(rshsdepot) Re: Lightning trains with no tunnels, snuff mills, and 135 mph trains

[Seth Bramson <sbramson_@_bellsouth.net>]

"Fascinating,"
But did you all notice the item about running three miles east from the
snuff mills in 80 seconds.  Huh?  That would be better than 120 MPH (a
mile a minute is 60 MPH so at that speed three miles would take 180
seconds) so in order to acheive that they would have had to have a
"running start," and then begin to brake AFTER they crossed the "finish
line."

The point here, of course, is that, if they could and did do it then,
why were they not able to continue such superb operation?  (Has
anybody--Luchter?  Delibert?--ever undertaken to study of WHY the
B&O/Reading/CNJ combo did not either figure out a way to build THEIR OWN
tunnels in to Manhattan OR work out a deal (other than the USRA years)
-From the very beginning so that they could use Penn Station Manhattan?)

"Paul S. Luchter" wrote:

>  An interesting 1910 article on the Jersey Central's fast trains:  New
> York Times, Friday, November 25, 1910, page 2 62.2 MILES AN HOUR TO
> PHILADELPHIA Jersey Central Announces the Fastest Hourly Train Service
> in the World. 90 MILES IN 96 MINUTES But This Includes 12 Minutes for
> Delays and Stops--40 seconds to the Mile Over Some Good Stretches.
> Coincident with the opening of the new Pennsylvania station [sic] next
> Sunday morning, with resultant shortening of the time of travel to the
> heart of New York, the running time of all the through trains on the
> rival Jersey Central Railroad will be cut to one hour and fifty
> minutes between New York and Philadelphia in both directions. The
> significance of this announcement when it was made by the Jersey
> Central officials  on Wednesday was not fully appreciated by the
> public, but it heralds the beginning of faster running of the trains
> in a continuous day service than has yet been seen in America, or
> probably in the world. The schedule time of the trains will be cut an
> even ten minutes.  After this week they will make the run of 90 miles
> even, between Philadelphia and Jersey City, in 96 minutes flat, or at
> a speed of 56¼ miles an hour for the entire distance. Operating
> officials of the Jersey Central explained yesterday that in fact the
> actual running time would be twelve minutes less than this, that
> allowance being made for stops and slowdowns, the latter notably over
> the Newark Bay draw bridge, which all engineers are forbidden to cross
> in less than four minutes. This brings the average speed to 64.285
> miles an hour.  On the best running stretches, such as from Trenton
> Junction inward and from Bound Brook to Elizabeth, the trains will
> attain a speed of something less than 40 seconds to the mile. This
> record exceeds by a small margin anything done regularly on the two
> lines from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, which are generally
> recognized by railroad men as the fastest railroad divisions in
> America, if not in the world. The Jersey Central officials say that no
> other railroad anywhere can boast anything to equal this.  The Jersey
> Central and the Reading jointly were the pioneers in two-hour trains
> between Philadelphia and New York, and with the constant betterment of
> the service under Vice President William G. Besler, the present
> General Manager, the idea of still further reducing the time has been
> steadily growing. Some of the Jersey Central engineers have long been
> confident that they could easily make the run of ninety miles in an
> even ninety minutes on regular schedule. In fact, it was demonstrated
> several times by experiments over selected sections of track in
> varying conditions of load and weather that the run could be made.
> One very fast train called the "Mermaid," the name being selected by
> school children along the road in competition for a $25 prize was
> installed in the Summer of 1909. This was a light train with a high
> wheel locomotive. It ran from Scranton, down the Lehigh and Wyoming
> valleys to the North Jersey coast resorts without touching New York at
> all. It ran on alternative days up and down, and was continued last
> Summer as a daily. It often scored 37 seconds to the mile and never
> met with the slightest mishap.  The announcement of the new fast
> service follows closely upon the stealing of the Jersey Contrail's
> thunder, "Every hour on the hour," by the Pennsylvania for its
> Philadelphia-New York trains from the new station. The Jersey Central
> now adds to its announcement of lightning service the words "no
> tunnels."  The fastest regular train in these parts hitherto has been
> the Pennsylvania eighteen-hour special to Chicago, which is making the
> run of eighty-four miles from Jersey City to North Philadelphia in 83
> minutes. It is not the policy of either railroad, however, to brag
> about speed records. They see business reasons for not doing so, among
> them that they do not wish rivals to know just what they can do, but
> trainmen tell regular travelers of one train special on the
> Pennsylvania which a few years ago carried certain high officials from
> Broad Street to Jersey City, platform to platform, in 71 minutes; also
> of a special on the Jersey Central which about the same time ran three
> miles east from the snuff mills at Bound Brook in precisely 80
> seconds, the time being taken by three stop watches on the
> locomotive.  Railroad racing as a sport is not encouraged by the
> companies, but on the Atlantic City Division, where the tracks run
> parallel for long distances through open country, Reading and
> Pennsylvania trains often run side by side.

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