AN ADJUSTABLE GAUGE CAR.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2346, 8 October 1870, Page 2

AN ADJUSTABLE GAUGE CAR.

Tlic following is from the 2\ T cw York Tri • Innte of July 12 ■ On th ■ 28th of May, an Eric freight car, laden with boots and shoes, left Jersey City for -San Francisco, having applied to it Win. J>. Snow’s adjustable gauge—running gear. Nothing was said of the invention or the intended trip until the arrival of the car at Chicago was chronicled by the Tribune. The car uni over the Eric, broad gauge, to Buffalo, and then on the Lake Shore Hoad, gauge four feet ten inches, to Cleveland, thence to Chicago on the compromise gauge, four feet nine and a-half inches. Breaking gauge aga n at Chicago it ran to the Missouri river on flic Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific guage, four feet eight and a half inches. The car was detained by the June freshet live days at the Missouri river, at the expiration of which time it again started over the Union and" Central Pacific to Sa ramciito, and the Western Pacific to Sail Rrangisco ; ruipiing time fpurtcca ' {iiuf a, half days. Lpaylgg San Francisco on the 21st of June, tlie car arrived at Jersey City last Friday, her freight safe, and her owners delighted. Mr Snow accompanied the car, carefully watclrng its workings, and says that with 'one or' two improvcpfcuts cosily

made, his invention will he a perfect success. The patent is a stout steel ’‘feather” inserted in a lateral groove in the axle, in which notches arc cut. In breaking gauge the car is run off upon a side track which adjusts the wheels to the gauge required, where they arc he’d by the notches. The wheel is a broad Hanged wheel, and will run from the broad gauge upon the compromise gauge, four feet nine and a half inches, without adjusting the wheels. Contracts for a large number of these cars have been awarded by the Erie Road, and it is expected that they will soon be placed on the line for the purpose of carrying through freight to San Francisco without breaking bulk.