Show MARVELOUS MAClilNE ON WUEELS Makes Railway Travel Safe and Increases the Speed of Express Trains t Special Correspondence or The Herald Xew York Oct 26In the yard of the Grand Central railway station there stands just now one of the most curious I railway cars in the country ExternallY i it is of such ordinary appearance that i I the uninformed passenger would not DIve it a second glance But it is well I known on every railway in the country It has been over almost every road from Maine to southern California The car belongs to Mr P H DUdley who is described as a track expert He and his wife have lived in it for 21 years They have traveled in it all over this country and Mexico It is lIr Dudleys I private ofIlce workshop and library it carries hi instruments books and other paraphernalia It Is Mrs Dud leys parlor dining room and kitchen it contains her piano her sewing machine ma-chine and general household utensils One end of 11 looks like a draughts mans office the other end resembles i for all the world a cozy little New York flatEvery Every person who rides comfortably and safely on railway trains has a direct di-rect interest in this constantly moving home of the Dudlors From it have emanated some of the most radical Improvements rovements that have been made in railroads during the past score of years In this car IIr Dudley invented invent-ed the Empire State Express which is capable of running at the rate of 0 mllea an hour That is he determined by means of his car and the instruments instru-ments within it the conditions of track and roadbed necessary for a continuous I speed of over amlleamlnute He has done similar service for several roads for he owes no allegiance to anyone I company In fact it is generally agreed that he 15 not to belong to any one system sys-tem His decisions gather weight from his independence He is the unbiased arbiter of disputes a traveling judge of the knotty problems of rail road Inr Attached to way trains expresses or I freights lis car is dragged over all the I roads while he makes reports on track conditions suggestions as to roIling stock or settles disputes which cannot bt settled without him He is enabled to do this by means of the machinery which he has invented and which is always al-ways at work within the car This machinery ma-chinery is really the most wonderful part of the outfit Part of it looks like a cylinder printing press Cams cogwheels cog-wheels hain belts and indicators reach down under the car and connect with the axles the wheels and even the track i itself When the car moves these con t trivances indicate and telegraph the condition of the roadbed up through the c floor of the car to the printing cylinder r where tllttle glass fountain pens write t an exact account of It all on long rolls of paper As the car moves lIr DUdley c can Sit and watch his fountain pens t t write down the undulation or rolling of t each track how much the car sways i from side to side how much grade up r or dvn there is how much space there is btWyeen the ends of two rails whether wheth-er one rail is higher or lower than the next even by a hundredth of an inch the number of revolutions of the wheels the speed of the train every ten seconds the distance traveled In case there is any discrepancy in the roadbed road-bed the auparatus not only records it on paper but it also drops a large spot I of yellow or black paint on the ties at the faulty spot so that the track hands may find and repair the fault without difficulty At every milepost a bell rings within the car It fact every marled singularity discrepancy or positive fault is noted by the fountain pens on the roll of paper If the general gen-eral manag of a system wishes to learn the exact condition of a roadbed he has merely to ask lIr Dudley for a record The Dudley hOfne is attached to a train and dragged over the road The machinery in the car operates itself it-self Mr Dudley writes or draws or otherwise occupies his time at his workbench work-bench for he is an inventor Mrs Dudley Dud-ley cook or plays the piano or sketches In water color for she is an artist At the end of the trip a long rol of mania paper is handed to the r general manager It is an absolutely correct record of tha condition of the roadbed Mr Dudley Is not a mere reporter of track and general roadbed conditions He is a civil engineer whose years of experience have made him an authority author-ity on mechanical railroldlng and hose scIentific researches have resulted result-ed in quickening the general speed of trains more than 50 per cent durIng I the last 20 ear In the early 701s he was employed by railroads in important import-ant branches of construction His business ocupled all of his time and night and day he was constantly on the move in quest of outlying wore It was a most uncomfortable existence r and not at all compatible with married life Then he was struck with the laea lfe Durhasing a car and living inlt t People lived in boats the year around whY not in car i Being a man of means the experiment I experi-ment was easily tried He bought a r wide