roads came into use because of certain economic advantages that were obtained, first, by placing the carrier on rails upon which the coefficient of friction was very much less than upon the ordinary roadbed of the turnpike, so that very much heavier loads could be transported with the same energy. With the development of the steam locomotive, it was possible to transport heavier loads at higher speeds and over long distances and at a cost very much less than by any of the other methods of transporting material on the highways. The development of the steam railroad has thus been of the first importance in promoting the progress of all countries; and its highest development has been in this country, the entire continent being crossed by a number of trunk-line railroads, which have opened up and developed the land and resources, and have been the principal instrument of increasing the wealth and advancing the prosperity of the people. The railroads have become an integral part of the life and prosperity of the nation.

The steam locomotive has been increased to many times the size of its early predecessor. The steam locomotive was an invention that followed closely the development of the steam engine. The steam engine came into very general use, as it was an economical method of transforming the energy of coal into useful work and in quantities which had not been possible by any previous methods; and it was developed in units up to 2,000 horsepower and even somewhat higher horsepower capacity.

The rival of the railroad during its early development was its predecessor, the canal. Canals, however, had many limiting features: Transportation by means of them was slow; operation over grades was difficult, and bends were objectionable; so that on account of the increased speed and the ability of the railroad to handle a greater tonnage the freight-handling business of the canals fell off and, in many cases, they were abandoned.

The steam locomotive was developed to meet the demands of both freight and passenger traffic; the development being such that passenger trains could be handled at high speeds, hauling heavy trains of ten cars or more on grades up to one per cent, an additional locomotive being generally used for passenger traffic on heavier grades.

The freight locomotive has been developed to handle very heavy trains, but is incapable of maintaining high speeds on grades, and especially on the mountain grades which exist on our transcontinental lines. The freight steam locomotive, however, has been developed so that it is a remarkably efficient and useful machine, and it will probably always have a place in railroad work. Space does not permit to review the development of either the freight or the passenger steam locomtive.

The steam locomotive has been developed to a point where it meets the conditions imposed upon it by the transportation problem of the freight and passenger service satisfactorily, in most cases, and in all cases where the traffic is light. As the traffic increased on roads on which there were heavy

grades, additional capacity had to be provided by laying additional tracks.

It is not our intention to advocate, at this time, the abandonment of either the freight or the passenger steam locomotive in places where they can be used with economical advantage.

It was early demonstrated that the economical management of the railroad could best be accomplished by moving the traffic in the largest single units, both in freight and passenger movements. This has been accomplished by continuing to increase the capacity of the locomotive, the size of the cars, and the strength of the draft equipment; and also by the addition of air brakes for freight as well as passenger trains, allowing better control of the train movement; or by the use of additional locomotives.

The economical operation of the locomotive; that is, the power produced per ton of coal consumed, has been improved in the largest sizes by compounding the engine cylinders, by the use of higher steam pressures, and latterly by the use of superheated steam. The locomotive cannot attain the economies of marine engines or stationary engines which are located near the source of cooling water which can be used for condensing purposes. For this fundamental reason, the locomotive is therefore inherently handicapped.

On branch roads or on roads upon which the traffic is light, in these cases the cost of motive power being only a small percentage of the total cost of operating the railroad, there may be no justification for any change.

The locomotive suffers from the disadvantage that the steam generator-that is, the steam boilermust be carried with it, and it must be capable of withstanding shocks and vibration, limiting the design of the fire-box to a metal fire-box of relatively small size, which materially reduces the efficient burning of the combustible coal.

The standby losses of the locomotive must be high, and these losses increase in the larger units, as coal must be consumed whether the engine is running or not, as long as the locomotive is in service.

Considering again the two fundamentals of the railroad, viz., the track and the locomotive, the ideal position for a right-of-way would be straight, level tracks. The ideal locomotive would be one which could be built to operate at any speed required and of sufficient capacity to haul any train at a uniform speed on the various grades of the roadbed, and any size and weight of train. This means that the power plant should be capable of transmitting sufficient power capacity for this purpose. It must, therefore, be apparent that in any further development of the railroads in increasing traffic at high speeds, the power requirements of the railroads must be very materially increased.

