The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-06
TO TRY new PLAN
New Haven Road to Electrify
Original Line.
Work to BE Completed Within
Two Years.
WORK
BEING DO
Experiment Will Be Completes
i'm Five Years.
Holland Finds Prediction of
GeOrgeW estinghOuse Accurate.

New Ofk, jan 6.-After three
years of thorough and exhaustive tests,
the New Haven Railroad company sig
nalizes the new year by the official an
nouneement that it is to electrify its
entire original main line and hopes
that the electric plant will have been
so fully installed that it will be prac-
ticable to begin the operation of cleo
trically propelled trains between New
York and New Haven-a distance of
rs miles=within two years time.
Very likely the installation work will
be completed at about the time the
engineers report to the president that
the Panama canal, so far as cOnstruc-
tive work is concerned, is ready for
navigation. That announcement, pre-
sumably, viii be made about July 1,
1913.
If the New Haven Railroad company
is now persuaded that, notwithstand-
ing the heavy cost entailed by the in
stallatiOn of an electric plant on the
main line of the road and the con
struction of power houses of sufficient
capacity to furnish all of the electric
energy needed for the operation of
heavy traffic on four tracks between
New York City and New Haven, mis-
expense has been Justified, then it is
a fair presumption that other railway
systems viii sooner or later follow the
example set by the New Haven and the
house at Atlanta, Ga, in March of last
year will very likely in his lifetime be
found to have been an accurate
prophecy
Experiments Five Years Ago.
About five years ago the New Haven
management began a most careful and
expert study of all the questions en-
tering into the problem of the applica-
ton of electric energy to the transpor-
tatiOn of railway cars The amazing
-fa1
in 1902, had set before them an i'm
perative problem in the sense that the
legislature had commanded that 1t be
solved and whose answer would snow
the New York Central management
how it would be able safely, econom-
ically and satisfactorily to electrlfy IT'S
Grand Central terminal for the whole
distance from that terminal to the
northern boundaries of New York City
set not only the New Haven manage
ment, but the management of rail-
roads centering in Chicago, PittsDurg'
Buffalo and other cities. to thinking.
An Original Problem.
With an absolutely original problem
committed to Chief Engineer William
J. Wilgus and his subordinates in 1902
these enineers did work out the ans
wer so that they were able to say in
1907: I'VE can eIectrify the ap-
proaches to the Grand Central termin-
al. We can set up apparatus when
will make that electrificatiOn efficient
and safe and we can do this without
appreciably interfering with the heavy
traffic over the rails which in the busy
hours of the day is carried on under
Roadway of half a minute"
II it were possible for science to
point the way and for inventors to
construct new apparatua by Whlcn
very heavy traffic could be carried
over the rails from the northern
boundaries OF New YOrk city to the
Grand Central terminal, then. man
ayers asked, was it not reasonable TO
sllrnnise that the engineers would Ee
able to point the way by which not
only terminals. but main lines, OF our
greater railway systems could be, az
least SO far as science was concerned,
electrified?
Some Work Already Done.
The new Haven railroad has itself
electrified a little under twenty miles.
The main line of the New Haven rail
road ends at the northern boundary OF
New York city near the banks OF the
Bronx river. From that point into the
city=a distance of about twelve miles
the New Haven utilizea the tracks
of the Harlem railroad
The Exhaustive Tests.
Tt SO happens, however, that the
New Haven system has been subjected
to q more exhaustive and q more va
ried test than any to which other rail
way lines in the United States have
submitted. For it's trains are operated
both by the direct current. or third
rail system, which is the system in use
on the New York Central and Harlem,
and by the alternating current meth
cd, which requires an elaborate over
head structure with conductors cap
able OF carrying voltage OF eleven
thousand. The shift from one to the
other of these systems is made at the
point where the New Haven railroad
and the Harlem railroad unite. So
perfectly have the inventors of appar-
atus and the masters of the science
of electric energy worked out their
problem that the shift from the d.
rect current to the alternating current
method which every train upon the
New Haven railroad is obliged to make
takes place without the slightest Wis
ibl6 or physical indication Of the
change. For this reason the New Ha-
ven railroads. tests have been very ex-
haustive. The company has been OPP
Grating all of its passenger trains-ex-
cepting those which are carried over
one of the branches not vet electrified
by electric energy for about three
years.
The illuminations ara sometimes
magnificent and in the evening. es-
peciary upon a cloudy night. the light
ning-ifke flashes mirroFed against the