STREAMLINED LOCOMOTIVES

Evening Star, Issue 21628, 25 January 1934, Page 11

STREAMLINED LOCOMOTIVES

120-MILE SPEED TO COMPETE WITH PLANES. NEW YORK, January 7. The American Locomotive Company is prepared to manufacture streamlined locomotives designed to put the railroads on a competitive basis with airplanes and omnibuses, according to an announcement by the company. This Avas the first announcement of a commercial application of the streamline principle to steam locomotion. The plans for the neAV engine call for a maximum speed _of 120 miles an hour. This maximum is to be made by reducing both wind resistance and Aveight. Efforts to reduce the weight of passenger cars have already been Degun by the Pullman Car and Manufacturing Company. The American Locomotive Company’s engine, which was designed by Mr Otto Kuhler, consultant engineer, is the result of a year’s study and planning. It is offered in tivo types—fully streamlined and \ partly streamlined. The latter type was produced in an effort to provide a streamlined engine, which at the same time would closely resemble the standard form and, therefore, be more easily maintained with' present shop equipment. In each type the familiar cowcatcher is retained, but in rounded form Avjth horizontal, anti-climbing ribs, which also serve as steps by which the upper works may be reached. The headlight is streamlined and the smokestack concealed. Cowling hides the air pumps and other auxiliary machinery, but, in the case of the modified type, the driving wheels an<J runnisg gear remain exposed. Sand box, steam dome, bell, whistle, and safety valve are sunk into the jack of the boiler.