The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-19

station by the Thames at Chelsea Creek,
Where current would be produced at a
much higher voltage than used in the
/ motors and distributed through trans
| formers at various points ON the line
at the reduced potential required. Prob
| ably, too when the extension of cleo
| trical traction to the whole Inner Circle
| is seriously taken in hand, considera
| tons of economical transmission will
| suggest that a second generating sta
ton be erected in what may be called
Metropolitan territory, to supply the
! northern section of the line. AS to the
| danger to life from the current now
employed, it may be mentioned that 500
volts is not technically regarded as a
dangerous current, and that, should a
man happen to complete with his body
the circuit between the conductor rails
carrying electrically at that potential,
the extent of the mischief would prob
ably be n more than a severe shock.
The special train is being used for
the experiments was built by Messrs.
Brown, Marshall & Co., of Birmingham,
and Is distinct improvement on the
stock at present running in the Circle
service. The couches Of which is is COM
posed are mounted on bogie trucks, and
are three inches wider than usual Civ
ing so much more room to the pas
sengers. They are not open from end
to e1fd. as in other electric railways in
London, but are divided into compart-
ments in the usual way, except in the
case of the motor coaches at each end
of the train. Here the larger wheels
are required for the motors necessitated
the raising of the floor level so that the
side doors could not be managed; hence
there Jig a central gangWay. All the
seats, except in the third claes smoking
compartments, are well provided with
cushions, and the train throughout is
brilliantly lighted with electricity, many
of the lamps being placed. not in the
usual position in the roof, but on the
sides of the carriages, like bulkhead
lights in ship. The two end coaches
containing the motors, which are by
Messrs. Simens, have compartments for
the driver and guard besides the pas
senger accommodation already mention
ed. The weight of the train complete
with passengers Is about 200 tons, more
than half being accounted for by the
so tons each.
Two were necessary because this
train was designed to run to and fro
in shuttle" service, and the Board of
Trade regulations ordain that trains
shall always be pulled from in 'front.'
not pushed from behind. But for the
Circle service, where trains runs round
and round continuously in the same di-
rection, only one motor coach would be
required, and so it would be possible to
make trains to hold more passengers
and yet weigh less than the experiment
al one, Iondoners, however, need not
hatter themselves with the hope that
the introduction of electric traction will
mean complete and immediate change
Of stock on the underground railways,
however desirable they may feel such
a contamination to be; for in the first
instance at least, the difference is not
likely to be more than the attachment
Of electrict locomotives in place of
steam ones to the existing vehicles
Still, the fact that beginning has been
made, and the prospect that in the
course of next century it may become
possible to travel round the Circle by
electricity, ought to be of some comfort
to those who remember how often an
electric locomotive was paraded in fam
~ by Sir Edward Atkins before the
eyes of the Metropolitan
and how regularly it fail
ID to put in concrete appearance upon
he railway.-Londlon Times.