The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-06-09
TROLLEY TO THE COAST.
soon the Third Rail System Will
Send Travellers Across the
Country In Open Cars.


Country In Open Cars.
Ii will only he Il short time before yo,,
| can 90 down to the depot. step ON the
cars, griDsack in hand, and be whisketl
off to San Francisco without feeling that
you are going OH Il journey
| 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 ear will lm open. you
will not suffer from car-sickIlrss and s.,
you will need none of the cha m,,agn,..
| the spirits and the lemons that you now
| require. And MS the country will be-
green and fair on either side Of you. not
hot. arid. rinder-burncd and par.cd. you
| will enjoy looking out and will not want
the inevitable book and the waving fan
to make life bearabIe.
Life will be one long. sweet dream to
travellers when the third rail is laid
| down; for all the hardshjl,s of travelling
will be done away with and all its pleas
! urrs preserved.
At night you will want your bed bw-
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 askep, watching the
ever-changng scenery and Specializing
whether you are in Missouri, or in Ohio.
whether i'll Idaho or coming into Califor-
MIA.
This way of travelling is not an jlI,.
dream. 1t is Il reality even now. I'resi-
dent Clark has the thr1-rail system in
| operation now between several stations
| of the New York. New Haven Il Hart
| ford railroad, and it will soon be used
upon the New York Central. the Erie.
tn" Reading: tn" Lrhigh Valley. the
Southern, raj way, til" Northern Pacific.
| til" Cleveland. Cincinnati. chirago d st.
Louis and the Chesapeake a. Ohio. Study
| thrs" railways carefully and you will find
| that they pretty nearly cover every seq
| ton of the country. Besides these lines.
| others will tax" it up. but it is upon
| these that Pierlont Morgan and his part
ners i'll til" General Electric ar" already
empowered to figure
| When these roads are equipped with
the third rail Mr.. Morgan will have
placed this new system nl,on 32Sl, miles
of road owned by the New York Cen
trail; upon S43 controlled by the Chpsa
pcake and Ohio: upon 2O23 miles of road
belonging to the New York. New Haven
and Hortford; upon 2727 miles of the
and Reading; upon 24:}5 miles of Clevr-
upon 1916 miles of Northern Pacific:
upon 4752 miles of Southern Railway
and upon 1884 miles of Lehigh Valley.
Fortunately the work does not take
Il great while. The third rail can be
nailed down without impeding traffic
The workmcn can put it in place be.
tween trains. pausing when a train is
high above the others. it does not in.
terferc with the present system of trav.
cling i'll any way.
| The main cost is not so much the Law.
ing of the actual rail as the placing OF
the electric wires and the stationins OF
electrical forces. 1t is vastly ,heapr
though. than building a new railroad
and it. when the profits are considered
the greatest money king scheme. OF
| the age.
| TO the terribly unintiatc.l the thir,
rail system is a hlind txpreSsinn bu,
when they are told it's operation they
will declare it very simple.
The present railroad tracks are uSel
in all cases and the present cars if de-
sired. But between the rails there is
land third rail- The motive power is
furnished by storage battery. The ZEN
CINE is a small affair: little more pre-.
| trntiuuS than the front wheel Of a
street cable car. and is carried along
the third rail by electric wire. dynamo
and motor.
1t has been fully DEMONSTRATED tina,
we can extend the radius Of power.
house effectiveness to fifty or hundred
miles, and that we can run short-ds
lance electric trains over the same rails
as We operate our steam through trains
without Interfering with the latter
and now YOU, will witness tile most radi
cal changes in tho: motive power of ou1
| roads.
| 1t will be necessary to have power.
houses every fifty miles or so. for the
| f,f ctr,
pair in cas-" Of break. hut these. after
the first cost. will be much less rxpe1l-
Slvc than the car shops and the loculio-
tive repair works.
| One of the strongest opponents to the
thlrd-rail system is the trolley promoter
The trolley car almost drove out the 10,
c"motivc for suburban travel. hut
will prefer to travel ON the railroad. Tho
franchise of the railroad allows it to Z,
at speed of sixty miles ain hour. while
few trOlleyS CAN so faster than, fiftcel
miles ali hour. Speed. and novelty viii
be in favor of the third rail-
The present system Of sleeping anG
dining cars will be in no way, interferec
the contrary: there viii be added com
fdrt for the dining room guests: fot you
can dine with open windows and break
| fast to the song of the birds At night
the sleeper can slumber easily without
being awakened by deafening jolts.
1t is held that accident is impossible
on the third rail. for the current can bt
| instantly switched off ut sight of an ap
| preaching train Those who argue that
the connections might he out of order ol
the eng in"cr ''rattlrd' can be comfortcd
with the thought that an accident in al
"orn car is much less serious than in {;
| closed car. for no matter how shaker III
the passenger may BE- he can at least
crawl ont alive.
The work If the third rail is being
pushed rapidly Oh. 1t costs MFR. Morgan
2O.MW per milo. or So .:l4O.t ONO for the
cutirc contract. but it has been begun
and will j" speedily put through. rail
| road men say.
When tho rail is laid and the noiScleS>
motor engine running there will come Il
| loud call for open observation ears and
| it is said that the WagncrS. the Pull
mans and the others are figuring upon
| their construction.
Clarence s. Russell