Scenes at Council Bluffs Elks' Street Fair
Photographs by a
Kec StafFArtist
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COMMITTEE OF THE ELKS IN CHARGE
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IN THE ELKS FAIR
ONE OF THE AVENUES.
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AT THE ELKS' COURT.
First American Locomotive Exported to England
I I bureau on locomotives which
I i a . t. . i .. inni r.or a
Bliuwru umv in ijuu, uai- nnioi t
ran built raachloeB were eold In
foreign countries, as against 161
in 18H0, seems to Indicate that our engines
are Increasing In popularity In other coun
tries. Uut the truth llo the other way.
In a measure at least. They may like our
locomotives better than any other In Mex
ico, In South America, In Japan and pos
sibly In Russia, but they don't In England
or Oermany or France. In every one of
these countries the engine drivers complain
that our machines are wasteful of fuel,
that It takea an inordinate lot of oil to
keep their Joints lubricated, that the work
manship on them is defective, thus neces
sitating unusual and exienslve repair ex
penses, and so on.
Not all of these complaints are well
founded by any means, being prompted In
some Instances by sheer animosity against
American machines, but the fact remains
that while our locomotives average up to
the best, there are points probably In which
they are excelled by fore gn machines, es
pecially for use on foreign lines.
There Is no doubt, for Instance, thit
English locomotives are more carefully fin
ished, nor that often they ran do the work
required on an English railroad with lees
fuel consumption than can the American
machines.
Why, then, do the fore gn railroads buy
fnghies of American make? Because they
are forced to do so or get along without
them for months and months after they are
demanded by the traffic necessities of the
roads. For American locomotive makers,
like American bridge builders, have a hibll
of hustling at their work, and, owing to
certain manufacturing methods not prac
ticed abroad, can turn out more work In
less time than the locomotive makers of
any other country on earth. Besides, "the
price Is right."
Notwithstanding all the foreign criti
cisms of our railroads and some of these
criticisms are more than founded on truth
the American railroad system Is by long
odds the inciHt efficient In the world. Its
method of handling passengers Is more
economical, It has more fast trains and Its
passengers travel more comfortably. Only
the most prejudiced of Englishmen or Oer
tuans or Frenchmen deny that.
But our freight enrrying methods are
liumeasuralily superior to those of the
foreign roads. There isn't a rallroal of any
consequence In the I' niled States today that
could operate Ita freight department on the
basis of freight operation abroad without
running the great danger of falling Into a
receivership, since the cost per ton mile
on any good American line Is only frac
tion of the ton mile cost on the best of
the foreign lines. This, despite the fact
that our roads show grades and curves that
would be Impossible of operation with rail
road equipment that Is considered quite
adequate abroad.
We use heavier englnea and bigger
freight ears than anybody else. In the 'SOa
our freight cars were eight-wheelers and
the rapacity of the cars was figured at
ton to the wheel, or eight. tons each. Grad
ually the capacity of cars has Increased till
It averages nearly four times as much.
Five years ago thirty tons was generally
counted as a carload. Now most of the
new cars will carry forty tons each. The
big, new steel cars will carry fifty tons
apiece. When the eight-ton cars wera In
use fourteen cars was a load. The mas
sive new freight locomotive of today will
haul seventy-five of the new steel cars,
loaded, on the dead level, or sixty over the
grades and curves of such a trunk line as
the New York Central or Pennsylvania.
American locomotives are the most
economical In the world for hauling such
trains. Hauling the short, light trains of
"goods waggons" used on English roads It
Is quite likely that they are wasteful.
So far as efficiency under difficult and
varying conditions goes the American loco
motive Is far and away the best machine.
This was shown away back In 1838, sixty
four years ago, when the first Yankee en
gine was Imported into England.
The Birmingham & Lancaster railway
was completed In that year. There was one
stretch of road on the line that for
economy's sake had a gradient of one In
thirty-seven, or nearly 141 feet to the mile,
and it was freely predicted by the Eng
lish that no locomotive could be built that
could haul a train of loaded "goods wag
gons" up such a line. Brunei, then the
greatest engine builder In the United
Kingdom, admitted his fear that the pre
diction was correct. The civil engineer
who had laid out the line, one Captain
Morrison, was severely criticised for in
troducing the grade, and he began to be
afraid that the road would be a failure, es
pecially as the two Stephensons, one of
whom had built the first practical locomo
tive, agreed with Brunei.
