by road, but few people could afford to burn it; and the same is the case with many 7 Men pushing loaded Truck. other things the value of which is small in proportion to their weight—bricks, stone, lime, and so on. Even if great road trains could be run, the cost of keeping up the roads would be too great to be borne by the public. As regards travel, the railway is, for smoothness of motion, far ahead of the road. Even large pneumatic tyres cannot prevent the unevenness of roads being felt at moderate speeds. At sixty miles an hour travelling on the best roads would be comfortable only in the most expensive motor cars ; and it would be very costly even if it could be allowed, which, of course, it cannot be. Think what accidents there would be if motor cars were permitted to rush about at the speed of an express train ! A railway is specially designed for both high speed and safety. It is fenced off, and only trains are allowed on it. Usually there are two tracks, one for each direction ; and in any case the movements of trains are strictly regulated, to prevent one running into another. One train follows another according to a carefully prepared time-table, and it is very unusual to find on the railway anything at all like the " jam | of traffic which the dwellers in all large cities have to put up with, and which is becoming worse as vehicles increase in number. (2,687) 8 Old Horse-drawn Coal Wagon. It is said that one never knows how useful a thing is until one has to go without it. Even a short railway " strike," lasting but a few days, gives us some idea of what we owe to the railways for the comforts of daily life. Directly trains stop running everything begins to go wrong. We seem to lose our liberty of movement ; and in a very short time find ourselves lacking this and that, which came to our doors in the tradesman's van, maybe, but was brought to the tradesman by the railway. What a sad state we should be in were the railways done away with altogether ! Easy and quick transport is, after all, one of the greatest blessings that civilization brings with it. (2,68?) 2 Old Plate Railway. A PEEP AT RAILWAY HISTORY Before I go on to tell you something about railways as they are to-day, I should like to describe very briefly how railways came into use. More than two hundred years ago the owners of certain coal mines near Newcastle-on-Tyne found that it was costing them a great deal of money to haul their coal across country to the wharves where it was loaded into ships. The roads were very bad and a horse could draw only a small load. So it occurred to some one that it would be a good idea to lay down continuous tracks of wooden beams, spaced to suit the distance between the two wheels on an axle. This enabled the loads to be increased greatly, as a horse could now pull three or four times as much coal as formerly. But the wood was soon damaged by the wheels, and to keep renewing it was expensive. The next step therefore was to protect the wood by covering it with thin iron plates. But the wood rotted under the iron; so thick iron plates, strong enough to carry the weight by themselves, were tried. The men who laid the 1 plateways " came to be known as " platelayers," a word which I should like you to keep in mind. The original plates were quite flat, and when the carts ran off them—as they could easily do if the driver were careless—it took a lot of trouble to get them on again. So we presently find plates 10 Old Stone Sleepers. being cast with flanges or lips on the upper side, to prevent the wheels straying. These plates, being of cast iron, were brittle and liable to break under the loads. About the year 1790 an ironfounder introduced deep and narrow plates, which had much greater strength, and used less metal. They were supported on wooden sleepers or stone blocks, and were called w, edge- rails." It i§ t'; We now have reached the period of " railways " as opposed to 1 plateways." But how keep the wheels on these narrow rails ? By transferring to them the flanges which had previously been on the plates. The guiding effect remained unchanged. When the steam locomotive first appeared in the very early years of last century, the " railway | was a very rough-and-ready affair. As the rails measured only three or four feet in length, joints were many and the " going " was very bumpy. Engineers soon found that long rails of wrought iron answered very much better. They were easier to lay and did not break so readily. When traffic became heavy, iron rails soon wore out, and their frequent renewal became a very serious expense. But, fortunately, Sir Henry Bessemer invented, in the 'sixties, a new process 11 of making steel which reduced the price of the metal so much that steel rails could be used. A steel rail lasts ever so much longer than an iron one, though it costs very little more. It may be doubted whether, but for cheap steel, railways would have grown to what they now are—nearly 750,000 miles of them. Coaches passing on the Highway. 12 afaiffan .*.•&*>. M AKIN®*: WRAILNHK CHAPTER II DURING your railway journeys you probably have often noticed posts like the one shown in the small illustration. This particular post is set where two slopes meet. Towards the right the rails rise one foot in every 500, and towards the left fall one foot in every 250 feet. At other places both arms may point upwards, or one of them may be marked I level " and the T"^lS°- 1 I" goo I other point up or down. These posts are to tell the driver, and, of a goods train, the guard as well, what sort of running to expect. The guard is warned when the brakes will be required ; and the driver learns whether he will need more or less steam. Slopes of one foot in 200 or 300 feet would not be noticed at all on a road. But on a railway they are important, while a gradient of one foot rise for every 100 feet travelled is regarded as quite a stiff hill. And not without reason. Suppose an express train, weighing 400 tons, to be travelling at 60 miles an hour on the level. On reaching the 1 in 100 hill the locomotive would have to develop over 1,400 more horse-power than was needed on the flat, to maintain the speed. This it cannot, of course, do, and the train 13 begins to slow down and may be reduced to a crawl before it reaches the top. Again, take a goods train weighing, say, 1,000 tons. A locomotive that can trundle it along merrily enough on the level would not be able to take it up the hill. So either the load must be reduced to begin with, or an extra locomotive be used merely to tackle the hill. In both cases there would be a considerable waste of money. The ideal railway would therefore be quite level from end to end, so that a locomotive may be given the heaviest load it can haul on the flat at the desired speed. It would also be perfectly straight, as curves reduce speed, increase the length of the track, and are more dangerous than straight runs. In practice it is not possible to construct a perfectly level railway and to do without curves. But the engineer does his best to avoid steep gradients and sharp curves. This may mean that he has tc bore long tunnels, form great embankments, build large bridges, and make deep cuttings, all of which cost a great deal of money. But where heavy traffic will have to be handled it is cheapest in the long run to spend a big sum in getting easy gradients and curves; for the savings in working such a line will in course of time pay off the extra first cost. Many lines laid out cheaply with stiff gradients and winding tracks have had to be altered afterwards at greater cost than would have sufficed to build a good road in the first instance. PREPARING THE PATH Most of the heavy work needed in railway building consists of moving earth, chalk, rock, and other materials from where it is not wanted to where it is wanted. A railway engineer, when getting out his plans, goes to great pains to " balance " the cuttings and embankments. Otherwise he will have more stuff from the cuttings than is needed for the embankments, and be compelled to deposit it on land bought for the purpose ; or he must" borrow " 14 A " Steam-Nawy." from neighbouring ground to finish his embankments. Either course is expensive. But if the calculations are correct he is just able to build his embankments with the " spoil" taken from the cuttings, and there is no waste anywhere. In the early days of railways all the digging had to be done with picks and shovels by human " navvies "—which word, by the way, is short for " navigators," as the men who constructed our canals were called. But the costliness of handwork led by degrees to the perfection of great machines named " steam- diggers," " steam-navvies," or " steam-shovels," which can each do the work of a large number of men. Wherever large railway cuttings are in progress you will find them at work. Though they cannot dig hard rock, they can at least gather up the broken rock blasted out by explosives. THE STEAM-NAWY The kind of steam-navvy most used in this country has a large scoop at the end of a heavy beam. The man in charge 15 works levers which cause the beam to sweep upwards while it is also forced outwards against the face of the cutting. By the end of its stroke it has filled itself with a ton or two of earth. The top part of the I navvy 1 then swings round until the scoop is over a truck, and a pull on a chain releases the hinged bottom of the scoop, allowing the contents to fall out. The beam then swings round again for another bite. A few steam-navvies, making a stroke each per minute or so, soon cut a deep notch in the ground ; and they keep trains of contractor's wagons very busy carrying away the material to the places where it is required. BRIDGES OVER CUTTINGS Where a cutting will cross the line of an important road, the closing of which while a bridge is being built would cause much inconvenience, what the engineers sometimes do is this. As soon as the cutting is begun, an excavation is made in the ground near the road, and the bridge is built in it, all its lower part being, of course, below the surface. When the cutting reaches the bridge the road is shifted a little to take in the bridge, and there is no interruption of traffic. DRAINAGE The sides of a cutting have to be at such a slope that the ground does not tend to slide down. In clay the slopes must be rather gentle, since clay is very unstable when wet. Your eye may perhaps have been caught sometimes by large Y's of stone or chalk formed on the slopes of cuttings. These are drains to catch the water running down the sides in wet weather and carry it away before it has time to penetrate. But in spite of all precautions both cuttings and embankments are apt to give trouble if constructed during a rainy season, the sides slipping down again and again, until at last the correct slopes have been formed. 16 TUNNELS These are the most difficult parts of a railway. The engineer can never say for certain what he may run up against while driving a tunnel. If possible, he will test the ground by drilling holes from the surface and bringing up samples. But these samples do not tell the whole story, and he may strike large springs of water, or quicksands, or treacherous clay. So he has to go very s carefully, lining the tunnel with brickwork as he proceeds. If the depth of ground over the tunnel is not too great, he sinks shafts on the line of the tunnel, and drives both ways from the bottom of each, until the various sections join up. This saves a lot of time, and the shafts are afterwards very useful for keeping the tunnel ventilated. THE PERMANENT WAY When at last the path for the railway has been prepared by means of cuttings, embankments, and tunnels, the ground is covered with a thick layer of " ballast," usually broken stone. This gives a firm support for the sleepers, drains itself freely, and can be easily levelled and packed. Even in flat country the track is raised a little above the general ground level, so that water shall not stand on it; while in cuttings large drains are provided on either side of it. On the carefully levelled ballast, gangs of men lay wooden sleepers—called " ties " in America. These serve two purposes. They afford a firm support for the rails ; and they keep the rails the proper distance apart. On British railways sleepers are usually 9 feet long, 10 inches wide, and 5 inches thick ; and they are placed about 30 inches apart, centre to centre. Now, if you took any piece of timber of the right size and used it as a sleeper just as it was, it would soon rot and have to be replaced. Before becoming part of a railway all sleepers are packed on flat trucks and run into a great iron cylinder. The ends of the cylinder having been closed and made quite tight, 17 3 <*,«w) Platelayers at Work. the air is pumped out and steam let in. The pumping and steaming are repeated several times to get as much air and moisture as possible out of the pores of the wood. Then hot creosote —a first cousin of tar—is run into the cylinder until it covers the sleepers, and air is forced in at great pressure to drive the creosote deep into the timber. The pressure is kept up for an hour or two, at the end of which each sleeper has absorbed three or four gallons of creosote, and weighs 30-40 pounds more than it did when it entered the cylinder. If the sleepers were merely soaked in the creosote, weeks or even months would be needed to do what the process described does in as many hours. The creosote prevents water entering the wood, which is thus rendered weather-proof, and will remain in good condition for many years. Every sleeper has two cast-iron I chairs," weighing about 50 pounds apiece, bolted to it a certain distance apart. A chair 18 One of the first Trains. has a flat base, to distribute the pressure it will have to bear over a good area of sleeper and so not crush the wood. The upper part of a chair is made up of two horns, just far enough apart for the bottom of the rail to pass between them. Assuming the sleepers to have been arranged the correct distance apart, and with their chairs in line, the rails are lowered into the chairs, forced sideways against the inner horns, and secured by driving | keys " of hard wood between them and the outer horns. The rails now cannot rise because the bottom of a rail fits into a notch in the inner horn; and the key prevents sideways movement. The use of chairs is universal in the