Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-06-28
ELECTRIC ENGINE
Burlington Road is Having One
Constructed in Its Shops
at Aurora.
TO BE TRIED as EXPERIMENT
IfIt Proves Successful Others VIII
be Built to Replace Steam
Locomotives.

The Burlington road is making an
earnest effort TO solve the question of
substituting electricity for steam,
which traction men generally believe
will eventually be done on all rail
ways. The Aurora News tells of a
queer machine that is being built in
the c.. B. & Q. shops at that place:
The Burlington road is construct
ing something new and novel in the
Aurora locomotive shops. 1t is an auto
electric locomotive.
The frame work is under construc
ton in Stolls shop. and when the
floor is laid the engine, which will
furnish the power. will be installed on
one end of the car. After the engine is
placed the body will be taken to the
upper shops and the sides and top
viii be put on. When finished the
new engine will present the appear
ance of d baggage and mail car. One
third of the space in it will be re-
served for a mail compartment. The
engine which will be used is gasoline
affair and is of 900 horse power.
The engine will furnish power for
the generators which will supply the
power to the motors, which will set
on the trucks somewhat in the same
manner as on the Chicago line cars.
Speed Forty Miles an Hour.
The engine is of the largest types
of gasoline engines made. and will
take up about two-thirds of the car
which will be thirty-twO feet long.
The speed of the car will be about
forty miles an hour and will be able
to pull passenger coaches, for which
purpose it will be used.
Wh&n finished il will u given trial
trips around Aurora and after which
it will be sent TO Iowa, where it will
be used on the branch that runs be-
tween Ottumwa and Fort Madison. If
it proves successful, others will be
made and put in use upon the branch
es. When asked as to whether the
success would cause them to be run
between here and Chicago officials
stated that at present the company
had no such intention.
The Burlington will be the first
western road to use one of the cleo
trical engines, but not the first in the
country, as the New York Central has
been operating them for some time be-
tween New York and Harlem and
White Plains. a distance of thirty
miles. The weight of the engine alone
is 1000 pounds and with the car part
the total weight will be of 10000
pounds.
Pacific Outlet for Milwaukee.
Tacoma, Wash. June est has be-
come known that the Chicago, Milwau-
kee and st. Paul possess complete sur
veys from South Dakota to Puget
Sound. The survey made by the Mil
waukee engineers runs west from
Chamberlain, S. D., passing south of
Black Hills, thence across Wyoming
south of Bitter Root mountains in
Idaho and thence it follows the Sal
mon river to IFS confluence with the
Snake river near the state line of
Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Community of interest between the
Milwaukee and Hartman systems
leads to the belief that the former
will reach Portland over the Oregon
lines from eastern Washington and
that the Hartman system will reach
Puget sound over the Milwaukee's new
road from the Columbia river to Ia
coma and Seattle. Officials of the Mil
waukee and the Northwestern life in
surance company of Milwaukee have
been working quietly in the northwest
for weeks. These include II. H. Field
of Chicago, assistant general solicitor
of the Milwaukee. and ]. T. Woodward,
who is understood to be an officer of
the Northwestern life. Tidelands pur
chased at Seattle stand in Woodward
name, having been negotiated by
George McLarn, loan agent of the
| Northwestern life. Agents in Tacoma
are increasing recent tideland pur-
chases, which include a strip of tide
land a thousand feet wide at the har-
Dor front. mile and a quarter long
and half a mile wide at the further
end