File:Railroad Gazette, 16 August 1889, page 531.jpg

English: Railroad Gazette, 16 August 1889, page 531 <br/<

A Water Railroad

An account is published of the exhibition at Paris of a socalled "Chemin de Fer Glissant" or "Slide Railroad" on the Esplanade des Invalides within the exhibition. The new invention says the report "is a singularly original contrivance for enabling trains to run, by means of water power, at a high speed. The train consisted of four carriages affording room for about 100 passengers. The carriages had no wheels, being supported at the corners by blocks of iron of a size somewhat larger than a brick which rested upon a double line of iron girders. In the middle of the line at regular intervals jutted out irregularly shaped pillars the use of which was not yet apparent.

"Having taken our seats and the signal being given, we glided along very gently for the space of a few yards, when suddenly we gathered speed: two or three tugs were felt, and we were flying on at the pace of an ordinary train but as smoothly as a boat on a river. There was a clicking noise on the rails but this was due to a defect in the construction of the slides and would be remedied. The absence of any vibration was wonderful. In a hydraulic train traveling at full speed that is to say at the rate of 87 to 124 miles an hour there would be almost no consciousness of motion. The journey down the length of the esplanade only occupied a few seconds. The sliding railroad was invented in 1868 by an engineer named Girard, who was killed in the Franco German War, and it has been improved to its present state by one of his assistant engineers M. Barré. The hydraulic carriages have no wheels, these being replaced by hollow slides fitting a flat and wide rail and grooved on the inner surface. When it is desired to set the carriage in motion, water is forced into the slide or skate of the carriage from a reservoir by compressed air, and, seeking to escape, it spreads over the under surface of the slide, which it raises for about a nail's thickness above the rail.

"The slides, thus resting not on the rails but on a film of water, are in a perfectly mobile condition in fact the pressure of the forefinger is sufficient to displace a carriage thus supported. The propelling force is supplied by the pillars, which stand at regular intervals on the line between the rails Running underneath every carriage is an iron rack about 6 in wide fitted with paddles. Now, as the carriage passes in front of the pillar a tap on the latter is opened automatically, and a stream of Water at high pressure is directed on the paddles. This drives the train on, and by the time the last has gone past the tap (which then closes) the one is in front of the next tap, the water's action thus continuous. The force developed is almost incredible. There is some splashing on the rails at the start, but this diminishes, the faster the train goes. To stop the train the small of water that feeds the slides is turned off, and the coming in contact with the rails, the resulting friction the carriage very quickly.

"A water train running at over 100 miles an hour could, I was told, be stopped within 90 ft. The centre of of the car is scarcely more than 2 ft from the rails.'