The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-10-11
RAILROAD NEWS.
Electricity as a Motive Power
for Steam Roads.
More Steam Engines in Country
New Than Ever Before.
NOT AN EASY TASK
Transfer of Power Is a Matter
of Several Years.
Other Items of General Interest
of Traffic World.

1t was a railroad authority no less
than Chauncey Depew who predicted
that electricity would soon succeed
steam as a motor power, and that in
side of ten years a steam locomotive
would be seen only in a museum,
says the Railway Journal That was
over six years ago, and there are more
lsteam locomotives in the country to-
day than there were in 1904. and they
are more powerful, too. 1t is admitted
also that there are more electric loco
motives in railway service now than in
1904, but at the present rate which
electric power is supplanting steam it
Will require at least a couple of gen
erationS before the steam locomotive
will go out of use.
With some there is a growing SEN
timent in favor of electricity as
power in railway service, but the tran
sition from steam to electricity is not
an easy one to make, even Where SEN
timent prefers the latter. There are
SO many radical changes to be conSld-
cred that the proposition of general
change seems to be remote in practical
application.
A writer in Railroad Men (Lauris-
ton Bulard) takes the view that the
time for the change is near at hand
and that this proposed change ''in the
imme diate future is as vast and vital
a railroad problem as any which has
taxed the abilities of experts in the
whole history of the development of
the transportation system of the United
States" He quotes a railway presl-
dent as saying ELECTRICITY is bound to
come" Quoting from Mr.. Bullard:
Indeed, identification is coming
and it is coming fast. But the fact
that various railways are employing
various systems of identification brings
a danger and with the danger a prob
lena danger which the men in con-
troll of the roads must very soon con-
slider, and a problem which they must
hand over to the very best engineers
for solution.
There are in the world today about
1900 miles of railroads upon which
electricity is used for heavy service.
Far the greater part of this mileage is
in the United States. In addition, there
are 435 miles of electric elevated and
Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.
But the systems of identification
which are used upon these lines are not
uniform.
For example. the New York. New
Haven & Hartford has twenty-One
miles of its main lines, making 100
miles of single track, electrified by
what is called the singIe-phase sys-
tenn. But the New Y ork Central has
thirty-three miles of four-tracked
line or 1872 miles of single track, cleo
trified by what is known as the con-
tinuous or direct current system
Now, these two roads use the same de-
pot in New York City. Practically all
the New England railway service into |
New York City is over the four tracks
of the New Haven line to a point
twelve miles out from the Grand Cen |
trail station, where the trains pass at |
full speed to the tracks of the New |
York Central, over which they COM |
plete their run to the terminal. For
the twenty-one miles of the run on
the New Haven tracks the trains are
operated from overhead trolley wires |
by alternating current taken aboard |
the locomotive at 1900 volts. For
the twelve miles on TIL New York /
Central tracks they are operated from
the third rail by direct current at $50 |
volts. When the New Haven decided |
to electrify that twenty-one miles of
it's own lines it was face to face with
the restriction imposed by those twelve
miles of New York Central lines. Yet
in spite of the twelve miles
over which it would have only the di-
rect current available.
THE Erie railway has thirty-four
miles of single-phase identification.
The Pennsylvania. has seventy-five
miles of the direct current system. The
West Shore has los miles of continu
Gus current Identification; the Long
Island railroad has 125 miles; the West
Jersey & Seashore, $50 miles, and the
Baltimore & Ohio, seven miles. On
the other hand, the Grand Trunk has
Twelve miles of the other system; the
Colorado Southern, forty-six miles, and
the Baltimore & Annapolis Shortline,
thirty miles There is a greater diver
sity in Europe"