The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-01
TROLLEY PARTY TO THE COAST
THIRD RAIL SYSTEM TO SEND
TRAVELLERS ACROSS COUNTRY.

No Engine, No Dust, No Noise, No
Heat-It VIII Cost $500, 200, 900, But
600 CIear-SIeep Under the Moon
and breakfast TO Songs of Birds.
New York, July SO.-7It will only be a
short time before you can go down to the
depot, step on the cars, gripsack in hand,
and be whisked of to San Francisco with
out feeling that you are going on jour
ney.
AS there will be no engine to your car
you will not need much baggage, for you
will be free from SCOT and dirt. AS the
windows of your car win be open, you
will not suffer from car-sickness and so
you will need none of the champagne. the
spirits and the lemons that you now re-
quire And as the country will be green and
fair on either side of you, not hot, arid,
cinder-burned and parched, you will en-
joy looking out and will4hot want the in
evitable book and the waving fan to make
life bearable. Y
Life will be one long, sweet dream to
travellers when the third rail is laid down
for all the hardships of travelling will be
| done away with and all its pleasure pre-
| served.
At night you will want your bed low
| cred. This can be done without closing the
window. A little screen can be fitted into
| the opening and there you can lie. half
awake and half asleep, watching the ever
| changing scenery and specializing whether
| you are in Missouri or in Ohio, whether in
Idaho or coming into California.
This way of travelling is not an idle
| dream. 1t is a reality even now. Presi-
dent Clark has the third-rail system in
operation now between several stations
| of the New York, New Haven and Hart
| ford railroad, and it will soon be used
upon the New York Central, the Erie, the
Reading the Lehigh Valley, the Southern
railway, the Northern Pacific, the Cleve-
land, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis,
and the Chesapeake and Ohio. Study these
| railways carefully and you will find chat
| they pretty nearly cover every section of
the country. Besides these lines, others
will take it up, but it is upon these that
Pierpont Morgan and his partners in the
General Electric are already empowered
to figure.
When these roads are equipped with
the third rail, Mr. Morgan will have plac-
ed this new system upon $3.50 miles of
| upon S4S controlled by the Chesapeake and
Ohio, upon 2,O23 miles of road belonging to
| the New York, New Haven and Hartford
| upon 2727 miles of the Erie; upon 1,H7
| miles of Philadelphia and Reading upon
| 2,435 miles of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chi
cago and st. Louis; upon 4,346 miles of
Northern Pacific; upon 4,752 miles of
Southern railway, and upon 1854 miles of
Lehigh Valley.
Fortunately the work does not take a
great while. The third rail can be nailed
| down without impeding traffic. The work.
men can put it in place Between trains,
pausing when a train is due at that place.
AS it does not stick high above the others,
It does not interefer with the present sys-
tenn of travelling In any way.
The main cost is not so much the laying
of the actual rail as the placing of the
electric wires and the stationing of e4ec-
trio forces. It is vastly cheaper, though.
than building new railroad and is, when
the profits are considered, the greatest
money-making scheme of the age.
To the terribly uninitiated the third-rail
system Is a blind expression, but when they
are told its operation they will declare
It very simple.
The present railroad tracks are used in
all cases and the present cars il desired.
But between the rails there is laid a third
rail-. The motive power is furnished by
storage battery The "engine" is a small
affair, little more pretentiouS than the
front wheel of a street cable car, and is
carried along the rail by electric wire,
dynamo and motor.
1t has been fully demonstrated that we
can extend the radius of power house ef-
fectiveness to fifty or a hundred miles,
and that we can run short-distance cleo
trio trains over the same rails as we OPP
crate our steam through trains without
interfering with the latter; and now you
will witness the most radical changes in
the motive power of our roads.
1t will be necessary to have power houses
every fifty miles or so, for the taking on
of storage batteries or for repair in case
of break, but these, after the first cost
will be much less expensive than the car
shops and the locomotive repair works
one of the strongest opponents to the
third-rail system is the trolley promoter
The trolley car almost drove out the loco
motive for suburban travel, but with the
third rail Ia the suburbanite Will prefer TO
travel on the railroad. Tho franchise OF
the railroad allows II 10 go at a speed
OF sixty miles an hour, while few troleys
can go faster than fifteen miles an hour
Speed and novelty Will be in favor of the
third rail.
The present system Of sleeping and din
ing cars will be In no way interfered with
by the use OF the third rail. on the con-
NfhfAt Nltit VIII DO NNNel comfort Tor the
dining-room guests, for you can dine with
open window and breakfast TO the song
OF tho birds. At night the sleeper can
slumber easily without being awakened by
deafening jolts.
II Il held that accident Is impossible on
the third rail- for the current can be in
stantly switched off at sight OF an APP
preaching train. Those who argue that
the connections might be out OF order or
the engineer ratified" can be oomforted
with the thought that an accident In an
open car Is much less serious than IN a
closed car, for no matter how shaken up
the passenger may be he can at least
crawl out alive.
The work Of the third rail Is being push
ed rapidly on. ft costs Mr.. Morgan so 900
per mile. OF $Ji7,5i0.0OO for the entire con-
tract but IL has been begun and will be
speedily put through, railroad men say.
When the rail Is laid and the nolsoless
motor engine running there will come
loud call for open observation cars, and
II Is said that the Wagners. the pulmans
and the others are figuring upon their con-
structlon. Clarence s. Russell
well. there ~ one thing 10 be proud
olive have no class preiudlces IN this
eountrvH