substantial car of the frstcass r and fitted it up as a traveling home t The forward half he furnished as a cbin2d office and workshop Then he installed his desk his bookcases and his Instruments The other half her he-r fitted up ns a suite of living rooms t Mrs Dudley moved her square piano some furniture and picture Into the r rom next the office a folding bed and wardrobes filled up the next rom a dining and general living room held its quota of f Tlture and adjoining the kitchen just beyond was a backyard J back-yard and pantry made by closing in the rear platform of the car The fa inhliar furniture the pictures of ancestors ances-tors and friends on the walls and the general presence or household gods I gave this car a homelike air inside I that would not be suspected from without That was 21 years ago and wihout p the coule have lived in the car ever since That they like their mode of life can be judged from a remark made by r Dudley to the efect that not only did she enjoy her roving life but that now she could not be happy in any other In all thIs time not an at cident of any kind has happened to the coach and its owners have come to believe that such a thing could never occur Once Mrs Dudley left her ear and traveled a short distance In an ordinary or-dinary sleepIng car Fate ironically ordained that there should be a smashup smash-up and that the lady should sprain tier ankle Her escape was lucky enough but she now says that the safest place for her Is in her own home Constnlh moving about on railroads I rail-roads Mr Dudley could not help accumulating accu-mUlating a store of knowledge on the subjet As his knowlege extended over d period of years he was able to l male some valuale average of his Information In summing up he deduced de-duced a theory and formed an opinion of the rcquIrementn necessary for in I creasing the speed of modern trains yet keeping withIn the wide margin of i safety He became an advocate of solid radbes but his pet hobby Is very heavy rails or tracks Increase the size of your tracks he says and you 53S may increase the speed of YOUr tins In the days before very fat trains were known he was able to demonstrate demon-strate mathematcaly why this would be so Now lie cannot only point to fast trans running on heavy tracks but he has an instrment which mechanically me-chanically demonstrates the limitations of the conditions which exist during the passage of a fast train over a given point Formerly however he had to use the power of persuasion to carry his point It is sQething ef a feat to get a company to chang the weight of the tracks of its system It means I much expense to the company for just I I as a modern ofce buldiag must be I provide with especially substantial foundations so the SOpound rail requires re-quires a proportionate foundation advantage I ad-vantage over the 30pound specimen But Mr DUdley never stopped insisting insist-ing and gradually he had the gratification gratifi-cation of seeing the weight per yard jump from 40 pounds to 65 and fInally on some roads at the present day to SO I pounds The most significant result of this culmination was the Empire State I I and other very fast expresses Even here Mr Dudley has not paused in his j argument for heavy rais He has had manufactured and laid sections of rail weighing 100 pounds to the yard It is y I his Idea that on rails such as thee trains might be made to increase their speed until the muchtalkedof limit of 110 hundred miles an hour might be reached ricon I A person unacquainted with the acton ac-ton of steel when heavy weights are put upon it will be very apt to asle what difference the weight of a track would make In the eed of a train I It is in answer to just such a question as that and also for scientific demonstration demon-stration that Mr DUdley invented his stremmatograDh This Instrument is intended to be attached to the track I itself and is so sensitive In oDeraton that it will record exactly how hard each wheel of the train presses down on the track when the locomotive and cars pass along By means of the stremmatograph it is found that no rail can bear the passage of atraln over It and yet remain absolutely rigid I seems that railroad tracks move around under the assage of a lieavy train For instance the tracks bend down under the weight of each wheel and comparatively speaking bulge up between the front and rear wheels of each car until the section of rail under un-der the train undulates to a really remarkable re-markable extent All kinds of stresses are set up in the fber of the steel Atone At-one instant a small section of rail maybe may-be com ressed many thousands of pounds next instant that same part will be subjected to a state of tension which measured by thousands of pounds may be even greater than the compression This process is repeated over and over again as the train passes along The train even pushes the track u in front of the forward wheels of the locomotive that is the track rises in front of the wheels just a water does before the prow of a boat There are otherphenomena peculiar to tracks which