Show RAPID RUNNING the high kate of speed attained by fast trains railroads were first introduced the engineers as we call them or the engine drivers as they are called in england ran their trains almost as they liked making up time when they had fallen behind picking ap information as they could as to the state of the track ahead of them and for the most part plunging ahead with their machines without much more than a surmise whether they should bring lip at their destination beat the bottom of some high embankment some of the results of this want of system says youths companion would have been amusing i they had not been disastrous mr laurence oliphant an english traveler arid author tells in one of his crooks a rather grim story of a trip which he made by rail in 1855 from chicago to new york over a part of the distance the train made the extraordinary tra speed for thai time of fifty miles an hour and presently it ran off the track fortunately the cars were im bedded in a soft clay ditch and ho one was seriously hurt and of the commotion mr Oliphant says he heard the engineer thus admonish the switchman whose carelessness had caused the accident ow tom this is the third time youve forgot to set thai switch and the lasi time there was people went under and the rest was bruised so mind what youre about an d dont forget that switch again for if you do ill tell the boss in the course of time it was found necessary to limit the running of trains to a very strict system which almost makes the engineer a part of his machine but even as late as within the past two years races between express trains running between london and edinburgh have been run and great interest has been shown in the results of the contests in france steam races arc not permitted instead an official test of the power speed and steadiness of loco motives on different lines of the republic has been made lately and a prize awarded to the winner locomotive no col of the chemin de fer de fest or eastern railroad in this test several locomotives without any load to pull attained a speed of from seventy five to eighty five miles an hour the locomotive no just spoken of accomplishes regularly the feat of hauling at full speed the heavy trains of the swiss express between rheims and delle at a single pull a distance of about two hundred and forty miles the engine always arrives after this long haul with steam still on and in perfect running condition the maximum speed which french passenger trains are permitted to make is about seventy miles an hour and this is uncommon in england the fastest schedule time is sixty miles an hour though in some of the races seventy five miles an hour have been made there are regular freight trains in england which make a speed of from thirty to forty miles an hour in germany the ordinary speed of passenger trains is only about thirty five to forty miles an hour and this is probably about the average rate of speed in other european countries in the united states the speed of trains varies so much on different rail ways and in parts the country that it is practically impossible io strike an average thirty ato forty miles an hour is regarded as a very good rate amt a speed of from sixty to seventy five miles an hour is often attained by fast trains under special circumstances cum stances |