A NEW SYSTEM OF RAILROAD.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 148, 9 September 1876, Page 2

A NEW SYSTEM OF RAILROAD.

A somewhat novel system, says the a Leffol’s Mining News” of railroad and locomotive lias recently been invented and put into practical operation in Europe, and efforts are being made to have it tried and adopted extensively in other countries. IT it can bo successfully adopted and brought into use, and accomplish all that is claimed for it by its projectors, it bids fair to assist materially in solving the vexed question of cheap transportation on some of our leading public highway and canals. The novel feature of the new system consists in constructing a railway with but a single cr,“ one-rail” track, with peculiarly constructed locomotives and cars adapted to travelling' thereon. The cost of building such a road would bo of course very considerably less than our present system, and it would have the additional advantage of being able to turn very much sharper, curves. It is claimed, also, that this new system enables the locomotives used to have fully three times as much adhesive power as our present system, and therefore enables them to use at all times the whole of their tractive power, and to haul very much heavier loads and up very steep gradients. The system is the invention of Moos Jean Lormonjat, of Franco, and may be somewhat described as follows; The track is a lino of light rails, spiked to the centre of /* light ties. Parallel to this rail and on each side of it, are two bands macadam one foot wide, or two lines of longitudinal planks, from six inches to one foot wide, laid on the ground with ballast. The locomotives are of peculiar construction, their driving wheels (which run upon the macadam or road) being provided with rims from eight inches to one foot wide, and surrounded by a band or tire of Indiarubber. The locomotives and cars have two centre wheels each, one in front and one behind, which are double flanged and run on the centre rail, guiding the train and supporting the whole weight of the cars. The cars arc also furnished with two side wheels, one on each side merely to maintain the equilibrium, and hardly touching the macadam or wood. The driving wheels of the locomotives run upon the macadam or wood, and by means of a system of steam cog wheels can be made to draw double as much load by reducing the speed. The system is said to be working successfully in Europe, especially in France, where it has been endorsed by the Government engineers, and where the inventor has received the concession of several hundred miles of cheap railroads to build through the country, for feeding the main lines, and also the concession of the transportation for fifty years on the canal de Bougcone. In this latter undertaking ho puts his track on the towpath, and with a small locomotive, weighing. it is said, only four tons, hauls a boat containing 200 tons of cargo at the rate of three miles an hour. As the inventor has appointed his agent in this country an experienced Engineer, who is at present forming a company to introduce the system in our mining districts and upon our canals, we may expect to learn more fully as to its practicability and merits.