The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-01-08
SEATTLE ELECTRIC PLANS
FOR COMING EXPOSITION

FOR COMING EXPOSITION
Seattle is expending in lump sums
100000 for new cars, 100000 for
new trackage and $275,0O0 for motor
generators, transformers, high power
transmission wire and lighting wires
and fixtures, the Seattle Electric Co.,
which controls the local street cars
and lighting, will make handsome
record in handling the traffic and
lighting of the Forthcoming Alaska
Yukon-Pacific exposition. The i'm
provements, new lines, and new
power facilities which the company is
installing preparatory to the 1909
fair, mark new era in street railway
improvement in the Northwest, and
at the close of the exposition Seattle
will be equipped with the most efti-
cient service in the history of the
city. For years the electric company
hassbeen KEEP, at it's wits end in main
tanning schedules with it's lines con-
stantly impeded by street changes
and improvements. not to mention in
creasing it's service 70 meet the de-
mands of growing population. The
present expenditures will leave the
car system in excellent shape after
the exposition, and will insure a
prompt and comfortable handling of
the crowds at the fair.
Four lines will tap the fair
grounds, two of which are now OPP
Grating, with one more completed
and the fourth just begun. Each line
is five or six miles in length. All
will be double tracked with loop
terminals at the ground, and hand
some terminal building and power
sub-station will be installed on the
fair grounds. The company expects
to be able to deliver passengers at
the fair grounds at the rate of two or
three cars minute in rush hours
and on Special days. AS each car
comfortably carries 100 passengers
the street railway system will be able
to handle $4,000 or $4,000 persons
an hour should the occasion demand.
The additional power necessary for
these lines will be furnished by the
great water power plant at Electron,
on the Puyallup river, and the steam
plant at Georgetown. Twenty miles
of 5000 volt transmission wire will
connect this power with the substa-
tion on the grounds, where it will be
stepped down to $500 volts. Two
1000 kilowat motor generators will
be located at this station, and two
others at sub-stations in the city. The
power will be sufficient to handle
cars as rapidly as they can be safely
moved over the four lines.
me lump order of 140 cars, forty
of which have already been delivered,
is ssSobably without precedent among
western street car systems. The cars
are of the most modern type, and cost
when set up at Seattle about $3.50
each. They are manufactured by the
st. Louis Car Co., and known as
single end, side entrance cars. Each
car has four motors of 81 1-2 horse
power, or $50 horse power in all and
is capable of developing speed of 80
miles an hour.
Stone and Webster who control
the local company, are not making
the investment of one and three
quarter millions of dollars with the
that it will all come back
in nickels during the period of the
exposition. To accomplish such re-
suit the street cars would have to {
handle something like 35,000,0O0 Z
people during the four months and a {
half that the fair will last, which is 1
obviously out of the question. If a /
1uarter as many peopel attend, the ]
1909 exposition will be record t
bresikr. The present improvements a
If the car system are all in the nature t
If permanent investments. i