The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-16
BOSTON TRANSIT NOTIONS.
LITTLE YANKEE INNOVATIONS
THAT SAVE TIME.

Car Doors Opened and Closed by Com.
pressed Air-"Easy Access" Cars which
Are q Success-Things Which New
YOrk's Elevated Roads Might Copy.
BosroN, July 15-When James Dalrymple,
the Glasgow street railroad expert who came
over to study the possibilities Of municipal
ownership in Chicago, said that Boston's
street railway system was the hest in this
country he made particular reference TO
two things The uniform civility and eff
cheney Of employees and the success that
has been attained in achieving rapid transit
under peculiarly difficult conditions.
The first point Of superiority is the result
Of careful selection and training. The Sec
ond involves not only skilful management.
but mechanical ingenuity that some
times takes novel and interesting forms.
One Of these innovations, looking to saving
seconds here and there has just been brought
into use on the Boston Elevated Railways
overhead and subway trains. 1t consists
of opening and closing the doors of the cars
by compressed air power
This plan permits the side doors to be
used as exits at all stations and during the
entire day. Another device gives the
motorman his starting signal automatically
as soon a. train is snugly closed and ready
to get under way.
Until Boston became accustomed to the
hustling ways of elevated trains the COM
pany had quite a problem on its hands
to keep things moving on schedule time.
Boston crowds were not used to being hur-
red and did not take kindly to 1t. This
difficulty was overcome gradually by dip
lomatic methods, and the Bostonian and
his suburban brother became as expert
rush hour rushers as the most hardened
New Yorker.
While the superior discipline OF its en-
ployees made the crowded hours of travel
less irritating and much safer here than
they have been found to be in most places,
the elevated company. which long ago
established remarkably friendly relations
with the public by its fair dealing and eff
cheney, felt that something more might be
done to bring the millennium further up on
the horizon This something more. it was
decided. should be satisfactory mechanical
means of working the side doors Of the
elevated cars.
When the company opened its overhead
lines it adopted as its standard car one
with door in the middle of each side to
he used as an exit during rush hours. After
a while the traffic got 80 heavy that the use
of the side doors was necessary at other
hours.
Pulling a lot Of levers, which takes the
attention of the trainmen from their other
duties and is wearisome besides, seemed
clumsy method in this automatic age.
So Charles s. Sargent, the vice-president
Of the elevated railway, began looking for
something better, and more than year ago
he perfected the device with which all the
company's elevated cars are now equipped.
The automatic door is very simple after
all A rod inside the woodwork Of the car
is attached at one end to the hack of the
sliding door and fitted at the other into q
piston that can apply compressed air
so as to move the rod in either direction.
The air which is under pressure of sixty
pounds to the square inch, comes from u
tank beneath the car that is kept full y
an automatic electric pump. The valve
that controls the mechanism is aft xed
to the end Of the car, where it is directly
under the hand of the trainman, who stands
between two cars and operates the doors Of
both simply by turn Of his wrists.
The door can be stopped instantly,
whether it is opening or closing, and it's
rapidity OF movement can be perfectly regu-
lated. AS safeguard against any sort of
accident the outer edge is protected with
pneumatic cushion, so that If it should close
upon passengers fingers, say, they would
not be even bruised
If a skirt or coat were caught in the clos
ing door the slightest pull would drag the
garment out without doing the fabric any
injury, and there is no chance of person
whose clothing is accidentally entangled
being drag ged by the train
Every new idea is tried out thoroughly
by the elevated company before it is put
into use, and the automatic side door was ex-
perimented with long time. But it worked
30 we'll from the first that it suggested
still further application OF its mechanical
principle to overcome second great diff
Guilty in getting trains away from stations
quickly, the necessity, with the old type
of car. Of passengers entering by narrow
platforms, with their ging gates, and
turning corner to get inside the coach.
For this purpose there were put into SER
vice twenty-four easy acce IS cars which
nave nv plhtlplIl az al, tHc oPoNV siNVh w
the platform in the old fashioned type of
coach being added to the car body. All
doors are in the sides, those for exit in the
middle and those for entrance at either end,
so that a passenger steps directly from the
station platform into the car, where the
broad aisle gives plenty of room for dis-
tributing the load, as railroad men call it.
Not only is the sheltered standing room
increased, but the possibility of accidents
to passengers on an open platform is elmi-
mated. There is a small platform on which
the train hands stand, but the passengers
cannot go from one car to another while a
train is in motion.
The easy access cars were an immediate
success. Their possibilities az time sayeIe
we're even beyond what the company had
Anticipated and the convenience to the
travelling public made them at once popu-
lar.