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The wear of steel shows conclusively that economy will require its use on all heavy grades and sharp curves.' The last report of the New Jersey Railway and Transportation Company says: 'It is probable that steel rails will be gradually laid the entire length of the road, the greater durability of these rails overcoming the objection to their increased cost.'" Railway Times.

STEEL-CAPPED RAILS.

"The invention by J. L. Booth, of Rochester, N. Y., of a process for capping iron rails with a solid cap of steel about onehalf or five-eighths of an inch in thickness, in the opinion of the most experienced railroad men who have examined it, meets the requirements of safety and durability. The rail consists of an iron base with a steel cap, united to the base not by bolts, screws, rivets, or welding, but simply by clamping. The iron bar is rolled of the required form and weight, after which it is passed through the compressing machine, which clenches powerfully upon it the heavy steel cap. The subsequent action of weight upon it, as the passage over it of heavy trains, is to grip the iron more and more firmly, until the basc and the cap become as firmly united as if they were a single piece of metal. Over the experimental rails laid down two years ago near the depot in Buffalo have passed 40,000 engines and 500,000 cars. The iron rails adjoining opposite them have, in the interval, been six times renewed. No change is as yet observable in the steel-capped rails, and to all appearance they bid fair to wear out 20 successive sets of the ordinary sort.

"Two of the rails were also laid on the New York Central Railroad, at Rochester, N. Y., June 7, 1867. On one the cap was loose and even rattling; on the other it was firm. They were laid continuously, and with the old style of chairs. They were placed where 70 engines and trains daily passed over them on the main line, and where the track was used constantly for switching and making-up of trains. The rate of speed over them varies. The through freight trains are frequently joined at this point, three or four in one, to ascend an up-grade. They pass over these rails often at the rate of 25 or 30 miles an hour. The loose cap rail became tight in a very short time, and both are now in perfect order. Four sets of iron rails have been completely worn out, and new sets replaced, on the opposite side of the track, during the period of time these duplex rails have been down."

TESTS OF STEEL RAILS.

Messrs. John A. Griswold & Co.'s circular thus describes their method of testing steel rails: 1st. A test ingot from each 5-ton ladleful of liquid steel is hammered into a bar, and tested for malleability and hardness, and especially for toughness, by bending it double cold. In case any test bar falls below the standard established as suitable for rails, all the ingots cast from that ladleful

of steel are laid aside for other uses. 2d. All the ingots, and each rail rolled from them, are stamped with the number of the charge or ladleful. A piece is cut from one rail in each charge, and tested by placing it on iron supports a foot apart, and dropping a weight of 5 tons upon the middle of it, from a height proportioned to the pattern of rail. A blow equivalent to a ton weight falling 10 to 15 feet is considered a severe test. We use a 5-ton weight falling from a less height, believing that it more nearly represents in kind (although it of course exaggerates in severity) the test of actual service in the track. In case a test rail does not stand the blow deemed proper and agreed upon, the whole of the rails made from that charge or ladleful of steel are marked No. 2, and sold for use in sidings, where their possible breaking would do no great harm, and where their greater hardness and resistance to wear would be specially valuable. In addition to this double test, the rails are rigidly inspected for surface imperfections. We believe that these tests render it practically impossible for us to send out rails of inferior quality. We farther invite railway companies to send inspectors to our works to witness the tests mentioned, and other tests and inspections agreed upon.Van Nostrand's Eng. Mag., Oct., 1869.

AMERICAN RAILS.