British Isles. In most other countries, however, the rails have wide, flat bottoms, which rest on the sleepers and are fastened to them by bolts or by large nails with overhanging heads, called f spikes." But the chair method, though more expensive, gives less trouble afterwards, and makes it much easier to remove or replace rails. RAILS The rails used on our main fines are either 45 or 60 feet long, and weigh from 90 to 100 pounds per yard. So a single rail scales anything from 1,250 to 2,000 pounds. For 100 miles of double track from 27,000 to 32,000 tons of rails will be needed ; to say nothing of some 18,000 tons of chairs and 2,000 tons of bolts and other fittings. Altogether, there would be as much metal used as there is in the Forth Bridge, the greatest of all bridges ! Two neighbouring rails are joined together by a pair of 1 fishplates I about two feet long. One fishplate is placed on each 19 side, with its centre opposite the joint, and the two are pinched up against the rails by four bolts passing through them and the rails. Being somewhat tapered sideways, the fishplates jam tightly between the heads and bottoms of the rails. In order to give room for the fishplates, the rail joints must be between chairs and therefore unsupported. But the stiffness of the plates prevents them drooping when a wheel passes over. Nevertheless there is a perceptible bump at every joint because the rails must not be allowed to touch. In summer they expand with the heat, and in winter contract with the cold. So when they are being laid the foreman in charge consults a thermometer, which tells him just how wide the gap should be. Marked steel wedges, inserted in the joints before the keys are driven in tightly or the fishplates screwed up, enable the gaps to be made of exactly the right size. Trains run more smoothly in summer than in winter because the gaps at the rail joints are then smaller, owing to the rails lengthening. The fishplates allow the rail-ends to slide between them, for the bolt-holes in the rails are not round, but of an oval shape. The fishplated joint is by no means perfect, but it is the best that has been discovered after one hundred years of hard thinking. It is said to have been invented by a ship's carpenter, who, poor fellow, got no credit for his invention. What is needed is some satisfactory way of giving the wheels continuous support as they pass from one rail to another. If you want to make a fortune, just think out a means of getting over the difficulty, and patent it! CURVES When the rails are in position and made fast, the sleepers are packed very carefully with ballast, until the tops of the rails are level and every sleeper is carrying its share of the load. A great deal of trouble is taken over this business, as very slight irregularities would make travelling uncomfortable, and even dangerous, at high speed. On curves the outer rail of a track is purposely set somewhat higher than the inner, to tilt the train towards the 20 N m w% •, I _sT ^ Mt, mm American Express Train taking a Curve. inside of the curve. This is done to counteract the tendency of a vehicle to overturn when it changes direction. The sharper the curve, the more pronounced must the tilting be to give safety at the highest speed allowed. I daresay that you have sometimes noticed that when a train comes into a curved platform the door swings open of itself when released, or is unusually difficult to open, as the case may be, owing to the tilt. PLATELAYERS In the first chapter you were asked to keep in mind the word 1 platelayers," used of the men who laid the old plateways. The word is still applied to the men who carry out the laying of sleepers 21 A Railway Junction—Bethnal Green, London. and rails, and generally look after railway tracks. So here we have an interesting connection with the tracks of more than a hundred years ago. The words I booking office " are a survival of the old coaching days, when people had to go to an office to engage seats on a coach, which was done by entering their names in a book. GAUGE AND SDC-FOOT WAY The gauge of a railway means the distance the rails are apart. The standard gauge, to which all English, Scottish, American, Canadian, and most Continental railways are built, is 4 feet 8\ inches. A plank of this length would just fit between the rails of any standard-gauge railway if kept perfectly square to them. On curves the gauge is increased by from J to J inch for reasons. which I will not trouble you with. 22 ti At least six feet must be left between two tracks, to allow for the overhang of the carriages and for people putting out their heads, opening doors, and doing other foolish things. Hence the term " six-foot way." It is possible for a man to stand in it between two passing trains without being injured, but he would be much wiser to lie down along the centre, where he would be quite safe. ger antfep POINTS AND CROSSINGS So far we have considered only straight-ahead tracks. At many places on any railway provision must be made for turning a train from one track to another, or on to either of two tracks at a junction. The method used is simple enough, and I have no doubt that the drawing I have made will enable you to understand it. Here we have a simple junction, where two tracks X and Y run together into track Z. Observe first of all that the outside rails AA, BB, are continuous. The rails C and D, the proper gauge distance away from AA and BB respectively, meet in a point. The rails E and F, with bent- out ends, carry on the lines of C and D. You will see that there are gaps at the angle, so that a wheel can pass from D to F or from C to E, and you may think that there would be a bad bump as a wheel passes either of these. 23 But what actually happens is that the wheel, before leaving D, is supported by the turned-out end of F ; and the same with C and E. So that there is only a hardly noticeable jar. E and F are fixed, but their continuations H and G can be moved sideways by the signalman. These " switch blades" are connected together by a " stretcher bar " K, which is of such a length that when one blade touches a rail the other is two to three inches away from the other rail. Thus it is impossible for both X and Y to be connected with Z at the same time, and a switch is out of the way when not wanted. The switch blades slide sideways in chairs of special shape, and are hinged, as it were, at the places marked by the heavy black dots M. Their outer ends, or " toes," are brought to a sharp point, which fits snugly into shallow recesses in the side of the rail, so that a wheel meets with no obstruction. There is just one more thing to notice. The two short" guard rails " LL serve a very useful purpose, as they compel the wheels on one side of the train to keep close to the outer rail, and their fellows on the other side to follow the correct path at the crossing. But for these rails it might happen that a wheel passing, say, from D to F, might run its flange on to F and derail the vehicle. »iii *4 11 J" %f m&Ls^^^^mAi)/^^&mm^s^su CHAPTER III * 4 S I have now told you all I wish to say about the tracks on J^\. which trains run, we may turn our attention to those very interesting machines which give life, as it were, to the railway. I refer, of course, to steam locomotives. Let us imagine ourselves in a great railway terminus, about to set off on a journey. We have secured our seats, put some of our hand luggage in the racks, some on the seats, just to show that these have been | staked." There are still twenty minutes to go before we start, so we will stroll up to the head of the train, where the engine is just backing down to be coupled up. She—like a ship, a locomotive is always " she "—slides up so gently that her buffers touch those of the leading coach without the slightest jar ; and she little suggests by her movements the internal force which will soon send her hurtling along with her load at a mile a minute. With her carefully-cleaned paint and brass she is a splendid object, though, to get a fair idea of her size, one ought to stand on the ground beside her, instead of on a platform, half-way up her driving wheels. These are nearly seven feet in diameter, and every turn of them means seven yards of progress. The goods engine yonder has much smaller driving wheels, which get a better leverage, but, of course, do not allow such high speed, as there is a limit to the rate at which the machinery of an engine can work. (2,687) 25 4: COUPLED WHEELS Our engine has three pairs of driving wheels, all those on one side being joined by a coupling rod with a joint in it, so that it shall not be damaged if one of the wheels jumps a bit higher than the others. You may wonder why the wheels should be joined together in this way. Well, it's like this. The pull that an engine can exert depends on the grip that its driving wheels have on the rails ; and the grip depends on the weight which presses them against the rails and prevents them slipping. In the past, express engines had only one pair of driving wheels, and as not more than 18 to 20 tons should be placed on a single pair of wheels, to avoid damaging the rails, such engines could haul only what we should consider light trains. But use two or three pairs of driving wheels and couple them together and they can carry a much larger part of the engine's total weight, while, as regards their action, they are the same as a single pair, since they all must work together as one. The most powerful goods engines have as many as eight or ten coupled wheels ; and if we go across the Atlantic we may even find engines with twenty-four | drivers," the very wheels under the tender being pressed into service ! THE BOGIE The four small wheels in front of the driving wheels are merely | carrying " wheels, having nothing to do with propulsion. Their two axles turn in a frame, named a bogie, attached to the front part of the main frame of the engine by a vertical pin. This allows the bogie and its wheels to adjust itself to the most convenient position when rounding a curve or traversing points and crossings : in other words, the bogie under these conditions turns a bit out of line with the main frame. The result is safer and easier ninning, for a long engine with several pairs of wheels (the tender wheels are not considered, since the tender is hinged to the locomotive) rigidly connected with the frame must grind the rails a good deal on curves. Long engines with only one pair of leading 26 / wmm ml wi* •5c***'**** ■ •"* Engine with Bogie at each end. wheels usually have these in a swinging " pony truck," which gives much the same results as a bogie. One kind of locomotive used in England has a six-wheeled bogie at each end. These between them carry all the weight, and each has all six wheels coupled together and driven by a separate engine. Such a locomotive can follow sharp curves with ease, though it measures 40 feet or so in length ; and can make full use of its weight. SPRINGS These are very important parts of a locomotive, though they do not attract much attention. Every axle turns in two axle-boxes, which can slide a certain distance up and down in guides formed in the frame. Their movements are, however, controlled by spiral springs or by " leaf " springs of the same kind as is used for ordinary road vehicles and motor cars, but much I stubbier " and stiffer. The whole weight of the locomotive, except that of the wheels, axles, coupling rods, and a few other parts, is transmitted to the wheels through the springs, which absorb any shocks and make the engine run much more smoothly than it possibly could do without them. In fact, high speeds on the railway would be very dangerous were springs not used. All springs used for locomotives, carriages, and trucks have to go through very severe tests before they are put into use. A special machine compresses them a certain number of times, and if the test alters their shape at all they are rejected. 27 TENDERS Our engine has a tender because it must carry with it a large supply of coal and water for its long run. Even the big tank which takes up most of the room on the tender will not hold enough water to last out till the first stop, but this difficulty is got over in a manner which we shall notice later. Shunting engines, and those for local passenger trains, have no tender, and carry their water in tanks either behind the cab, or on either side of the boiler, or on top of the boiler—| saddle " tanks the last are called. The weight of the water is most useful when over the driving wheels, as it increases grip. THE BOILER This is the most imposing feature of a locomotive, and, with its contents, accounts for a large part of its weight. A boiler is used to convert the energy (that is, the heat) of burning coal into a form in which it can be used to develop the power needed to work the engine and turn the wheels. The boiler may be regarded as made up of three portions. In front is the smokebox, with the chimney projecting from it. Then comes the cylindrical barrel. And at the rear is the square- cornered portion which reaches downwards towards the wheels and is called the outer shell of the firebox. The barrel and firebox shell are made of steel plates about | inch thick, very strongly riveted together, as they will have to stand a working pressure of 225 lb. (two hundredweight) on every square inch. The front of the barrel is closed by a circular plate. The firebox proper, of copper plates half an inch thick, is not so long nor so wide as the outer shell, so that a space for water all round may be left between the two. Moreover, it extends upwards only to about three-fifths of the height of the barrel, as its top must be well covered by the water in the boiler. The firebox and firebox shell are connected at the bottom by a steel ring about three inches 28 j0y#w*'ti/J ~~Ji. G iZ \nw LiA omm. A Tank Engine used for Shunting. deep, which fits the space between them very closely ; and round the opening through which coal is thrown—the fire-hole—is another ring. The box and shell are joined by a large number of bolts, so that each shall enable the other to resist the steam pressure. At the bottom of the firebox are the fire bars, running fore and aft, and below these again is the ashpan, with doors which the driver can open and close to regulate the air supply to the furnace. The firebox is quite a large affair, and you could