Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1914 — HOW WATER WRECKS TRAINS [ARTICLE]

HOW WATER WRECKS TRAINS

Subject of Such Importance That Railroad Engineers Are Giving It Serious Consideration. Who would have thought ItT Yet it has been shown by recent investigations of the interstate commerce commission that railroad wrecks are very often caused by a few gallons of water. You see, it is like this: Water, for use by the locomotive, is carried in a tank on the tender. When a train is traveling at high speed and goes around a curve, all the water in the tank Is violently thrown by centrifugal force against one side of the receptacle containing it. This is liable to throw the tender off the track, and the result may be the derailment of a part or the whole of the train. There have been, it appears, many bad accidents due to this cause. The question is: What shall be done about it Two ways are suggested for getting over the difficulty. One is to divide the water tank into a series of lengthwise compartments. If this were done, the water, of course, could not be thrown In a body to z one side in the manner described. The other plan proposed is that the tank, Instead of being made with a flat bottom, shall have a bottom in the shape of a V. It is easy to see how this would work, and that it would have the effect of preventing in large degree such a dangerous movement of the water.—Chicago American.