The term American rails has become a synonym for the cheapest and least durable rails manufactured. They are usually about 10 shillings per ton cheaper than the ordinary rails made for English and Continental companies. In the case of American rails the quality of the material and the construction of the rail pile are left entirely to the manufacturer, the rails not being made according to any specification; and hence there is not the slightest guaranty that a good, serviceable, or safe rail will be obtained; the one great desideratum being, apparently, that the price be low. Hence, the maker's chief study is, naturally enough, to produce the cheapest possible article, and to devise means of manufacturing at a low price what is, to all appearances, a clean-looking rail; to do this, he carefully studies the character of his iron, and so manipulates it as to obtain a well-finished and salable rail, regardless of its brittleness, -so long, indeed, as it does not break previously to delivery and payment, and indifferent whether it is likely to last one year or ten. Fortunately for him, the section for American rails is one very easy to roll,-low, heavy, and without angles, so that almost any quality of iron, and any construction of pile, will not interfere with the one object he has in view. When, however, the iron is very red-short (or liable, through the presence of sulphur, to crack in rolling), a top-slab of a better class of iron (No. 2) must be used in the pile, to serve as the wearing surface of the rail. This wearing surface may, however, vary considerably in thickness, forming either the entire head of the rail, or only a portion more or less thick. Even when the iron is not red-short, the pile is often composed of puddled bars only, and rolled out into rails, at the low

est possible heat, so as to economize iron and fuel, but regardless of insuring a perfect weld; and hence, lamination and failure rapidly follow after a few months' wear. So much for the durability of the ordinary American rail. Now as regards its safety: Just as the presence of sulphur in iron renders the metal redshort, as previously explained, so the presence of phosphorus causes the iron to become brittle and cold-short. It is, therefore, of great importance, in producing a good and serviceable rail from such inferior materials, that the hard, cold-short iron should form the top, or wearing portion, of the rail, while the redshort, or tough and fibrous iron, should be used for the flange; as the character of the ores distributed through the principal railmaking districts of this country is such that cold-short iron is produced in one district, and red-short in another, it is necessary that the two kinds of metal should be brought together, and used in association, as previously described, if they are to produce a truly serviceable rail. But as the cost of transport from one district to another becomes an important item, it will evidently be to the interest of the manufacturer, if not restricted, to use the unmixed home material, whether cold-short or red-short. Under such circumstances, a rail is produced either too brittle, and therefore dangerous, or too pliable, and therefore less capable of enduring the wear and tear of traffic. There are, perhaps, few countries that of late have suffered more from fracture of rails than America. This has led some railway administrations, in that country, to require that the rails should be tested; but whereas they were formerly too careless in this respect, they now seem inclined to err on the other side by specifying too severe a test for the rail, and thus compelling the maker to use too soft an iron. For instance, it is often required that a weight of one ton should fall upon the rail from a height of 10 feet, when half such a test would insure breakage of the rail in any climate. I may now briefly refer to the method adopted in making rails for the English and Continental companies. There are but few of these railway administrations which, when inviting tenders for a supply of rail, do not specify distinctly that the top slab, constituting the wearing surface of the rail, must be of the very best material, and at least two inches in thickness, thus giving a wearing surface of one-half inch in the head of the rail; and, further, that the rail should stand a test half as severe as that previously mentioned as applied to American rails. From what has now been advanced respecting the different modes of manufacturing American and European rails, I leave the respective American railway administrations to judge whether they would not best consult their own interests by adopting the English and Continental system of well-defined specification and tests, instead of looking merely to the small saving effected by always accepting the lowest tender.E."―Journal of the Franklin Institute, March, 1869.

WOODEN WHEELS.

Mansells' patent wheels for railway carriages are fast coming into general use. They have already been adopted by the London, and North-Western, Great Western, Midland, Great Northern, Great Eastern, Metropolitan, and other English lines, and the Imperial Government has sanctioned their adoption on all the railways of Russia. It may not be generally known that Mansells' original patent was for securing the tire to the wheel by retaining rings, the fillets of which are turned to fit into corresponding grooves in the tires. The whole is secured by nuts and bolts. Between the tire and the boss spokes are dispensed with by the insertion of stout, close-fitting panels of East India teakwood, the oily nature of which preserves from oxidation the iron passing through it. For this purpose teak is superior to any other wood, and it has further the advantage of never shrinking. The superiority of these wheels over iron ones is well known to all observant travellers, their special merits being absence of jarring, and also of noise.· Van Nostrand's Magazine, Sept., 1869.