easily stand upright in it. The side of it nearest the barrel, and the circular plate at the far end of the barrel, both had a large number of holes bored in them. These were filled with a corresponding number of tubes, expanded at the ends to fit the plates very tightly. The tubes thus are passages through which the hot gases from the furnace travel to the smokebox, and so to the chimney. But much of the heat of the gases is transferred by the tubes to the water which touches them outside, so that it is greatly reduced by the time it reaches the smokebox. Now, if you could slit all the tubes from end to end, and flatten them out, and then spread out the firebox also, you would find that 29 I between them they would cover getting on for 2,500 square feet, which is more than the space inside the lines of a " single " tennis court. This very large " heating surface " ensures much of the heat passing quickly into the water and converting large quantities of it into steam. An important feature of the firebox is the firebrick arch, which extends the full width, but only for part of the length, of the firebox. It slopes upwards, towards the fire-hole, from just below the lowest row of tubes. Its duty is to compel the gases to pass near the top of the firebox before they can reach the tubes, and to mix with the air admitted above the fire. The coal is then burned thoroughly and the heat distributed more evenly over the tubes. BOILER FITTINGS There are four attachments which every boiler must have. The first of these is the safety valve, which blows off steam when the pressure rises to a certain figure. The driver has no control over it, and he is thus unable to run up the pressure to danger point. The second is the steam gauge, with a pointer travelling round a dial to show what the steam pressure is. And the third is the water gauge, an upright glass tube connected at both ends with the interior of the boiler. The water in it stands at the same height as that in the boiler, so that a glance tells whether more water is needed or not to maintain a safe depth over the top of the firebox. The fourth fitting is a means of forcing water into the boiler. On locomotives an injector, or rather two injectors, are employed. Steam is blown through a nozzle into a tapering chamber which a pipe connects with the water supply. The rush of the steam sucks up water, which at once condenses the steam and is shot across a gap into another tapering chamber, where the pressure is increased sufficiently to enable the water to force its way past valves into the boiler, against the pressure of the steam. 30 dl THE STEAM'S JOURNEY To reach the cylinders (of which more presently) the steam passes first through a pipe running along the inside of the boiler, near the top, and through the front plate into the smokebox. Here is the throttle-valve, worked by the starting lever in the driver's cab. Beyond the valve the steam is divided up among a number of small pipes housed in some specially large pipes connecting the firebox with the smokebox. While finding its way through these it is " superheated," a term which I will soon explain, and is gathered into a large pipe or pipes which lead it to the steam chests of the cylinders. After having done this work in the engine, it is shot out through an exhaust pipe, pointing straight up through the centre of the chimney. Every puff of ;steam acts like a wad in a shotgun, and drives the air in front of it. The more vigorous and frequent the puffs are, the more difficult is it for air to return down the chimney ; and as the pressure inside the smokebox is thus kept lower than that of the air outside, a powerful draught is created, air rushing in through the ashpan doors and fire. So, without any trouble on the driver's part, the fire is made to burn most fiercely just when most steam is wanted. But for this " induced draught" it would be impossible to maintain a sufficient pressure when the train is travelling fast or uphill. If the driver wants to draw up the fire when the engine is at rest, he turns on a " blower," which sends steam up the chimney direct from the boiler. SUPERHEATING A steam engine is a heat-using engine. By this I mean that its object is to rob the steam of as much heat as possible and to convert it into useful work—that is, moving the train. The greater the drop in the steam's heat during use, the more work it has done —assuming that the heat has not been wasted by leakage. What one wants, then, is very hot steam to begin .with, because its heat after use will be much the same with all locomotives that exhaust into the air. 3* As the pressure rises in a boiler the water gets hotter and hotter, until, at 225 lb. pressure to the square inch, it has a temperature of 391 degrees Fahrenheit, or nearly twice that of water boiling in an open saucepan. The steam coming off from the water has just the same heat as the water itself. So far as the boiler itself is concerned, the limit heat at the pressure named is fixed. But if the steam be taken away from contact with the water and exposed to heat separately, its heat can be increased much further. Any particles of water it may contain are turned into steam, and the steam is thoroughly " dry "—which may sound strange, but is true. You will now understand the meaning of superheating, which gives extra power at comparatively small cost. THE ENGINES These include the cylinders, valves, pistons, piston rods, guides, crossheads, connecting rods, and reversing gear. Most British locomotives have only two cylinders, placed outside the frames ; and the piston rods and connecting rods are therefore easily seen. Some old engines have two cylinders inside the frames ; others again, two outside and one inside cylinders; and a few, two outside and two inside. The cylinders of three- and four-cylinder engines may all take steam direct from the boiler ; work " simple," as the engineer terms it. This signifies that each cylinder expands fully the steam supplied to it. The " compound " locomotive expands the steam partly in two cylinders and then passes it on to one or two more cylinders of larger diameter to be expanded further ; but this type is not popular over here, since superheating is found to give equally good results with less complications. Let us now give our attention to a single cylinder and its belongings. The cylinder itself is a heavy casting with a steam chest on one side or on top of it. The interior of the cylinder is bored very smooth and true in diameter to a tiny fraction of an inch from end to end. Its ends are closed by plates held on by 32 A POWERFUL Li CPRESS ENGINE MIL bolts and nuts. The rear plate has a central hole through which the piston rod works, made steam-tight by a " packing." The piston fits the cylinder closely, but not tightly, two or three springy rings in grooves formed in the piston being relied upon to prevent steam getting past it. The cylinder casting has two passages or ports in it, running from the steam chest to the ends of the cylinder. A slide valve, moved to and fro by valve gear, itself operated by the driving wheels, admits steam to the ends alternately, while allowing the steam in the I idle " end to escape to the exhaust pipe. The piston rod is fastened at its outer end to a crosshead, a block running in guides to prevent the rod being bent by slanting 33 pulls and pushes. The crosshead is in turn connected with a crank formed in the driving axle (for an inside cylinder) or on the driving wheel itself (for an inside cylinder) by a connecting rod. Every time the crank and wheel make a revolution the piston moves from one end of the cylinder to the other and back again. If the valve did not open the ports at exactly the right moments, the engine would not work. But the valve gear ensures things happening exactly as they should. Furthermore, the valve gear enables the driver to set the engine to run in either direction, and to cut off the entry of steam early or late at every stroke. If the steam is cut off when the piston has travelled only one quarter of a stroke, all the work done during the rest of the stroke will be due to the expansion of the steam. This is economical, for as it expands the steam loses heat, which means that it is transferring energy. To start a train, however, the cut-off is set later, so that the full pressure of the steam shall be on the piston for a larger part of the stroke—in which case the steam still has a lot of heat and pressure left in it when it is released. Hence the violent puffs when a train is getting under way. If the valve gear is set midway, no steam at all, or but very little, can be admitted to the cylinders. This position corresponds to the motor car's gear lever being | in neutral." The gear is set in any desired position by means of a lever direcdy, or now more commonly by a handle turning a shaft with a screw thread on it which moves a lever. In the latter case a pointer travelling over a scale shows exactly what position the gear is in—whether full forward, or full back, or in mid-gear, and so on. JACKETING A motor car has a radiator to keep the engine sufficiently cool by getting rid of excessive heat. A locomotive, on the other hand, must have the boiler, cylinders, and steam pipes covered with a coating of some substance—such as asbestos—which will prevent heat escaping. It would evidently be stupid to take a great deal 34 ■I of trouble over heating the boiler's water if equal care were not taken to prevent waste of heat. But for the thick " jackets " on the boiler and cylinders it would be impossible to keep up steam on a cold day ; and in severe frost there might be serious trouble owing to freezing-up. The locomotive builder takes no risks, and the coverings are so effective that in the coldest weather a locomotive will keep " in steam " for hours, or even days, after the fire is out. U CRANKS The cranks of a two-cylinder locomotive, whether forming part of the driving wheels or of an axle, are at right angles to one another ; so that when one is upright the other is horizontal. At the end of a stroke a piston has no power, and the crank to which it is connected is said to be on a | dead centre." But the arrangement described ensures the other piston being at such a moment in the position where it exerts its most powerful push or pull. Therefore the turning effort of the engine is fairly steady throughout every revolution of the wheels, and it is impossible for the locomotive to come to rest with both its pistons out of action. This is of course very important, as one cannot push a locomotive or train to start it, as one would turn the fly-wheel of a single-cylinder stationary engine. Cranks are formed on all coupled wheels to take coupling rods, and one of these is also connected to the piston rod on that side of the engine, if the cylinders are outside the frames. OTHER FITTINGS There are many other parts of a locomotive which we must merely name : the brakes ; the steam air-pump, or the air-ejector, for the train brakes ; the apparatus which blows sand under the driving wheels when the rails are slippery ; the buffers and couplings ; the steam whistle ; the many lubricators for feeding oil to the axles, guides, other moving parts; and so on. A 35 Ml I How an Engine gets a Drink while running. Water Troughs between the Lines (L. & N.W.R.). locomotive is so complicated a construction that a large book would be required to describe it at all fully. HOW THE ENGINE PICKS UP WATER A large locomotive uses so much water that even the great tank on the tender cannot carry enough to last for a very long run; and to avoid stopping to fill the tank, as an alternative to the use of very large tanks, the tender is fitted with a scoop that can be lowered to dip into long water-troughs placed between the rails at places where the track is perfectly level. The rails fall a little as they approach a trough, and rise again after leaving it, so that the engine is in effect lowered relatively to the trough while it takes in water, and there is no danger of the scoop hitting anything but water. The scoop has a joint in it, and the bottom part is ordinarily raised. When water is needed, the fireman lowers the scoop by means of a screw or compressed 36 #»,, 'if' tfi«-="*" EFi >.*< J'* <^^ One of the first Locomotives. air. The water enters at a tremendous rate if the train be travelling fast, and ioo gallons or more enter the tank every second. The fireman therefore has to watch the gauge on the tender carefully, or too large a cargo may be taken aboard before he can raise the scoop, and a small flood will result. Water can be picked up at any speed from 20 to 80 miles an hour. In the latter case, if the scoop was joined to a pipe pointing straight upwards instead of into the tank, the water would be shot 100 feet or more into the air, like that from the hose of a fire-engine. SUMMING UP To follow through the happenings on a locomotive. The coal is burned in the furnaces. A large part of the heat generated passes into the water. The water is converted into gas (steam), 37 m i - II1'. (.iiiijiMii . the atoms of which are extremely unsociable and try to get well away from each other. This causes pressure on the surfaces which confine them, including the pistons of the cylinders, and these last are driven to and fro as the steam expands. The pistons make the driving wheels revolve ; and the steam, after doing its main work, is ejected up the exhaust pipe and chimney to create a draught in the furnace and cause more steam to be raised. But now our train is about to start. The guard is calling, " Take your seats, please I " So we will follow his advice. Stephenson's § Rocket" standing beside a Modern Engine. 38 Making the Forth Bridge. 