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Show I Rogers' Dream Is No w a Reality I I in railroading was r when a coal trnlp. a. length, was hauled jt the Irginlan rall-a, rall-a, Vn., lo Sowell's lk. At nn average ;ccn miles an hour. :oiiplcd Virginia, son-124. son-124. S miles In nine ittes, and showed to ts of tho world new 3" b a loW-grade coal li charKO of W. U. , Rollins, llremnn, cbnductoiv and had earing 6G00 net tons told, at Slo.iilO. tho t 8:55 n'.clock In the il at Sowell's Point, b James river, at 1 D' this achievement, tblo ono in railroad nry HuddloKlon Rog- Oil company is de-rlflccd de-rlflccd much of his I possibly to have ;vn death The story i-otlon to the stupen-n stupen-n of the Deepwatcr-, Deepwatcr-, later the Virginian itiRiial enterprise and ;ho sacrifices of Mr.. best appreciated In sent accoinpllshnient. vo miles of the coal ter wore .laid out, in lo thought of a lino rahontas coal fields tul of 442 milos of t It was conjectured d. eventually extend cgiojis between deep l. and act as a spur sapeakc & Ohio rall-th rall-th the lumber dlsrict- .Eogers Did. tiP a coh trolling factor In IL?Jrstood, however, the nd-awtln-ough route to Tldc-ar Tldc-ar tho present eastern yould open dp 2.000.000 is coa! lands. Ho un-, un-, a complete survey tidewater, a distance ad mileage from New nerally rough charac-- charac-- it was obvious that would be exceedingly Ineers (tho two terml-i) terml-i) wero told to con-best con-best route the conning conn-ing a maximum grade .. per cent. From the st Virginia. Roanoko t where tho line had mala Idea to consider : coaling facilities. As liar plan was hit upon l standard was to be ould be used over tho e standards covered a ms. such as stations, erts and crossings. :onducilng this survey : Virginia was greatly t would have been had en marked out. Pre-rldges. Pre-rldges. genuine sierras profile, narrow, tor-iptd tor-iptd mountan streams, onsions with the sea-lltles sea-lltles which seemed at )le, on Is Bcgim. jjfaeny discouragements, bo-oifcegular bo-oifcegular country and the SBjttom land in many of the VJhe construction of the Wfwatcr routo was underpin under-pin 1007 the work had cx-fSlo cx-fSlo the Allcghanies. Mr. JJfhat funds were needed to f ;000 estimated for the en-J'jibut en-J'jibut tho want camo at a jSfao time. W;bear market of the spring Jj'; Internationa I disturbance srxtened liquidation and re-r.Mtll re-r.Mtll securities. Standard OH 'pressed, and the Rogers rjfjoromonly placed at $100.-aiy $100.-aiy mot heavy losses. Al-,khey Al-,khey markets of the world "alnd credit was universally lwC?e Inflation of industrial Rogers set out to borrow iljwpen his enormous holdings ufud Influence, however, did Jfelat this crisis, and to save railway he was obliged to Scftpen money market and incest securities. These ln-ft'Jkd ln-ft'Jkd Oil. Consolidated Gas. JCopper and Union Pacific. Mfrtpaid. 14 per cent, figured ,?Anormal rate, and his por-jMT por-jMT was deman(lccl on all' Tfewater Loan. SJSl the handwriting on the '31(1 in Wall street at the 'Slvent, it was the Tldcwa-JSaflB' Tldcwa-JSaflB' credited with hastcn-7tB- death. In the summer Iwfllowing he had his llrst iEpxy- Three months later -2Tk or Trust company panic turning on the light at power houso had spread '(jjjtthroughout the financial sUMl to New York. While 5"fty; quarters closed their WJgers fortune crumbled 'jam Pacific sold at $100 a -fstm from the top price 'iVl winter. Millions were Sail hand of K. II. Rogers -wiWenkencd on every side, FeBt Its leadership, and the Morgans once more became the masters bv saving Wall street from utter ruin. Today the bulk of the Rogers estate lies In the roadbed, rails and equipment of the Virginian railwnv. II, H. Rogers. Ote younger, a iran 01 30 years old, is the solo owner, and in that ' respect occupies oc-cupies a peculiar position in tho railroad world. Ills father, unable, notwithstanding notwithstand-ing his groat natural vigor, to survive the shock occasioned by his financial loss, died on May lfl last, following another attack of apoplexy. The younger man, ,vho, largely by virtue of his ownership of the Virginian railway, seems likely to bocomc one of the world's richest men, has had a thorough training for tho responsibilities re-sponsibilities which have fallen upon his shoulders. Already ho has become president, presi-dent, treasurer and a director in the Staton Island Midland railway, assistant secretary, treasurer and a director In the Richmond Light and Railroad company; secretary, treasurer and a director of the Atlantic Coast Electric railroad; a director direc-tor of tho New Jersey Statcn Island Ferry company and tho Southflcld Beach Railroad company, and ho holds respon-slhle respon-slhle places In several other corporations Identified with his father's Interests, Besides young Mr. Rogers watching1 tho record haul of December 10, wero hln hrother-in-law, Urban II. Broughton. president of the railway; Raymond Du-Puy, Du-Puy, vice