‘I62

AMERICAN ENGINEER AND RAILROAD JOURNAL.

 

TRUCKS FOR 80,000—POUND CARS.

Cast Steel Truck and Body Bolsters.

Delaware & Hudson Canal Company.

Through the courtesy of Mr. R. C. Blackall, Superintendent
of Machinery of the Delaware. & Hudson Canal Company, We
are enabled to illustrate the design of trucks with cast steel
truck and body bolsters, used under a number of gondola cars
of 80,000 pounds capacity. ’

This truck is of the arch bar type, with the column guides
and spring seats combined in steel castings. The spring plank
is in the form of a 12 by 20-inch channel. The whole arrange-
ment was designed with a view of reducing the number of
separate pieces to the minimum and at the same time to pro-
duce a structure that would be sufliiciently strong to permit of
carrying the load entirely upon the center plates. The bol-
sters and other steel castings were designed and furnished by
the American Steel Foundry Company of Granite City, Illinois,
and these parts are guaranteed to outlive the cars without ex-
cepting wrecks. They are giving satisfaction to the officers of

 

 

Half Top Plan. L43:

    

/mg.
Cast Steel Truck and Body Bolsters.
Delaware 8: Hudson Canal Company.

the road, which is manifested by orders for large quantities.
In describing similar trucks by these manufacturers for the
Seaboard Air Line in our issue of September, 1898, we quoted
from a letter received from Mr. W. T. Reed, Superintendent of
Motive Power of that road, as follows:

“The idea of applying such bolsters to freight cars is to dis-
pense with the many parts which require additional labor on
trucks used previously of the same pattern as far as the arch
bars were concerned, with Iiitch plate bolsters. . The
time has now arrived when mechanics can readily see the ad-
vantages to be gained in the minimum number of pieces in any
part of a truck or other machinery, and it is to this end that
I find it most advantageous. What we need is a truck that
will stand all abuses possible after derailments, so that the
trucks may be replaced on the tracks and continue their jour-
ney, while others must be taken apart.”

A ' ‘

The reason why English locomotive builders have not cap-
tured and held the locomotive business for South America, Af-
rica and other fields, against American competition, is stated
by “The Engineer” to be that the builders “insisted on supply-
ing, so to speak, chronometers, when a ‘Waterbury’ was the
thing wanted.” In other Words the English locomotive is too
good a machine to be run on ordinary railroads.

IMPROVEMENTS IN BOILER MATERIAL.

Improvements in steam engine practice in the direction of
higher steam pressures have caused equally marked advances
in boiler construction, and particularly in the quality of the
materials, without which higher pressures would be danger-
ous and entirely impracticable. About 20 years ago pressures
rose from 50 to 100 pounds, and since that time the water-tube
boiler has brought about the use of 250 pounds, reduced to 200
pounds at the engines. This development and the in1provg_
ments in materials which rendered it possible, are discussed in
a valuable paper printed in the “Journal of the American
Society of Naval Engineers.”

The general reliability and uniformity of mild steel has been
an important factor in this progress. This is due chiefly to
the fact that purchasers of boiler material have insisted that
it must meet severe requirements, and the thorough inspection
and tests of the Bureau of Steam Engineering of the Navy
Department has exerted powerful influences in this direction.
Nickel steel commands a great deal of attention for braces
and rivets may be made with a tensile strength of 75,000 pounds
and an elastic limit of 40,000 pounds. This means that Smaller
rivets may be used and the strength of joints increased by rea-
son of cutting away less material for the rivet holes. The
strength, toughness and uniformity renders nickel steel par-
ticularly desirable for braces and rods. An example illus-
trated in the paper is spoken of as being as tough as steel can"
be made. It is very uniform and exceedingly reliable. When
subjected to a drop test it tears a grain at a time, holding to-
gether during many blows after fracture. In several cases
where bars 4 inches in diameter, of this composition (carbon
0.23, sulphur 0.017, manganese 0.61, nickel 3.22 and phosphorus
0.021, with average tensile strength over 80,000 pounds, and
elastic limit over 55,000 pounds, and an elongation of more than
23 per cent. in 8 inches) have been tested under a. 1,640-pound
weight, dropping 44 feet, the bars being supported at the ends
and turned over after every blow, it required 40 blows to cause
the first fracture and 40 more to complete the break.

Comparisons between the requirements of the material by
the Bureau of Steam Engineering in the boilers of the “Maine,”
built in 1888, and those for torpedo boats, monitors and battle-
ships commenced in 1898, give an excellent idea of the progress
that has been made. Ten years ago shell plates were required
to have tensile strength between 58,000 and 67,000 pounds, an
elastic limit of 32,000 pounds and elongation of 22 per cent.
To-day the requirements are: Tensile strength, 74,000 to
82,000 pounds; elastic limit, 40,000 pounds; and elongation, 21
per cent. In 1888 rivets and stays were required to have a
tensile strength of 50,000 to 58,000 pounds, and now they must
have 75,000 to 85,000, and other properties in proportion.

The increased steam pressures require corresponding in-
crease in the care and watchfulness, steel having.been im-
proved sufficiently to be generally used. The pipe in present
use is nearly all steel, and lap welded. It is made so Well that
flanges can be turned cold without causing cracks or flaws.
Seamless drawn pipe is also used, and flanges are welded to
their ends, the most recent development in this direction be-
ing the upsetting of the ends of the tubes and forming the ends
themselves into flanges that are integral parts of the tubes.
Wrought steel pipe fittings are also available for steam pipes.
and it is clear that the boiler, through the increase of steam
pressure, is recognized as the vital factor in the cheapening
of the cost. of power.

Selected timber to the extent of 950,000 feet, board measure,
was shipped to the German Government from San Fran-
cisco recently for use in the new war vessels. The pieces were
from 24 to 54 feet long and 4 by 4 feet in section. They were
absolutely free from knots and blemishes and cost 4.66 cents
per foot, as compared with 2.75 cents per foot in the same mar-
ketfor ordinary lumber.