We do this because a joint which once begins to pound is half worn out. Mr. Harrington: Are you doing this work yourself? Mr. McCormack, Brooklyn: In answer to Mr. Littell's inquiry as to experiences with cast welded joints, our company in Brooklyn put in 2,000 cast welded joints on a ninetyfour pound rail, nine inch girder, and out of that number there was only one that pulled the rail apart; the rail broke about four inches from the end. They have given us very good satisfaction, at least we think so. We had some on our old six-inch rail that broke, but we thought that was due to the kind of rail. Mr. Heft, Meriden: I would ask Mr. Dodge if he would recommend this cast welded joint, from his knowledge of it in New Haven. Mr. Dodge: I stated before, when speaking about it, that it was not done on our road; it was on another road in our city. I have had no personal experience in relation to it, but am simply telling about it. Mr. Heft: Have you not followed the matter up? Mr. Dodge: No, sir. Mr. Scull: Are you paying the Falk Company a royalty? Mr. Bowen: Yes; we have 32,000 joints in, and pay so much royalty on each joint. Mr. H. H. Littell: On the street on which this particular rail parted we have four curves. At two points on this street the special work pulled apart at the curve, and in one instance the joint of the rail only separated; the rails pulled apart at the joint. On examining this joint we found that the trackmen had slighted it. They had used some small bolts, so as to connect it up, and when they put in the new rail they left in some three-quarter inch bolts instead of using inch bolts. It could not be drawn up tight enough. Mr. Davis, Williamsport: Do you have any trouble in the application of the cast joint in connecting special work with the girder rail? Mr. Bowen: If we have a track switch or something of that sort, we have special moulds made for those cases; but we do not make the special work with the cast welded joint. I think The Johnson Company and the Wharton Company make such work, and others, where they cast the joint in that work. Mr. Davis: I am speaking of the union of the girder rail with the special work? Mr. Bowen: Yes, sir; we do that. Mr. Heft: I ask Mr. Bowen why they use a copper bond with a cast welded joint; is it done as a precautionary measure? Mr. Bowen: I adopted that method-I did not know just what to do. We cut off probably ten or fifteen joints, just taken at random along the track, and out of that number I found several in which we failed to have any amalgamation with the rail in these little spots I have described. I will say that that was in the first part of our work, probably a year ago. To prevent subsequently tearing up a granite pavement, in order to bond the track, which we were putting down on that line of road, I thought it was cheaper to bond at the time the track was laid and be sure. It was better to bond then than not to bond and be sorry. I am now waiting for the development of that matter. I think Mr. McCulloch has made some researches in that direction. largely to hear from him on that subject. I came here Mr. Heft: Then you do not feel safe in the present state of the art without using the copper bond? Mr. Bowen: That is my position Mr. Dodge: About the polishing up of the side of the rail, you were particular in getting the surface bright? Mr. Bowen: We were not so particular about getting it so bright, as we were using the joint with a bond. Mr. Dodge: The company which has been doing the work in New Haven, polished the joints by an electric motor, and the motor gave out, so that they could not use it. I was looking over their work and saw a man polishing the joints with a file. I asked him if it was not necessary to have it brighter, and he said, "That is just as good.” Mr. Bowen: Are they using it without a bond? Mr. Bowen: Then they will burn some coal. (Laughter.) Mr. Dodge: It struck me that way. On motion, the meeting adjourned until 9:00 o'clock Wednesday morning. WEDNESDAY'S SESSION. President Littell called the meeting to order at 9:45 a. m. The President: The first business this morning will be ths reading of the paper on "Street Railway Trucks," by Mr. John N. Akarman, Superintendent, Worcester Consolidated Street Railway Company, Worcester, Mass., who, I am sorry to say, is not able to be present. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON "STREET RAILWAY TRUCKS." The Secretary read the paper, as follows: TO THE AMERICAN STREET RAILWAY ASSOCIATION, Gentlemen:-After a long and expensive experience, it has at last been generally conceded that trucks are necessary for carrying a modern street car. The term truck in this case means the separate framework for holding the running gear of an electric car; namely, the wheels, springs, brakes, motors, etc. This being the case, the question arises as to what form or type of truck is best adapted to the purpose; and the object of this paper is to endeavor to give some hints to street railroad men which will enable them to solve this question for themselves. In doing this, it will be necessary to explain the principles involved, the requirements of the service, and show where single and where double trucks are most desirable. When motors were first placed upon street cars, it was believed that there was no necessity for special construction, or any marked departure from the prevailing horse car practice. The idea of a separate truck had not even been conceived. We found Van Depoele placing his motors upon the front platform, and using chains and sprocket-wheels to carry the power to the axle. The car carried the whole weight of the motor and load, and in addition to its usual work, took all the strains of the propelling power. Sprague made a short step in advance, and in the right direction, by carrying his motor on links from the car body and resting one end on the axle, through sleeves. This improvement preserved the distance always the same between the motor and the axle, but the rising and falling of the body imparted a racking motion to the motors, which was destructive to the cars. Both of these systems were radically wrong, and might have