The sun., 1908-03-18
100 TRAINS DEAD AT ONCE
POWER orr ALL MANHATTAN
ELEVATED LINES.

PASSENGER Get OF and Walk-shOFt Cir
cutting Of Cable Automatically stops
Power House EnGines-Cable Cut Out
and TrAmo Resumed After n Minutes.
At thirty-six minutes past last night
100 trains poattered over the four elevated
railroads Of the Manhattan Railroad Com
pany went dead A hundred motOrmen
put on the brakes or held back from turning
on the iuice according as they we're in mo
tion or halted at a station, and tho lights
hlokered out
II did not take most Of the passengers
long to realize that sitting In the cars would
not get them nearer their destinations
After some hesitation they began appealing
10 the conductors, and these as the power
was still lacking. gave up holding the pas
sengers In the trains All over the system
there was an opening Of gates men helped
women down tothe footboards on the out
side Of the tracks where there is no danger
from the third rail, and past the dark trains
feeling their way by the rails hundreds OF
New Workers all over the elevated system
picked their way to the nearest stations and
80 down to the street
One Of the high potential feed cables
carrying power from the developing station
at East River and Seventy-fourth street
to branch station B, Thirty-fourth street
and Third avenue. had short circuited,
either from some Aaw in the metal or from
some other one Of half dozen causes.
There are seven 5000 kilowatt generators
whirring out the power at that hour In the
evening. By system Of automatic checks
such a short circuit stops the generaton-
II It didn't there would be trouble-and It
is also automatically recorded which cable
has broken down.
Four branch stations on the East Side
and three on the Vest Side receive the
high voltage alternating current which tho
main station generates, and although
making no power themselves, step down
this high voltage electricity into a current
Of lower intensity and continuous instead
Of throbbing flow which can be used
best on the third rail. All these branch
stations, Of course, went out when the gem
orators died and the system lay paralyzed.
At the main station things moved fast
for few minutes. Without much shout
ing Of orders the machines we're uncoupled
from their outward flowing connections
and one after another Get buzzing again.
At the end Of ten minutes the 5000 horses
in each Of the machines had been haTnessed
up and In the technical phrase were run
ming in step, all seven machines together.
The offending cable having been cut out,
the power was turned first into one and
then into another Of the high potential
cables running TO the branch stations.
There was more tuning up here In order
to got the engines in the branches working
again In step with the big generators with
their alternating pulse Of current. At just
s:5s o'clock the whole battery OF three West
Side branches was picked up into the sys-
tenn Of power, and at that moment the lights
flashed up in the trains on the Sixth and
Ninth avenue lines, and the trains began TO
move again. just two minutes later the
tuning up was far enough along to pick
up the four East Side branches and the
whole system was alive again.
There was very little trouble caused to
the train despatchers and little confusion
resulted as a result Of the tieup. Thetrains
Were spotted on the chart as to where they
we're when they went dead And as soon
as the juice came on again the despatohers
picked up the trains and sent them on just
as we'll spaced as when the power went out,
The ticket takers. according to the stand
ing order on the road, quit business as soon
az the signal lights winked out Aside from
the money lost from the tie up and the
crouch accumulated by the two or three
thousand people who were stranded when
the lights went out there we're few features
TO the accident