The economical advantages of moving freight int bulk, requiring the use of heavy trains, are necessarily constantly increasing the size of the yard and terminal facilities so as to properly assemble

these trains. With the increasing value of real estate in the large communities, the cost of these terminals now forming an important part of the total railroad investment, and with the increasing development of the cities with buildings surrounding the existing yards, it is becoming increasingly difficult to enlarge these facilities to meet the growing requirements; so that means must be devised to increase the capacity of yards and terminals.

Most of the layouts of terminals and yards have been limited to one level, and in these layouts most of the space has been open and the sheds have been reduced to the minimum so as to allow free ventilation for the smoke and the escaping vapors from the steam locomotives.

The growth and development of cities have shown that the height of buildings in the closely built-up sections has been constantly increasing, so that the floor area of these sections of the cities has been increased many fold since the introduction of structural steel for building purposes, particularly during the last twenty years. It therefore seems logical and rational that both the railroad tracks and especially the yards and terminals must be operated at a number of levels, to increase their capacity in the existing areas; and this must be accomplished by the elimination of the steam boiler from the locomotive. For these two essential reasons, the ability to increase the locomotive capacity to any desired limits for haulage purposes on the existing main tracks; and to permit the tracks to be placed on various levels without providing free air space to allow the smoke and vapors to escape, it means the substitution of some other method of delivering power to the locomotive than in the form of coal in the present locomotive tender.

The general use of electricity for power purposes in all of the industries of today has been brought about by the economic advantages which it offers of transporting energy with less loss than by any other known method. This advantage is naturally most pronounced as the amount of energy increases and also when the distance it has to be transported increases.

The transmission of steam from a central steam plant to a locomotive traveling on a track, if it could be physically accomplished, would entail losses in this transmission which would be very much greater than in the present method of generating steam, and would be several times more costly and inefficient than transmitting the same energy electrically.

The art of electrical transmission has progressed from the point of being able to transmit energy for the smallest uses to that of transmitting it for the largest requirements of thousands of horsepower, at high efficiency, enabling generating stations to transmit their output over wide areas for the diversified uses of the community, and to supply a large demand at a fairly uniform rate, so that the capacity of the plant is in operation continuously twenty-four hours a day and three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, operating at any economical load, and with the idle, standby losses reduced to the mini

mum.

As these power houses can be located where condensing water is available, a great proportion of the heat value of the coal is made available; and by the use of steam turbines a larger percentage of the available heat in the coal is obtained in useful work than is possible by any known reciprocating steam engine. So that, fundamentally, electricity offers the ideal method of supplying the train or the locomotive with the necessary energy to meet any requirements. Furthermore, it permits a greater development and a more elastic use of the railroad's tracks in terminals and in built-up communities where extensive rights-of-way are difficult and costly to acquire.

The application of electricity to the railroads will naturally follow more or less along the lines of its application to the industries and the activities of the large municipal centers, of which it is now such a vital part. It will be the improved tool to permit a better accomplishment of the functions of the railroad by increasing the speed of the movement of its trains, and by a reduction in the investment costs of its terminals or of largely increasing their capacity. Its application, must come where the greatest advantages to its use will be shown. Probably the most notable examples will be: In the operation of trains through long tunnels, where the ventilation problem makes it more mandatory; in meeting the increasing requirements of terminal and yard facilities; in maintaining the highest speeds on the roads with heavy grades; and in its use on sections in which increased speed of movement, depending upon whether it is increased speed of general movement or increased speed of special movement, is necessary to handle the existing or the increasing traffic.

There are many lesser advantages which anyone familiar with the installations of both passenger and freight electrified service that have already been made may consider of value to the railroads, by increasing the passenger and freight service, by effecting an increase in the efficiency of labor by the railroads, and by improvements in the general characteristics of the service.

We believe that the extensions of the use of electricity for motive power must come through its economic advantages and its ability to assist the railroad organization to meet the growing requirements of traffic and to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance.

The railroads are the largest public utilities, performing a most important function in the community. The power requirements of the railroad are of a diversified character, varying from the operation of its signal system to the lighting, braking and hauling of the train. Under steam operation, this includes an elaborate and extensive system of coal transportation and storage and delivery of coal to the locomotive, as well as the supplying of water. With these locomotives distributed over thousands of miles of trackage one can readily appreciate the amount and extent of this service; and any methods which will reduce the number of points of delivery of coal and water contain economic possibilities.

