Rail Revolution

One day 70 years ago a Roxbury, Mass, clergyman had a large idea far removed from his pulpit. Coaching Harvard's crew for its first race with Yale had taught Rev. Samuel Calthrop how smoothly a racing shell slips through water. He knew that the chief resistance to a railway train at high speed was the atmosphere. Rev. Calthrop took pencil & paper, invented an "Air-Resisting Train" that was a perfect conception of aerodynamic streamlining. That was in 1865, and the "Air-Resisting Train" never got any further than the U. S. Patent Office. Like most basic inventions, it earned its owner nothing.*

Not until U. S. railroads were flat on their backs, did Rev. Calthrop's "Air-Resisting Train" come into its own. With nearly one-third of the country's Class I rail mileage in bankruptcy, with two-thirds of the passenger traffic lost since 1929 to motorcars, busses, airlines, something had to be done. The bogey of government ownership, long the subject of dark predictions by Federal Transportation Co-Ordinator Eastman, loomed ominously close with the introduction of a bill in the Senate fortnight ago to have the U. S. take over in January.

Last week, with the introduction of spring schedules and Daylight Saving Time, U.S. railroads were making a fresh bid to save their skins. Schedules were speeded up, fares slashed, air-conditioning increased. And exciting new equipment was being installed all over the country--so-called "neo-trains" which are exciting in performance as well as appearance. Some are Dieselectrics, some have streamlined electric engines, some are Iron Horses in new harness. All are fast, colorful, ultramodern.

Pennsylvania R. R., which completed electrification of its entire New York-Washington passenger service month ago at a cost of $200,000,000, put in service last week the first of 57 new streamlined electric locomotives which cost $250,000 each, can haul a heavy Pullman train 90 m.p.h. Pennsylvania hopes to save $7,250,000 a year in operating expenses through electrification, points with pride to its passenger traffic which last year showed a gain for the first time in a decade. To increase it still further,. Pennsylvania last week cut Broadway Limited's New York-Chicago time to 17 hr. (a reduction of 45 min.), lowered the extra fare from $10 to $7.50. Simultaneously New York Central did the same with its crack 33-year-old Twentieth Century Limited.*

First Dieselectric "neo-train" in regular service was on Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. Burlington's famed Zephyr, which has been making a daily round-trip between Kansas City and Lincoln, Neb. since last Armistice Day, has upped traffic 153% in two months. Pleased with the experiment, Burlington put its new Zephyr Twins in service last month between Chicago and the Twin Cities on a 6 1/2-hr. schedule. Zephyr Twins average 66 m.p.h., cost no more to run than large automobiles. Now building for Burlington is another stainless-steel streamliner, to be called Mark Twain, for the St. Louis-Burlington run.

The Zephyrs are not without competition. Month ago Missouri Pacific put a steam-drawn conventional train called The Marathon on a Kansas City-Lincoln schedule one minute faster than the Zephyrs. Chicago & North Western Ry.'s famed 400, a conventional steam train which covers 400 mi. in 400 min. on the Chicago-Twin Cities run, sliced a half hour from its schedule last week to meet the Zephyr Twins' competition.

To meet the challenge of both Zephyr Twins and 400, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific R. R. last week took delivery on the first specially-built streamlined steam locomotive in the U. S. Probably the world's fastest steam locomotive, it has a top-speed of 120 m.p.h., a guaranteed sustained speed of 100 m.p.h. Brilliantly decorated in red. yellow and grey, it rolled out of the American Locomotive Works at Schenectady last week to be christened Hiawatha. In the cab as it shoved through a red-white-&-blue veil were an engineer and fireman dressed in Indian war paint and feathers. Shipped to Chicago by freight. Hiawatha made its first run this week before going into Twin Cities service pulling a "speed-lined" train of six semi-lightweight welded-steel coaches, with a beaver-tail end car. An oil-burner covered with a smooth metal shell, Hiawatha represents Steam's greatest challenge to Dieselectric supremacy. Milwaukee officials believe their medium-weight train represents a proper compromise between the old heavyweight equipment (400) and the new-fangled light-weight Zephyr Twins. With all three types in service on the Chicago-Twin Cities route, railroaders will have a laboratory of U. S. passenger reaction.

The East got its first Dieselectric streamliner month ago when Maine Central-Boston & Maine R. R. put the Flying Yankee--an almost exact duplicate of the Zephyr--on a daily run between Boston and Bangor, Me. Fortnight ago, the East got its second "neo-train"--New York, New Haven & Hartford's Comet. Built by Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. of Akron as its first "Rail Zeppelin," The Comet made the fastest rail run in New England history--156 mi. in 143 min., non-stop between New Haven and Boston. A sleek blue-&-silver streak, The Comet is alike front & rear, has power plants at both ends, runs equally well in either direction. Built for service between Boston and Providence, it delighted New Haven's President Howard Shirley Palmer last week by making 110.5 rn.p.h.*

First experiment with Dieselectrics in transcontinental service will be made this month when Union Pacific's famed M10001 slices 18 hr. from the 54-hr. schedule between Chicago and Portland, Ore. The Pullman-built M-10001, which last autumn crossed the U. S. in record time at a fuel cost of $80, contains three sleeping-cars, a dining-lounge car and coach-buffet car. It has a new 1,200 h. p. Diesel engine, new trucks to eliminate vibration and sway. Later this year U. P. will operate eleven-car Dieselectrics between Chicago and California on a 40-hr, schedule. U. P.'s original Streamliner has been in regular operation since January between Kansas City and Salina, Kans.

First Dieselectric in the South will make its maiden run next week between New Orleans and Jackson. Miss. Gulf, Mobile & Northern R. R.'s decision to call its new train The Rebel raised a howl of protest from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Colonial Dames and many another touchy Southerner. Baltimore & Ohio R. R. will experiment with two lightweight streamlined locomotives--both steam--hauling lightweight streamline coaches. Known as Lord & Lady Baltimore, each is capable of 100 m.p.h.

* According to President Henry Jacques Gaisman of the Inventors' Foundation, millions are made only by simple, everyday articles. Thus, the collar-button and turndown clip has earned $3,000,000, the peg golf tee a like amount. The metal bottle cap earns a million dollars every year. Inventor Gaisman (Autograph Kodak, AutaStrop Razor) has made many a million, heads potent Gillette Safety Razor Co. For news of patents, see p. 52.

* Fastest airline schedule: TWA, 3 hr. 58 min.

* Far from delighted was President Palmer next day when derailment of a 40-car freight train on a Stamford viaduct completely paralyzed New York-New Haven passenger traffic, caused one of the worst Eastern railroad tie-ups in years. A split switch piled ten freight cars into a pyramid across four tracks, tossed a boxcar into the street 15 ft. below, fatally catapulted a trainman from a caboose, sent a heavy plank through the windshield of a passing bus, tied up traffic on the Boston Post Road, stalled 24 trains, blocked through traffic completely for six hours, made 15,000 commuters late for work, disrupted telephone and telegraph service for hours, delayed the opening of the State Legislature at Hartford more than an hour. It took ten wrecking crews 13 hr. to clear the debris. Few days later the New Haven's Legislative Special hit a truck at 60 m.p.h., killed the driver, injured three legislators.

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