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

["Paul S. Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

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 56=BC 
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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #216
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