39 i OUR^BKgiiNMMffiTOTHERiS: CHAPTER IV THE guard's whistle has sounded, and the driver has blown his in reply. The people waving good-bye on the platform seem to move astern, and this shows that our journey has begun. We settle down comfortably into our seats with a mild feeling of adventure, for soon we shall be rushing through country which some of us have never seen before. The train bumps over the points that turn it on to the fast track, and soon the hoarse blasts from the engine tone down and merge into one another as we pick up speed. Outside, the sun is shining, and everything seems to promise a pleasant journey. THIRD CLASS IN THE PAST Since we are not rich people, we have taken third-class tickets, like ninety or more out of every hundred other passengers. To travel third-class eighty years ago was a real hardship. Could we put back the time to the | 'forties " of last century, we should find ourselves either in entirely open trucks, with no seats nor protection of any kind against hot sun, cold, and rain; or in carriages with perhaps a roof but open sides ; or in enclosed box-like vehicles with two tiny windows high up, and a few hard planks for u& to sit on. Our speed would be very low, only about 15 miles an hour, but even so we should be very badly bumped about, owing to the poor quality of the springs ; and, every time the train started or stopped, the vehicles would be jerked and banged 40 MAIN LINE TRAINS START AT W <i2t ^cJfS^jM ^ *±y\& rl ^fllliilL ! jfi&jm^stltj? n \v v\ I v Porter on Electric Trolley. about like those of a goods train. When, stiff, sore, chilled, and weary, we reached our destination, we should vow never to travel third-class again, if we could possibly help it. The only thing we could find to console us would be that travelling in this manner was cheaper, rather quicker, and perhaps not quite so uncomfortable as riding on the top of a stage coach, which must have been rather a dreadful business in winter. THE RISE OF THE THIRD CLASS The fact is, that in those early days of railways the companies set very little value indeed on the third-class passenger, and seemed to have done all they could to discourage him. That they succeeded is proved by figures, which show that by far the greater part of railway passengers took first- or second-class tickets. But as time went on things were utterly reversed. The third- classer became the really important person, for it was found that &«87) 4I 6 I ! A Stage Coach of the Olden Days. he represented the bulk of the population and must be encouraged to travel if the railways were to pay their way. On any of our steam railways you will now find first-class carriages and third- class carriages. But where are the second-class ? Gone, almost entirely. Because the people who formerly travelled second-class found that third-class comfort gave better value at the price charged. OUR TRAIN I should much like to be able to take my great-grandfather on a personally conducted tour of the luxurious corridor express train which is now whirling us through the country, just for the pleasure of hearing his exclamations of surprise on being shown this point and that, and having things explained to him. Unfortunately, I cannot do it. But I think that you, my present-day reader, may be interested in going over the train with me and exaniining it a bit more thoroughly than you would be likely to do otherwise. I have a particular train in mind, and it no doubt 42 differs in details from other trains, but not enough to make much difference. Our train, then, is made up of six coaches, all about 70 feet long, and 9 feet wide. The one nearest the engine is a combined luggage van and third-class carriage with four compartments. Then comes a ten-compartment third-class coach; then a first and third " composite," with four first-class and five third-class compartments. In the centre of the train is a dining-car; and the rear part is the same as the front, but in the reverse order—" composite," third, third-cum-van. Altogether, there are seats for 48 first-class and 304 third-class passengers ; so that when the train is full there will be about 380 people aboard, including the guards and dining-car staff. At holiday times, when people fill the corridors as well as the compartments, there might be another 50 to 100 passengers. Some expresses have ten, eleven, or even twelve coaches, and can carry 700 to 800 persons. CORRIDORS Our train differs from trains of forty years ago in one very important respect. Though its corridors have separate compartments, which give a certain amount of privacy, there are passages or corridors running along one side of them, and the corridor of one coach is connected with that of another by gangways with flexible sides which by their shape suggest giant concertinas. The I corridor ' system increases the safety of travel, as passengers cannot then be quite isolated ; and, by making it easy to get from one part of the train to any other, it gives travellers the convenience of lavatories, dining-cars, and attendance by the train staff. And incidentally it allows people to find more comfortable seats in a less crowded compartment—spread themselves more evenly over the train. One may say that the corridor train is now the rule except for suburban and local trains, which stop frequently. 43 OUR COMPARTMENT From the coach we will turn our attention for a moment to our own compartment. The seats are very cbmfo rtably upholstered, and even the longest journey on them does not cause any aches and pains. The windows are large enough to give one a good view of the country; and even when the centre ones are closed, plenty of ventilation is provided by the air-extractors in the roof. Above one of the seats is a handle, the turning of which admits steam 44 to radiators under the seats on a cold day, or prevents it entering on a hot. You don't remember the days when a " foot-warmer " —if you were lucky enough to get hold of one—was the only means of preventing your legs becoming half-frozen in winter ; that is, as long as the water in it remained warm. Such things, as well as rugs and thick ulsters, are no longer needed for long journeys by train, now that steam heating is at one's service. ELECTRIC LIGHT Boom ! We rush into a tunnel. But we are not in darkness, for the guard has moved a switch and electric lamps glow in the roof of our compartment, which is enamelled white to reflect a large part of the light. We can read a book or newspaper almost as easily as in broad daylight. There was a time when passengers took candle lamps with them to make things lighter at night; and I myself can remember when a flickering oil lamp overhead was the only illumination. It just enabled you to see your fellow passengers, but reading was out of the question. Then came gas burners, and later incandescent gas lamps, both of which have fallen into disfavour on account of the dangers connected with the use of gas on trains. Terrible loss of fife has on several occasions followed a collision owing to the gas setting fire to the train. Now we have electric light generated by the train itself as it moves. You will learn later on how this is done. Before we leave the compartment we ought to notice the beautifully finished woodwork of mahogany, birch, and maple, all highly polished and the best material obtainable. The whole coach is sheathed on top and sides with sheet steel, backed with felt to prevent § drumming." The outside is therefore quite smooth and easily cleaned, and perfectly water-tight, besides offering little resistance to the air, since the only recesses are for the windows. 45 THE COMMUNICATION CHAIN There is just one more thing to notice before we go outside, •and that is a metal chain extending from one tube to another over one of the doors. This is the | emergency chain." If your carriage should catch fire, or a lunatic attack you, or something else happen of a very unpleasant character requiring help, the thing to do is to catch hold of the chain and pull it down as hard as you can. The chain opens a valve which puts on the brake with sufficient force to slow the train and warn the guard and driver that something is wrong. But don't try 1 monkeying " with the chain, for if you pull it in fun the guard will know for certain by the slack in the chain where it was pulled. And the penalty for improper use is £5 ! COACH FRAMES The body of a coach rests on a strong frame of steel joists securely riveted together. To prevent it sagging in the middle, where it is unsupported, strong steel rods pass round the ends of arms which point downwards. The " trusses '' increase stiffness enormously, for the frames cannot bend without breaking the bars. At each end the coach rests on a four-wheeled bogie, like that in the front of a locomotive. It thus has eight wheels to carry it, and their being grouped in this way makes the coach travel round curves very easily, since the bogies adjust themselves to the direction. As a coach weighs anything from 30 to 40 tons, it needs plenty of wheels; and its easy motion is due to the high quality of the springs. BUFFERS AND COUPLINGS Between every two coaches you will notice the buffers and the couplings. The buffers prevent shocks when a train is stopping, as their powerful springs act like an elastic pad. The coupling hooks are not attached directly to the coaches, but to draw-bars 46 WL 1 filK»KIHO "Ai- ^ t&^fyl I VJ s s2 \ ?* <^«* Wit Railway Ambulance. which transmit their pull to the coaches through coiled springs, and so do away with violent jerks at starting. Even goods trains have spring buffers and springs on draw-bars ; otherwise the trucks would soon be knocked to pieces, and the couplings frequently snapped. -The couplings are usually heavy chains, with a screw in the middle for tightening them up. But automatic couplings are coming into use more and more. They are large hook-like objects projecting from the middle of the frame ends, which catch hold of one another when two coaches are brought together. They are released by pulling a catch. Other things joining coaches, though they do not have to bear any pull, are the brake pipes and the steam-heating pipes. A CLEVER LITTLE ELECTRIC-LIGHTING STATION Under the carriages, if we had a chance of making an examination, we should find some important things : the brake cylinders and brake gear (of which more presently); a dynamo for generating 47 electric current; and a large case enclosing the accumulators in which the electricity is stored for working the electric lamps. The last two comprise a complete little power station. The dynamo is entirely enclosed, so that neither dirt nor water can get at it, and is driven by a belt that passes round a pulley on one of the axles. The wires that lead current to the lamps in the coach are connected with both accumulator and dynamo through a switch, which can be opened or closed from any one of several points in the train. When the train is running slowly or standing still, the lamps get their supply from the accumulators only, for the connection with the dynamo is broken* But when the train gets up a speed of 25 miles an hour or so, an automatic switch comes into action, and the dynamo pumps current into the lamps (if turned on) and battery until the full pressure needed is attained. The switch then changes over again, and the dynamo runs idly. As the train slows down, the same switch would cut out the dynamo, if it were " pumping," directly the speed falls to 25 miles an hour. Otherwise current would flow back from the battery and drive the dynamo, thus converting it into a motor for the time being. This would mean a serious waste of energy. The clever switch may therefore be regarded as an automatic attendant doing the right thing at the right time. All the parts are so well enclosed that they require very little attention, and very seldom give any trouble. THE DINING-CAR By this time you are probably hungry, so we will adjourn to the dining-car and use the tickets we took from the attendant early in the journey. We make our way through the corridors, grasping now this support, now that, to steady ourselves as the train sways with its high speed. The first-class saloon is at our end, and as we go through we get a glimpse of it. Doesn't it look inviting with its snowy linen, which hides the polished walnut tables, its bright silver and cutlery, its tip-up leather-covered seats, and its great 48 r \ _ A RAILWAY 1 The Dining-Car. plate-glass windows which give one as good a view of the things we pass as we would get outside ! Notice the electric fans rurining to keep the diners cool, and the electric bells handy to every table. Just beyond the saloon we enter a passage where the air is quite hot and steamy, and pass the open doors of the kitchen, scullery, and pantry. At the risk of blocking the passage we really must peep in at the white-garbed-and-capped cook busy with his pots and pans and gas stove, and his assistant distributing | helpings " among a number of plates. As in a ship's cabin, everything here is arranged very neatly to take up as little space as possible, but room has been found for a ioo-gallon cold-water tank, a hot-water tank, wash-up sink, draining boards, vegetable box, table, cellar, and various cupboards. The pantry has its wine-bin, and proper pantry equipment; and close to it is a chamber containing a refrigerator where the butter and ice are kept near freezing point. A boy is hard at work converting dirty plates, which come in at a great rate, into clean ones; and, but for the fact that all the 49 7 (2,687) * ■■ 1 women are men, so to speak, one could imagine the kitchen part of the coach to have been cut off a house. DINING AT EASE Hardly have we taken our seats when the bill of fare is presented. Soup, joint, vegetables, sweets, cheese—as good as we should get at home, or better. The waiters have got " train-legs," for they glide about with plates and dishes as steadily as if they were on firm ground instead of the floor of a rolling coach. They certainly don't keep us waiting, for as soon as one course is finished, the next appears, and very soon we have made a substantial meal, rounded off by an excellent cup of coffee. As everybody wanting lunch has been served we needn't hurry back to our compartment, but we will settle the score and enjoy the sight of the country flying past us. We are travelling at a very pretty speed now. Our coach is 1 waggmg its tau* I m a way tnat speaks of over 60 miles an hour. Watch in hand, I look for the next quarter-mile post beside the track. Here it is—fifteen seconds past the minute. