Excerpt from The Ladies Repository, and Gatherings of the West, Vol. 2

Two methods have been adopted for the propulsion of carriages on railroads by steam, namely, stationary and locomotive engines. Stationary engines are set up on the sides of the road, and they act on the cars by means of ropes or chains. They are used where the level changes too abruptly to be surmounted by the use of locomotives, which is generally the case when the ascent of the inclined plane exceeds the limit of from 100 to 200 feet per mile, according to the power of the engine. At 901119 greater inclination than 100 feet per 1pile, an additional engine is often need; but when ever the inclination exceeds 200 feet per mile, the sta tionary engine is resorted to. The passage of the mountains between Johnstown and Hollidaysburg, in Pennsylvania, is made by a great number of inclined planes and stationary engines. Some of the inclina tions are more than half a mile in length. In the month of May or Sep tember, a passage over the moun tains at this point afl'ords the traveler who has a taste for wild and picturesque scenery much entertainment.

Great improvements are going on in our own coun try as well as in Europe in the construction of rail roads. It is reasonable to expect that in less than twen ty years, nearly all the prominent cities of America will be connected by them; and in the mean time such per rection will be attained in their construction, and in the application of steam as a pmpelling power, that thirty miles or more per hour will be a common and safe rate of traveling. Then the Buckeye may take his early coffee in his native state, and late at evening drink tea with his friend in Baltimore. The mer chant may easily leave Ohio 011 Monday, spare two or three days to make his purchases in Philadelphia, and be at home on Saturday evening to keep the 8111 bath holy.

The frontispiece is an admirable picture of a railroad scene. The cars are represented as departing from the city, whose spires and steeples are seen in the back ground; and wayside grazers, roused by the sudden and threatening invasion of their solitude, seek safety in flight. The artist has succeeded to admiration in im parting to the whole scene an air of life and motion; and as we gaze, we almost listen in expectation of hear ing the rapid escape of steam, and the sound of the wheels in their rapid whirl.

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