The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-09-13
ELECTRICITY and Transportation.

ing as to the application of electrical
motors to street cars the question is,
will electric locomotives supersede
steam locomotives on the great rail
roads, and ifso, when ? This question
is made doubly interesting just now
from the fact that the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad has just adopted cleo
trlcity for use in hauling trains through
the new tunnel just finished beneath
the city of Baltimore, and from the
further fact that New York, New
Haven, and Hartford company is now
operating branch line, about seven
miles long, from Old Colony House
station to Nantasket Beach. A brief
description of this road and its equip
ment will enable the reader to know
how much of departure its success
ful completion and operation indicate.
There are many curves on the Nan
tasket Beach road, there being twenty
in the line, and these extend A. miles
out of the total length Of 60 miles.
The sharDest of these curves is 10
degrees. The heaviest grade is 81
feet to the mile. The road is double
tracked through its entire length. The
road-bed is solidly built and heavily
ballasted. The trolley wire is Of
novel construction and shape. The
lower part is somewhat larger than
the upper, and the clip from the cross
arm fits securely around the upper
section, leaving smooth and un.
broken surface for the contact of the
trolley wheel. The trolley wire is Of
$4,000 circular mills capacity.
The motor. cars are of two types,
the closed and the open. The closed
cars are heavy baggage. cars, and four
are already in service. The open cars
are sixteen reversible bench cars, and
have received their equipment. The
open cars resemble the familiar city
trolley. car, but have flight Of three
continuous steps by which admission
is gained to the car. The closed
motor cars are 42 feet long over all,
and are built extra heavy, weighing
each, when fully equipped, over 80
tons. Two of the four have two
motors on one truck, while the two
others have four motors, two on each
Of the two trucks. The motors used
are the General Electric 1000 ma
chimes especially designed for heavy
work, and are similar to those in
| cuc~eccf,l ,,ca on tba Nf,trorolit,p
Elevated Railway in Chicago. They
are water tight and fre.proof. The
draw bar pull of the two. motor cars is
1000 pounds, that of the four motor
cars 5000 pounds, the motors being
Ioo-H. p. each, or 1000 pounds hori-
zontal draw. bar pull through 33-inch
wheel. The current is brought from
the trolley wires by means of trolley
provided with wheel having an extra
deep channel to the motors through
General Electric series parallel con-
troller, set up on the right-hand side
Of the platform. Immediately to the
left of the controller is the air-brake
handle. The compressed air for the
brakes and whistle is furnished by an
oscillating cylinder compressor
operated by an electric motor, which
is controlled by special automatic
rheostat which regulates the action
OF the motor in accordance with the
pressure in the tanks.
The trains are run as accommoda-
tion and express, the express trains
consisting of a baggage motor-car with
open trailers, the accommodation
facilities being furnished by single
motor-cars.
The tests made on this line are Of
considerable interest. The first show
ed that the motor car alone or with
small load could run at higher speed
than that attained by ordinary express
locomotives, and maintain the speed
without difficulty and without ap-
parent effort. This test gave rise to
some exaggerated newspaper reports
as to the speed attained. Subsequent
tests were made with the locomotive
or motor car as freight hauler, and
not less than fifteen heavily loaded
freight cars were easily moved and
carried along the line at high rate
of speed. So far everything was salts
factory. Since then fifty miles an
hour has been reached in another test.