Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/248

 Giving France the Locomotives She Needs

��Six hundred and eighty engines and six thousand cars are ordered for France

���A locomotive of American design, intended for service in France. The French tracks, however, require smaller and lighter engines than those with which we are familiar

��WITHOUT an adequate system of railways to move troops and sup- plies to the front and distribute ammunition to the big batteries on the firing line, fighting, as it is done nowadays, would be an impossibility, Germany has made the world marvel at her railway system. Over night she has moved vast quantities of troops from one front to another. Never before has the necessity of rapid railway transportation been so imperative as in this present war.

France, of all the Allies, is the nation most in need of railways just now. Shortly after this country declared war, the Government placed orders for six hundred and eighty engines and six thousand cars, all of them to be used behind the battle line in France. Twenty days after the order was placed, an engine and a car were ready for shipment. The ac- companying photographs show two de- signs of engines which are being sent abroad in very large numbers.

Since French tracks will not stand the weight and length of standard American rolling stock, the engines are much lighter and smaller than those we usu- ally see in this country. They are of the type of 1866, but the design closely follows mod-

���Smaller locomotives adaplid to rough trackage and sharp curves such as are met with in the hasty construction of war time

��ern American practice, with the excep- tion that the couplings and buffers are made to suit French standards. Designed to make long runs and to handle heavy supply and troop trains, these engines can traverse the short curves of French roads and run on rough tracks. A piping system is placed at each end of the locomotive to wash the rails with streams of hot water and steam when they are covered with mud. Another departure is a water- lifting valve by means of which the tender tank can be filled from streams or ponds alongside the track.

In addition to the large and small locomotives already made for foreign service, the Government has placed an order for gasoline locomotives. All rail- way equipment sent from this country will be painted battleship gray to make it inconspicuous. American motor trucks and trailers equipped with flanged wheels will be used in connection with the standard equipment. It is understood that five engineer regiments will take charge of railroad operations for the army.

The big locomo- tive works the country over are loaded down with orders. France can I) e assured of efficient aid from America as far as locomotives go.

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