president and general manager,1 and several others of tho company' officials. of-ficials. Total Weight of Train. The toUil weight of the mile-Ion train between engine and caboose. Including f-oal, .was 9120 tons. Each car carried llfty-fivo tons, which Included a 10 per. cent overload, for the ordinary capacity of this type of gondola Is placed at. fifty tons. The engine vn3 of tlio Mallet compound articulated type, and Jt carried car-ried 205 pounds of steam, consuming twelve tons of coal during the run. No coal was' taken enrou to. although several stops wero made, causing a total delay of fifty-four minutes. The actual rur. ning rime was eight 'hours and . eleven minutes. The most marked feature of the engine, which Is one of the largest types constructed. con-structed. Is a leading two-wheeled truck and tho absence of a trailing truck -at the reur. The engine weighs on the drivers 30E000 pounds, and on the front truck ISiOOO pounds; the tender, weighing when loaded lfi3.000 pounds, has a capacity ca-pacity of 0500 gallons of water and llf-teet llf-teet tons of coal. The high pressure cylinders of tho engine arc twentv-'two incites in diameter hy thirty Inches stroke, nnd tho low pressure cylinders arc thirty-nvc inches diameter by thirty Inches stroke. The driving wheels aro twelve In number, and each measures fifty-four inches in diameter The pressure pres-sure of the boiler Is 205 pounds; the total to-tal heating surface Is 5C5.9 square feet, and tho grate area Is fifty-seven Fquarc feet. Tho boiler contains 374 flues, two and a quarter Inches in diameter and nineteen feet six Inches in length. The total calculated cylinder tractive effort of the engine Is figured at 70.800 pounds. First Test Haul. Last June a test haul of eighty cars on. the Virginia railway from the summit of the Alleghanies to Tidewater; fulfilled requirements for the two-tenths of 1 per cent grade. The weight of the coal carried car-ried at this time was -S310 long tons. Early last fall this record was broken by a train of 100 cars carrying almost exactly 5500 tons of . coal. There was a total weight behind the engine of 75G2 tonsj Tho trair was made up at tho assembling yards in tho usual way and turned out wlthjput any special preparation. Long trains were first used in the summer, "and trains numbering eighty and ninety steel cars have been ,,runnlngJ regularly since. Records of these runs havo been, kept by R. P. C. Sanderson, superintendent of tho motive power of tho railway com- Bridges Sustain Great Wolght. Tho rule allowing a maximum grade of 0.2 per cent, compensated for ' curves against oustboimd traffic, was followed jH In the construction of the road from tlio assembling yards at Princeton to ScwgU'h IH Point, vlth the exception of a pusher grade on the western slope of the Alio-ghanles. Alio-ghanles. All bridges and trestles can carry cars of 100.000 pounds capacity hauled by locomotives which can pull a. gross weight of C00O tons back of tho tender. High trestlcn and heavy cuLs and' fills testify, to the mammoth engineering difficulties encountered in the perfecting of the low grade. The cuLs vary from A height of fen to eighty fect. and ono bridge at Black Lick, near Princeton, W. Va,. 1100 feet long, reaches a height of 203 feet. One cut near Monctn. required tiic excavation of '.'60,000 cubic yards of earth .and rock In a distance of four miles.' Hard Work for Train Grow. Train crews on the long, winding cara-vans cara-vans of steel which now regularly follow the former's Deepwater-Tldewater routo find several hardships Incidental to their service. One is the matter of sjgnnllng, I Because of the great distance "between their outposts the crew members, nuin-boring nuin-boring only half a dozen, cannot readily make themselves understood by one an-other. an-other. The direction of waving arms Is not apparent half a mile away, partlcu-larly partlcu-larly In misty weather, and in case of sudden emergency the very length of tho train affords considerable chance of seri-ous seri-ous mishap. A system of air signals by whistles, such as is employoU on pas-songer pas-songer trains, may be provided to obviate tho danger. IH Want Cabooses Padded. On account of,the surging of tho latter part of the train the men posted at the rear arc obliged to hold fast most of tho time, and when the train is traveling at Its maximum speed the men In tho caboose arc pitched violently against the sides at ovcry tnrn. It is said that a petition has been framed by some of tho crews to havo each caboose padded; oth-erwlse oth-erwlse painful injuries are likely to rg-suit. rg-suit. Those to whom credit is due for tho engineering of the Virginian railway aro IT. Fernstrom. Raymond DuPuy, vico president,' "William Page of Tidewater: Dr. J. O. Green of Deepwater. B. T. El-more, El-more, assistant chief engineer. L. R. IH Taylor and E. Gray. Jr.. assistants; P. F. Harrington, engineer of bridges, and C. VM H. Stengel, designing engineer. vM |
