The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1909-07-13
TO USE ELECTRIC.
ITY ON MOUNTAIN

a power plant on the North Yuba river,
the Southern Pacific Saturday made
its first move in the open toward the
substitution of electric W for
steam on the line of its mountain di-
vision crossing the Sierra.
Although the company has had a
corps of engineers in the mountains
for the last year, during which time
every stream within 20 miles of It's
line has been surveyed and carefully
studied, and locations nave been made
on the Rubieon river, near Lake Tahoe,
in the name of the Rubieon Water and
Power company, there has never here
tofore been a public statement from
an official of the company admitting
that the Identification of the road was
a matter of the immediate future.
The application made Saturday was
filed with Forest Supervisor Bigelow
by G. s. Curtis, who is in charge of
the elecro-hydraulic department of the
Southern Pacific company, under Chief
Engineer William Hood.
After fling the application, Curtis
said in an interview at Nevada City,
that it was the purpose of the Southern
Pacific company not only to use cleo
tric power ON its mountain division,
Dut that eventually steam would be re-
placed by electricity on other divisions,
and that the electric equipment for the
mountain division had already been or
dered in the east, and would be ready
for installation when the Auburn
Truekee cutoff is completed.
That there is no intention on the
part of the company to abandon the
holdings it has acquired on the Rubi-
con river, some of them having come
to it's ownership with the land grants
made originally to the Central Pacific
company, is evident from what Curtis
says of the intention of the company to
secure further electric power from in
dependent corporations, which will be
used in conjunction with that generated
on the Yuba and Rubicon rivers by its
own plants.
The maps fled Saturday with the
application made to the forest super
visor are described in a dispatch from
Nevada City as indicating that water
will be carried in fumes and canals
from the North Yuba in Sierra county,
at a point below Sierra City, where
the intake of the system will be To-
Gated, to the site of the main power
station, just below Downieville.
1t is admitted that the plans of the
Southern Pacific company to displaee
steam on its mountain division, and to
substitute electricity, nave been in ac-
tive preparation for several months,
and Curtis says in the Nevada City in
terview that orders for $13, 100000 of
electric equipment have already been
placed in the east.
With the reduction of the grade,
which will be accomplished by the
completion Of the Auburn Truckee cut
off and the installation of electric
power, the Southern Pacific company
will accomplish an enormous annual
saving in its operating department, but
one which will neeessitate the expendi-
ture Of many millions of dollars in the
construction of the canals, dams, and
power stations, as well as In the pur-
chase of electric equipment.
On the Rubieon the preliminary en-
gineering work has been completed,
and 1t is stated that the first power
station to be erected there will be
near Hale's Camp, in northern Ell
Dorado county, and the second ON the
banks of the Rubicon river.
There had been some conflict between
the Southern Pacific company engineers
and those in the field in the same To-
cality in the interests of the Harmon
syndicate, which has purchased the
Truckee General Electric and the Cal
ifornia-N Nevada companies, and is ae-
lively working on the development of
power on the Rubicon, but is was
stated by one of Hamman's associates
that this difficulty was not serious, and
that the Harmon syndicate might sell
a part of tn epowerd it produced to the
Southern Pacific company.
While the presnt plans of the com
pany, as represented in the orders
which have been placed for the equip
ment of the new motor trains, con
template the use of electricity on the
mountain division only, it is said by
officials Of tn company that it is the
ultimate intention of the road to use
electric power on all its lines in the
norther part Of California, and much of
the activity in the formation of new
water and power companies is believed
to rave been inspired by a close knowl- !