The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-09
HIS Il GREAT FUTURE.

I
 HAS I GREAT FUTURE.
 Some time ago reference was made in these columns to the probable great fu- ture of electricity as a motive power on passenger and freight railroads. Mir Wetzler, the editor of the Electrical En- gineer, has a most interesting article in Scribner's Magazine on the subject. He is an enthuslsast on the prospects and future of electricity, and in course of time he expects to see all roads op- erated by electricity. MT. Wetzler ad- mits that, remarkable as the improve ments in the electric field have been, the locomotive still "holds the fort" the electric motor not yet being sufficiently perfected or developed to replace it-a fact of which railroad men are thor oughly cognzant. The electric motor has worked wonders in displacing the use of horses, all in the last ten years or less, and the days of the horse car horse are numbered and gone by. The horses do not complain of this. But the displacement of the locomotive by the electric motor, formidable as have been and are the inroads upon the earnings of the steam roads by the local trolley roads, is not a simple and easy matter. The locomotive yet bears off the palm with the greatest of ease as far as long distance hauls are concerned. The question of cost is the determining fac tor in this problem. On long hauls and also where there is not multitude of trains to be run daily for long distances the use of steam as a motive power costs far less than electricity. If a large number of train units Is to be | moved continuously or at intervals of | five or ten minutes, at high or medium speed, electricity undoubtedly will be | more economical than steam applied to | locomotive pistons. This Is the reason | of the adoption of electricity on the | Nantasket Beach branch of the New | York; New Haven and Hartford rail road and on the Burlington and Mount Holley branch of the Pennsylvania sys- tem.'
 The smaller the number of trains the | greater the economy by steam; the greater the number of trains the great CT the economy by electricity. So much for this branch of the subject. Then as regards paralleling steam railroads Every reasonable dislnterested person will admit that it is not good public olicy to allow the paralleling of existing lines which accommodate the public, imply because somebody wants to make money, regardless of exising corporate rights and franchises. The unnecessary of railroads in the United States has cost the conhding public hun dreds of million dollars-dollars which have been as absolutely sunk out of sight as If dropped to the bottom of the sea- But trolley roads, as at present laid out, which parallel steam railroads can never compete for through traffic with the existing steam lines for the simple reason that the shooting through the streets of city at the high rates 1f speed at which the steam cars run would never be tolerated. When the trolley companies seek to compete with .he steam road on long distance travel they will be compelled to buy the right # way, the same as the steam railroad ines do. The courts are already so de- ,iding. But the field for the electric motor is broadening, In certain fields Il he superiority of the motor is indis- 1utable. Its simplicity guarantees a marked reduction in the cost of repairs The electric locomotives running on the 2 london Underground railroad have a f ecord of 60,000 miles without the ex- ,enditure of a cent, the authority for ] hisstatement being Alexander Siemens, T president of the English Institution of 1 Electrical Engineers. The constant and I apid increase of the trolley lines in the United States, and in other countries as yell, is wondrous, and the Rip Van Win- lies of our day find in the changed t methods of travel on street railways a I rolific cause for astonishment and be- h
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