The economies resulting from the use of superheated steam have long been known, but it is only during comparatively recent years that superheaters fitted for use in locomotives have been devised. Much of the pioneer work along this line has been- done by two German engineers, Wilhelm Schmidt and Robert Garbe. The great majority of heavy locomotives built in the United States since 1912 have been equipped with superheaters, the Schmidt sys tem being used to the practical exclusion of all others. Many railroads have improved the efficiency of old locomotives, built to use satu rated steam; and the results obtained have been highly satisfactory.
Fuel economy has also been promoted by improved furnace design, and the use of such devices as brick arches and combustion cham bers. The largest coal-burning locomotives are now fired with mechanical stokers, and are developing powers which would be unattainable with hand firing.
As has been stated, Peter Cooper's first model attained a speed of 18 miles per hour. According to statements that ought to be re garded as reliable Baldwin's SOld Ironsides' once attained a record speed of 60 miles an hour for a short distance, and other examples of high speed had several times been shown by the old-time locomotives. In fact, the real progress in locomotive development in the United States had not been marked by an in creased capacity for speed so much as by an increased hauling power. Instead of designing locomotives capable of breaking the speed record the American builders had been endeav oring to construct locomotives that would draw heavy trains at a steady rate of speed, and in this effort their success had been phenomenal. In the early nineties, however, there was a marked tendency to increase the speed of trains, especially on the principal Eastern lines. The following are some of the speed records made by American-built locomotives: In November, 1892, locomotive No. 385 —a Vauclain compound—running on the Philadel phia and Reading and the Jersey Central rail roads, between Philadelphia and Jersey. City, with a train of four heavy cars attached, at tained a speed equal to 97 miles per hour, by covering one mile in 37 seconds. On 19 July 1893, locomotive No. 682, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, accomplished the re markable feat of hauling a train of nine heavily loaded passenger cars from Winslow Junction to Pleasantville, a distance of 26 miles, in 22 minutes, which was equivalent to an average speed of 70.9 miles an hour. On 27 August
the same locomotive succeeded in hauling 17 loaded passenger cars the same distance in 27 minutes, or at an average speed of -57 miles per hour, a performance which was even more remarkable, considering the weight of the train attached.
On 11 Sept. 1895, the Empire State Express, on the New York Central Railroad, with its four cars, ran from New York to East Buffalo, a distance of 436% miles, in 4073i minutes, this being an average speed' of 64.26 miles per hour. In 1897, and for several years thereafter, the Philadelphia and Reading Rail road operated during the summer months a service in which trains of five or six passenger cars were hauled between Camden and Atlantic City, a distance of 55y, miles, in 48 minutes, and these runs were made with great regularity. The locomotives used for this purpose were of the Atlantic type, with Wootten boilers and 84-inch driving wheels.
On 9 July 1905, what is known as the Scott Special, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, left Los Angeles for a continuous trip to Chicago. The distance of 2,245 miles was covered in 43 hours and 55 minutes, making an average of 52 miles per hour for the entire distance, the highest speed officially recorded for a given distance being at the rate of 106.1 miles per hour.
During the past few years, the subject of electric traction has received considerable atten tion from railway managers, and several instal lations are in successful operation. Among these may be mentioned the New York Central, the New York, New Haven and Hartford and the Pennsylvania electrifications, in and about New York City; the electrification of the Pennsylvania's suburban service between Phila delphia and Paoli; and the electrification of the Hoosac Tunnel, on the Boston and Maine; of the Cascade Tunnel on the Great Northern Railway, and of the Saint Clair Tunnel at Detroit, on the Michigan Central Railroad. The tunnel electrification of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Baltimore should also be mentioned, as the first undertaking of this kind to be tried on an extensive scale. Two examples of heavy grade electrification—those of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway in the Rocky Mountains, and of the Norfolk and West ern Railway in the Elkhorn district—are notable as cases where through traffic is being moved over trunk line railways for consider able distances, using electricity as a motive power.