The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-01-29
An Electric Railway rom Chicago to St.
Louis.

CHICAGO, Jan. 18th, 1892.
Mr.. Editor What will be accom-
plished between the years 1892 and 1900
no one can predict. l give you an &C
count for the readers of the BANNER of
what is expected to be built between
the cities of Chicago and st. Louis by
some of the capitalists of Missouri and
Illinois, 50 that st. LOuisan can leave
st. Louis in the morning after he leaves
his breakfast table and do six hours bus
mess i'll Chicago and get back to St.
Louis to his six o'clock dinner. The
Chicago & st. Louis Electric Railroad
Company has filed articles of incOrpora-
ton with the Secretary of the State of
Illinois this week, and the prospectus of
the proposed electric road reads like a
chapter from one of Jules Verne's fairy
tales. The road Will be bee line' in
TACT, not in theory, and a ruled line on
the map, beginning with st. Louis and
ending with Chicago, will show where
rails are to be laid. There will be no
curves, very few fills aud cuts, for the
motor will go up hill and down as easily
as on a level. The speed will average
100 miles per hour. The road will oper-
ate under the system of. electric high
ways patented by d. We ngtOn Adams.
1t will be operated from one central sta
ton near Clinton, ILL.,, located at the
mouth of coal mine. This mine will
be operated by the company by means of
electric mining locomotives, electric
drills, electric lights, winch will greatly
cneapen the present cost of mining coal,
1 he waste dust or slack alone, which is
always dead loss to mining companies,
| will run the engines which develop the
power for both the mine and road. The
road will be divided mp into twenty-five
sections of ten miles each, which will
constitute a complete block system,
making it impossible for any two cars to
run at high rate of speed upon any
single section at the same time, thus
making collisions impossible. There
will be complete block signaling sys-
| TEN by means of incandescent electric
! lights, with telephone communications
| be tween cars upon the same section,
whether running OF standing still. The
road will be illuminated by electric
| lights for one mile ahead and one mile
| behind every Car while running at night
while at all grade crossings, whether
wagon or electric, red electric light
will be displayed and an electric bell
rung for two minutes before it, or ime
for the train to pass. 1t is intended tC
ultimately construct four tracks, two
outside tracks for local traffic and high
| class freight while the two Inner tracks
will be used exclusively for through pas.
senger traffic, mail and high class ex,
press. The through cars will not stop
anywhere between the two termIn
cities. Spurs will be run from Taylu..
Vile, Springfield, Decatur, Bloomington
and Joliet to the main line from those
cities both for Chicago and st. Louis, &c
run through without stopping. There
is to be no night travel, owing to the
rapidity with which the journey can he
made in daylight. Therefore no passen.
ger trains will be run after 8 o'clock in
the evening, the tracks being reserved al
night for Ii. Oh class freight, express ano
mail matter. This will do away with
the necessity of Pullman cars. Farmers
can build light switches to their barns
and granMies to facilitate transportati II
of the products of their land. The com
pimy will get the road i'll operation il
ume for the Worlds Fair. The terminal
f ,,i lilies are already secured, three lines
h I'VE been surveyed within six miles q,
each other, and right OF way and subsi
dies secure nearly the tie distance
The character of the electric carriage OF
Cur that will be run upon the road is {
long, low car, something like the steam
cars in front, or similar to the COW
catcher, showing long, low, compact
light but strong car, having two pairs o
driving wheels, each of which is driver
by Il separate and distinct electric motor
Inc whole weight OF the car with it.
passengers and of the two electric motor
come upon The two pairs of driving
wheels, and is therefore all available 10
traction or adhesion between the rail
and the wheels, through the agency o
which the car is propelled. The top o
the car stands only nine feet from tn
rail, which is three feet lower than tn
ordinary street car. This brings tin
center of gravity very low and near T.
the rails, which decreases immensely tn
danger of jumping the track. 1t has
wedge-shaped nose or front for cutting
the air, which has the effect of decreas
ing the resistance IA most important fac
tor in high speed lOcomotion), and il
helping to keep the car down upon thu
track. The motor man stands immedi
ately back of this wedge-shaped front
Between his department and the rea
wheels is. the compartment for mail an
high-class express. the driving wheel
are six feet in diameter and capable @