Changing Trains
at a Mile a Minute
|
How Way Passengers May Avail of the
Through Express
Even in this day of railroad wonders,
with engines that can spurt at the rate of
112 miles an hour, it seems a remarkable
idea that provides for passengers changing
cars on trains that run at the rate of
sixty miles an hour without the slightest
cessation of speed. It is just this that the
invention of Charles E. Dosser, a
well-known Syracuse man, makes possible of
accomplishment. He has designed a
wonderful traveling railroad station in
the form of a car with a vestibuled bridge
at the side.
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TRANSFERRING PASSENGERS ON FLYING TRAINS.
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Mr. Dosser's business takes him about
the country a great deal. In fact, he
makes his home largely on railroad trains.
Slow time and long waits have often been
his lot, and it was in trying to endure
these discomforts of the traveler's life
that the remarkable plan he proposes to
have executed arose in his brain, if only
some invention could be conceived by
which unfortunate passengers who long
for an express train but are fated to miss
it because they were at way stations could
gain their object humanity would be
benefited.
Then came the thought as to how a
change of cars could be effected without
delaying the express train; that is, a
change from the local to the limited.
After studying the subject for more than
a year, Mr. Dosser has just evolved an
invention which he hopes to see tried. It
provides for a limited train, or an express
that is unlimited, that shall run through
from New York to Chicago, for example,
without making a single stop, traveling
steadily at the rate of sixty miles an hour.
To bring this about he would have
auxiliary trains, each of which should pick up
passengers along 100 miles of territory.
Every train would be scheduled to be at a
certain station at the time the express was
due. By an arrangement with the
telegraph operator at the station beyond
which the auxiliary train was waiting, the
conductor thereof would receive notice
from the telegraph operator about five
minutes before the express arrived.
Then the auxiliary would pull out on
the track next to the one used by the
express and proceed to make time. The
time that It would try to make would be
sixty miles an hour, which would not be
a difficult task, because the engine of each
auxiliary train would be of the very best
class and capable of making high speed.
By the time the express was near the
auxiliary train the latter would be making
close to the desired speed, and both
engineers would regulate the time they were
making so as to run neck and neck. Now
comes the change of passengers.
The transfer-car of the auxiliary has on
its side a door which opens inward. Folded
close to the side of the car. just outside
this door, is what seems to be the ordinary
accordion-like coupling of a vestibule
train. There is, however, this difference,
it has no platform on which the passengers
are to walk. The vestibule coupling
is not directly on a line with the bottom
of the door, but about a foot above it,
fastened to two powerful arms of steel
which move up and down.
The express train, that stops for nothing
but accidents, also has a transfer-car in its
make-up. There is a door in the side of
this car, just as in the transfer-car of the
auxiliary. Outside, too, is the same
accordion-like vestibule, but in addition,
outside the vestibule and fastened to the
side of the car, the lower end resting upon
a stout arrangement of steel, is what
resembles the gangway of a big passenger
steamer, minus the railing.
Looking again at the transfer-car of the
auxiliary it will be noticed that just below
the door are two heavy sockets. A little
distance on each side of the door and
below the threshold are two more sockets
and on the transfer-car of the express is a
similar arrangement. Presently, when
the cars are running even and even, the
utility of, the invention is displayed.
From apertures in the side of each of the
transfer-cars steel bars appear — that is a
steel bar emerges from the right socket of
the express-car and from the left socket of
the auxiliary. These bars are pushed at
an angle, flat wise, so that when fitted in
the sockets on the two curs they are in
the form of the letter X and form most
substantial basis for a bridge. This done the
bridge is lowered from the express
transfer-car until its outer edge fits firmly into
the socket just below the threshold of the
door of the auxiliary car. Then the vestibule
coupling shoots out from each side
directly over the bridge and fits down
firmly upon it.
This is done in far less time than it takes
to relate the method of the invention and
now the transfer
of passengers from the
auxiliary to the express occurs. Both
trains are running at sixty miles an hour
all this while and the passengers walk
across from the auxiliary to the express
just as easily and comfortably as if they
were passing from one car to another in a
vestibule train.
The transfer complete, it is an easy
matter to replace the apparatus as it was
before the transfer took place.
Another necessary proceeding which
Mr. Dosser's invention provides for is the
transfer of baggage, and this takes place
in a similar manner to the transfer of
passengers. The vestibule is not quite so
elegant, but it is constructed from the
standpoint of strength rather than
appearance. The baggage is wheeled from
one train to another in the same manner
as it is hustled about a railroad station,
and as the time for the transfer of passengers
and baggage is limited in each case
to ten minutes there is no time to waste.
The equipment of the trains under these
circumstances must be the very best, and
it will be an absolute necessity that the
roadbed be almost faultless, for any
unusual variation in motion or an ugly
jump would be apt to have a bad effect on
the trains and result in disaster.
The feat of running a train 96O miles
without a change of engine has rarely if
ever been accomplished. Add to this the
fact that no stoppage is to be made for
either coal or water, and it can readily be
seen that Mr. Dosser's invention verges on
the marvelous. He proposes to have an
engine built with a tender that is like
nothing ever constructed of its sort in the
matter of size. Of course the fact that
there would be no stop and hardly any
slackening of speed would, in a measure,
reduce the usual consumption of coal by
the locomotives that are ordinarily
required to pull a train the distance
mentioned. It is proposed, however, that this
new tender shall be of sufficient size and
capacity to contain all the coal necessary
for the mammoth run. Water will be
taken from tanks beside the track stretching
along some distance, after the fashion
of the Pennsylvania fast trains.
This train that Mr. Dosser proposes to
have all records distanced by will of
necessity have improvements that genius
has still to conceive. For instance, the
engine must have especially constructed
journals on which provision is made to
avoid heating. Mr. Dosser proposes that
they shall be heavier and provided with
automatic oil cups, from which is to flow
a steady supply of oil. By a system of
pipes it is proposed to have these oil cups
constantly replenished from the cab of
the engine, an ordinary stop cork regulating
the flow.
Mr. Dosser is very enthusiastic over his
invention, and believes there is no doubt
of its success if it is given a fair trial.