But Morrison had not ventured on so
steep a grade without some Justification.
Before laying out the line he had hoard
that even steeper gradea were In exist
ence on American railroads and that Amer
ican engines were successfully operated
over them. So, without advertising his ac
tion to the world, he sent to Philadelphia
many months In advance of the road's
opening and ordered an engine from con
cern which has since become the most
famous engine building establishment In
the world. He was so fesrful that the en
gine would not reach England In time for
the opening, It Is said, that he purposely
delayed the work a little.
The American builders were as prompt
then as now, however, and the machine
was landed on British soil quite early
enough to suit Captain Morrison's purpose.
Railroad openings were great novelty
in those dsys, and this one was witnessed
by a great crowd. Naturally the Intereat
centered on the Lickey Incline, aa the
stretch of heavy grade was termed. When
Captain Morrison brought out his Yankee
engine, saying he had a machine that be
was sure could haul an ordinary "goods
train" up the Incline, there was abate
ment all round. The engine differed in
many obvious wsys from the English ones.
It had two pairs of driving wheels coupled
together, which looked very odd in British
eyes, used only to locomotives with one
pair of drivers. Besides, the Yankee en
gine lacked In flnUh. In fact. It was so
roughly built that the crowd Jeered openly
and the chronicles of the day relate that
Captain Morrison was made visibly nervous
by the hostile demonstration.
He sent the engine to Its work, though,
coupling it to several "goods waggons"
holding thirty-four "long" tons In the ag
gregate. As the ungainly machine rolled
along a level stretch of track before tak
ing the grade the Jeers of the crowd grew
Into a loud chorus of disapproval. This
was moderated somewhat as the machine
began to climb, but predictions that It
would soon become "stalled" were freely
made. They were soon silenced, though,
for In lees than eleven minutes the englnt
had mounted the Incline at an average
speed of fourteen and a half miles an hour.
This changed the Jeers Into a storm of
applause from the throng at the top of the
grade and Captain Morrison's nervousness
was succeeded by a corresponding degree of
elation. Contrariwise, the British loco
motive builders were beside themselves
with chagrin, and Hurry, whose standard
as a builder was second only to Brunei's,
declared that English engines could at least
duplicate the exploit of the American ma
chine. An engine of the newest and best
type was accordingly brought from Liver
pool and started "empty" up the grade.
There was no Jeering at the start, for
the crowd as well as Burry and Brunei
wanted to see a demonstration of British
supremacy. Brsvely the engine set out to
duplicate the previous performance, the
drivers moving merrily round and round,
keeping time to the rapid exhaust. When
the grade was struck the machine began to
move alower and more slowly. Presently
the single pslr of drivers began to slip,
while the exhaust was quickened Into a
nervous succession of snorts. Then, before
half the grade bad been overcome, the ma
chine came to a full atop and all hands had
to acknowledge that the despised Yankee
engine had done better than the best ob
tainable machine of British make. Then
there was Jeering a-plenty and the crowd
dispersed much disheartened at the result.
The chief point In favor of the American
locomotive on that occasion lay In Its
coupled driving wheels. American build
ers bad learned early that engines with
two pairs of driving wheels coupled could
haul heavier loads and could climb
much steper grades than engines with only
one pair of drivers. That was because two
sets of drivers afforded two "bites" on each
rail, whereas one pair had only one "bite,"
or Just half as much tractive power.
It took the English railroad men many
years to grasp this simple theory, albeit It
was amply backed up by experience, and
fully demonstrated In England on thst
memorable day sixty-four years ago.
Indeed, English engines furnished with
only one psir of drivers are often to be
seen to this day, and it was not till a few
years sgo, comparatively, that coupled
drivers were seen in any numbers on Brit
ish roads. It should be explained, how
ever, that with relatively light trains a
single pair of drivers is as efficient on the
beet English roads as double drivers
coupled are on the average American line.
This Is because the English lines were
from the beginning much better and more
expensively built than American ones. The
early English railway builders spent thou
sands of pounds in fills and cuts to avoid
grades and curves that the early American
builders would have cared nothing about.
