Page:EB1911 - Volume 22.djvu/871

854 independent unit complete in itself. It is necessary that the voltage of the current shall be constant whatever be the increase of the speed of the train, and therefore of the dynamo. In most of the systems that have been proposed this result is attained by electrical regulation; in one, however, a mechanical method is adopted, the dynamo being so hung that it allows the driving belt to slip when the speed of the axle exceeds a certain limit, the armature thus being rotated at an approximately constant speed. In all the systems accumulators are required to maintain the light when the train is at rest or is moving too slowly to generate current.

In all countries passenger trains must vary in weight according to the different services they have to perform; suburban trains, for example, meant to hold as many passengers as possible, and travelling at low speeds, do not weigh so much as long-distance expresses, which include dining and sleeping cars, and on which, from considerations of comfort, more space must be allowed each occupant. The speed at which the journey has to be completed is obviously another important factor, though the increased power of modern locomotives permits trains to be heavier and at the same time to run as fast, and often faster, than was formerly possible, and in consequence the general tendency is towards increased weight as well as increased speed. An ordinary slow suburban train may weigh about 100 tons exclusive of the engine, and may be timed at an inclusive speed, from the beginning to the end of its journey, as low as 12 or 15 m. an hour; while usually the fastest express trains maintaining inclusive speeds of say 45 m. an hour, and made up of the heaviest and strongest rolling stock, do not much exceed 300 tons in any country, and are often less. The inclusive speed over a long journey is of course a different thing from the average running speed, on account of the time consumed in intermediate stops; the fewer the stops the more easily is the inclusive speed increased,—hence the advantage of the non-stop runs of 150 and 200 m. or more which are now performed by several railways in Great Britain, and on which average speeds of 54 or 55 m. per hour are attained between stopping-places. Over shorter distances still more rapid running is occasionally arranged, and in Great Britain, France and the United States there are instances of trains scheduled to maintain an average speed of 60 m. an hour or more between stops. Still higher speeds, up to 75 or even 80 m. an hour, are reached, and sustained for shorter or longer distances every day by express trains whose average speed between any two stopping places is very much less. But isolated examples of high speeds do not give the traveller much information as to the train service at his disposal, for on the whole he is better off with a large number of trains all maintaining a good average of speed than with a service mostly consisting of poor trains, but leavened with one or two exceptionally fast ones. If both the number and the speed of the trains be taken into account, Great Britain is generally admitted still to remain well ahead of any other country.

Goods Trains.—The vehicles used for the transportation of goods are known as goods wagons or trucks in Great Britain, and as freight cars in America. The principal types to be found in the United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe are open wagons (the lading often protected from the weather by tarpaulin sheets), mineral wagons, covered or box wagons for cotton, grain, &c., sheep and cattle trucks, &c. The principal types of American freight cars are box cars, gondola cars, coal cars, stock cars, tank cars and refrigerator cars, with, as in other countries, various special cars for special purposes. Most of these terms explain themselves. The gondola or flat car corresponds to the European open wagons and is used to carry goods not liable to be injured by the weather; but in the United States the practice of covering the load with tarpaulins is unknown, and therefore the proportion of box cars is much greater than in Europe. The long hauls in the United States make it specially important that the cars should carry a load in both directions, and so box cars which have carried grain or merchandise one way are filled with wool, coal, coke, ore, timber and other coarse articles for the return journey. On this account it is common to put small end doors in American box cars, through which timber and rails may be loaded.

The fundamental difference between American freight cars and the goods wagons of Europe and other lands is in carrying capacity. In Great Britain the mineral trucks can ordinarily hold from 8 to 10 tons (long tons, ), and the goods trucks rather less, though there are wagons in use holding 12 or 15 tons, and the specifications agreed to by the railway companies associated in the Railway Clearing House permit private wagon owners (who own about 45% of the wagon stock run on the railways of the United Kingdom) to build also wagons holding 20, 30, 40 and 56 tons. On the continent of Europe the average carrying capacity is rather higher; though wagons of less than 10 tons capacity are in use, many of those originally rated at 10 tons have been rebuilt to hold 15, and the tendency is towards wagons of 15–20 tons as a standard, with others for special purposes holding 40 or 45 tons.

The majority of the wagons referred to above are comparatively short, are carried on four wheels, and are often made of wood. American cars, on the other hand, have long bodies mounted on two swivelling bogie-trucks of four wheels each, and are commonly constructed of steel. About 1875 their average capacity differed little from that of British wagons of the present day, but by 1885 it had grown to 20 or 22 short tons and now it is probably at least three times that of European wagons. For years the standard freight cars have held and now many carry  or ; a few coal cars have even been built to contain. This high carrying capacity has worked in several ways to reduce the cost of transportation. An ordinary British 10-ton wagon often weighs about 6 tons empty, and rarely much less than 5 tons; that is, the ratio of its possible paying load to its tare weight is at the best about 2 to 1. But an American car with a capacity of may weigh only, and thus the ratio of its capacity to its tare weight is only about 5 to 2. Hence less dead weight has to be hauled for each ton of paying load. In addition the increased size of the American freight car has diminished the interest on the first cost and the expenses of maintenance relatively to the work done; it has diminished to some extent the amount of track and yard room required to perform a unit of work; it has diminished journal and rolling friction relatively to the tons hauled, since these elements of train resistance grow relatively less as the load per wheel rises; and finally, it has tended to reduce the labour costs as the train loads have become greater, because no more men are required to handle a heavy train than a light one.

It is sometimes argued that if these things are true for one country they must be true for another, and that in Great Britain, for example, the use of more capacious cars would bring down the cost of carriage. It may be pointed out, however, that the social and geographical conditions are different in the United Kingdom and the United States, and in each country the methods of carrying goods and passengers have developed in accordance with the requirements of those conditions. In the one country the population is dense, large towns are numerous and close to one another, the greatest distances to be travelled are short, and relatively a large part of the freight to be carried is merchandise and manufactured material consigned in small quantities. In the other country precisely the opposite conditions exist. Under the first set of conditions quickness and flexibility of service are relatively more important than under the second set. Goods therefore are collected and dispatched promptly, and, to secure rapid transit, are packed in numerous wagons, each of which goes right through to its destination, with the consequence that, so far as general merchandise is concerned, the weight carried in each is a quarter or less of its capacity. But if full loads cannot be arranged for small wagons, there is obviously no economy in introducing larger ones. On the other hand, where, as in America, the great