Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 | Page 6

C. TRAUTWINE, JR., ASSOC. AM. SOC. C. E. (by letter).--In
his collection of data, Mr. Randolph includes two ancient cases taken
from the earliest editions (1872-1883) of Trautwine's "Civil Engineer's
Pocket-Book," referring to performances on the Mahanoy and Broad
Mountain Railroad (now the Frackville Branch of the Reading) and on
the Pennsylvania Railroad, respectively.
In the private notes of John C. Trautwine, Sr., these two cases are
recorded as follows:
"On the Mahanoy & Broad Mtn. R. R., tank Engines of 35 tons, all on
8 drivers, draw 40 empty coal cars weighing 100 tons, up a continuous
grade of 175 ft. per mile for 3-1/2 miles; & around curves of 450, 500,

600 ft. &c. rad., at 8 miles an hour. (1864) This is equal to 77-14/100
tons for a 27-ton engine." (Vol. III, p. 176.)
"On the Penn Central 95 ft. grades for 9-3/4 miles, a 29-ton engine all
on 8 drivers takes 125 tons of freight and 112 tons of engine, tender, &
cars, in all 237 tons,[C] and a passenger engine takes up 3 cars at 24
miles an hour (large 8 wheels). When more than 3, an auxiliary
engine."
It will be seen that Mr. Randolph is well within bounds in ascribing to
the Mahanoy and Broad Mountain case (his No. 10) a date "certainly
prior to 1882," the date being given, in the notes, as 1864; while
another entry just below it, for the Pennsylvania Railroad case, is dated
1860.
It also seems, as stated by Mr. Randolph, quite probable that the
frictional resistance (6 lb. per 2,000 lb.) assumed by him in the
calculation is far below the actual for this Case 10. The small, empty,
four-wheel cars weighed only 4,400 lb. each. Furthermore, the "tons,"
in the Trautwine reports of these experiments, were tons of 2,240 lb.
On the other hand, the maximum curvature was 12° 45' (not 14°, as
given by the author), and the engine was a tank locomotive, whereas
the author has credited it with a 25-ton tender.
After making all corrections, it will be found that, in order to bring the
point, for this Case 10, up to the author's curve, instead of his 6 lb. per
2,000 lb., a frictional resistance of 66 lb. per 2,000 lb. would be
required, a resistance just equal to the gravity resistance on the 3.3%
grade, making a total resistance of 132 lb. per 2,000 lb.
While this 66 lb. per ton is very high, it is perhaps not too high for the
known conditions, as above described. For modern rolling stock, Mr. A.
K. Shurtleff gives the formula:[D]
Frictional resistance, on tangent, } in pounds per 2,000 pounds } = 1 +
90 ÷ C,
where C = weight of car and load, in tons of 2,000 lb. This would give,

for 4,400-lb. (2.2-ton) cars, a frictional resistance of 42 lb. per 2,000 lb.;
and, on the usual assumption of 0.8 lb. per 2,000 lb. for each degree of
curvature, the 12.75° curves of this line would give 10 lb. per ton
additional, making a total of 52 lb. per 2,000 lb. over and above grade
resistance, under modern conditions.
In the 9th to 17th editions of Trautwine (1885-1900), these early
accounts were superseded by numerous later instances, including some
of those quoted by the author.
In the 18th and 19th editions (1902-1909) are given data respecting
performances on the Catawissa Branch of the Reading (Shamokin
Division) in 1898-1901. These give the maximum and minimum loads
hauled up a nearly continuous grade of 31.47 ft. per mile (0.59%) from
Catawissa to Lofty (34.03 miles) by engines of different classes, with
different helpers and without helpers.
Table 2 (in which the writer follows the author in assuming frictional
resistance at 4.7 lb. per 2,000 lb.) shows the cases giving the maximum
and minimum values of the quantity represented by the ordinates in the
author's diagram, namely, "Traction, in percentage of weight on
drivers."
It will be seen that the maximum percentage (16.1) is practically
identical with that found by the author (16) for grade lengths exceeding
17 miles.
Near the middle of the 34-mile distance there is a stretch of 1.51 miles,
on which the average grade is only 5.93 ft. per mile (0.112%), and this
stretch divides the remaining distance into two practically continuous
grades, 19.39 and 13.13 miles long, respectively; but, as the same loads
are hauled over these two portions by the same engines, the results are
virtually identical, the maxima furnishing two more points closely
coinciding with the author's diagram.
TABLE 2.--TRACTIVE FORCE, CATAWISSA TO LOFTY.
===================================================

===================== Length of grade, in miles | | 34.03 | |
Grade {in feet per mile | | 31.47 {percentage |A | 0.597 | | Resistances,
in pounds per 2,000 lb., | |