ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 April 1916, Page 3

ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES

4 TJie largest ami most powerful locomotives ill the world arc being delivered to the Chicago, Milwaukee und .St. Piul llailway for service on the newlv electrified portion oi til) is tran.seuntinentni line from Uarli.wton. .Montana to Avery, Idaho, a df-iance of i-l() milirs. These now electric yiants will be used to haul freight and passenger trains over the heavy grades ot the itoeky Mountains and the licit Mountains. AYhen these giant machines go into operation, luiuling heavy trei-

ght and passenger trains through the precipitous ranges 01 on hi na unci IdiUlo, tile most ambitioni-; electrification project ever conceived will have safciy passed it* most- diftieult stages. TJio locomotives ond electrical apparatus are the product ol Ehe General JSlectric Company.

These locomotives are designed to do the work performed until now. and rather too expensively, by huge Mallet steam engines, two ol which were used to pull each heavy freight train up the grades of the Belt and Bitter Ho >t ranges. They are expected to effect an enormous economy in operation. In fact, the purpose ot the company in electrification has not been to l increase the speed oi its trams, but to increase efficiency and promote economy ill operation.

The new locomotives a,re ol great interest because they are the Jirst to be constructed for railroad service with direct curVeiit motors designed to carryas high a potential as 3000 volts. They weigh.'2tio tons and hove a continuous capapitv greater than that of any steam or electric locomotve. hitherto built. One. of' these big machines can ''snake'' a train weighing 2000 'tons up a 1 per cent, grade with its 3440 horse-power andi make light work of the job. Two of them can do the same on a 2 per cent, grade.

These monsters are 112 feet 8 inchest long. There is nothing about them to suggest the steam locomotive which they will ultimately displace enbir -ly in botfi freight, and passenger service. Looking at first glance more like a big mail car than anything else, the yt. I'aui's new type engine operates as mysteriously to the average observer ais did the tirst automobiles in the eyes of the drivers of the first horse-drawn vehicles. The design is such {is- to save tract* wear and tear by minimising tillo vertical and horizontal blows of the drive wheels through, use of separate motors, twin-geared to" each of eight pairs 01 drivers. The drivers are spacedi at ten-feet intervals, and are 52 inches ill diameter. They are equalised m pairs on oil oil side so that each of the four driving wheel trucks on each side is independent. The cub extends lor nearly the full length of the locomotive. Two men constitute the crew.