Thua the American and English types of
locomotives, practically Identical at the
start, when American as well as English
machlnea were built with one pair of
drivers only, diverged rapidly, being fur
thest apart some twenty or thirty years
ago. Today they are much closer, for
many of the new and heavy British loco
motives have at least two pairs of drivers
coupled, while a few have three. The
American heavy freight engine of the
latest type almost invariably has four
pairs, but the English have not yet gone
that far.
Noiwith landing the now generally ac
knowlolged superior tractive power of the
engine with coupled drivers, American en
glnie are occasionally to be seen with only
one pair of drivers. One of the lamoua
fast trains between Thlludelphia and At
lantic City, for Instance, Is hauled regularly
by such an engine without trouble since
the road Is virtually without grades or
curves.
The coupling of the drivers was not tlK
only point In favor of the Yankee engine
away back In 1838. Its drivers were so
placed as to bear the greater part of the
machine's weight, thus "holding down" the
machine to Its work, while drivers of the
competing English machines bore little
more than a third of Its weight. Ten or
fifteen years later the Hudson River rail
road authorities being anxious to Increase
the epeed of their pusxenger trains to
match English railroad speeds, which then
led the world, threw all practical American
railroading expirieuce to the winds. They
built a number of locomotives possessing
all the defects of the English type and
none of Its excellences. First of all they
fitted each engine with single-pair drivers
eight feet la diameter quite as large aa
the drivers of the fleetest steam monsters
of today. Tht se experimental engines ran
"like greased lightning" when not loaded,
and the trial of the first one "light" roused
the most extravagant hopee for "mile-a-mlnute"
trains. With a load, however, the
new type engines could not compete wlih
the regulation American type mounted on
coupled drivers only four feet In diameter.
For some time all hands and the cook in
the Huds n River ral road management were
puzzled mightily, but after a while an
engine driver told tbem wherein their mis
take lay B-sides adopting the single-pair
driver type the axle of the drivers was sit
back of the boiler, so us to bear only a
small fraction of th? machines total
weight. It rested mainly rn the forward
trucks ind thuo the drivers bore no weight
to speak of, and naturally they slipped
as goon as they were called upon to haul
a loud. Of course the new machines bad
to be rebuilt before they could be put
into active service.
Not only are the locomotive builders of
the world approaching one another as to
typee of engines though still wide apart In
many things but railroad managers the
world over are coming closer together In
their general practice.
Thus while the block signal system was
an accomplished success abroad long be
fore It was introduced here, the block
systems on our great lines are now the
beet in the world, and an automatic Amer
ican system is actually being introduced
on one of the big English roada.
So it Is with regard to roadbeds. Orig
inally the American roadbeds were In
comparably interior to the English and
European roadbeds, but the roadbeds of
some of the best American lines are now
the finest in existence, and the work of
improving them has hardly begun, though
since 1S'J7 nearly 1.000, 000,000 haa been
laid out. This year the combined expendi
tures In improving American roadways
cutting down grades, straightening curves
and laying heavier rails and abolishing grade
crossings will amount literally to hundreds
of millions perhaps 1000,000,000, a sum
quite vast enough to bankrupt a score of
the nioet Important old world lines.
A Few Conundrums
New York World: What has only one foot?
A stocking.
How do bees dispose of their honey? They
cell It.
What game do the waves play at? Pitch
and tos.
What sort of men are always above board?
Cb'ssmen.
Who is the oldest lunatic on record? Time
cut of mind.
What soup would cannibals prefer? A
broib of a boy
Wt.en U a man more than a man? When
hi la be side himself.
Wl.at is a muff? Something that holds a
lady's hand and doesn't squeeze it.
When is a clock on the stair dangerous?
When it runs down and strikes one.
Why Is a pig in the kitchen like a house
on fire? The sooner it's out the better.
A Devoted Couple
Boston Transcript; Mrs. Hartt Yes, I
have no doubt there are unhappy marriages,
but really I cannot understand bow they
are possible. Now, there's George and I,
we are so devoted. He says he could not
exist without me, and I'm sure I live only
for him.
Mrs. Greene You are really to be con
gratulated, both of you. By the way, how
long have you been married?
Mrs. Hartt Just a week day after tomorrow.
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