Wichita eagle., 1888-06-03
ELECTRICAL RAILWAY.
CONTRACTS SIGNED FOR A NEW
ELECTRIC MOTOR ON THE
RIVERSIDE LINE.
Work to be Begun Immediately,
and the Road to be in 0pper-
alton Within Ninety Days.

The announcement that the Riverside
and Suburban Electric Railway company
has entered into a contract with the
Thompson Houston Electric Light COM
Dany of Boston, Mass, who are to at
once equip two miles of the formers
line with their improved and successful
electric motor, Will be hailed with de-
light by our citizens generally. For some
time the motor which was tried and
proved failure Through no fault of the
railway company, however, has been
abandoned and the cars drawn by horse
power instead. But now. through the
indomitable zeal and energy of Mr.. j. o.
Davidson, the president of the company,
its patrons are soon to be provided with
the most delightful and convenient
transportation facilities afforded any
portion.of the city.
The contracts which have been signed
obligate. the Thompson-Houston COM
pany to complete and have in successful
operation within ninety days two miles
of road, beginning at Market and Doug
las and extending thence north and
west along the present track. across the
Little river to Riverside, where the cleo
trio motor will terminate on Coolidge
avenue just north of Franklin.
Six cars will be equipped with the mo-
tors, which are TO be placed under the
from a wire suspended over the street.
The overhead work of the plant will not
be nearly so complicated as was that of
tie old system. The wires will be TWEEN
ty-fve feet above ground, while in the
other they were only fifteen feet.
Each motor has a strength of fifteen
horse power and the cars can be run in
trains of six, propelled by a single motor,
if desired. The average speed is guar
anteed at fifteen miles per hour and a
ten minute service will be perfected.
The cars will all be new, large and con-
venient and this city will possess one of
the best and most successful systems of
rapid transit to be found anywhere. 1t
will be one to which cur citizens can
point with pride as an instance of
what Wichita pluck can and will
do. After the two miles provided for in
the contracts have been thoroughly
tested and accepted, the company has
the privilege of contracting for four
more miles of line. which they hope to
be able to extend from their line, be-
tween the two rivers, north and east to
the car works. This will, however. de-
pend wholly upon the result of local
negotiations, now pending, along the
line of the contemplated route. The
system which is to be put in operation, is
acknowledged to be the best in existence.
1t is what was the Vandepole system,
which has been greatly improved upon
bp Prof. Thomson, the electrician of the
In whose possession the pat
ents now are. The extent to which
electrical railways are successfully
operated in this country, is not
generally understood, but can be best
by reproducing the
following interesting and reliable statis
tics, from an acknowIedgedly high au-
thority on the subject-the Electric Age
which in its issue for May, 1888, says:
An examination of electrical railroad
shows that there are already
130 miles of road in operation on this
continent. OF this number y miles are
in operation in Pennsylvania, 16 miles
in New York, 10 in Ohio, and SO miles in
New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado, Mich
igan, Missouri, California, Alabama, Vir-
ginia, Kansas, Delaware, Rhode Island
and Ontario combined. Almost all of
this building has been done in the past
year.
There are in course of construction, or
contracted for, $50 additional miles in
New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Tennessee, Ohio, California, Pennsylva-
MIA, Nebraska. Kentucky and Minnesota.
On these various roads constructed and
in siXty-two different towns
and cities, the Van Depoele system is
used, or to be used, in seventeen cases,
the Daft system in fifteen cases. the
Sprague system in seven cases, and the
BentleyKnight, the Heart, the Henry,
the Julien and other systems in the re-
cases. The last named system
is to be used on the projected New York |
and Harlem Fourth Avenue Electrical
road, while the Daft system is in use at |
Los Angeles. where the first electrical |
railroad was opened for business in the /
winter of 1861"