Monday, June 2, 2014

Misc. Railroad Related News from 1898

What I find interesting about some of this news, is one, the prices being paid, two, the news that was selected for those reading the Railway Locomotives and Cars. This journal is filled with all kinds of engineering information as well as practical info on locations and expansions of the various railroads.

MISCELLANEOUS. The Pratt & Whitney Company of Hartford are working day and night to turn out machinery for making rapid-flre machine guns.
A new Union Station for Pittsburg is being planned. It will be on the site of the present one, and will cost $3,000,000. The tracks will be elevated.
Messrs. Manning, Maxwell & Moore have received an order for a 72-inch Pond planer for the Davis-Egan Company. The planer will have four heads and a 40-foot table.
Magnesia Sectional Covering, furnished by the Keasbey & Mattison Co. of Ambler, Pa., was furnished for the steam motor car built by the Schenectady Locomotive Works for the Erie
Japan is reported to be about ready to order material and equipment for a large foundry to be built and operated by the government, the amount of foreign orders for which will be about $2,250,000.
The Rushnell Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of car seats for steam, elevated, electric and cable railroads, have opened an office at 43 Cedar street New York, where all correspondence should be addressed to Mr. E. M. Bushntll, Vice-President of the company.
The Edward P. Allis Company, of Milwaukee, has an order for six vertical cross-compound condensing engines, with cylinders 46x 86 in. by 60 in. stroke, for the Metropolitan Street Railway of New York. The engines will weigh about 1,000,000 pounds each, and it will require over 125 freight cars to transport the six engines to New York.
The buildings at the works of Messrs. Siemens & Halske, in Charlottenburg, Germany, occupy nearly 270,000 square feet of ground, and the number of employees is 4,000. There are 1.366 machine tools in the shops driven by shafts and belting, while 444 others are driven by direct connected electric motors. There are 472 electric motors in regular use at these works.
The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway Co. has changed its dining car system from the table d'hote to the a la carte plan with the result of increased profits, better service and greater satisfaction on the part of patrons. The cars are open for business during the entire time they are on the train, and the innovation seems to have met with the approval of the passengers.
Car curtains in the form of roller shades with a leather-like surface upon one side and a textile fabric on the other are being introduced by the Pantasote Company to replace slatted blinds. This material is impervious to moisture and not affected by rain or sponging, heat or frost. It does not fade, shrink or stretch, and Is especially adapted to car seats, for which It has for a long time been used.
A belt dressing that prevents slipping and preserves the life of the leather is offered by the Joseph Dixon Crucible Co. of Jersey City, N. J. Belts are usually tightened on the first appearance of the slipping, and tight belts are known to wear rapidly. This dressing has had a good and a long record, having been used at the Paris Exposition in 1878 on the chief belt in the machinery department at that exhibition.
There are large tracts of coal lands near Meyersdale, Pa., on the Baltlimore & Ohio Railroad which capitalists are beginning to develop. A new road about five miles long has been pushed into this region and will soon be ready for operation. It is one of a number of small lines that are being built by outside parties to develop hitherto inaccessible tracts of both coal and timber lands in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
It is stated on good authority that the O, M. & St. P. Ry. will soon change certain of its suburban lines to electric traction. The Evanston division has been the subject of considerable investigation in this connection, and the plan likely to be adopted is to connect with the Northwestern Elevated, which will bring the suburban line in direct communication with the city streets by means of the Union Loop. This would be an ideal plan.
Mr. D. M. Brady, of the Brady Metal Company, informs us that his company furnished the Magnus Metal bearings for the cars and engines used in the fast newspaper train which ran from Jersey City to Buffalo over the Erie Railroad on Saturday, February 15, a distance of 425 miles, in 426 minutes of actual running time. He also states that Magnus metal Is now In use on 6,827 locomotives and 235,242 cars in various parts of the world.
A new boiler, called the Paragon boiler, especially designed for yachts, tugs and canal steamers, has Just been patented in the United States and Canada by Capt. M. DePuy, 19 South street, New York. Its claims are for specially good circulation and favorable arrangement of heating surface, as well as simpllcity of construction and accessibility for cleaning and repairs. The inventor has had a long experience .with marine boilers, and has used it in this design.
The cars for the two new express trains for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry., now building by the Barney & Smith Car Company, will be equipped with the Two-Coil, Jolntless Steel, Fire Proof Baker Heater. Mr. Baker reports that he has just furnished 28 Single-Coil Fire Proof Heaters for the Great Northern Railroad's new cars, building by the same firm. The Louisville & Nashville, Missouri Pacific and Pennsylvania lines have also been liberal buyers of his fire proof heaters during the last few months.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad has purchased 10,000 tons of 80-pound steel rails for the lines west of the Ohio River. The order will be divided between the Central Ohio, the Chicago and the Lake Erie Divisions, and will make that portion of the system a fit companion for the lines east of the Ohio, which are rapidly being placed in the best shape. About 15,000 tons of the 40,000 bought last Summer for the main line will be placed in the tracks this Spring, giving the Baltimore. & Ohio new rail from the Ohio River to tidewater.
The Page Woven Wire Fence Company at Ontario has recently received orders for 200 miles of fence for use on the Atlantic & Lake Superior Railway, for 42 miles on the Pembroke Southern, and for a carload for the Intercolonial Railway. The Niagara Cataract and Power Company has also ordered a carload. Beside these orders regular requisitions from railroads amount to several times as much, and the farm trade is also very large and growing rapidly. The order for the Atlantic & Lake Superior road amounts to about 30 carloads of fencing.

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