Tow line

“ As the pilot or truck wheels enter a curve, a sidewise movement is given to the truck, in consequence of the engine and drivers continuing to travel as a tangent to the curve of the track. This movement, and the slight turn of the whole truck on the kingbolt, not only causes the wheels to travel correctly on the track, with their axles parallel to the radical line of the curve of track, but also elevates the outer side of the engine, preventing any tendency to run off the track upon the outer side of the curve. ”

“ In regard to any special repairs, or other emergencies of the traffic, he shall be under the direction and obey the instructions of the engine-driver.
31. When any part of the line is under repair, care shall be taken that the surface of the rails is kept clear of ballast grit, and that the free passage of trains is in no way obstructed.
32. When it is necessary to remove a sleeper, a red flag shall be set up between the rails in such a position that the engine-driver can discern it from a distance of at least 150 yards in each direction. Such flag shall remain until the line is made good. ”

“ It is a great advantage to the ordinary traffic to have the cars moving always in the same direction on the same line of rails.
Points and crossings.For horse traction fixed points of chilled cast-iron or steel are sufficient, as the driver can turn his horses and direct the car on to either line of rails. When mechanical power is used, drop points or movable points are required. In the former the groove leading into the road to be taken is of the full depth, and the other groove shallow, so that the engine and cars naturally take the former. ”

“ No wagon or car shall (under a penalty of 1s.) be moved by hand on to or along the main line, except by special arrangement with the engine-driver; and the term “main line” shall be understood to include every part of the railway not being a siding or within a terminal yard.
6. Hand shunting of vehicles on sidings shall be done carefully, so as to avoid injury to the rolling stock; but no vehicle shall be moved at all except by an authorised person. ”

“ The boys become very expert at this part of the business, but sometimes suffer severely while learning, in consequence of having their hands caught by the spikes on the cylinders as they revolve. The tow is collected and carried to the card room, which is equally bad in regard to dust as the heckling room. After the tow has been carded, it is ready for spinning. I believe that tow is invariably spun dry. ”

“ The velocity with which all these little parcels are booked, weigh-billed, placed into hand-trucks, wheeled off to their respective vans, packed, locked up, and then despatched down the little branch-rail to the main line, on which is the train ready to convey them, is very surprising. ”

“ When in full work, about a thousand pairs, and we send them to all parts of the world too. These are for the Madrid and Alicante, and these for Valparaiso; these are for Italy, and these again for India. That set of wheels is part of an order for a Russian railway, and as you will observe, though only intended for the trucks used in making the line, they are of wrought iron, and equal to many that are used in ordinary traffic. ”

“ It is absolutely necessary to utilize our facilities to the maximum and to extend the use of the highways by the more efficient use of motor vehicles which can operate independent of fixed lines or terminals where congestion of traffic is likely to occur. The motor truck can help the railroad by reducing the short-haul load, and also act as a feeder line in sections far removed from market. ”

“ The cars and wagons are on the same scale, and the first impression of the diminutive iron horse awakens doubts as to whether it is safe to trust oneself to its care. But see that self-same engine busy at work hauling a train of 7 passenger coaches, a guard’s van, 10 goods wagons and 100 or more empty slate trucks, stretching out for a length of 1,200 feet and representing a total load of 110 tons, out of Portmadoc, bound for the quarries, and disdain gives way to complete admiration. ”

“ No one is on the platform. When the train comes to a standstill, I slip off to the ground. Ahead, and between me and the engine, are two moving lanterns. The shacks are looking for me on the roofs of the cars. I note that the car beside which I am standing is a "four-wheeler"--by which is meant that it has only four wheels to each truck. (When you go underneath on the rods, be sure to avoid the "six-wheelers,"--they lead to disasters.)
I duck under the train and make for the rods, and I can tell you I am mighty glad that the train is standing still. ”

“ Experience alone will decide the point. The only danger, in my mind, that is to be apprehended, is the injury which roads may sustain by the possibility of the wheel which is acted upon by the Engine, turning round without propelling the carriage, in which case the road would suffer considerably; and this would take place, if a train of Carriages were attached to the Engine, the draught of which was more than the friction or gripe of the Engine-wheel on the surface of the road. ”

“ The darting flash of wagons, brittle and uproarious of wheel over the asphalt’s crevices or the weave of tracks. The heavier trucks, plunging along with perched, gesticulating drivers, that gave forth their rumble like a flood of undertone shot through with lighter notes. The dull-rhythmed matrix—the crowd’s shuffle—wherein the metallic urge of cars, the tangent flurries of light wheels, the impress of thick masses glowed and hummed and pounded while the air swung response. And through it all, catching it up, knitting it together, the web—the web whereof now Quincy grew aware. ”

“ It has been stated by a previous Witness, that a Carriage of the weight of two tons propelled by Steam drew after it another Carriage weighing nine tons; what should, from your experience, be the breadth of the tire of the wheel of the propelling Carriage and the Carriage drawn?—Looking solely to the welfare of the road. I should prefer a wheel of four inches and a half, flat on the tire, to any other class of wheel that can be made, being of opinion that a greater breadth of wheel cannot at one time touch the surface of a well-formed turnpike road. ”

“ The car tracks, therefore, are laid at the side of the street, by which plan car and vehicular traffic have room to move together, but only in one direction. To make matters worse, a "trailer," or two cars, are in use on many of the lines. A sidewalk fender is secured to the rear platform of the front car and to the forward platform of the "trailer." ”