add to the quota of rail Decul I antics But one can easily see how I they all assist in retarding the seed of a train Now according to the stremmatograph which was tried on trains running first on G5pound rails and then on SOpound rails the averse condition was much worse on the former for-mer than on the latter In short the 65pound rails were much more flexible and allowed the train to make a greater serIes of depressions In them that was possible with the more rigid SOpound rail For comparison a somewhat analogous condition confronts con-fronts two aerial ierformers one or erormers whom walks a slack wire the other the tight roe It is much easier to do the latter trIck Such a comparison may seem overdrawn but just such a condition con-dition exist in minutia in railway tracks of the welglts mentioned The rigidity of the track is then a paramount requirement and thIs Is what Mr Dudley seeks to prove wih his instrument Just how much a big locomotive will push a heavy track down below its ordinary level may be judged from the following On a special spe-cial section of 95pound rails laid on the Boston Albany railroad the de prsion made by a 100ton locomotive was measured The drIving wheels of this engine carried 7GOO pounds per pair but locomotives with much greater great-er weights on the drverare In use The depression under the front truck wheel of the engine was 00J of an Inch between the wheels 0086 of al inch and under the rear truck wheel 010 of an Inch In the wheel space between the engine truck and front driver the depressIon was 0088 of an Inch under the front driver OlZS of an inch In the wheel space between drIer drI-er 00 of an inch and under the rear driver It was 010 of an inch The tensions urder the front and rear truck wheels were respectively GiBO and 5340 pounds The tensions under the frontand rear drivers were respectively respec-tively 9160 and 9920 pounds Some miles of laOpound rails hav already ben laid and In order to show the advantage In their use a New York Central locomotive carrying 120 pounds on the drier was tried admeasure ad-measure first on 65pound rails and then on lOOpound rails The result wa as follows Glb rail l01 rail 1 I Compression in front ot driver 3071 lbs 1111 lbs Tension under front rhcr 519iH lbs 8031 lbs Compreslon between front and middle driver 2124 lbs 2831 lbs Tension under middle drle 2451bs 6819 lbs CompressIon between middle and rear drIver 2162 lbs 2s lbs Tension under rear rer drver 286 lbs 612 lbs The amazing diference hi the tension under the driving wheels of this locomotive loco-motive when used on tracks of different weights Is sufficient nrgumert in favor < w of the heavier kind But one other argument ar-gument has been placed on record It was at frt attempted to run the Empire Em-pire State Express on 65pound rails A continuous peed of GO miles an hour was accomplished with some difcult < 10 a train running aT the rt if 0 miles an hour moves forward S feet each second which is longer than the entire wheel base of the engine tucr and front truck of the frt coach and which would allow 1 wheels to run over a given point In the rail per second sec-ond Each of these wheels caused I stresses of several thousand pounds be shIes violent tremors and vibratons and the result sas a permanent set 11 the rails in numberless places lnt he linea condition which acted heavily lnea again high speeds As a mater of fact a 65pourd rail had to De replaced re-placed with SOpound rails since which I time the difficulty has greatly decreased de-creased The stremmatogr with which Mr Dudley makes his calculations apparently appar-ently is a very simple instrument Its I entJ principle Is to record on a moving strip of metal the molecular compreslun d I elongation of the rail as the train I passes over it As a mater of fact I the instrument Is firmly attacnea to lnC I edge of the rail surae at two poInts When a wheel passe over the small I section of rail between these two VOILS secton ri jhie elongation of the metal causes a I pen poInter to craw an irregular l I on the moving metal plate The irregularities irregu-larIties of the line correspond in size to the tensions and clmpleSSlon po i duce In the rail The line Is drawn in Ink and one can see on It the marle made by every wheel In the train from the big notches made by the drIvers to the small ones made by the wheels I of a caboose I Ii i I jI r i t lR = t I i I I I I 1dB DUDLEY INSPECTIOB CAll WOXEEOPAND ELECThIaAL APPARATUS This then Is the purpose of the Dudley Dud-ley car and these the occupations of its owner This homis one of the most curious on earth but its utility has been thoroughly proved The general public owes much of Its comfort In traveling t9 what has been evolved within the coach Doubtless in the year to come it will owe much more for Mr Dudley is indefatigable In search of new was to ride his hobby But even If he discovers nothing new henceforth the fact that he has rendered ren-dered possible and comfortable the mieamlnuteexpress should endear him forever to the great army of American travelers I THEODORE WATERS |