With the Bicycle cars it is entirely different, as they have two points of support, top and bottom, and their structure may be much lighter with safety.
So in summing up, we here present two all important factors which give us the greatest economy in railroad transportation, viz.: saving of friction with the Bicycle wheels and spindles, and the reduction of dead weight. Certainly every additional pound of weight drawn means a corresponding consumption of fuel.
The accompanying affidavit shows the coal consumption of the Bicycle engine No. 2, it having a traction sufficient to move two hundred persons in Bicycle cars, over a grade not exceeding one hundred feet to the mile.
“From August 23d to September 23d inclusive, we have furnished the entire coal consumed by the Boynton Bicycle Railway Company in running their engine No. 2 with train attached, their schedule including fifty trains daily, both ways, one hundred in all, over one and three-quarter miles of road. They have kept steam continuously and used some coal for other purposes, and the exact amount furnished and paid for in the ordinary course of business, with no previous notice to us, has been 31,000 pounds for as many days of continuous steaming in running trains with capacity of from one to three hundred passengers safely, successfully and at the highest rate of speed known.
“Henry Henjes, Bath Beach, N. Y.
“Sworn to before me this 30th day of September, 1890.
“George W. Wallace,
“Notary Public, New York County.”
This proves that a train of similar capacity can be run from New York to Boston and back with a coal consumption of but one ton, where from fifteen to twenty tons are now consumed. A single Bicycle car has usually been used, containing seats for one hundred and eight people, and at short intervals on the middle of the road, this car has been run ninety miles per hour, with passengers on board. Having run seven thousand trains, connecting with other lines selling through tickets, the safety, economy, and unquestioned success of this System has been practically demonstrated. When we consider the enormous weight of a Pullman Palace car (from eighty to ninety thousand pounds), which is equivalent to the weight of seven hundred passengers, we question, why not carry the seven hundred passengers instead of their equivalent in unnecessary timber and iron.
The people of the United States have built and now sustain by their labor an investment of ten thousand million dollars, on which an average interest is paid of about double that of Government three per cent. bonds, and yet they cannot travel on these highways, constructed with such infinite toil and expense, unless they carry from ten to twenty-fold the weight of each passenger when the seats are filled.
The rapid Bicycle trains will supersede this slow, wasteful system. An average speed of sixty-five miles per hour will reach the Pacific coast from New York in two days. A speed of one hundred miles per hour is readily obtainable by steam or electricity on the Bicycle plan.