Excerpt from Report of the Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the American Railway: Master Mechanics' Association Held at Cape May, N. J., June 16, 17 and 18, 1891 There are two ways in which motive power officers can decrease the cost of transportation. These are, the making of locomotives more economical in the use of fuel, and the redue ing of the wages account by making them pull heavier trains. Fuel is the most expensive item in motive power accounts, and it naturally receives the greatest attention. The efforts to reduce the consumption of fuel have led to decided improve ments in the proportions of locomotives. In the past, When little attention was bestowed upon the economical use of fuel, the tendency was to make the cylinders too large for the boiler, With the result that the boiler was intensely forced to generate steam used by the cylinders. This defect is being rapidly corrected. Larger boilers are being applied to over cylindered locomotives, and a striking feature about all new locomotives is the liberal size of boilers. The economy that results from the improved proportions is materially reducing the cost of moving trains, and still there is no disposition manifested by the members to rest and be satisfied that nothing better can be done. The efforts to still improve the motive power are increasing. This progressive sentiment has been manifested during the past year in the introduction by several railroad companies of com pound locomotives, and the results are highly encouraging. The activity of our members in striving to improve the machin ery under their charge may be judged by the work of investiga tion undertaken during the past year. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.