. American engineer and railroad journal . periodof time will materially affect their direction. The differencesdue to changes of seasons or accidents are also eliminated, andthe lines show clearly the actual tendencies. The repairs arebased on the amount of fuel burned, thus eliminating differ-ences due to grades, seasons and special conditions, as thesefeatures affect similarly both the fuel and the repairs. Asa locomotive is a machine for converting the energy of coalinto work at the draw bar, it is evident that work doneshould vary directly with coal burned. Repairs should varywith work do
. American engineer and railroad journal . periodof time will materially affect their direction. The differencesdue to changes of seasons or accidents are also eliminated, andthe lines show clearly the actual tendencies. The repairs arebased on the amount of fuel burned, thus eliminating differ-ences due to grades, seasons and special conditions, as thesefeatures affect similarly both the fuel and the repairs. Asa locomotive is a machine for converting the energy of coalinto work at the draw bar, it is evident that work doneshould vary directly with coal burned. Repairs should varywith work done. Therefore dollars of repair, per ton ofcoal, gives us a unit of comparison in which variation ofgrades, speed, etc., can be ignored. The coal used on moun-tain divisions is greater than that used on the plains. Therepairs are also greater, but the work done is also greater andthe ratio of dollars of repairs to tons of fuel remains sur-prisingly constant. This ratio does not, of course, show as strikingly as it & S. F. SYSTEM. n Failure ■> FIG. 2.—GRAPHICAL KECORD OF ENGINE PERFORMANCES,A., T. & S. F. SYSTEM. would if otherwise plotted, the great reduction made in thecost of repairs, since due to careful and systematic effortsthe amount of fuel burned per 1,000 ton miles has been de-creased considerably during the past year. As may be seen,however, the cost of repairs has been reduced ineven a greater ratio. It is interesting to note thatas the matter of locomotive repairs has been givengreater attention the number of engine failures hasgradually but surely decreased; the average freight traintonnage per engine mile has steadily increased, and the aver-age pounds of fuel per thousand ton miles has steadily de-creased. Three points will be noticed on the diagrams, oneshowing the best fuel record, one the best tonnage record, andone the best record for miles run per engine failure. Thesepoints show the best records for any one month during thetime covered by the di
Size: 1700px × 1469px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectrailroadengineering
