Can the Railway Train Be Made Noiseless? 



"Yes," say the inventors, "by improving the wheels." 

 "No," say the engineers, "unless you perfect the road-beds" 



By Marius C. Krarup 



wheel among those illustrated, it is well 

 to remember that flexibility makes a 

 constant demand on the power of the 

 locomotive. In the Kinsman wheel 

 the main object of inserting a non- 

 metallic substance is to insulate the 

 wheel and the car from the rail elec- 

 trically, this being a requirement in 

 some forms of electric railway service, 

 and this represents a new angle of the 

 subject having little to do with the 

 other efforts. The Lindblad wheel, on 

 the other hand, is a cushioned and anti- 

 noise wheel with special wiring to pre- 

 vent it from becoming non-conductive. 

 The most radical and effi- 

 cient method for securing 

 comparatively noiseless op- 

 eration as well as saving of 

 road-bed and rolling stock, 

 according to modern traffic 

 engineers, comprises thor- 

 ough grading, draining and 

 ballasting of the road-bed, 

 smooth hard rails of ample 

 dimensions, manganese steel 

 rails at crossings, frogs and 

 improved design of 

 switches, accurately con- 

 insuutio* centric wheels and car 

 springs with well damped 

 flexible pad' and governed -rebound. 



At left above, the Lindblad wheel; These would reduce noise 

 at right above, the Kinsman wheel and improve the service. 



The Maginn wheel is built up in 

 sections secured together by 

 bolts or rivets for flexibility 



THE idea of producing a 

 noiseless rail wheel, and 

 even making it distinct 

 ly flexible to reduce the 

 wear and tear of the roll- 

 ing stock has seemed a 

 good one to some in- 

 ventive minds, and they have 

 proceeded to patent their con- 

 ceptions. These are all char- 

 acterized by a noise-deadening 

 and more or less elastic sub- 

 stance which is inserted between 

 the flanged rim and the hub 

 portion of the wheel; by some 

 provision to prevent the rim 

 from slipping round on the inserted 

 material, and by guide plates on the 

 sides to hold the hub and rim in aline- 

 ment. The details can be followed 

 without difficulty in the accompanying 

 illustrations but are subordinate in 

 interest to. the question whether the 

 whole plan is practicable. It is next 

 to impossible to make the "built-up" 

 wheel as cheap or as strong as the one- 

 piece construction. It is almost hope- 

 less to try to introduce a wheel which 

 is after all only a little less noisy than 

 those in use, unless it pays for itself 

 from the start through savings in other 

 directions. If the wheel is frankly 

 intended to be flexible, as the Maginn 



The Madden sound-deadening wheel also has a 

 flexible pad which fits like a lining around its rim 



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