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve—next post. A mile in forty-eight seconds ! That means 75 miles an hour. Yes ! I thought we were travelling! A bit downhill, no doubt. ROYAL TRAINS Turning to trains other than ordinary passenger trains, we may begin with the trains which are reserved for the exclusive use of royal persons and their suites. Such trains are owned by our large railway companies and kept stored away, carefully covered up, when not in service. Each includes one or two royal saloons, very finely equipped with every convenience—small hotels on wheels, in fact. The rest of the train is made up of saloons for the suite, and of ordinary vehicles, such as baggage and guards' vans. When a royal train makes a journey, extra precautions are taken to ensure the safety and comfort of the 50 1 occupants. The train is preceded by a " pilot " engine running a short distance ahead of it; all goods trains are shunted into sidings ; all " facing " points * are padlocked ; and the stations are closed to the public. Some of the directors and chief officials travel on the train; passenger trains coming in the opposite direction are stopped while the train passes; and no whistling by or stoking of engines is permitted, so that the royal personages may not be annoyed by sounds or smoke. And I need hardly add that. when our own Royal Family is making a " state " journey on some especiallyinteresting occasion, a very large multitude of people collect unofficially at every point whence a good view of ;*£$ the train can be got, to satisfy their eyes and their loyalty. MAIL TRAINS How Mail Bags are picked up by Then there are the Express Trains. mail trains, which travel usually at night, and are made up of a number of postal vans, * In I facing | points the switches point towards the train, and their position decides the direction the train shall take. They are therefore more dangerous than " trailing " points. 5i .Jtt 1 The Milk Train. filled with sorting racks and tables, in front of which busy officials work hard as the train flies along. The rapidity with which they do their work would astonish you. They have to be quick, too, for their time is limited, and all the letters must be sorted before the train reaches the end of its run. On the outside of the vans may be seen strange-looking frames and large nets, folded flat against the sides of the coaches. At various points on a journey it may be necessary to pick up mails without stopping. The frames and nets are then extended to form a kind of scoop, which whips off the mail bags hung on a kind of gallows beside the line and hurls them into the van. Or mails have to be dropped. In which case the bags are suspended from a bar projecting from the coach, and are scooped off by fixed nets alongside the track. 52 GOODS EXPRESSES Passenger and mail tmins are not the only ones which run at high speed. For certain kinds of perishable freight, such as milk, fish, fruit, meat, are now given trains to themselves, and these trains are made up of vehicles specially designed to suit their contents, and provided with continuous brakes. The milk vans with open-work sides, which keep rain out, but let plenty of fresh air in, are probably well known to the reader. One railway runs sixty special milk trains every week-day, and sixty-three on Sundays. A day's cargo may be 8,000 great " churns " of milk, most of which go to London. Meat and fish vans in many cases have double sides and roof, made quite air-tight, and ice boxes to hold enough ice to keep the air inside the van very cold, even in hot weather. Then, again, some fruit vans have steam-heatihg apparatus inside them to keep the air warm. The object the railways have in view is to transport this kind of freight as quickly as possible, and to deliver it in perfect condition. SLOW GOODS TRAINS Ordinary goods trains are made up of open or closed four- wheeled trucks, provided only with side-lever brakes which must be applied by hand. The couplings are loose, not drawn up tight as in a passenger train; for the slack makes it easier for a locomotive to start up a long train by setting one vehicle in motion after another, and for shunters to uncouple the trucks with their long-hooked poles. At the rear of the train is a brake van with screw-down hand brakes, in which the guard rides. At one end of the van is a small open platform; the rest is a closed compartment. Could we peep into this, we should see a stove to keep the guard warm on cold days, and heat his food and drink, a desk and lockers for papers, and possibly a small table. Perhaps a clerk keeps him company to make out | delivery notes " during the journey. When the train encounters a downward slope or has to stop, the guard puts on his brakes and checks some of the 53 jjxxxxy^ 9 \T m tjfj m If ^^ ftte \J * a Unloading from the Horse Van. rear trucks by the drag of his van, while the fireman applies the engine brakes to enable the locomotive to check the rest. The commonest kind of British goods wagon has a capacity of eight or ten tons, and is open. The sides let down to allow it to be filled or emptied easily. Should it contain goods that would be damaged by rain, a tarpaulin is stretched over it and made fast. For coal, ore, limestone, and ballast, the wagons may be larger, and have steel bodies, holding 20, 25, or 30 tons ; and in some cases their bottoms include doors which can be opened to discharge the load downwards into a receptacle under the lines. In other cases the wagons have flap ends, and are emptied by being tilted up endways; and at some places a wagon is run into a kind of revolving cage which turns it upside down, or far enough over to empty itself over one side. We must not overlook the important class of covered wagons, otherwise called box vans, with lock-up side doors, used for carry- 54 ing all kinds of merchandise needing protection both from the weather and from people whose ideas about property are somewhat loose ; nor the cattle-trucks and horse-boxes; nor the great oil tanks on wheels for distributing petroleum and petrol. And there are the long flat trucks, mounted on a four-wheeled bogie at each end, for carrying piles of tree-trunks and other heavy goods. Some special trucks have a dip in the middle, the frames coming down quite close to the rails between the bogies, to give room for unusually high loads. When large guns and other 55 exceptionally heavy articles have to be transported by rail, it is necessary to distribute their weight over two or three double- bogie trucks. Sometimes a load is made up of objects so wide that it overhangs the trucks beyond the limits ordinarily allowed. In such a case the other line has to be cleared to allow the train a passage. »«AN CMH Tt* I ''MfRI" ''vitupfoo1 £ Tl» D 55n Types of Early Coaches. 56 (2,687) Stoking the Furnace on the Midnight Express. 57 8 SOMETHINOaiffliKr RAlftWAY SIGNALLING CHAPTER V A S we whirl along at express speed by day or night we are J^\^ more likely to think of the man who drives the locomotive than of the men upon whom in an equal, or perhaps greater, degree, we rely for reaching our journey's end safely. These men are the signalmen, stationed in boxes set at intervals all along the line, for the most part near stations. Theirs is a very responsible task, for any misunderstanding or carelessness on their part is liable to cause a terrible disaster. That so few railway accidents do occur in this country is the best possible witness to the quality of our railway signalmen. THE | BOBBY " Among railwaymen the signalman is often referred to as a " bobby " or " officer " ; and in these words we have another interesting link with the past. For a good many years after our railway system began to grow, the control of trains was largely in the hands of what were railway policemen. Like the ordinary civic police of the time, they wore top hats and white trousers. Each had for his " beat " a stretch of line, which he had to keep an eye on, warning off trespassers and seeing that the track was 58 Old Time Railway Policeman. stop; or he might merely use his arms, like a policeman of to-day controlling traffic in a London street. A Railway Signalman of the Early Days. EARLY SIGNALS After a time | fixed " signals came into use—posts with discs, balls, or other objects, which the I bobby I moved to give the driver information. All of these were finally replaced by the * semaphore " still employed on almost all railways, and well known to you. The arm, which is raised for " Stop " or "Danger" and lowered for" Safety," may be regarded as a policeman's arm moved mechanically. The side of the arm facing trains approaching on the track to which it refers is painted red, with a white vertical stripe; while the back side is white, with a black stripe. " Stop " signals, which a driver must on no account pass when they are at " Danger," have square-ended arms, whereas a Distant " or " Caution " signal is known by the fishtail, or notched, end of the arm. A driver may pass a fishtail, even if it be set " against " him; but he must slow down and be ready to stop at the next signal. The arm of a signal has a " spectacle 60 frame " attached to it on the farther side of the pivot on which it works. The frame contains an upper red pane, and a lower green pane. One or other of these is opposite , , a lamp fixed to the post—red when the 3^- Red Class arm is at " Danger," green when the arm ^^g^ is at" Safety." On some lines yellow is now used instead of red for the arms and " danger " glasses of " Distant " semaphores. Of course, it took some time for semaphore signals to develop to their present form, and I have got ahead with my subject a little merely to save repeating myself later on. To go back to early signalling. The 1 bobby " had a lot of walking to do, and to save his legs it became the practice to connect the signals by wires to levers grouped in one place. You may therefore picture the first signal-boxes as little huts beside the track, containing a few levers. a "All Right* Distant" (fork-ended) and "Stop" (square-ended) Semaphore Arms. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH The signalmen, as we will now call them, had to act quite independently until some means was found of enabling them to communicate with each other. The electric telegraph, invented soon after the first steam railway was laid, proved just what was wanted. It was used first on the Great Western Railway in 1839, and now connects all the signal-boxes of a line with each other. Originally the signalmen tapped off messages to one another. Now they send bell signals, or work keys which operate instruments designed to prevent mistakes being made. 61 A Group of Signals. POINTS AND SIGNALS At most stations there are points for turning trains into sidings, or from one track on to the other ; and at a good many there are junctions. The working of the points is part of a signalman's duties, and it cannot well be separated from signalling, since many signals are to show how the points are placed. At a junction, for example, one of the two lines which run together must be blocked by signals to render running from or on to the other safe. I need hardly say that if a signalman had to rely entirely on his memory and carefulness to work the points and signals correctly as regards one another, he could easily make mistakes which would have serious results. Even the most trustworthy man would trip up sooner or later. 62 L-# Working the Signals at a Great Junction. INTERLOCKING So it was only natural that means should be devised for rendering it difficult or impossible to do the wrong thing. Every signal- box is now provided with an " interlocking frame "—usually under the floor—which makes the levers control one another. Imagine that we have entered a signal-box—I say " imagine," because it is very difficult, and rightly so, for strangers to get admission to one. Along one side of it is the lever frame, through slots in the curved iron top of which the levers project. The " Stop " signal levers are painted red ; the " Distant " signal levers, green ; points levers, black or blue ; spare levers, white ; and so on. The distinctive colouring is a great help to the signal- 63 men. Behind the handle of each lever is a trigger, which has to be squeezed close to the handle, to release a catch, before the lever can be moved. When a signal lever is back (nearest the cabin wall) the signal is at " Danger " ; drawing it forward puts the signal 1 off," or at " Safety." Points levers, when back, set th points for the main line ; when forward, open a siding or switch. Each lever has a plate attached to it just under the handle. This bears a large number, and perhaps one or more smaller numbers beneath it. Suppose a lever to be numbered thus: 3 6 ii The signalman then knows that, before he can move No. 2, he must first pull No. 3 forward ; then No. 6; and then No. 11. After this has been done, No. 2 is free, and can be pulled forward. If he tried to work Nos. 3, 6, and 11 in their wrong order they would refuse to budge ; and it would be quite useless to try moving No. 2 until the preliminary levers had been pulled over. HOW A LOCKING FRAME WORKS Now, all this is due to the ingenious interlocking frame under the floor. I can best explain its action by a sketch on next page. Imagine that we are strapped to the ceiling, looking downwards, and that the floor has been removed. There are levers—1, 2, 3,4. To each is pivoted a horizontal tappet (C1, C2, Cs, C4) working in guides ; and each tappet has a notch (N1, N2, N3, N4) in one side of it. Immediately under the tappets, and at right angles to them, are slide-bars, also moving in guides. Riveted to one bar is Lock A ; to the other, Locks B and C. A little thought will tell you that levers Nos. 1 and 4 control one another. No. 1 cannot be pulled " off " until after No. 4 has been moved to bring notch N4 opposite to D, because B and D are on one slide-bar, and D would be prevented from shifting to the right by tappet C4. Nor, after both No. 1 and No. 4 are " off," can No. 4 be put back into place before No. 1. Similarly, 64 1 ENGINE GOODS TRAIN BREAKDOWN OUTFIT > ENGINES neither No. 2 nor No. 3 can be pulled if the other is "off"; they cannot both be \\ off " at the same time. This is just what is needed for two levers working the signals of converging lines at a junction. I have given a very simple example. The ordinary interlocking frame is much more complicated, and that of a very large signal-box is a veritable maze of tappets, slide-bars, and locks, which required very careful planning. The signalman has in front of him a large plan showing all the signals and points, marked with the numbers of the lever relating to each. Thus, if he wishes to lower a distant signal numbered 10 on the plan, he must pull over lever No. 10. THE BLOCK SYSTEM You will doubtless like to