The record-union., 1898-04-13
ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES.
NOW USED WITH PERFECT SAT
ISFACTIoN IN THE EAST.
Description of One of the Latest
Machines-It Is Said to
Work Perfectly.

The new electric locomotive which
mas been running in Hoboken, n. j., for
the past five weeks, has proved success
Aul, and the entire operation of the Ho-
boken Shore Road is now carried on by
electricity.
The Hoboken Shore Road runs along
the water front of the North River,
racing New York, from the tracks of the
Erie and West Shore Railroads at Wee
haWken, as far as the docks of the North
German Lloyd Steamship Company. It
supplies a deficiency which has tended
more to impede the progress of New
York as a seaport than any other cause,
that is, connecting facilities between
the tracks of the great trunk line which
tap the inexhaustible resources of the
West, and the docks and warehouses
of the transoceanic lines. Had New
York such facilities as has Hoboken
with it's new connecting line less would
be heard of the rivalry of ports lying
directly on the mainland where both
ocean lines and railroad trunk lines find
adequate terminal facilities
The new road owes it's existence to the
foresight of the Stevens family which
has practically built up Hoboken With
vessels of five great ocean steamship
companies berthing in Hoboken the
amount of trucking necessary to take
cargoes from and bring others to the
docks was enormous producing an over
whelming confusion in all the adjacent
streets, not to mention the constant risk
of accident, and the suspension of all
other Vehicular traffic. All this has
been changed since the new road was
completed, and the freight cars them
selves have been loaded directly from
the steamers hold.
The five lines that berth in HObOken
are the Ham mburg-American running to
Hamburg: the North German Lloyd, to
Bremen; the HollandAmerica, to Rot
terdam; the Phoenix, to Antwerp, and
the Thingvalia line, to Norway and
Sweden. The time required to load them
and clear the docks ready for the out
going cargo has already been materi
ally reduced.
The successful operation of the new
line would have been very difficult, if
not impossible, with the steam lOcOmo-
tive. The difference between an electric
locomotive and a steam locomotive lies
not only in the greater hauling power of
the former, but also in the quicker re-
spOnse to the motion of the notOrmans
hand. The electric locomotive responds
Immediately to the movement of the
controller handle, and starts without
jerk or noise, tightening every coup
ling uniformly or coupling the cars to-
gether so gently that no blow is per-
ceptible. With the common switching
steam locomotive, response to the move
ment of the throttle lever is not instan-
taneous, coupling is usually produc-
tive of a heavy shock, the jerky start of
a train is conducive to strained couplers
or broken links, and with the noise, the
smoke and the dus. everyone is ia
miliar
The electric locomotive looks like
nothing so much as a double cab, with
a sloping tender shield on each side,
one carrying a bell and a headlight, the
other a whistle and another headlight.
1t resembles in outward appearance the
giant electric locomotives also built by
the General Electric Company, now
handling the entire freight and passen-
ger traffic of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, through the Belt Line tunnel
al Baltimore. Md The cab and shields
are set upon an iron frame, set on two
four wheeled trucks. To each pair of
wheels is a motor of 135 Fl. P, giving a
total to the locomotive of $40 horse
power. The motors drive the wheels
by means of a large gear on the axle and
a small pinion on the motor armature.
AS the line runs for a short distance
through one of the principal streets in
the city, the question of speed has been
taken out of the discretion of the motor
man. and the locomotive is geared down
to the very low speed of eight miles an
hour. The supply of current is taken
from an overhead wire by the familiar
trolley pole. The locomotive is a double
ender and at each end is a rallied plat
form on which a brakeman can stand in