The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-03
WITH WICHITA PACE
Street Railway Company Is in
Band Wagon.
$4,000 IMPROVEMENTS
Now Has Best Power House in
Kansas.

The Wichita Railroad and Light COM
pany evidently intends to keep pace with
the growth of greater Wichita. The cleo
trio light plant and the street railway
of this company are all new, but in spite
of that fact. it has spent $4,000 in
improvements during the year just past
There are not a few people in this city
who fix the beginning OF Wichita's mar
velous growth in building and business
expansion at the time of the beginning of
the building of the new street car system
by the Mckinley Nelson company. The
people of this city have patronized the
line because il deserved patronage and
the company has shown by its actions
that it is true to Wichita.
In making these Improvements the COM
pany has paid out every cent possible to
Wichita people. 1t has employed home
people to do The work and has bought
material wherever possible of Wichita
firms. The foundry OF Moore Bros. fur
nished nearly all the castings used in
making these valuable improvements. Su-
perintendent w. R. Morrison said last
night that it was the policy of the COM
pany not to buy anything outside of the
city tnat can be bought mere
Speaking OF the investment of this large
sum of money, it would be we'll to look
over the field and see what Wichita has
to show for it. In the first place the car
barns and the cars burned UP have been
replaced with better barn and better cars.
The company during the year has pur-
chased seven new z0-foot cars with cross
seats and will get two more by the first
of February. These in addition 10 the
four new summer cars, give thirteen large
cars.
The new line on South Emporia avenue
for over a mile was built during the year
and opened on the eth of July. The West
Side line was rebuilt from Wichita street
to Seneca. The track was constructed
with 6o-pound rails inches high and g.
feet long. They are laid on creosoted
ties, the ties resting on a concrete foun-
dation. This track will be paved with
vitrified brick and flushed with Portland
cement, which will make it water tight.
One of the most convenient improve
rnents for the public made during the year
was the building of the cutoff along the
Missouri Pacific rignt-of-way from
Twelfth street to Market, thence north 10
Seventeenth street. Four thousand feet
of new track was built on this line which
shortened the line 1000 feet, thereby en-
aiding the company to run its cars from
the corner of Main and Douglas to the
stock yards and the packing houses in
fifteen minutes instead of twenty as be-
fore. 1t also avoids the frequent delays
at the crossing of the Missouri Pacific
switches at Twelfth street.
The improvements made in the power
house. and only just completed, make 1t
one of the best in the west There have
Just been installed an $50 horse power
compound condensing Russell engine and
a new 400 K W. Western direct connect
ed generator with new switch boards,
pumps and condensers corresponding with
the larger machinery. The boiler room
has also been provided with automatic
stokers which feed the furnaces with fuel.
This is the only plant Of the kind in the
state of Kansas.
The only complaint ever heard against
the street car service is from the people
on some of the lines who want shorter
service. They know it is good thing and
they want more of it. The service is
good and strangers who visit the city
never fail to speak of the excellent street
car service.