PENNSYLVANIA LINE

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1936, Page 12

PENNSYLVANIA LINE

NEW STREAMLINE TRAIN

PHILADELPHIA, March 7. Resplendent in bronze paint the Pennsylvania’s latest streamlined locomotive rolled into Broad Sheet Station on March 3 for inspection b> railroad officials. Thev 'hope that this 189 ton engine will make railroad historj bv hauling passenger trains over the unelectrified sections of the system at higher speeds, and at a considerable reduction in fuel costs. Raymond Fernand Loewy, who cooperated with the railroad’s engineering department in designing the locomotive’s streamlined body, was on hand to listen to the comment ot the railroad men. He is the fashionably dressed Frenchman who some months ago amazed residents along the right ot wav between Altoona and Harrisburg by riding in all sorts of odd positions about speeding locomotives and waving little flags in the wind. Sometimes he would be observed engaged in his flag-waving perched atop a boiler. Then again the fluttering squares of linen would appeal •h cob windows. On other dtivs 116 would be clinging to the cow-catcher, or hanging precariously to the catwalk on the side of the engine. This was the method Mr. Loewy used to study the air currants around an engine, in actual practice. On his observations he based his . designs for seven-foot clay models which were tested in wind tunnels in New York University before the final plan for the locomotive was completed.

HIGH SPEED SERVICES

The strikingly new type of engine was built at the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona (Penna.) Works. The new engine is intended ior high I speed passenger service. At a mile-a-minute speed it shows a reduction of more than one third in wind resistance. At maximum speeds the saving is equivalent to nearly 300 horsepower. It combines unusual beauty of line and form with the maximum of utility and economy of operation. An interesting added feature is a device, modelled on the principle of an airplane wing, to deflect the smoke upward as to clear the locoiyotive and train. The new locomotive will shortly be assigned to regular service, but for a time will he operated in test runs and exhibited at various points on the railroad, where it is expected to attract widespread attention as a radically new departure in railroad steam motive power. The streamlining starts with the pilot and a round “nose” at the front of the boiler. It extends back, below the plane of the smoke deflector, in long, sweeping lines to the cab’, from which it is continued to include the tender so that the tender and engine present the appearance of a single unit. The contours suggest speed, power and grace and are a striking illustration of the natural beauty of a mechanical design that is functionally correct. The outer portions of the structure of the locomotive are readily removed for inspection and repairs. Twenty-four different designs were worked out and discarded in favour of four, which were carried into the final stages of the wind-tunnel tests. From these, the ultimate selection was made and complete details worked cut.