REBUILDING A BRIDGE ON THE LEOPOLDINA RAILWAY
The masonry structure had to be built beside the original iron structure so as not to disturb traffic.
The solution proved completely successful, and the engines fulfilled their task upon the eight per cent. grades with perfect satisfaction for several years. Then the Baldwin Company, of Philadelphia, undertook to eliminate the special locomotives required on the “Fell” system, and to convert the railway to adhesion working. Recalling the fact that for every twelve and a half feet of advance one makes a vertical rise of twelve inches, such a conversion appears remarkably daring, but the experiment justified the transformation, for the adhesion locomotives, notwithstanding the extreme severity of the gradient and the sharpness of the curves, which have a minimum radius of seventy-five feet, have accomplished the work formerly completed by the “Fell” locomotives with equal success. The result is that this represents the steepest length of line upon a trunk railway to be worked by adhesion traction in the world.
The locomotives weigh forty tons, and they are capable of hauling a train weighing forty-five tons on the drawbar up this bank. In comparison with such climbs the “Big Hill” which worried the Canadian Pacific railway engineers for so many years, appears insignificant. The disadvantage of the grade on the latter system was the frequency with which trains ran away down the declivity to enter one or other of the switches or catch-points, which deflected the train or locomotive from the main track and piled it against a bank of earth. Such accidents on the “Big Hill” were nothing to what have occurred on the Leopoldina line. The great difficulty is not in regard to ascending the grade with a load, although there is a possibility of the engine failing to take the hill, and to let its driving wheels spin round idly on the metals without forging a foot ahead. The traffic destined for the interior is comparatively light. The heaviest loads are brought from the highlands to the coast, and consequently the question is to hold the train in check as it descends. Ordinary braking is useless, as, although the wheels may be locked, the whole train is liable to toboggan down the metal slide almost as furiously as if the wheels were running freely. The situation has been met by firstly reversing the engines and letting a small amount of steam into the cylinders sufficient to act as a break, and by retaining the centre rail of the Fell system and to grip it by means of a strong scissors brake. Inasmuch as the engineers are extremely careful when descending the hill, runaways are few and far between.
A FLOOD ON THE LINE
The track is submerged by the torrential rainfall.
A DERAILMENT CAUSED BY THE TRAIN COLLIDING WITH A COW!
CURIOUS TROUBLES EXPERIENCED ON THE LEOPOLDINA RAILWAY