Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-12-09
.ELECTR|F|CAT|ON OF
 EASTERN RAILROADS

Some of the striking advantages of electric operation of the railroads in what has been designated the super power zone-the region between Bos- ton and Washington-are stated by the United States Geological Survey as a result of recent engineering in vestigation. These advantages in clude the conservation of national re- sources, both coal and labor; an in crease in the capacity of main and yard tracks; an improvements of the physical condition of terminals and an increase in the value of the property, as shown by the New York Central and Pennsylvania terminals in New York City; benefits both to the trav- ing public and to residents along the route through the elimination of noise and smoke; the possibility of providing multiple-level terminals and freight warehouses; and economy in operation through the use of fuel and machinery for generating energy by few skillful operators in economi- cal stations as contrasted with large number of technically ignorant oper- ators with small, uneconomical ma chimes.
 The electric locomotive is equipped with meters that afford complete knowledge and control of operating conditions and that are also a va!u- able guide in handling the train, par ticularly in starting a long, heavy train. With electric traction the economy of the entire sequence of op- eration is not dependent upon one man, as it is with steam. Operation is therefore no longer matter of in dividual human judgment, skill, or fi- deity. It is this unfortunate human element that nullifies the theoretical advantages of the "full-jeweled move ment" steam locomotive. The effec- tiveneSs of the devices for increasing efficiency and capacity, such as brick arches, super-heaters, stokers, si- phons, automatic fire doors, and pow CT reverses, necessarily depends on the intelligence and faithfulness of the average engineer, and in consequence the average results are low. The in i herent wastefulness of the steam loco- motive is proved by it's own advocates in their claim that 40 per cent of ; its coal can be saved by the careful use of these auxiliary devices" Then why be skeptical, it is asked, of sav- ing of 60 per cent by modern power station, which has all these devices in greater completeness and, in addi- tion, has brains to use them?
 The speed of different classes of trains run by electricity will be more nearly uniform. Much heavier trains can be handled, and at the same time light freight trains can be moved at the speed of local passenger trains. It has been proved that for the heav- jest freight service, such as mountain grade work, the electric locomotive is superior to the steam locomotive, but it's superiority in handling light freight at high speed is not so gen orally understood.
 As the electric locomotive is simple andas all thee lectric locomotives of given class are identical and no more skill is required to operate them than is demanded of an ordinary chauf- feur, all these locomotives will be pooled, so that the total number re- quired will be materially reduced.
 A considerable saving in time and hence an increase in capacity under the superpower system will be made by lengthening the operating div isions, which will be from 200 to 400 miles long instead of 100 miles. An electric passenger locomotive will run in the morning from New York to Boston and will return in the after noon or at night, making total run of 450 miles day. A similar round trip will be made between New York and Washington, or New York and Syracuse. The electric locomotive can be kept at work on the road for 20 hours day, and if operated at an average speed of 25 miles an hour it can run 800 miles a day. This mile age, however, is double that of the electric passenger engines now used on the New York, New Haven & Hartford line and is higher than would be obtained as an average, but there is every reason to believe that with unified operation an average between 250 and 500 miles can be made.
 In word, steam operation can not satisfactorily meet the conditions of the crowded terminal described as the superpower zone; electric operation can easily do it.
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