There are now in existence in the United States alone about 6,500 power companies operating about 7,000 power houses, which may be looked upon as the equivalent of either so many coaling stations or so many coal mines which are ready to deliver power to the railroad in the form of electrical energy, which has no weight and occupies the minimum space in transmission, as its carriers can be erected along the rights-of-way on conductors which are relatively light and which can be placed in any convenient and available space. These power houses can produce at least double the amount of energy of any form of steam locomotive using a reciprocating, non-condensing engine, for the same coal input.

There are now available methods and apparatus so that electrical energy may be applied to the train to meet the requirements of speeds, loads and grades. The selection of the type of apparatus will vary with the varying requirements of the railroads, and it is probable that there will be as many different sizes, types and designs of electric locomotives as there are at present of steam locomotives. In this development period it is hardly likely that the various railroads will utilize the same equipment, on account of the varying conditions of these roads. So that the method of applying the electrical energy to the train movement may be of varying character, using either direct current or alternating current of varying frequencies, single or multi-phase, as may best suit the individual problem.

It would appear to the Committee, however, that a material aid to the development and more rapid use of the advantages to be obtained by railroads, and especially in the introduction of electricity in the cases in which the most marked advantages can be shown, is that the power companies of the country should be ready to furnish electrical energy to take the place of the coal which is now delivered to the railroads by the mines, enabling the railroads to obtain promptly and in any quantities required electrical energy produced by the large generating stations of the power companies, and at a rate which would compare favorably with the cost of its production in power houses built for the railroad load alone.

As has been pointed out, standardization of methods, although much to be desired, cannot be accomplished in the early developments. The general use of power from the large power companies has developed so far that in this country it is standard practice to generate the energy in a large power house, 3-phase, 60 cycles, and usually approximately 13,000 volts between phases. The importance of the standardizing of the voltage has never been given serious attention on account of the ability to raise or lower the voltage by means of stationary transformers with little loss. There are in existence generating stations operating at other frequencies, including 25 cycles. The growth of these power houses, however, is relatively slow compared to the growth of the 60-cycle power houses; so that in a relatively short time the main power supply of the country will be generally available, will be poly

phase, alternating current with a frequency of 60 cycles per second. The railroads can, through the medium of frequency converters or other apparatus, use this frequency to meet any or all of the requirements of the railroad, for any purpose.

The Committee suggests to the members of the Association that in all new installations of equipment, irrespective of the purpose for which it is to be used, it should be adapted for polyphase, 60-cycle energy; and that applications requiring different frequencies should be provided, as part of their equipment, with such apparatus as is necessary to obtain a frequency differing from 60 cycles. To summarize :

The transportation problem is of vital interest to all of the people, and it is important that it should have the loyal support and interest of all classes of citizens and their active co-operation, so as to obtain the most rapid transportation of freight and passengers in the most efficient manner and at the least cost. This can be accomplished by the constructive support of the legislative bodies and the investing public and by the support of the engineering talent of the country.

The time is here when the railroads need the united support of all of the people, so as to make use of the improved methods of utilizing the advances in the sciences and the arts in order to give the people the best transportation facilities.

This can only be accomplished, first, by legislation which will remove the objectionable restriction in the management and operation of the railroads, and by the financial support of the investors, so that additional capital will be attracted to the railroads to enable them to add to their facilities such plant and equipment as is necessary to take care of the increasing traffic and to handle this traffic in the most economical way.

We believe at this time much good can be accomplished by studies and investigations conducted by engineers of the railroad management who are well qualified by their training and experience to make these studies. They should have the active co-operation and assistance of the engineers representing other utilities and the large industries, and of consulting engineers who are specialists on this subject, so as to bring to bear upon this question the best minds available, in order to effect improvements in the terminal facilities, rights-of-way, motive power, and in the traffic of the railroads.

The power companies of the country stand ready to co-operate in these studies and to be prepared to offer electrical energy, at low cost in most cases, where it may be utilized to the railroads' advantage.

Although the railroad situation is one of interest, and the railroads have had their large part in the development of the American nation, the situation. in regard to their future is one of compelling imporIt is unthinkable that American transportation should be subjected to the dread palsy of Government operation. We have just about reached the point (disregarding the present recession in business as temporary) where possible restriction to

tance.