Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1906 [PAGE 340]

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314

UNIVEESITY OF ILLINOIS. DEPARTMENT OP RAILWAY ENGINEERING.

[Jan. 30

7. I submit herewith a communication from the College of Engineering in regard to a Department of Railway Engineering:

"UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Jan. 30, 1906.

"Professor James M. White, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering: "DEAR SIR—Your committee, to which was referred the communication of President James, concerning the establishment of a school for railway service, begs to submit the following report: "We have carefully considered the President's communication and are of the opinion that it is very desirable to increase greatly the amount of attention given to railway subjects. But, in our opinion, it is better to organize a Railway Engineering department in the College of Engineering than to establish a school somewhat upon the plan of the School of Education. Already the College of Engineering has most cordial relations with various railroad interests. For example, many graduates of the civil engineering department occupy positions of prominence on several of the great railroad systems and for several years the department of mechanical engineering has been cooperating with the Illinois Central and Big Four Railroads in carrying on an extensive series of trials relating to locomotive performance and train resistance, for which these roads have borne the major portion of the expense. And the .Department of Electrical Engineering has recently purchased an electrical dynamometer car and is now about ready to operate it on the lines of the Illinois Traction Company. So far as it is known, no other educational institution in the world has any similar equipment or opportunities for this important work. "Three distinct lines of railway work should be offered; one in civil engineering, one in mechanical and electrical engineering and one in railway administration. "1. We suggest, as a tentative outline, that a course be offered in railway civil engineering, to consist of the present civil engineering course to the end of the first semester of the junior year; that in the second semester of the junior year a comparatively small amount of railroad instruction be offered, and that in the senior year a considerable amount be given. "2. A course should be offered in railway mechanical and electrical engineering differing from the present course in mechanical and electrical engineering by giving special emphasis to car and locomotive design, locomotive performance, train resistance, electric traction, etc. "3. A course in railway administration should be arranged by combining the subjects common to the present civil, electrical and mechanical engineering courses, with such subjects from the Department of Economics as principles of economics, economic history, commercial geography, railway management, railway systems, etc., and possibly some of the special topics in the railway engineering courses proposed above. "To carry out this work would necessitate the employment of a head of the department, who would probably do part of the work above; but we are of»the opinion that he should not be burdened with any large amount of teaching, so that he could be free to attend meetings of railway associations and present papers upon railway subjects, and also to visit railroad men at their offices. "In addition, there should be a strong man employed to do the chief technical work in the proposed course in railway mechanical and electrical engineering; and if at first there are not many students in this course he could employ his time with profit in working up and publishing the results of tests already made with the mechanical engineering dynamometer car and in planning and carrying out additional investigations with the mechanical and electrical engineering dynamometer cars. There is now in the mechanical engineering department an instructor in railway mechanical engineering who is doing some work along these lines. And if the Department of Railway Engineering is established it would probably be wise to transfer the above instructor to the new department.