Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive; Or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails

by Victor Appleton

  Chapter XIII

  Hopes and Fears

  Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In fact, thecab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism save thedrivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. From the peak ofthe pilot to the rear bumper the length was ninety feet and some inches.

  As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowdcheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to theunknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful thing.

  What they saw was apparently a box-car--like a mail coach, only withmore high windows--ten feet wide, its roof more than fourteen feet fromthe rails, its locked pantagraph adding two feet more to its height.

  Just what was in the cab--the water and oil tanks, the steam-heatingboiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the monster was todraw, the motors and the many other mechanical contrivances--was hiddenfrom the spectators.

  In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the Hercules0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young inventor had allowednobody inside the cab, any more than he allowed visitors inside hisprivate workshop. Even Mr. Swift did not know all the results of Tom'sexperimental work. In a general way the older inventor knew the trendof his son's attempts, but the details and the results of Tom'sexperiments, the latter told to nobody.

  But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed the moreor less circular track inside the yard fence, it was plain to all ofthe onlookers that the motive-power was there all right! Just whatspeed could be coaxed from the feed-cable overhead was another question.

  Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the Hercules0001. He went around the two-mile track several times before bringinghis machine to a stop near the crowd of onlookers. He came to the opendoor of the cab.

  "One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!"

  "Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides rightalong, Tom. You've done it, my boy--you've done it!"

  "It looks good from where I stand, my son," said Mr. Barton Swift.

  It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied--as yet, atleast--with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried:

  "Tom! is it all right?"

  "Nothing is ever all right--that is, not perfect--in this old world, Iguess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not discouraged.As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast she'll move isanother thing."

  "What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift.

  "Not above fifteen miles an hour."

  "Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from--"

  Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. It wasnot generally known among the men the speed which Tom hoped to obtainwith his new invention.

  "It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, soberly."But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short and almostcircular track. Right at the start, however, I see that something aboutthe power-feed must be changed."

  "What is that?" asked Mary, curiously.

  "I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be twoattached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of twinconductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy current throughthe twin contact of the pantagraph with the two trolley wires, andshould assure a sparkless collection of the current at any speed. Younoticed that when I took the sharper curves there was an aerialexhibition. I want to do away with the fireworks."

  The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently powerfuldraught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom Swift was onthe road to final and overwhelming success. The mechanics, indeed, sawno reason why the locomotive could not be run right out of the yard onthe freight track and coupled to the first train going West. Of course,the Hercules 0001 could not be delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alosunder its own power.

  When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once more onthe erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while Mr. Damon andMr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that he was not at allpleased with the action of the machine.

  "I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the railstoday. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three-Oughts-One isnot as long as those electric locomotives of the C. M. &. St. P. Butthat's all right. I have built mine more compactly and, properlygeared, it should have all the power of either the Baldwin-Westinghouseor the Jandel locomotive."

  "Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary.

  "Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the speed Iam aiming for?"

  "Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!"

  "And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary.

  "That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use to the H.& P. A. this locomotive must have such speed--or mighty near it. Ofcourse, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute for a locomotiveand train of heavy freights would burn up the track--maybe melt theflanges and throw everything out of gear."

  "Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary.

  "It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that we wantin the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute is a fictionof the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is possible. It is humanlypossible. It is coming."

  "Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom Swift," Neddeclared.

  "Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the girlcomplacently.

  "Thanks--many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd be ableto harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around the moon if Icame up to my friends' opinion of my ability.

  "Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I do notbelieve it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety miles an hourhas long been possible with that, and some tests have shown a speed ofover a hundred and ten. That is not far from my mark.

  "Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved fromeighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load behind them.They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain climbers arepowerful, too, although they are not built for speed.

  "The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the Jandels,are both very speedy under certain conditions. The former has a maximumspeed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel slightly faster."

  "But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of yourinvention, Tom!" Mary cried.

  "That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, anyway, tomeet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. But I have theadvantage of a knowledge of all that has been done before my time inthe matter of electrical locomotive construction."

  "The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have the edgeon all the other inventors?"

  "Along the line of this development--yes," said Tom. "I am taking upthe work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why shouldn't I findthe right combination to bring about a two-miles-a-minute drive?"

  "Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do."

  "I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will bringit, success is going to come my way."