“ The line being thus double will permit the cars—some four hundred in number—to run to and fro continuously, urged on their way by current picked up from overhead wires. Each car is to have twelve wheels, four drivers arranged vertically and eight horizontally, to prevent derailment by gripping the rail on either side. ”

“ I try to crawl over the top of the truck, between the truck and the bottom of the car. But the space is not large enough for me to squeeze through. This is new to me. Down in the United States I am accustomed to going underneath on rapidly moving trains, seizing a gunnel and swinging my feet under to the brake-beam, and from there crawling over the top of the truck and down inside the truck to a seat on the cross-rod. ”

“ Although the freight and express traffic of those days lacked the picturesqueness of the passenger coaches, nothing illustrates so conclusively what the great road meant to an awakening West as the long lines of heavy Conestogas and rattling express wagons which raced at "unprecedented" speed across hill and vale. Searight, the local historian of the road, describes these large, broad-wheeled wagons covered with white canvas as
visible all the day long, at every point, making the highway look more like a leading avenue of a great city than a road through rural districts.... ”

“ A one-horse wagon—for nothing was buggy then, but neglected bedsteads—artistically bilious, and striped like a beetle, with a paneled box high before and behind, like an inverted chapeau, and a seat with a baluster back, softened and graced with a buffalo robe, warm in winter—and in summer also—was one of the wheeled wonders of my boyhood. No sitting in that wagon like a right-angled triangle—room in front for any possible length of leg, and a foot-stove withal—room behind for two or three handfuls of children, and a little hair-trunk with a bit of brass-nail alphabet on the cover. ”

“ One test of the wear by horses' feet will be in the wear of towing-paths for canals, and the railway roads where horses are employed'; in either of those cases, the number of horses which pass along is so small, that no turnpike roads afford any example of comparison, and yet the wear of towing and railway paths is found to be considerable. ”

“ Have you observed what the proportion is of the damage done by four horses drawing a Coach and the four wheels of a Coach?—I cannot say that I: have made any observation upon that further than the tear and wear of the shoes, and the tire. I have seen the ruts in a narrow road and the horses' path between them; viewing these and viewing the towing path on the side of a Canal and between the rails of a Railroad. I should think that the horses do fully more harm than the wheels.
Do you think that the action of the horses' feet on a towing-path will do more injury than on a road?—Yes ”

“ The Cars for this railway will have their trucks constructed alike, and it is a simple matter to transform a car from one style into another. Figure 79 shows a top view of a truck. For the bed of this cut a three-eighths-inch board twelve inches long by two and one-quarter inches wide, and, after rounding the ends as shown in the drawing, cut a mortise at A and B two and three-eighths inches from either end. ”

“ And now we begin to open up the wilder part of Tweed's valley, where not so many years ago you might go a long way, and for miles see no human being but a passing shepherd. It is different now, in these days when motor-cars, leaving behind them a trail of dust as ugly as the smudge of a steamer's smoke low down on the horizon, rush along what used to be the finest of old grass-grown coach-roads, smooth as a billiard-table and free from any loose metal—swept bare now to the very roots of the stones by the constant air-suction of passing cars. ”

“ The very wheels beneath you trundle along in an indistinct fashion, and the engine has a wheeze instead of a whistle. It is as if the railway dictionary had been run over by the cars a number of times, and there was nothing left for the owners but to serve out the fragments to passengers. The brakeman of a train holds, all things considered, the post of honor, because the post of danger. The locomotive talks to him all day, and, as a rule, that is about the only individual with whom he holds much conversation. ”

“ No commercial motor vehicle, trucktractor, trailer, or semi-trailer shall be operated on the public highway outside of the limits of an incorporated city or town with a load exceeding seven thousand (7000) pounds on any such vehicle or train or combination of vehicles; and no motor vehicle, commercial motor vehicle, truck-tractor, trailer or semi-trailer having a greater weight than six hundred (600) pounds per inch width of tire upon any wheel concentrated upon the surface of the highway shall be operated on the public highways outside of the limits of an incorporated city or town ”

“ MOTOR-CARS AND PUBLIC HIGHWAYS
Who can place a limit to the development of motors! The time may arrive when tram lines will disappear, the roads themselves being of steel and forming a broad rail upon which self-propelled coaches, omnibuses, cabs, and cars will ply in every direction, and far and wide into the suburbs. ”

“ Do you think it essential that the wheels of Steam Carriages should follow in the same track, provided they have a proper breadth of tire?—Not at all, as regards the injury to the road; it would require more power to work them if the wheels did not follow in the same track. ”

“ Trucks, delivery wagons, ice-wagons, etc., frequently stop back of the line of parked automobiles in the street restricting the way and causing all passing vehicles to go over to the wrong side of the street thus congesting traffic and furnishing a source of danger. ”

“ In practice it is found that in shunting by gravitation, no two trucks run exactly alike, some railway companies and private owners keeping their stock in better order than others, and much depending upon the precise condition of the tyres and axle-boxes, the length of the wheel base, the nature of the load, and the description of brake gear employed. Strong winds also affect the running, especially of covered vans lightly loaded ”

“ The leading wagons follow him so nearly round the circle, that but a wagon length separates them. Each wagon follows in its track, the rear closing on the front until its tongue and ox-chains will 159 perfectly reach from one to the other, and so accurate the measurement and perfect the practice, that the hindmost wagon of the train always precisely closes the gateway. As each wagon is brought into position, it is dropped from its team (the teams being inside the circle) , the team unyoked, and the yokes and chains are used to connect the wagon strongly with that in its front. ”