The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-14
HRAlLROAD RUMBLES.
Prominent .. P. Officials to
Arrive in the City To-day.
ELECTRIC STREET RAILWAYS
The New 8 L &F d Engine-The
ID. & r. G. Survey in
Colorado!G

| 1udAO.
J. II. YOUNG, travelling passenger
agent of the Chicago e. Northwestern,
with headquarters in this city, left last
night for San Francisco and other
points on the coast.
The Denver & Rio Grande surveying
party has been working on the location
of tunnel through Tennessee Pass, be.
tween Leadville and Red Cliff, COL, and
has made survey which, it is believed,
will be approved by the officers of the
company. and ac.ed upon at an early
| day. Should the work in question be
executed it will greatly reduce the grade
of the road, and make IL one of the most
economical routes between Aspen and
Glenwood and Denver.
THE new engine recently received by
the Salt Lake & Fort Douglas, is some
what of curiosity. 1t was built to
order at Lima, Ohio, its special mission
being to run over steep grades. 1t
differs from other engines IN having
cog wheel gears to the drivers, and the
entire weight of the engine and tender
resting on the drivers, thus giving it
the advantage of much greater friction.
The engine is being run over the track
at random in order to acclimate it be-
AO1C L11C Ahdl GSSb Is
SEVERAL prominent Union Pacific
officials will arrive in this city to-day
from the west by special train. Among
the prominent personages iu the party
are j IS. Tebbets, general passenger and
ticket agent; ". II. Holcomb, vice
president, and b. a. Johnson Ar
rangements have been made to run a
special excursion to Garfield Beach this
oftQrnnnn fHhOoa fIo,,,an
panied the Golden Gate special excur-
sion to the Coast few days ago, and
are now on their return trip.
THE ELECTRIC SYSTEMS.
The following from late number CT
Science will be of interest here:
The next three months will determine
whether there will be rapid advance in
the equipment of electric street rail-
ways, or whether they will have de-
cided set back. There have been roads
equipped in New England during the
summer that will have a severe test
this winter, and there are few places
where the equipment will not have to
do heavier work than ever before. At
the beginning of the year the Sprague
Electric Railroad and Motor Company
did not have Car running !; the Thom-
son-Houston-then the Van Depoele
Company-hsd half-a-dozen roaGs IN
operation; the Daft Company, about as
many To-day the Sprague-C Company
has thirty roads completed or IN course
of construction; the Thomson Houston
Company, about as many; the Daft
Company. perhaps a dozen; with a
number OF other systems represented
by single roads in different localities.
There have, too, been radical changes
in the methods that were used only a
short time ago. The Thomson-Houst
truck, with the motor pivoted on the
axle and gearing direct to it, is very
different affair from the Van Depoele
mOter placed in compartment in the
car, driving the wheel-axle by chain
belt. The Sprague Company have also
gained something from experience. and
the last type of motor and gear with the
single magnetic circuit, the admirably
simple method of reducing the speed,
and with the new brush for the COM
mutator, is marked improvement on
the type they have been building.
1t is significant that, with few eXoep-
tons, the method used to convey the
current to the car is by an overhead
wire. The question of street car pro-
pulsion is mainly one of economy, and
it is but natural that horses should be
first displaced where the most econom-
ical electric system is allowable. But it
will be seen, that, if We are to retain
our prejudices against the overhead
wires in our city streets, the real prob.
lem of displacing horses in city tram
ways has not been solved, nor is it
much nearer solution than it was a
year ago. The ideal system for
such work is undoubtedly the
storage battery system, and the
experiments that have been made
in that direction are few. In Phlladel-
phia a partial test of storags-batteries
was made, with the result-as stated
before the Street Railway Convention a
month sgo-that the cost of running a
car was So per day-about that of
horses. In New York the cars on the
Fourth Avenue Road are being slowly
equipped, but it is too early to obtain
even approximate figures as to the cost.
A storage-car was run for. a few months
in Baltimore, and anotherin Rochester,
but nothing has, been heard of them for
some time.
So that although number of roads
have been equipped with electricity, yet
the work has been in the direction of
suburban tramways. and the question
of city tramways remains still unsolVed.
But the important question now is,
what will be the effect of snow and
sleet on the overhead structures, and
on the possibility of propelling the cars?
| And according as the re ply is favorable
or not. will the work of next
year be satisfactory or other
wise. If there are no bitches
other than any system would be subject
to, then it is easy to predict that next
year the companies engaged in electric
railroading will get as many roads to
equip as their capacity will allow, for
on the question of economy of opera
ton there is no doubt.
1t should be the aim, then, of the
electric motor companies to supply
everyE possible means of clearing the
tracks of snow and ice. In Boston, the
| Sprague people have constructed a
special clearing car with an abundance
of power, and with brushes worked by
electric motors, for clearing the track,
and it is fair to suppose that such an
! arrangement will be more efficient than
team of horses. 1t is probable that
both this company and others have
| equipped all of their roads with some