learn something about the system of controlling trains used on our railways. We will confine our attention to a single line of a double-track railway, on which all trains run in the same direction. The line is divided for signalling purposes into a number of lengths, called 1 block sections " ; and the rule being that only one train may be in one block section at a time, so long as this is observed it is impossible for one train to run into another. Each signalman works at least three signals for each track. Taking the direction in which a train would approach them, first comes the " Distant " signal. From 600 to 1,000 yards farther on is the " Home " signal; and beyond that again the | Starting " (2.6W) 65 9 n signal. The two last are 1 Stop " signals ; and a station is usually between them. A " block section " is the stretch of line between the last " Stop " signal (generally the " Starting ") worked from one box, and the first (generally the " Home ") worked from the box next ahead. Every box is connected electrically with the boxes on each side of it, so that a code of audible signals may be sent and received by means of bells giving a stroke every time a key is pressed down, and visible signals be shown on instruments in front of the signalman. Each box has two instruments for each track : one to send signals to the box in the rear, and the other to receive signals from the box in advance. The transmitting instrument of one box is coupled electrically with the receiving instrument of the box next in the rear ; and the two work as one, the same indications being shown by both. The visible signals shown on the instruments are " Line Clear," 1 Train on Line," " Line Blocked." SIGNALLING A TRAIN Let us follow the working of the block system in three successive boxes, A, B, and C. No train has passed for some time, and all signals are at " Danger "—the " normal " position—and all the instruments show " Line Blocked." A passenger express train is approaching A. A sends bell code signal to B : 1 Can you accept passenger express ? " B (we use the same letter for both box and signalman) sees that there is no train on the line for 300 yards beyond his " Home " signal, so he sends back A's bell signal and pins his transmitting instrument to show I Line Clear." The same signal is shown by A's receiving instrument, giving the permission required. A then lowers all his signals to allow the train to pass ; and as soon as it has passed, he gives bell signal to B, I Train entering section," and puts his signals at " Danger." B alters his instrument to show " Train on Line I in his own and A's boxes, and asks permission from C. If this be given, he lowers his signals. 66 When the train passes his " Home Signal," he again alters his transmitting instrument to " Line Blocked " ; puts his signals at " Danger " and signals " Train entering section " to C, who puts his transmitting instrument at " Train on Line " and lowers his signals, after having permission from D. As soon as the train is out of C's section the signals and instruments are all at " Normal" again. SINGLE-LINE WORKING Where trains have to run in both directions on the same track, the block system of signalling is combined with what may be called a " token " system. That is to say, a driver must actually have in his possession a " staff " or ticket belonging to the section through which he is travelling, as his authority for being in it. The most up-to-date method of working single lines uses the " electric staff." A number of " staffs," of a distinctive shape and colour, are assigned to each section, and are kept in special holders at both ends of the section. These holders are connected electrically and lock one another. A staff can be taken out and handed to a driver only when all the staffs belonging to the section are in the holders. So if signalman A removes a staff to hand it to the driver, he cannot get another out until B has recovered the first and placed it in the holder at his end of the section. Which means that two staffs cannot be in use and two trains in the same section at once. THE SIGNALMAN'S HELPERS The signalman has various devices in his box to help him. If a signal is so situated that he cannot see it from the box, a small " repeating signal," worked by electricity, is provided in the box to copy the movements of the big signal. Thus he can be certain whether the semaphore arm is in the correct position. Then again, there are lamp indicators which show whether a signal lamp is burning or not, and ring a bell if the lamp goes out. We may mention, too5 electric tell-tales informing him whether a train is 67 Engine-driver receiving his Staff at the Signal-box. standing on a section of line which may not be within sight. And we should notice the adjuster for tightening up or slackening the wires which work the signals. MINIATURE LEVERS In some signal-boxes where a great many levers are needed, the ordinary big levers are replaced by what look like toy levers, so small are they. When one of these is pulled it merely closes 68 Teaching Signalling with Models to Students. electric circuits and causes compressed air or electricity to do the hard work of operating points or signals. A great deal of room is saved in this way, and the signalman is relieved of a lot of muscular effort. -SIGNALS IN THE ENGINES CAB There is just one more thing I should like to refer to before closing this chapter. On some parts of the Great Western Railway, bars, called " ramps," are laid between the rails of a track near " Distant" signals. As an engine passes over a. ramp, a lever on it is lifted by the ramp, and the whistle blows if the signal is at " Danger," while a bell rings if it is at " Safety." So that even 69 in a dense fog the driver is certain how the signal is set. Here again electricity comes into service. >» f, w -iIA £m/ '>* AUTOMATIC SIGNALLING On some railways* especially electric railways, the trains themselves work the signals. The London Tubes afford a good example of automatic signalling. A train has not quite passed a signal before the signal rises slowly to " Danger 1; and it will stay there until the train has reached a certain point farther on. Electric currents, carried by the rails, act as signalmen. The line is divided into block sections, through which and the apparatus working the signals a current circulates. Directly the first pair of wheels of a train and their axle enter a section they give the current a short cut, and make the signal at the beginning of the section go to " Danger," where it will remain until the last pair of wheels have left the section. 7e mCm? TRAIMS AREISTQPPED CHAPTER VI WONDERFUL as is the speed at which an express train travels, it is not so remarkable as the rapidity with which the speed of a train can be reduced. We may be flying along at 70 or 80 miles an hour when the driver sees something ahead which means danger. In a moment his hand has moved a lever, and practically at the same instant the brake shoes of cast iron are pressing hard against every wheel in the train. The speed which it took some miles of running to work up falls so suddenly that an " emergency ' \ stop may be made almost in the train's length, 60 miles an hour falling to nothing in a few seconds. If it were not for the powerful brakes which the driver has at his command, it would be impossible, or at any rate very risky, to run heavy trains at high speed and as close behind one another as they are on busy lines. Signals can only give warning ; brakes are needed to complete their work. In the old days, when the engine and a guard's van or two were the only vehicles of a train with brakes, stopping a train had to begin a mile or two away from a station, and was a very slow business. Nowadays a train travels full speed until it is but a few hundred yards from the station. Then the brakes go on gently, to bring down the speed to 30 miles an hour or so by the time the locomotive reaches the rear end of the platform ; and then the hard braking begins. This rapid slowing means a great 71 ^Sfe. •trjr JraKe Sho« V ^- -—~ Arrangement of Cylinder, Levers, Rods, and Brake Shoes on Passenger Coach. (The arrows show direction in which the rods move to apply brake.) saving of time, especially in the case of trains which stop at every station. When approaching a terminus a train is, of course, brought into the platforms much more slowly than at " through " stations. Many kinds of "continuous" brakes—by'which I mean brakes all through the train controlled from the engine or guard's van— were tried before a satisfactory one appeared. There was the I chain " brake, with a long chain running under all the vehicles and connected by short branch chains with brake levers on every carriage. The guard moved a handle which coupled up one of the van's axles with a drum, on to which the chain was wound. Then a steam brake was tried. A pipe carried steam from the locomotive to brake cylinders under the coaches ; but unfortunately so much of it condensed in the pipes that the results were not good. Again, water was tried instead of steam, but this froze in cold weather. Compressed air, which could neither freeze nor condense, was more successful. So, too, was using a continuous pipe, through which air was sucked from one side of the pistons in the brake cylinders, so that the full air pressure on the other side should apply the brakes. All of these devices had one very serious defect. They were not I automatic "—that is, they did not of themselves put on the brakes if some vehicles of a train should part company from the rest. In fact, such a break-away made it difficult or impossible 72 to apply brakes to any of the carriages. Where a pipe was used, the rupture of this evidently upset the whole system. To cut a long story short, inventors in due course brought out brakes which do everything that could be wished. They can be applied very quickly, with any force required, by either driver or guard ; and, if the pipe should break, they go on hard at once. There are two kinds of automatic brake, the vacuum and the compressed air. The second is generally known as the Westing- house, as it was invented by a gentleman of that name, who made a large fortune out of it. I will now describe, as simply as I can, the working of both these brakes. THE VACUUM BRAKE Before we deal with the brake itself let us clear up the meaning of the word " vacuum." So far as we are concerned at the moment, it may be taken to mean " a space not containing air." Now, you probably know that the atmosphere at sea level puts a pressure on anything it can reach of about fifteen pounds per square inch. So, if you pumped the air out of an air-tight biscuit box, the sides would be bent inwards by the air-pressure on the outside, and the tin might actually be flattened if all the air were withdrawn. A " partial vacuum " signifies that only some of the air has been removed ; and in such a case the outside pressure may be anything from a fraction of a pound per square inch upwards, according to how " high " the vacuum is. We can use the pressure of the atmosphere only by letting it act on a movable surface which has less than full air pressure acting on the other side of it. The further the resistance is reduced the more effect the air will have. Every railway vehicle fitted with the vacuum brake has suspended under it a large squat cylinder, supported on two pins at the sides, so that it may be able to swing a little. Inside the cylinder is a large piston, with a piston rod projecting through the bottom of the cylinder. The lower end of the rod is attached to a lever, which transmits power through rods to the brakes. <a,6«o 73 10 When the piston is down, the brakes are " off." If the piston can be forced up, the brakes will be put " on." The piston demands our attention, for it is quite an easy fit hi the cylinder, and air could pass it freely in either direction but for a rubber flap attached to its lower side. This acts just like the cup leather or* the piston of your cycle pump. When you make a pumping stroke the leather is forced outwards against the barrel of the pump and prevents any air passing, but when you pull it upwards it allows air to pass it and get below the piston. Should the valve of the tyre be leaking, the air escaping from the tyre is able to drive the pump handle upwards, owing to the cup leather sealing the piston. Now, the bottom end of every brake cylinder is converted by a branch pipe to a main pipe running from end to end of the vehicle and provided with couplings by which it can be joined up to the pipes on other vehicles. The main pipes, taken together, form the "train pipe," extending from the locomotive to the rear guard's van. A steam jet blowing through a sort of funnel, which may be regarded as the forward end of the train pipe, exhausts the air from both pipe and cylinders until the needle on a dial in the engine's cab points to a certain figure. To apply the brakes the driver has merely to open a valve to let air into the train pipe, to destroy the vacuum in a greater or less degree. The air presses on the under side of every brake piston, but is prevented from reaching the top side by the rubber flap. Consequently the piston is pushed upwards, applying the brakes connected with it. The pull of a piston is anything up to a ton and a half. This great pull is multiplied several times by the gear connecting the piston rod with the brake shoes, two of which grip every wheel like a vice. The guard also can apply the brakes by opening a valve in his van. And, of course, if the train pipe be broken by one or more vehicles coming adrift, the brake will go on hard at once. Before the brakes can be released, the vacuum in the train pipe must be restored by the driver turning on the ejector. If he should forget to do this after a stop, the train would soon let him know, for it would refuse to start. A valve is provided on 74 every cylinder for admitting air above the piston, if the carriage should have been separated from the locomotive in a siding and require shunting about. Some vacuum brake pistons are made quite air-tight by rubber rings rolling between them and the cylinder. In such cases a valve is provided which allows air to be sucked from both above and below the piston, but prevents it returning to the space above the piston. THE WESTINGHOUSE AIR-BRAKE This is more complicated than the vacuum brake, and therefore not so easily explained. But I think that I can give you a pretty clear idea of its general principles. Here again we have a cylinder with a piston under every carriage. In addition, there is a strong cylindrical vessel to hold air under high pressure. Both cylinder and vessel are connected with the train pipe by a device called a to &* 1 triple valve," which is the Cylinder '•■'^■'■•'- key of the whole system. The ».