Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-18
ELEVATED RAILWAY
PLANS ANNOUNCED
MILLION DOLLARS PROMISED
FOR RAPID TRANSIT
Third Rail, with Novel Appliances, viii
Be Feature Of Connecting Link
Between Los Angeles, La
Canada and Pasadena

After weeks of silence President
George 10. Smith of the million dollar
corporation formed several weeks ago
to construct q passenger railway be-
tween La Canada, through Pasadena,
to Los Angeles, has come forward and
announced exactly what his company
has done and what it expects to accom-
plish. The railway man has remained
absolutely secretive until his plans and
the plans of the other members of the
corporation have been absolutely COM
pleted.
Briefly the Pasadena, La Canada e.
Los Angeles Railway company, as 1t is
called, Is to be an elevated line operated
by the new third rail friction clutch
device, patented about a year ago by
Los Angeles county people, and the mo-
tive power of the cars is to be gasoline.
The first section of the line, from La
Canada to Pasadena, is to be built and
operated, according to plans, by July
4. 1907, and the balance of the line will
be finished as soon after that as pos
sible. Already President Smith says
that the rails for this first section are
ordered and that construction work will
commence just as soon as the rain
ceases.
Rapid Transit Promised
When seen at his Orange Grove ave-
nue. residence in Pasadena last evening
President Smith calmly announced that
he expects that within year or so his
company will be sending cars from
Pasadena to Los Angeles in ten min
utes for q fare of 10 cents. The route
the line is to traverse, according to the
map of the right of way shown by the
officers of the company, is from Burr
avenue in La Canada along the west
bank Of the Arroyo Seco to Pasadena,
thence over the old cycleway, which the
new company has secured, to South
Pasadena and thence via Elysian park
to Los Angeles.
The line is then planned to loop from
Los Angeles to Glendale, thence to Ver-
dugo, La Crescenta and back to La
Canada, making a veritable balloon
shaped trip with the srsall end in the
La Canada valley.
The tracks are to be double and ele-
waited about fourteen feet from the
ground on steel pillars. Two light rails
will be on either side while in the center
will be a third and heavier rail. This
third rail is the feature of the whole
arrangement. No wheel rests upon it's
top, but against it's sides friction wheels
press which are the soul of the car.
Car Is Light
These wheels press against this rail
with much force and they are turned
by forty-horse power motors of the au-
tomobile type. AS the regular wheels
which support the car do not furnis1
it's motive power there is no reason
why the car itself should be heavy to
give them clutching force on the rails
and, accordingly, the car only weighs
about one-flfth the ordinary weight Of
such a vehicle.
Already a car, not full sized but big
enough to hold eight or a dozen peo-
pie, has been secretly constructed and
operated. In this car practical ma
chinist and engineer, Arthur H. Green,
took trip over short experimental
line recently and Of the result he says:
1.-THE principle of this friction grip ap-
pliance is right. 1 believe the car will
run a mile minute. 1t has demon
strated to me that it will climb fifteen
to twenty-five per cent grade all right
because the car is so light and I be-
lieve it will revolutionize modern rail-
roading."
Directors Announced
When the million dollar corporation
was announced some weeks ago the
names of but three of the directors were
announced. Now the following direc-
torate is made public by the president:
George e. Smith, Pasadena; H. M. Orr,
Los Angeles; G. G.. Compton, Long
Beach; A. H. Green, Los Angeles; A.
B. Armstrong, Los Angeles; Barclay
H. Potter, La Canada, and F. w. Cres-
well. Pasadena. Smith is president,
Compton first vice president, Green
second vice president, Orr secretary
and treasurer.
In securing the old cycleway in Pasa-
dena the company did a stroke of good
business, for in no other way could a
line have been run through the city
over private right of way which would
permit of great speed. This cycleway
was built when wheeling was at its
height and was aimed as plank road
to connect Los Angeles and Pasadena.
Elevated along the alley from Central
park, Pasadena, to South Pasadena, it
gives an absolutely clear right of way
wide enough for a double elevated
track.
Cars of Novel Shape
The cars themselves, according to
plans of the company's engineers are
to be exceedingly novel. Pointed at
each end for wind resistance there will
be two separate sets of forty-horse
power gasoline motors of the automobile
type. These motors will be entirely
under the bodNof the car and not stick
ing up through the floor as in the South
ern Pacific car which came to the coast
much heralded and went back unwept
and unsung.
Each car will accommodate about
half hundred passengers and yet will
weigh only eight tons.s The motors will
be of the four-cylinder double opposed
National type.
1t is claimed for the car that it can
not jump the track as the friction
power wheels which press against the
heavier center rail hold much of the
weight are tremendously strong and
cannot be lifted from the rail as they
press against the sides of the rail, one
on either side, with flange above and
another below.
Great speed, no danger of jumping
the track and hill climbing power be-
cause Of light weight is the claim of the