Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1880 — Lightning Trains of the Future. [ARTICLE]

Lightning Trains of the Future.

The gap between New York and Philadelphia is the stretch over which American railroad engineers puzzle their wits to increase the speed of trains, just as the run between Liverpool and London, in England, has been the one to which English railroad engineers have given their attention since the days of Brunei. At present the “Flying Dutchman,” the express from London to Liverpool, is a faster train than any on the stretch of railroad from New York to Philadelphia. In a recent paper read in Philadelphia, Barnet Le Van, a railroad engineer, predicts that in five years the two American cities will be but ninety minutes apart, a speed which will require more than a mile a minute. The full time now required is two hours, and the extra thirty minutes is to be saved by the Hudson Rives tunnel, alterations in the railroad, straightening and sinking its track, where it goes through cities, and the construction of heavier locomotives. A droll fellow up in Connecticut fished a rich old man out of the millpond, and refused the offer of 25 cents from the rescued miser. “Oh, that’s too much !” exclaimed he ; “ ’tain’t wuth it!” and he handed back 21 cents, saying calmly, as he pocketed 4 cents, “ ghat's aboutrig jut,”