NEW RAIL-LEVELLING DEVICE.

The ordinary lever-bar used for lifting rails and sleepers in constructing and repairing the permanent way of railways involves in its operation the labor of several men. To obviate this, an English engineer, Mr. De Bergue, has constructed a simple and compact tool, composed of a kind of shoe combined with a bar pivoted at one end, and at the other furnished with a screw by which it may be raised relatively to the shoe. The instrument with its bar depressed is thrust under the rail or sleeper to be raised, and the screw is turned until the bar has been forced upwards sufficiently to bring the superincumbent parts to the required position. Those portions of the apparatus subjected to heavy strains are made of steel, and the working surfaces are hardened so that it cannot easily get out of repair. - Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Magazine.

THE FAIRLIE STEAM CARRIAGE.

The name of Mr. Robert F. Fairlie has for some time past been brought prominently before the public in connection with the economical working of railways. A trial of this carriage was made July 15, at the Hatcham Iron Works, which successfully demonstrated the practicability of working the system upon railways with curves of only 50 feet radius. The steam carriage exhibited, and which was not quite completed, was designed to work on a metropolitan railway, at the terminal stations of which sufficient space could not be given for laying down rails on a curve of 25 feet radius for the standard carriage to run itself round; consequently the standard carriage had to be altered in dimen

sions to allow of its being turned on an ordinary 40-feet turntable. Hence, instead of seating, as is intended, the 100 passengers in the standard carriage, the carriage under trial only gave seating space for 16 first-class and 50 second-class, in all 66 passengers. The accommodation per passenger is as good as is given on the best lines, and infinitely superior to the stock usually worked on branch lines. The length of the carriage is 43 feet, including a compartment near the engine for the guard. The engine, carriage, and framing all complete, in working order, but exclusive of passengers, weighs under 134 tons, and including its full load of passengers, 18 tons only. The carriage when finished complete will have a broad step or platform on each side, extending its entire length; this step is protected by a hand-rail on the outside, with an arrangement for lifting it on the platform side at the doors to allow the passengers to get in and out. The object of this platform is to enable the guard to pass completely round the train at all times, and while doing so he is perfectly safe from any accident. Passengers can also pass along the platform to the guard, so that in this manner there is an easy and perfect mode of communication between passengers and guard. It is intended, however, in the standard steam-carriage to provide a central passage inside, the entire length of the carriage, leading direct from and to the guard's compartment; thus there is the most direct means of communication between the passengers and guard. The compartments in the carriages will be quite as separate and distinct as they are at present, or as the most fastidious could desire. The guard passes through the carriage at pleasure. Those in the higher classes can pass to the lower, but the lower cannot get to the higher, while all can pass to the guard when required. The standard carriage will have two compartments firstclass, to seat 16 persons; 3 compartments second-class, to seat 30 persons; and 4 compartments, third-class, to seat 54 persons in all, 100 passengers. The machine complete, in working order, will weigh about 14 tons, and, with 100 passengers, from 20 tons to 21 tons. These carriages will convey their full complement of passengers at 40 miles per hour up gradients of one in 100, and, as demonstrated, will pass round curves of 50 feet radius at 20 miles an hour with perfect safety. — Mechanics' Magazine.

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LIGHT ROLLING STOCK.

It has now been indisputably established that it is possible to construct a combined engine and carriage capable of accommodating 66 passengers, of both classes, the whole weight of which, fully loaded, shall not exceed, if it do not fall short of, 20 tons, while the adhesion weight is nearly half as much, or 10 tons, and the average steam tractive force at least half a ton. The resistance of such a carriage at 20 miles an hour, upon a level, would not exceed 300 or 400 pounds, nor upon a gradient of one in 60 more than from 1,050 pounds to 1,150 pounds, the whole actual work done being, say 25 horse-power in the one case, and 75 in