been known to be so, from a study of the steam coaches of fifty years ago, and from the steam wagons of fifteen or twenty years previous. As a result, hard riding cars were produced which soon wore out. It was also found that a car body was put out of service whenever there was a necessity for any repairs to the motor or machinery. It was at this point that the idea of a separate truck was thought of. It was not, however, thought of with any favor, as months were spent in an attempt to get an electrical manufacturing company to try the new system and put a separate truck under the body of a four-wheeled car without success. The idea of a separate truck was first conceived about the year 1885, but it was not until the latter part of 1887 that, in its concrete form, it was put in operation. The first truck consisted of a continuous upper chord made of bar iron in the form of a rectangle. Its purpose was to support the car body, the sills of which rested on its frame. The sides of this upper chord were re-enforced by heavy oak sub-sills, to which the chord and the pedestals were both firmly bolted. This form of frame kept the body square and took many of the strains on itself; but it has been abandoned, and in abandoning and using separate bars, I think we have been drifting away from the best practice, for it had a very important advantage in preserving the squareness of the body and truck. In addition to this upper chord, there was a bar extending around the truck to which the bottom of the boxes were fastened. In all the early trucks the frame rested directly on the journal boxes. The jar and concussion which resulted crystallized the metal, injured the motors, and made it impossible to keep bolts and nuts tight; and was the cause of a rapid destruction of the whole truck. A remedy became an imperative necessity. So elasticity or cushioning of some sort was resorted to; and the first effort in this direction was made by placing a thick piece of rubber upon the top of the journal box between it and the axle box frame. While the principle was right, the means employed were of little value. The rubber at best had only a trifling elasticity, and was not durable and did not prevent the box from jolting. Then a spiral spring was tried upon the top of the box. This was an improvement as it had a certain amount of motion; but the space available over the box was so small that a very stiff spring had to be used. So stiff in fact was it necessary to make the springs that they were but little better than the rubber. In many cases the springs used were so rigid that they were no better than the old uncushioned construction. It was found that springs in this position had the additional disadvantage of aggravating the rocking of the box from side to side; but by widening the box at the bottom, or adding ears so as to form springseats, it was found possible to give each box two springs, one on each side, and of ample diameter and length so that they would carry the load with ease and have sufficient motion. Thus placed they had the advantage of carrying the box perfectly steady, preventing entirely the rocking and unsteady motion. (It should be noted here that the motors were carried on the truck and were in no way attached to the car body nor connected with its motions.) So far as I can learn, the first car body carried on a separate fourwheeled truck was run on the Scranton and Suburban Railway Company, Scranton, Pa. About the same time, the Boston and Revere Beach Railway Company, Revere, Mass., had a car, the body of which was mounted upon a truck, the motor being carried in the modern fashion from the frame of the latter. This car was operated under the eyes of the officials of an electric railway company, who watched its operation from day to day with the most careful attention, and it required but a few weeks of service to demonstrate that the principle was a great one, and that a very important advance had been made, which was to mark an era of success in the operation of electric cars. These first trucks, although involving nearly all the essential features of the modern trucks, were by no means perfect, and the conditions of the service soon suggested modifications. The first of these was to make the removal of the wheels and axles as easy and as practicable as they had been with the jaws and oil boxes used on the old horse cars. The form which the improvement took was to make the jaws a part of the motor truck frame, so that upon jacking up the truck the wheels could be rolled out. This was an essential feature recognized by all truck builders, and has been embodied in every successful truck which has been constructed. Up to this time brakes had been invariably hung from the body of the car. But it was soon found that brakes upon electric cars were a very much more important feature than they had been upon horse cars. The high, rates of speed and greater weight of the cars, not only made stopping more difficult, but the ability to make short stops to avoid accidents was found to be important. The brakes were first suspended from the sills of the car, and the sinking of the body under a load left the shoe so far from the wheels that in applying the brakes the slack of the chains was increased and could not be taken up without considerable delay. The remedy was simple, and consisted in suspending the brake rigging from the axle box frame, in such a way that it was not subject to the action of the body springs. The change in the brake rigging from the car body to the truck frame brought another evil which had been of slight importance heretofore. This was the longitudinal rocking or pitching of the car body, technically known as galloping, which was greatly increased under higher speed, and is also further increased by lengthening the car bodies. This motion is not only excessively unpleasant to passengers but very destructive to the trucks, motors and track. When the brakes were hung from the car body, it was possible to check this oscillation by a slight application of the brake; but the change in the hanging of the brake made this impossible, and remedies became imperative. The |