Omaha daily bee., 1919-08-31

Can you remember the days OF
the cable street railway in Omaha
Thirty years ago cable tramway
cars were in vogue here and the
sound of the underground cable was
heard from early morning until late
/ at night. A few years experience
convinced the promoters that sthls
type of street railway transporta-
ton was not a paying investment,
and the advent of electrified lines
soon displaced the cable.
Workmen who are removing the
street car tracks and pavement on
the Dodge street hill, preparatory
to grading, last week unearthed
striking evidence of the old Dodge
street cable line. A few feet east
of the intersection of Twentieth and
Dodge streets. on Dodge street,
they uncovered what at first ap-
peared to be the ruins of brick
dwelling. The unexpectedness OF
the discovery caused some specula-
ton at first. Some of the men
imagined that they might have
found a cache Of rare v1ntages
placed there in the days when the
cup that cheers was not forbidden
Discover Cast-Iron Wheel.
As the workmen proceeded to un-
cover the strange underground
chamber, they disclosed a large
cast-iron wheel, about II feet IN
diameter and resting on a heavy
concrete anchorage. Steel beams
strengthened the 14-inch brick walls
of the room which is l6xlo feet
and about eight from the surface.
The mystery of the discovery was
soon explained when some OF the
oldtime street car men told that
this room housed part Of the me-
chanism which was used by the
old cable lines. This wheel, which
weighs three tons, carried the cable
around the corner and it is known
as a "shift-wheel." !, :,
When the cable lines were Junked
nearly a third of a century ago, the
concrete conduits along which the
cables ran, and the shift-wheel
houses were covered over and the
streets repaved.
Now Hotel Owner.
The shift-wheel house uncovered
last week on Dodge street was the
headquarters of T. ]. O'Brien, now
proprietor of the Henshaw hotel, in
the days when Mr.. >O'Brien was in
the service of the cable line COM
pany. 1t was Mr.. O'Brien's work
in the days of long ago to keep the
shift wheels creased and to watch
the cable as it went along, to OBJ
serve whether any of the strands
were breaking. One of the chief
difficulties of the cable line system
of street cars was interruption on
account of broken cable, which
had to be spliced or otherwise re-
paired. Mr.. 'O'Brien entered this
underground place through a sur
face cover which was flush with the
street. In very cold weather he
would find warmth in this place, and
when everything was running along
smoothly, he would beguile the time
with a pipeful of tobacco. Another
of these underground memories of
cable line days could be excavated
at Twentieth and Harvey streets,
and another at Tenth and Harvey
streets.
Had Hard Life.
Life as a cable gripnlan was not
all bed of roses and not to be COM
pared with the work of a motorman
of today. The engineer of the cable
car was stationed in the center of
his car where he held a throttle
regulating a clutch which gripped
the cable. This grip reached the
cable through slot in the center Of
the track. The gripman had to be
on the alert TO release his grip of the
cable at certain points, otherwise
there would be serious trouble. For
instance, the two lines-Harney and
Dodge street both went from
Tenth and Pierce streets to Harney
on the same track and on the same
cables. The Harney street gripman
leaving the end of the line at Tenth
and Pierce STREETS would have to re-
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