New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-01-16
now ELECTRICITY PAID.
ncxrrI,ANr EXPERIMENT ON AN OLD
STEAM ROAD.
,rcorr on LAST sUMMEE's VENTURE NEAR
uaRTlNoRp-THE NUMBER OF PAssEN
,N.~pt. suu lrINEEOI.D

r,s most important experiments yet tried in
.~,s country with electricity for the operation
,-.,ns on surface roads which had formerly
rsad steam as a motive power have been un-
,.-,o,en by the New-York NewHaven and
hartford Company. one OF these ventures was
I'D on the Nantasket branch OF the old Colony
,,s,en. near Boston. The other was on twelve
IA 4 third miles Of track between Berlin and
hartford. Conn The latter trial was begun only
last May bat for several reasons it is the more
Instructive Of the two Nantasket Beach is a
.ort Of Conoy Island and the traffic on the line
loading thereto is chiefly confined to the sum-
rner time whereas Berlin is one Of several close
" adjacent go13-sized towns. whose population
"a exchansius visits Gor business or pleasurc)
all the year round. Similar conditions prevail
extensively all over the Eastern half of the
United states.
Before operati1ns werc begun between Berlin
and Hartford President Clark made number
o, boasts and predictions. regarding the sound
ness Of which there might then. properly, have
been more than one opinion. Now that six
months have elapsed the public is in much
better position 10 judge whether he was cor
rect or not 4 few weeks ago Colonel ~ II.
Heft Of the New-IIaven road. read a paper be-
fore the American street Railway Association on
this subjec; and supplied a number of highly in
ter, sting details.
In the frs. place it appears that the subst-
tuition u electricity for steam in suburban SER
vice has resulted in a great Increase Of patron
age on the NantaSke, branch nearly three
times as many passengers were carried this sum-
mer as three wears ago And this is true in
spite Of The fact that the line has practically
no compstiton. But the business between Der
In NeT-Britain and Hartford has been Qun-
tupled in a single season. and the road is paral-
leled by the trolley all the way 1t IS probable.
although Colonel Heft did not refer to the fact,
that the Consolidated road had previously suf-
fered greatly from competition like scores OF
other steam roads doing a large suburban bust
ness elsewhere. SO that the multiplication OF
patronage ivcfoii must be estimated from an
abnormaly loW minimum. All the same. the
fact stands out .a bold relief that almost from
the very beginning Of the experiment there was
al enormous increase Of traffic.
In some measure. no doubt. this was due to a
reduction Of fare from - to 10 cents. The troll
ley company charged l5 but gave its passengers
transfer 10 any Of the street railways OF either
city. 50 mat the advantage was not greatly in
favor " the Consolidated people on this score.
Besides the trolley almost literally stopped at
every one door.
But the new service superior to that Of
the trol-v c0mpany in respect to time. The lait-i
consume afty-hve minutes in taking passengers
from New Britain to Hartford mino and one
third mll.sl while the Consolidated road covered
the distance IN eighteen or twenty minutes. On
this part u the route no stops were maze by
the electrically propelled trains OF the Consoli-
dated All passengers for any Of the five inter
aediat. stations were compelled to take steam
train. running on a parallel track as single
track road. The average speed or the e'ec,'le
train was twenty-eight or thirty miles an hour
but ii often attained a maximum OF over Sixty
The entire nine and third miles have Deeh
covered in ten minutes. easily. on an incioseo
track with a private right Of way. such as an
old-estahi.bad steam road already has even
greater speeds than this are entirely feasiDle
But on an open highway, where the mo'oii'idii
must take frto account both teams and pedes-
TRANS 10 say nothing Of making frequent stops
Is ont o. mo question to make time at all
comparalle with this.
On tho Nartasket branch, however, II was
Necessary 90 render local as well as through
service and sixteen stops were made IN lou
miles The schedule time was twenty-six min
utes leaving four minutes for the switching OF
the mot.r-car to the other end Of the tram Ior
the return tr.r and for the unloading and load
Ing OF passengers. This was done with aDso-
lutte regularity connections being made with
boats at the beach, and steam trains on part OF
the division being carefully avoided righ'
through the whole summer. Colonel Heft says
-Thesc are things which cannot possibly oe &C
complshed by steam locomotives" Ana the rea-
son why electricity is superior he add Is
found in tie tremendous accelerating power o'
properly designed electric motors win ro'ai'
motion as compared with reciprocal motion OF