POSSIBILITIES IN RAILROAD SPEED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Issue 2538, 2 March 1887, Page 2

POSSIBILITIES IN RAILROAD SPEED.

Will it roach the rate of 360 mile's an hour ? is the question asked by an American contemporary, and atgiied in the following manner. When Geo. Btephonsoa asserts his ability to ran passenger coaches at a speel of fifteen miles an hour, scientific and practical Ben deemed him'fit for a lunatie asylum, brio time has,shown that trains may 1» run at much greater velocity without materially adding to tti dangera^of. railway .travel, The flight of the fat't oxprcsi on the Peunsylvinia railway is a marked example of tbs impossibilities in tho'way ot sustaining high rates of speod. This road n'ow runs the fastest train ''in'- America, Nine hundred and twelve urileß, including seven stops, are accomplished its 25 J hours, and the average time is 36,30 miles an hour. A" portion of ths distance is run at the rate of 75 milerU. an hour. At a speed of 60 miles *a hour the driving wheels of the locomotive on this train-make revolutions a iDinuto. William Tanderbilfc'a apnrt of 81 miles in 61 minutes on the Hjur York Central is declared to belle highest rate of speed ever attained in this country, but this speed was not a surprise to good engineers, many of whom are firm in the belief that 100 miles an hour will yet be accomplished on American roads. Thirty-one years ago Colonel Meigg read a paper bofora the New York. Farmer's Club on " Future Travelling," in which ;he expresses the belief that railroad cars could be safely propelled by steam at. ths rate of 300 milesan hour. He said, "The Emperor of Russia has taken the first great step toward what I deem tho'ultiiMtion of railroad travelling. Instead ot cutting what I eall a more drill through the country and going a ' around everything in the way;. for if Btraightline,he/hasout a broad way- "" for 500 miles, from St, Petersburg to Moscow. Ho has made it all the way : 200 ft wide, so that the engineer sees everything on the road. This •is part of the future— the railroad from point to point with a mathematical line; the rails ton titnos stronger than nro new 'used; the locomotive on wheels of far greater- diameter, tho gauge; of a rolativo breadth j the signals and times perfectly settled: tho roads on hath sides during tho transit of trains h&»g the gates of tho walls closed, 'xnon, instead of travelling 100 miles an hour, wo shall more safely travel 300 miles an hour.!' Oneof the latest efforts at! improvements in locomotives, is th»V of a Frenchman named Estrade, wop! has constructed an engine wbuh ha calls "La Parisienne," whioh when watered and fired weighs 42 tons. Its driving wheels, six in numbhr, are 81ft in diameter. The cylinders are on the outside, with valve boxes on- the top. - ; The diameter of oach cylinder is 7Aln.JBp and the lougth of stroke is 2ft and This eugine is built for high speed, and. will carry a preasuro of 200 pounds te the square inch above the atmosphere, or an absolute pressure of 215 pounds. Eatiade'sengino is designed to ran at the average rate of seveuty-eight miles an hour.