Electric Road Locomotive to Haul Freight
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32 MOTOR WORLD F ebruary 13, 1913 ELECTRIC R OAD LOCOMOTIVE TO HAUL FREIGHT Ponderous D ouble-ended Machine That Drives Through All Four Wheels and is Steered Like a Steamboat—Curious Combination of Motor Construc tion and Standard Railroad Equipment, Including Air Brakes. For t hirty years the Pennsylvania Rail cars a nd street traffic which steadily is be terminal o nly a couple of weeks, serving as road has been hauling freight cars through coming g reater. a "training ship" for the two men who will some of the streets of Jersey City, N. 1., by The s harp curve makes it impossible to operate it, tests made at Altoona indicate PENNSYLVANIA R AILROAD'S MAMMOTH ELECTRIC TRACTOR COMPARED WITH BAGGAGE COACH. SHOWING [TS SIZE brute f orce—that is to say, they have used use a l ocomotive. even if the intermittent thatt i is fully equal to the work for which horses. Cars arriving at the Exchange Place character of the work warranted the detail it was built. The most spectacular trial terminal consigned to the American Sugar ing of an engine for the purpose, and the was a sort of shoving match with a locomo Refining Co., Colgate & Co., and other big railroad company has watched with much tive. Two loaded gondola cars were placed concerns located along Hudson, Essex and interest the increasing efficiency and power together with the tractor coupled to one W'ashington streets have been hauled out of of motor trucks. About a year and a half end and a standard switching engine at the the yards and through thick street traffic ago a number of tests were made with the other. At a signal, steam was turned on in by eight heavy draught animals. Going up heaviest machines available, with a view to the locomotive and electricity in the tractor, Essex street there is a very heavy grade, as replacing horses with motor trucks. None and after a short period of silent straining railroad grades go, which begins on the of the cars was found equal to the work, all the locomotive and the two cars were very sharp curve from Hudson street. In being too light. The tests served as an in slowly pushed back by the tractor. Oi bad weather, and when loads are exception spiration, however, and Tracy V. Buckwal course, the tractor was working under more ally heavy the cars are dragged up the grade ter, chief electrical engineer at the Altoona favorable conditions, in a way. than the by means of block and tackle. The horses shops of the P. R. R., addressed himself to locomotive, for the torque of a pair of are inconvenient and expensive, the process the task and brought out the tractor shown electric motors at low speed is tremendous. of delivering cars slow and unsatisfactory in the accompanying illustrations. while the steam engine was limited by its in bad weather. and altogether the arrange boiler pressure. However, heavy pulling at ment is one which has been fervently con “Tug‘ 0 War" Test lndulged in. slow speed is what the tractor is design?d demned, especially in late years. because While t he machine has not as yet been for, so the test was considered very Salli of the increasing difficulties due to heavy put into active service. having been at the factory, The speed is eight miles an hm" February 1 3, 1913 MOTOR WORLD 33 The B uckwalter tractor is a battery—driv brake e quipment, including a pump driven applied, w hich is done in the usual locomo en machine, having two electric motors. of by an individual electric motor, with the tive way, the controller lever flies back to a nominal rating of 10 horsepower each, usual hose connections to carry air to the neutral. In backing up for a short distance but with an overload capacity of something cars to which it may be coupled. The the driver shifts his handle to the reverse like 250 per cent., placed under two hoods, drawheads are of the standard P. R. R. type, side of the sector. but in making a return one at either end of the car, and driving all automatic, with safety outside uncouplingr trip or for running any distance he shifts four wheels through double reduction gear l.