Railway Information

Looal Train' Cancelled gines, 24X32 cylinders, from Victoria to It is reported that ten local trains on the Deepwater. The train consisted of 100 steel & Ohio, between Pittsburg and coal cars, loaded with coal. The total Butler, have been cancelled on account of weight of the train behind the engine was electric lines competition. 7562 tons-cars carrying almost exactly 5500 tons of coal, and a caboose weighing 18 tons. The run from Victoria to Deep­ Plate Gla,i water was made in eight hours and forty­ In commenting on the use of plate glass two minutes, including three stops for for ear windows the Railroad Age Gazette water and passing two trains on the road. says: Polished plate glass for passenger cars is superior in every respect to ordinary glass. It gives the coaches an elegant, fin­ Indiana State Railroad Commi,gjon Testa ished appearance from the outside, and af­ Headlightl fords comfort to the passenger. When the An all night test of 'the respective merits lower cost of maintenance and renewal is of the ordinary oil and the powerful elec­ also considered it is clear that the in­ tric headlights has been made creased first cost is more than offset. by the Indiana Railroad Commi!tSion, a number of prominent railroad officials and Pittsburg & Lake Erie VeteraDI' A'iooiation a number of prominent engineers. The tests were made on furnished A Veterans' Association has been formed by the Big Four railroad on double tracks by those employes of the Pittsburg & Lake near Avon about ten miles west of Indian­ Erie who have been in the service of the apolis. company twenty years or more, and on the The test was brought about by an act evening of October 25 these veterans had a of the legislature which directed the rail­ banquet in Pittsburg. Two hundred men road commission of Indiana to inYestigate and two women were present at the ban­ the m~rits of locomotive headlights now quet, and 112 other employes are entitled in use and order every railroad in Indiana to membership. Colonel J. M. Schoon­ to put in service the type of headlight maker, vice-president of the road, presided, which was found to be the most satisfac­ and had on his right James B. White, tory. By this one act the legislature put laborer, and on his left Thomas Carlin, a up to the railroad commission the perplex­ gateman. These three, with seven others, ing problem of determining one of the have been on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie most generally debated questions engaging since the road began business in 1878. the attention of railroad men and one on which there seems to be a preponderance Record Breaker of opinion in favor of oil as against elec­ A record breaking run from Tacoma to tric light. has just been completed by a It is said Indiana is the first state to at­ through freight train over the lines of the tempt the solution of the headlight prob­ Chicae;o, Milwaukee and S1. Paul Railway lem in the manner contemplated by tne law. and its Puget Sound extension, on a sched­ The test being made by the Indiana com­ ule almost as fast as that of present fast mission is of importance to railroads all passenger trains between those points. over this country because it will enable The train consisted of four carloads of railroad men to learn for the first time silk from' the Orient and four carloads of f rom practical observation the opinions of salmon. some of the best engineers in the country The silk was received at Tacoma from on this problem, and at the same time leg­ the transpacific steamer Onanfa at 1 :45 p. islation in other states will be inclined to m. Sunday, October 31. The eight car train follow closely the action of the Indiana left Tacoma over the Puget Sound line at legislature and the precedent set by the 6 :45 p. m. Sunday and arrived in Chicago commission after careful scientific research. at 2: 19 p. m. November 4. The party nlaking the test near Avon was headed by Commissioners Wood, Dowling and McCure, of the Indiana commission; Heavy Traio oa the Virginian Railway C. H. Benjamin, dean of the engineering Items have appeared in the daily press department; L. V. Ludy, head of the me­ from time to time concerning long, heavy chanical department of Purdue University; freight trains. The Virginian Railway, not H. F. Houghton, general superintendent of to be outdone by some of the larger sys­ the Big Four, and representatives of the tems, sends an account of a coal train re­ railroad. cently hauled by one of their Mikado en- The tests consisted in personal observa-

Michael Sol Collection