The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-28
Identification Of The
 New Haven Railroad
Work Nearing Completion on Section Between Stam-
 ford and New Haven
Importance of This Devel- opment and Features of
 the Work

ed to completion rapidly as pos
 sib1e, and while it cannot be definite
 ly stated when trains will be operat-
 ed by electricity all the way from
 New York City to New Haven, this
 time is not far distant The link that
 will complete the identification to
 New Haven is the one between that
 city and Stamford. Part of this is
 completed; and but a small portion
 remains to have the finishing touches
 put on.
 l The completion of this section, 1 work on which has been going on for
 about 8 year, is an important chap
 ter in the. history of railroad deveI-
 opment in the United States. While
 the identification of the New Haven
 from New York City to Stamford was
 in many ways an experiment, the con- | tinuation of this work to New Haven has a particular significance, in that | it is evidence that the first expert ment has proved to be a success of sufficient degree to assure the man agement of the wisdom of electrify- ing the whole New Haven system as rapidly as the financial and physical 1 aspects warrant. It is well known l that 1t is the hope of the directors 1 that the line from New York to Bos- ton will before many years be entirely 1 1 electrified. 1 Aside from the physical benefits New England derives from this stu l pendous undertaking of the New Ha- 1 ven Railroad, there is an indirect ad- | l vantage that this section of the coun- | try obtains, an advantage that may | I not be estimated in dollars and cents i but one that nevertheless is of utmost 1 importance to the prosperity and de- | velopment of New England. It was
 but a few years ago that the officers, | 1 directors and engineers of the New l Haven Road were subject to the se-
 verest criticism because they had
 adopted the single phase system of
 electrifcation. Their decision to do
 this resulted in one of the most his | toric disputes in the annals of the en-
 gineering profession The great ma jority of engineers and 1aynaen
 throughout the civilized world openly | characterised the project as absurd | and predicted all manner of dire dis
 aster should they carry out their plan n to use the single phase system.
 d The system was installed, however, d and although almost insurm ounta,ble il difficulties arose from the operation y, during the first year these were over n come, and to-day the New Haven '- Railroads holds it's place as the fore
 most railroad in identification in this
 country, and also the pioneer trunk
 line in the adoption of the single phase system. Immediately after the
 first link had been put into operation engineers from all parts of the world
 came to New England to study the Y system and to report to their various railroads or governments as to the
 advisability of adopting a like system A on their own properties. Had the # single phase system proved failure, the story would have been different;
 but its success was heralded through out all civilized countries as another
 example of the daring and ingenuity 4 of American business enterprise, and \ a further proof of New England
 shrewdness.
 The advantages of eIectriacation on
 a railroad such as the New Haven are manifold. The savings effected are * large These are brought about through the elimination of smoke,
 gases, heat, cinderss dust, the concen- | tration of power, the elimination to a great extent of turntables, water J tanks, fuel houses and engine houses, the extension of electric lighting and ; heating, the use of current in operat- ing switches and signals, and reduc- % ton of repairs. Besides these the actual hauling charges are lower with
 electrically operated trains than with | steam. Most of these savings are di- rectly of benefit to the public as well as to the railroad and all of them in ! directly result in advantage to the community the railroad serves.
 \ In arriving at the operating charge
 of hauling a passenger freight A train, two factors are taken into con T sfderation. One of these is the ton mile cost and the other the train 8 limited in it's hauling efficiency by n it's horse power capacity. It is a recognized fact that few locomotives n are capable of generating sufficient steam to utilize their full cylinder tractfve power at a speed in excess # of twelve to fifteen miles per hour, so that in order to realize the full trac- s tive power at excess speeds it is nec- essary to sacrifice train tonnage to a S Corresponding degree. In doing this W l II +ov, 31o iS iTRr sad S tionately.
 Every railroad is des1rous of i'm A creasing it's speed for freight trains. It is not only advantageous to the
 railroad to do this in order that it Y may increase it's capacity for hauling A freight with a minimum number of
 cars, but it is also of inestdmable val A ue to the shipper. With electric
 traction, it would appear that this \ problem may be solved, as with prac-
 tically unlimited power, the only fac tor that might work against maxi
 mum speeds rests in the drawbar pull Y On the other hand, the operation ot
 trains of minimum capacity is made # profitable. In steam operation the A train capacity may not be reduced be-
 low the earning point of train mile
 cost. That is, it is necessary to TUT
 trains of sufficient capacity to in "A I sure the return of the cost of opera
 ton with an ample margin of profit X With electricity as the traction power
 however, it is possible to run single
 car costing minimum to operate and
 at the same time make it profitable = to do so. The frequency of service A may be increased and this in turn ' tends to react upon the volume o1
 traffic, resulting in increased earn
 fngs. The outcome of these two inn \ portant factors in the operation of U trains is the extension of the limits Y of profitable operation of high speed & heavy rains and also of light trains with small capacity.
 -l While these results are expected in
 the operation of the division of the
 New Haven now being electrified.
 1 ere ra ifeTps on ofI7.