The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-22
.E1EcrE1c POWER ON RA11RoADs

The substitution of electricity for steam
power in railroad operation is one of the
prospective events which have been en-
gagingfE the attention of expert civil and
railroad service for some considerable Pc
Rod. The application of electricity as the
motive power is in operation In many of
the shorter railroads of continental Eu-i
rope, and especially in Switzerland. The
use of the electric motor on the Cas-
cade division of the Great Northern rail
road represents, perhaps, the earliest APP
plication even in limited form of electrief
power in the operation Of trains on a
great railroad system in the United
States. -
Articles recently published on ''The
Supersession of Steam by the Electric
Locomotive and ON Electric Traction
by distinguished engineering authorities,
are the subject of discussion, in a recent
number of Nature. The general result
reached in that discussion is that the
profitable use of electricity as the driv-
ing power is feasible on metropolitan sys-.
TENS of local train service and on lines
between important towns and cities not
too far apartA1OO miles being the distance
Indicated as a reasonable maximum by
one of the writer's mentioned.
The reason of the superiority of electric
power in such systems is stated as being
due to the fact that electric traction
tends toward the ideal of the continuous
nearly railroad tends toward the same
ideal the more likely is the adoption of
electricity as it's motive power; while, in
the case of electric locomotives, the power
trains. Following up this general line OF
reasoning, Nature proceeds to discuss
the subject in the following terms:
Since the generation of power In bulk
/ is much cheaper than in detail, the ten
dency with steam locomotives is to make
each detail as large as possible, and
therefore to run heavy trains at long in
tervaIs. With electric working, on the
other hand, 1T Is desirable to make the
load on the generating station as con
| slant as possible which can only be
done when the number of trains Is large
and each only takes small fraction of
| the total load; for in such a case the
stopping and starting of individual trains
will only have a small percentage effect
on the output of power 1T will readily
be- seen, therefore, that for Iong-distance
| traffic the steam locomotive Is likely for
some time to come to hold its own, for
/ here the number of passengers is not SO
great as to be able to support a very fire.
quent service of light trains and, more
over. the time taken over the journey,
being nearly the whole of the day or
night, practically fixes the starting times.
To the unprefessionaI mind it is easily
apparent that electricity on the great
railroad systems of the country is not
a likelihood for many years to come But
most of those Immediately engaged in the
great industry of steam and electrical
communication are evidently far from
being convinced that steam power is des-
tined to continue it's present aseendency
even in the case of the great railroad
systems of the world. IF ever the utiliza-
ton of electricity for train locomotion
| is made generally available the DAY Of
the steam locomotive is evidently num-
| bered
| In specifying the advantages of the
| younger power in it's application to rail-
road uses, Nature further summarizes
| in the following sentences:
| Many additional advantages are in
| trodiIeed at the same time as the prin-
.cipal gain in the lessening of the cost of
7 power generation. Thus the driving
power can be distributed throughout the
I train which results in Iessening the
| wear of the permanent way and also In
| q fessening of the slip of driving wheels,
I as a greater proportion of the weight OF
the train is used for adhesion. It is
/ Grating the train and for mounting gra-
dents, as therextra power needed in these
l cases is derived from an outside source,