F. LOCOMOTIVE POWER

Coal Trains

The coal trains on the London and North-Western, Midland, and Great Northern Railways generally consist of from thirty to thirty-five waggons, weighing from 5 to 5 1/2 tons each, and carrying a load of 8 tons of coal. At this rate the total load of coal for thirty-five waggons weighs 280 tons, and, adding the weight of the brake-van at the end of the train, 10 tons 17 cwt., the maximum gross weight of train is 483 tons 7 cwt., as on the Great Northern Railway. This train is taken by a goods engine with six-coupled wheels 5 1/2 feet in diameter, having two steam cylinders 17 1/2 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 26 inches, and a pressure of 140 lb per square inch in the boiler. The locomotive weighs in working order 36 tons 18 cwt., and the tender with fuel and water 30 tons 17 cwt., making together 67 tons 15 cwt. for the locomotive and tender. The gross weights are as follows:—

These large coal trains are taken at a speed of 18 miles per hour, on ascending inclines of 1 in 178 at 10 miles per hour. The consumption of coal as fuel in the engine is at the rate of 45 lb per mile run, including the coal consumed in getting up steam. Mr. Patrick Stirling, the locomotive engineer of the Great Northern Railway, has also designed and constructed still more powerful engines, having six-coupled 5 feet wheels, with cylinders 19 inches in diameter and of 28 inches stroke. These engines are capable of taking a train of forty-nine loaded coal-waggons, weighing with brake-van 672 1/4 tons. Including the weight of the engine and tender the total gross load is, say, 740 tons, taken with a consumption of 50 lb of coal per mile run. This is probably the most extraordinary example of a dead pull on an ascending incline of 1 in 178. It is equivalent to a gross weight of 1816 tons on a level. It was found that this train was too long for some of the sidings, besides fouling both the level crossings in the city of Lincoln; hence the train was reduced in number to forty-five waggons. Six-coupled goods-engines of the usual proportion, working at full power, exert a tractive force of from 5 to 6 tons in the direction of the rails, equal to the movement of a gross weight of engine, tender, and train of from 1240 to 1500 tons on a level straight line at a speed of 15 miles per hour, or to from 386 to 463 tons on a level straight line at a speed of 60 miles per hour. A tractive force of 10 or 12 lb is capable of drawing 1 ton on a level at 10 miles per hour. At 60 miles per hour the required tractive force is about 45 lb for 1 ton of gross weight.





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