-vcrs. it to the opposite side of the cab, moves ing, having a total reduction of 40 to 1. over to the other side of his steering wheel, Duplicate C ontrol Elements Provided. All four wheels are steered also, and one of and at once that which was backward be the most striking peculiarities of the tractor Instead o f the usual springs they are comes forward, and still the driver has all is that instead of the conventional automo cushioned by pneumatic cylinders capable his controls'in exactly the same relative bile type of steering wheel there is a regu of resisting a pressure of 10,000 pounds be positions as before. In addition to the air lation tug-boat spoked wheel in the middle fore "bottoming" the pistons. Being a d one braking system there is an auxiliary hand INGENIOUS D RIVING AND STEERING AXLE "PILOT H OUSE" AND CONTROL MECHANISM brake, o perated by a small brass hand 0f t he cab. The enormous weight of the ble-ender d own to the last detail, the con~ machine—28,850 pounds—made imperative trolling and braking apparatus is duplicated wheel, which may be used in case of the ‘hi °mployment of a steering gear of great in the cab, so that whichever way the driver failure of the air. In view of the reliability leverage, and the marine type of wheel is faces, he has the levers at his right hand. of the standard air-brakes, however, this Mild to answer the purpose satisfactorily. Each control lever works in a slot in a sec contingency is regarded as a remote one. The length of the tractor is not excessive, tor; the forward half of the swing controls The braking action is extremely prompt and heing 22 feet over all; the tread, however, the three forward speeds and the rear half effective, and it is an easy matter to stop '5 Wide, there being 6 feet clear inside the three exactly similar speeds in the opposite the tractor within a distance very consid Wheels. so that they can run easily outside direction; the slot is not continuous, how erably less than its own length when mov the l'ilils,‘even on curves. The wheel rims ever, but is divided into two sections by a ing at maximum speed. It is stated that in are,“ foot Wide, making the tread, as ordi bridge which stops the lever in a vertical an emergency a stop can be made within EZZLIYI‘TTasured, seven feet. The wheel position, and in order to reverse it is neces three feet, if there is good holding ground minc'ge feet and the wheels, which are sary to pull the handle out of its socket and for the wheels. block {itseslnbdrmeterxare fitted with rubber insert it in a similar socket which comes Not t he least interesting feature of the with steel bzseesd Ohm): sets of three blocks just at the opposite side of the bridge when machine is the system by which all four hi e 1: to‘al width - or e10 t inches.ires are dual and the lever is in neutral position. This makes wheels are utilized as drivers as well as unintentional reversing impossible. In mak steerers. The mechanism is divided into n the U “ 9mg With its role as a locomotive, ing a sudden stop it is unnecessary to turn sactor i fitted “P With a complete air~ two separate sets, one for the two driving off the current; as soon as the air brake is wheels at each end, which are exactly dupli 34 MOTOR WORLD F ebruary 13, 1913 rates a nd work independently, though draw ford, F irestone-Columbus, Colby, Case, \‘e— ing current from the same battery. The MINNEAPOLIS S HOW SET lN lie, Ford, Locomobile, Lambert, Buckeye, motors are of General Electric manufacture, LIFELIKE RUSTIC SCENERY Moline, Krit, Cole, Kisselkar, Oakland. series wound, 85 volts, and each drives Oldsmobile, Studebaker, Maxwell, Winton. through heavy spur gearing to a counter~ Abbott~Detroit, Herreshoff, Peerless, West Painting o f Minnehaha Falls, With shaft carrying a differential. The counter~ cott, Chalmers, King, Detroiter, Empire. shaft is extended laterally, the ends pro Natural Tree Trunks, Placed Be Havers, Marion, Rambler, Metz, Staver, jecting from massive bearings and carrying neath Illuminated Canopy—In Reo, Marmon. spur pinions which mesh with large spur National Circuit. gears bolted to the wheels; the large gears Two B uildings for Youngstown Show. are of such diameter that there is just room Although a ll of the exhibits were not on Having a cquired such proportions that the for the pinions between them and the wheel view—for the Minneapolis exhibit is this Auditorium no longer is able adequately to rims. The shafts are so located that a line year a national circuit exhibit for the first house it, the annual Youngstown (Ohio) drawn through the pivot center of the time and not a few of the cars to be dis automobile show——the third under the man steering knuckle passes through the center played were in transit from Chicago—the agement of the Youngstown Automobile of the pinion. Provision for the movement opening of the fifth annual show of the Dealers‘ Association—which was inaugu due to steering is made by mounting the Minneapolis Automobile Trade Associa rated on Saturday evening last, February pinion on a spherical joint on the shaft end, tion in the Minneapolis State Armory on 8th, was partially housed in an annex spe the joint being so constructed that while Saturday evening last, February 8th, was cially built for the purpose and which is the pinion cannot turn on the shaft, it can neverthrless auspicious.