Consolidation Locomotives for the Western Maryland

Consolidation Locomotives for the Western Maryland Weight and Tractive Effort Establish New Records forThis Type—Tender of 15,000 Gallons Capacity Used THE design of locomotives adapted to special operatingconditions has led to the development of some notableexamples of the standard types of freight and passen-ger power. A striking illustration of the high tractive effortthat can be secured with a restricted wheel base is found inthe Consolidation locomotives recently built for the WesternMaryland by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. These en-gines have a rated tractive effort of 68,200 lb., the weight ondrivers being 268,200 lb. or 67,050 lb. per pair of drivers.In these particulars they exceed any engines of either theConsolidation or Mikado types heretofore constructed by thebuilder. During the past ten years the Consolidation has beenlargely displaced by the Mikado and in view of the selectionof the former type by the Western Maryland,

while with the combustion chamber it was 74 per cent. The saving in fuel effected by the combustion chamber isso large that it would probably far outweigh the increasedcost of repairs in any boiler of reasonably good design. Fre-quent cracking of the combustion chamber sheets is probablydue to too rigid construction which under ordinary condi-tions can be overcome quite readily by the use of flexible stay-bolts. Another important cause of failure may be the poormaterial that has been accepted under the specifications pre-pared during the war. However serious the trouble may be,an attempt should be made to determine the cause and cor-rect it in order to avoid sacrificing the improved boiler effi-ciency which is obtained by the use of combustion chambers. The Illinois Central made a record for passenger train per-formance during the month of May, when a total of 13,567 trainswere operated, 13,461, or 92.2 per cent., of which maintainedscheduled time.