<.^^.^ train pipe leads to a large Exhau8t chamber on the locomotive, which is kept full of air at high pressure by a steam- Si driven air-pump. When a valve is opened between the chamber and the train pipe, air rushes into the pipe and reaches the triple valves on the various carriages. This adjusts itself automatically so that the air is delivered to the storage cylinders, while any air in the brake cylinders escapes, allowing the brakes to go " off." Pumping 75 A Railway Accident—the Wreck Train at Work. is continued until the proper pressure for the storage cylinders is reached. You may take it, then, that while the brakes are " off " the storage cylinders are in direct communication with the train pipe ; while the brake cylinders are shut off from both. To apply the brakes, the driver lets air out of the train pipe to reduce the pressure in it. The triple valves at once move, cutting off the storage cylinders from the train pipe, but connecting them with the brake cylinders, into which some of their air passes, driving up the pistons and putting on the brakes. The more the pressure is reduced in the train pipe, the greater is the quantity of air sent into the brake cylinders ; so that the driver can control the force with which the brakes are applied. To take the brakes off, the air is let into the train pipe from the large reservoir on the locomotive. As soon as the pressure 76 X I V I ( m <^> / s «£Lj w c s 4&fl& W&yZXC. l/n &$V / '///A //A ^i*.-, i^*^8 3 5lI Ii I :v^ iw//' *v* >^^: /i ^£& //fes \ C5 in the pipe equals that in the storage cylinders, the triple valves move over again, putting these in connection with the train pipe, and releasing air from the brake cylinders, so that the pistons fall and the brakes leave the wheels. The guard can apply the brakes by opening a valve in his van, but cannot release them except in special circumstances. SOME OTHER POINTS The description given has purposely been kept quite simple. If you have been able to follow it so far, you may like to know that from time to time both kinds of automatic brakes have been improved, with an eye to making the brakes begin to act on all the vehicles of a train at practically the same moment. It was found, 77 when the brakes were first introduced, that, in the case of a very long train, the brakes nearest the engine went on before those farther away. The result was that the forward vehicles were run into by those behind. This was dangerous, and liable to cause damage. Hence the use of special " quick-acting " valves close to every brake cylinder, which come into action immediately there is a change of pressure in the train pipe and let air into the brake cylinders of a vacuum brake directly from the open air, or release it from the train pipe of a Westinghouse, by short cuts, as one may say. These valves have been so perfected that, however long a train may be, the rearmost brakes are only a fraction of a second later in acting than those next the engine. Just one more point. On electric railways, which all use the Westinghouse brake, the brakes are to a certain extent controlled by the signals. When a " stop " signal /is set at I Danger," a small arm connected with it stands upright close to one of the rails, opposite the signal. If the driver should happen to run past the signal, a small lever on the train strikes the arm and admits air to the train pipe, bringing the train to a standstill at once. 78 EJLEaiWfC RJSLWJMS CHAPTER VII IT is more than likely that at one time or another you have played with a toy electric railway laid out on a table or on the floor of a room ; and if you had already had dealings with a model steam railway I am sure that you compared the two in your mind and came to certain conclusions. One of these was, that the electric railway is very easy to work: you had merely to move a switch to set the train in motion. Then you also noticed how clean to handle the electric is as compared with the steam-driven toy. And I am sure you were impressed with its immediate readiness for action. There was no filling with water, no tinkering with spirit lamps, no waiting for steam to be raised. All these good features belong to the big electric railway as well. The electric train is very easily controlled; it emits no smoke, and you may travel in it for long distances without any fear of your face needing a wash afterwards ; and it can be brought into use at a moment's notice. Those of my readers who are not old enough to have used the District and Metropolitan railways of London when they were still worked by steam locomotives will not be able to understand how thankful people were when electricity replaced steam. I can assure you that certain parts of the tunnels were very " choky " with the sulphurous fumes from the engines, and in warm weather almost unbearably hot; whereas now the same are a comfortable change from the heat or 79 X cold of the open air. Gradually electricity is taking the place of steam for hauling trains through long tunnels, to save passengers from discomfort. The London " Tube " Railways, which are gigantic mole-runs driven a hundred feet or more below the surface, could not have been worked by steam. And electric locomotives now haul trains through the great Alpine tunnels —the Mont Cenis, St. Gothard, Simplon, Arlberg, and Tauern— and through many other tunnels piercing mountain ranges. THE ELECTRIC VERSUS THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE The steam locomotive has itself to create the power which it uses. It carries the coal which boils the water which raises the steam which works the engine which makes the wheels go round. The electric locomotive merely uses power that is generated perhaps many miles away by huge steam or water turbines, in the form of electric energy. The currents are turned into conductors which may be insulated rails laid on the track, or insulated overhead cables like those of an electric tram, which is really a one-vehicle train—if one car may be called a train. By means of shoes rubbing on the rails, or of arms touching the overhead conductors, the current is led to motors on the locomotive whenever the necessary switch is closed by the driver. You see, then, that an electric locomotive has a great partner —the power station—to feed it, whereas the steam locomotive has to feed itself. Consequently a much longer part of its total weight can be devoted to the wheel-turning machinery. In other words, an electric locomotive is more powerful than a steamer of equal weight; and it occupies less room, since it needs no tender to carry coal and water. The most powerful locomotives in the world are electric, and they are used in the United States for hauling very heavy trains through the Rockies and other mountain ranges. It is only natural that electric railways should be spreading in countries such as Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and Western America, which have many high mountains from which 80 A MOUNTAIN RAILWAY An Electric Train. huge quantities of water are continually flowing downwards, on their way to the sea. In districts where water-power is plentiful and cheap, there are, as a rule, no coal deposits, so that " white coal," as water-power is called, is much cheaper to use in such places. Power stations are very expensive to build, but the water they use costs nothing at all, and is practically inexhaustible, being constantly replaced by snow or rain falling on the heights. THE ELECTRIC TRAIN In this country there are very few electric locomotives, but many electric trains. An electric train has the motors distributed among the vehicles which compose k^ Thus, a six-vehicle train (2,687) 81 IX will be made up of, say, two " motor " cars, each with four pairs of wheels driven by as many 150-horse-power motors, and four 1 trailer" cars between the motor cars. The last include a compartment for the driver; but, like the " trailers," they also carry passengers. So the train, which weighs only about 150 tons, is driven by motors totalling 1,200 horse-power. This is a very liberal allowance, as compared with a steam train, and it accounts for the rapidity with which electric trains get up speed when leaving a station. If all this power were harnessed to two pairs of wheels, much of it would be wasted owing to there being insufficient weight on the wheels to prevent them slipping. But distributing it among a large number of wheels enables all of it to be used profitably. Electricity makes it easy to control all the motors from either end of the train. If we peep into the driver's compartment we shall see in front of him, not a number of " gadgets " such as decorate a steam locomotive's cab, but a handle with a knob for his right hand and a short lever for his left. The handle corresponds to the starting lever of a steam locomotive, for it turns on or shuts off the electric current, while the short lever applies or releases the brakes. THE DEAD MAN S HANDLE The handle is called the " dead man's handle," for it is so constructed that, if the driver were taken ill, and released his grip, or did not grip the handle in the proper manner, it would at once cut off the current and apply the brakes. The handle does not itself regulate the current, but " gives orders " hrf electricity to devices near the motors under the cars whicfr^db the actual switching on in stages. It is impossible for the driver to turn full current into the motors suddenly and damage them, as the movements of his handle are not followed out by the switching apparatus until a certain time has passed between every two. But he can shut off the current in a moment. All the switches are connected with each other and the apparatus which picks up the current by a cable containing a number of separate wires, and running along the train. When the train reaches a terminus, the driver merely has to walk from the cabin at one end of the train to that at the other. The train can then at once be taken out again. A very handy feature of electric trains is the ease with which they can be divided or added to. At slack times of the day a six-coach train is converted into two three-coach trains by uncoupling. Cabins for the driver are provided in some of the motorless trailers, so that these may act as the front cabin of a shortened train. THE ELECTRIC TRAINS OF LONDON Electric trains are the best possible for handling passenger traffic in and near great cities. In London they carry on the average between two and three millions of people every day. This could not be done but for the quickness with which such trains get up speed. Before they are out of a station they are running at over 20 miles an hour. If you stood on the platform of one of the London electee railways during the busy hours in the evening and used your watch to time the trains, you would find that a train came in every 90 seconds or so. WHAT ELECTRIFICATION DOES The I electrification " df existing railways has much the same effect as increasing the number of railways, since it doubles, or even trebles, the number of trains that can be run in an hour. The cost of providing the power stations and the conductors is saved on the fuel needed to work the trains; for every pound of coal burned in a power station, where the conditions for using its heat are very good, produces as much energy as two or three pounds consumed by a steam locomotive. This being so, you may wonder why we stul use steam loco- 83 motives at all. I ought, therefore, to add that it would not pay to electrify all railways. On some the trains are few and far between ; in other cases coal can be bought so cheaply that steam locomotives serve well enough. But wherever the traffic is so dense that a railway must be used to its utmost capacity to avoid the construction of new lines, then it pays to electrify. Since the electrification of London steam railways the number of passengers carried by them has increased enormously, though the number of tracks remain as before. But it will probably be many years before our main lines are electrified. Abroad you may indeed travel for many miles—even hundreds of miles—on end by electricity. But you will find that in almost every case the electricity is supplied by water-power, and is very cheaply produced. The British Isles are badly off for water- power, and have to rely on coal. Schemes have been put forward for constructing huge power stations in places conveniently near coal-fields, and if these are acted upon we may see electric trains running from one end of our country to the other. ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES As a good deal of space was" given to the steam locomotive, it is only fair that the electric locomotive should also receive some attention, especially as it is a very powerful rival and will eventually no doubt kill the steamer. Some electric locomotives suggest the steam locomotive in certain details, since they have large coupled wheels and connecting rods working the wheels. But the connecting rods are moved by cranks driven by powerful electric motors set on the frames. Other locomotives of this class have large toothed wheels on the driving-wheel axles, and these are turned by smaller toothed wheels on the spindles of the motors. To get great power, what are really two separate locomotives, and could be employed as such, are coupled together, and used as one. Since they are, as it were, hinged to one another, and 84 each has bogies, they can take curves very easily. Your experience of electric trains may lead you to think that electricity does not give as high speed as steam on the railway. But this is not the case, for there are plenty of express passenger trains hauled by electric engines at speeds of 60 to 80 miles an hour. On one occasion an engine of this kind drew a train 400 miles without stopping. The driver was then changed, and the engine at once began a nonstop return trip. Nothing at all was done to it between the two runs. Of course, such a "stunt" would have been impossible with a steam locomotive. MAMMOTH MACHINES In some districts of the United States where very heavy freight trains have to be taken through mountains up steep gradients, some of the most powerful steam locomotives in the world, harnessed two or three together, were used until recently. Then the lines were electrified, and now the work is done by one or two electric engines, and much quicker, the speed in some cases having been doubled. I expect that very few men who have driven electric would care to return to steam locomotives. I The first are completely enclosed, and protect the driver from the severest weather ; they give him plenty of room to move about in ; and they are very much cleaner than their rivals. A steam locomotive needs cleaning every day ; an electric is more like a motor car, and demands only that it shall be kept well supplied with lubricating oil, which is a simple business. Consequently an electric locomotive can put in many more hours a week than a steamer, and do twice as much work. SELF-BRAKING ENGINES There is one thing that an electric locomotive can do which a steam locomotive cannot, and that is to slow down a train and control it on hills without using the brakes. The driver reverses 85 the motors, and so converts them into dynamos, which, instead of using current, generate it, and so work against the momentum of the train. The current generated is either sent through large " resistances," which become very hot and get rid of the energy sent into them by giving the heat out to the air, or it may be pumped into the conductors which supply the railway, and be used by other locomotives elsewhere. This is killing two birds with one stone ; and some of the power taken in climbing up a hill is returned during the descent. In either case the brakes and wheels are saved a great deal of wear, and the driver has the brakes in hand for emergencies and actual stops. A New High-speed Electric Locomotive. 86 TRAJNSI& I&I«A£xfi&tfiiER UBSPS- CHAPTER VIII ON the whole, the British Isles have not given the engineer a great deal of difficulty in running railways from point to point, since they are not mountainous, except in certain districts, and any point in them is easily accessible by land or water. In many other parts of the world, however, the construction of a railway has meant a stern fight with Nature in the form of high mountains, snow, deep and narrow valleys, waterless deserts, swamps, forests, lakes and big rivers—all of these occurring in the course of some of the world's largest railways. It must be remembered, also, that outside Europe most of the railways which cross continents were carried through more or less uninhabited countries, in which little or no food and other supplies for the workers could be found; so that the railway had to feed itself and its constructors as it grew. There are few countries—indeed, it is difficult to think of a single one offhand—which have no railways. You may now travel by train from Calais to the farther side of Asia, using the European railways and the Trans-Siberian Railway, or into the heart of Central Asia. India has a fine system of railways, extending from the far south right up into the Himalayas and the rugged country bordering Afghanistan. China is rapidly extending her railways; and Japan already is well served by hers. The great continent of Australia has railways running from east to west, 87 : c and from north to south, through what was once regarded as impassable country. You may now cross the American continents along many routes by train, traversing the great Andes or the Rockies on your way. The United States and Canada are best provided with these transcontinental lines, for they are the most go-ahead countries of the New World and were the first to join ocean to ocean by tracks of steeL And we must not forget Africa, where railway building is progressing fast, especially in countries that form part of the British Empire. There is the wonderful railway which connects Zanzibar on the eastern coast with the great lake, the Victoria Nyanza; and that running from the Red Sea to the Sudan. From Cape Town, at the southern end of the continent, the railway has crept gradually northwards, through Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and Rhodesia, and now extends into the very heart of Africa. All along the western coast railways are reaching inland from the sea; and probably during your lifetime they will become great commercial routes down which the riches of Africa will roll to the ships awaiting them. The 1 Dark Continent," to traverse which not so many years ago was a notable feat, now has about 30,000 miles of railway. RAILWAYS THROUGH MOUNTAINS The most wonderful railways are beyond dispute those which climb through or on to mountains. The engineer is often forced to make a path for the § iron horse " by blasting ledges in the sides of precipitous cliffs, spanning gorges with lofty bridges to get a better foothold, skirting roaring torrents, and piercing with tunnels mountains which he cannot work round. In course of time great trains travel where not even a goat formerly could find a foothold, and the men who surveyed the route for the rails had to do much of their work dangling from the end of a rope. Some railways deliberately make for the tops of mountains, to give tourists the fine views obtainable at high elevations. Most 88 of these are to be found in Switzerland, where the Rigi, Mount Pilatus, Mont Blanc, and other peaks are scaled by the steam or electric locomotive. In the United States also are some, the most famous of them that which climbs to the summit of Pike's Peak, 14,147 feet above sea level, and so breaks the record for railways of this kind. In our own country we have the Snowdon Railway, which in an hour or so takes you to the loftiest point of Wales. RACK RAILWAYS fe3 "Sf?8 s\ •-2KSL sr^ 5. *-• A ft All these "pleasure mountain railways have gradients so steep that ordinary smooth wheels rurining on smooth rails would not get sufficient grip. The locomotives, which in all cases push the train, keeping always on the downhill side of it, have engines driving cogwheels with teeth that engage racks fixed to the sleepers between the ordinary running rails. The speed in both directions is very slow, because the work is very hard uphill, while in descending the train must be kept under perfect control by means of the very powerful brakes provided. In exceptional cases even racks would not suffice, and the cars are hauled up or let down by cables, a descending train helping another to ascend. M Af~: <#&} *&B Jm&i [•$ «» '# '-"•^ 1i§sc- ,Vs K3H :=.! i % 4S m Rack Rails. (2,ee7) 89 12 w% A Swiss Mountain Railway. 90 AMERICAN TRAINS Where the journey on a railway may last for days on end, trains have to be fitted up more elaborately than is needed for the longest trips we can make in the British Isles. In America and Canada, the coaches are two feet wider and about two and a half feet higher than those used in England, though the gauge is the same. The reason for this is that there are but few tunnels on the lines in those countries, while here we have many which unfortunately were made in the early days of railways, and could not be enlarged except at tremendous cost. A LONG JOURNEY BY TRAIN The extra roominess of the coaches on the transatlantic railways is a great advantage, as it makes it easier to provide sleeping quarters at night, and allows more space for passengers to move about in. Just to give you some idea of what railway travelling is like in America, I will describe a journey I made from New York to the centre of Mexico, about 4,000 miles in all. I should mention that the trains I took were of the Pullman kind, which corresponds to first-class here, with extra charge for sleeping berths. At New York I boarded a train for Chicago, the first" lap " of my journey. It was a very fine train with " parlour " cars, having swivel chairs like those of a ship's cabin, a dining-car, and, at the rear, a drawing- room car, at the back of which was a covered " observation platform," where one could sit and watch the country glide away behind the train. We travelled for several hours through the fine scenery of the Alleghany Mountains, and ran into a terrific thunderstorm at dusk, which lit up the surrounding hills and drowned the roar and rattle of the wheels. At Buffalo I " turned in " for the night, getting my first experience of American sleeping cars. These by day look like ordinary saloons with a central gangway, and cross seats on either side. When bedtime comes, the negro attendant pulls out two facing seats so that the space 91 between them is filled up. This makes a lower berth. Then he pulls down part of the roof of the coach, which is hinged at one edge, and during the day contains mattresses, while at night it forms an upper berth. The backs of the seats are hollow, and hold pillows. To give privacy, curtains are hung on rods overhead, between the berths and the gangway. It takes a lot of practice to change into one's pyjamas in a berth, as one cannot stand upright, and if one forgets this a hard bump against the upper berth or the roof, as the case may be, provides an unpleasant reminder. But the beds are all right, and I must say I slept remarkably soundly in them. In the morning it was a strange experience to lie comfortably between the sheets and watch the country through the great window which a " lower berther " has at his disposal. But we could not lie abed late, as the berths had to be reconstructed into seats. So I dressed sufficiently, and made my way to the lavatory, which was quite luxuriously fitted, down to the revolving glass basins—like those dentists use—for cleaning one's teeth over. Every lavatory contains a cistern from which iced drinking water may be drawn in hot weather. Dressing having been completed in the lavatory, I adjourned to the dining-car for breakfast, and then returned to the saloon, to find the beds all gone and the seats in their | day " condition. A " SUPER " TRAIN At Chicago, where a snowstorm was in progress, I changed into the " Golden West Limited "—I believe that was its name— which runs thousands of miles to the Pacific Ocean, across prairies and deserts and through mountains. This was quite a " super | train. It had a library-cum-observation car, in which a negro attendant gave gramophone concerts two or three times a day; and a bathroom ; and a barber's shop ; and an office in which a lady-typist would take down and type letters for passengers; and, of course, the usual Pullman convertible " sleepers " and 92 h .««•_: 3 One of the latest American Engines. dining-car. For the more wealthy travellers who could afford it there were private apartments with bed and table. Within twenty-four hours of leaving snow-bound Chicago the electric fans were buzzing to keep us cool; and a day later one's thoughts were concerned chiefly with iced water and the possibility of putting dh lighter clothing. The most popular part of the train was the observation platform, where the speed and suction of the coach maintained a pleasant draught. Seated here in a hammock chair, one could overlook the desert sliding astern with its strange cacti and stunted bushes and sliimmering heat through which distant mountains showed faintly. Here and there a motor car might be seen on its way across the sand to some outlying ranch, but the general impression left was one of solitude and desolation, contrasting strongly with the luxury of the train's interior. ENORMOUS GOODS TRAINS At one point of our journey we passed a train, half a mile or so long, of great covered cars, bound from California to New York with—what do you think ? Celery for the New Yorkers to eat; thousands of tons of it. Huge freight trains, given up entirely to a single vegetable or fruit, and carefully insulated against cold and heat, are no uncommon sight on American railways. At certain times of the year potato specials, orange specials, lemon 93 A Splendid Viaduct in Florida, U.S.A. 94 specials, banana specials, apple specials, and other specials, chase each other across the continent, carrying the produce of western and southern orchards to the great cities of the eastern states. And while I am on the subject of American goods trains I should mention the huge coal wagons, holding up to 120 tons each. You see, distances are so great and journeys so long over there, that it pays to use very large vehicles and to make them up into comparatively few trains of great length, for there will be no shunting nor dropping of cars till the train reaches its destination. The heaviest American train I ever heard bf weighed 17,000 tons, or the equivalent of a large ship. In this country a 1,000-ton train is quite out of the common, because the conditions are very different. IN MEXICO On reaching El Paso on the Mexican frontier, I had at last to quit the " Limited '! and change into another train which was to bear me southwards 500 miles into the heart of Mexico. This had coaches as large as the ones I had left, but, alas ! they were not nearly so comfortable. Instead of enjoying a separate dining- car, one had to put up with a table rigged up between the seats, on which very second-class rivals were served. The heat was terrific, and a fine dust from the apparently endless stretches of desert through which the line ran invaded everything, down to the very food. Still, the train made a fair speed, and within twenty-four hours of entering Mexico I found myself at my journey's end, in a blistering afternoon sun, which sent up the thermometer to well over 100 degrees in the shade. It was difficult to believe that but a few days earlier I had been stamping my feet in a Chicago station to keep them warm, while outside the snow flurries drove people off the streets. But this is the sort of thing that the railway makes possible when it extends unbroken for thousands of miles. 95 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE PRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS / r-C£0 ijt&l i^tr^—■ tSOo jt !»'/- *M *lk * a *t> .*& i#* •» Hi Oft * 4l Mi^Si «k .«/. .* .*, .»(* «t» »l * A %? 4> «*r •<» I* -A ShifcSIv'S'M .•A 41. Jl/ SJ^rg^^lifiJ^fcy tie *b Jth I'» ••'*#. 4V !*► M, jtk. jM >»» K tt, M, J, Jt .* A i A »liU I21»l >»< TFUJlJ, j| JEMflElMffii 3r **Hi
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