610 



STREET RAILROADS. 



In tlie case of electrical railways with underground 

 o niilurt !>:!. tin- effort has been made to give nil tlio 

 advantages of the overhead system. On account of 

 the serious objection in most cities to having the 

 conductors and poles or other supports obstructing 

 the streets, attempts have b-vn made to secure elec- 

 tric railways with umlergi-onml conduction. But 

 the costly conduit, and the needful arrangements 

 for drainage and for cleaning out. together with tho 

 increased care necessary to provide against the con- 

 siderable loss or leakage of electricity, which, never- 

 theless, generally takes place in spite of all precau- 

 tions, detract greatly from the apparent advantages 

 of the plan. Many inventions have been patented, 

 and various devices contrived to overcome tin* objec- 

 tions of this method, but practical success has hardly 

 yet been obtained. Neither by overhead nor under- 

 ground conduction have more than a few cars as yet 

 moved simultaneously upon railways, although many 

 ingenious arrangements are offered by inventors 

 who confidently assert they can run any required 

 number of cars. Both plans also are open to another 

 serious objection in the entire stoppage of travel on 

 the whole lino in cose of breakage or derangement 

 of any part of the conducting apparatus or the gen- 

 erating machinery. In this respect they suffer from 

 the same disability by which the cable system of 

 car-traction is hampered. Possibly by suitable, ar- 

 rangements of duplicate engines, boilers, and dy- 

 namos, duplicate conductors, and auxiliary, sectional, 

 or relay systems of conduction, this disability may 

 yet be reduced to insignificant proportions. Taken 

 altogether, underground conduction does not com- 

 pare favorably with overhead conduction up to this 

 time. One great trouble with the latter plan, how- 

 ever, is that although it can be used to great ad- 

 vantage and economy on lines running a few care in 

 towns or in suburban districts outlying large cities, 

 it will probably never be allowed by the municipal 

 authorities in largo cities, which, of course, are the 

 very places where the advantages of electrical pro- 

 pulsion are needed the most. To move a large num- 

 ber of cars, as, for instance, upon the Third Avenue 

 or Broadway lines in New York City, the electrical 

 conductor, whether overhead or underground, must 

 be of great size if tho current is of low tension ; 

 while, on the other hand, if a small or moderate- 

 sized conductor bo used, the current must then bo 

 of dangerouslv high tension, and, of course, it would 

 than be very difficult to avoid great loss of electricity 

 from leakage. 



In the accumulator or secondary-battery system, 

 each car carries its own supply of energy, and is en- 

 tirely independent of any method of continuous elec- 

 trical conduction. No change of track or roadway 

 is iv [iiired, nor any costly conduit or unsightly 

 polos or other supports, while the cam can run any- 

 where that a cur can be taken by horses. These 

 points are of great advantage, and are its chief 

 merits, independent of its economy, over horse- 

 power. In practice, cars of the size of the usual 

 2-horse cars are provided with about 80 accumula- 

 tors, weighing whnn rilled with fluid and ready for 

 nse about 40 pounds each. These cells are placed 

 under the seats on each side of the car. Their com- 

 bined weight is 3200 pounds, and the weight of 2 

 motors, each of 5 horse-power, should not, together 

 with their connections to the car-axles, exceed 800 

 pounds so that the additional weight imposed upon 

 the car is about 4200 pounds, which allows 200 

 pounds for the apparatus to control the current and 

 for other electrical appliances. This added weight, 

 if placed upon a 4-wheel car, may be of disadvantage 

 to the car or to the track. If this should be the case, 

 the difficulty is removed by the use of 8 wheels on 2 

 winging trucks, which support the car much better, 

 and distribute the weight upon the track. Both 



those kinds of storage -battery cars nro in service 

 with entire succesf. The charging of the cells is 

 done by a dynamo driven by steam-power or any 

 other desirable means, and it takes 4 hours to charge 

 cells which are able to jH-rform 4 hours' work. T> 

 remove from the car the cells which have done their 

 work and to replace them by freshly charged cells 

 takes no more than the time required to change. 



It requilvs 1(1 horse-porter exerted for 4 



hours, making 40 horse-power hours, to charge the 

 batteries or cells of each car. The cost .if running 

 large stationary steam-engines of I;IKI to 400 

 power, constructed with the modern improved cut-off 

 appliances and other economical devices, has been 



found not to ox d , c.-nt ]x>r horse-power hour. 



This allowance includes fuel, attendance, repairs to 

 engine and boilers, oil, etc. At 1 cent ]x>r horse- 

 power hour tho wliolo cost of a day's supply of d.-c- 

 tii.-iiy would be Sl.<iO. Tho expense of horses for 

 the same work and time is not less than 84.50. 

 With motors properly constructed a speed of 8 or 9 

 miles per hour is readily accomplished in fact, S 

 miles per hour may be taken us tiie speed at which 

 such motors will work to the best advantage, and re- 

 turn the greatest percentage of mechanical efficiency. 

 The requirements of street-ear service demand varia- 

 ble rates of speed ; as, for instance, in crowded streets, 

 behind other vehicles, or in turning curves and en- 

 tering switches it is necessary to go slowly mid cau- 

 tiously, and the weight of the load carried at differ- 

 ent times varies from an almost empty car to ono 

 overloaded. These conditions, together with in- 

 ">o.l power needed to ascend grades and to start 

 loaded cars, espoeially on up-grades, call for electric 

 motors which will, under such greatly varying cir- 

 cumstances, respond at all times almost equally well. 

 'J hero are motors which, while engaged in perform- 

 ing an equable work find running at an equable 

 <l, for both of which purposes the motor was 

 specially made, will return 90 or possibly 95 per 

 cent, of efficiency, while the same motor, when run 

 at some different speed or under Rome different load, 

 may return but 30 or 35 por cent., so that the aver- 

 ago performance of such motors in street-car service 

 would probably give only 50 per cent, return of 

 efficiency. Motors can, however, be obtained which 

 will, under all the variations of street-car work, con- 

 stantly return 75 per cent, of ofliciency. 



A uniform rate of 5 cents is charged in almost 

 every city of the United States. There are, how- 



1 ever, street railroads which require from 6 to 10 

 cents because extra power is required upon hills, or 



i because of long stretches of unoccupied territory 

 :g the tracks. A very careful investigation of 

 the earnings of certain street, railroads in K0W York 

 City and Brooklyn, by the Slate board of railroad 

 commissioners, lias resulted in a statement that 

 nearly all of them required but little over 4 cents 

 per passenger in order to pay expenses, inteiest, and 

 10 per cent, yearly of the cost of the rood and tho 

 equipment. In 188C all the street railroads of New 

 York City carried 206,000,000 passengers; while in 

 1887 the number was but 200,<WM),000. The several 

 elevated railroads carried 115,000,000 passengers in 

 the former year and 159,000,000 in the latter. Tho 

 elevated railroads boil scarcely begun their operations 

 when tho disadvantages of the surface roads became 

 apparent; and tho proprietors of the latter wero 

 stimulated to make great improvements. After vari- 

 ous legislative attempts to guard tho interests of tho 

 public, a general law wan passed by tin- New York 

 legislature, in 1884, for the constniction and opera- 

 tion of street surface railroads in that State. Power 

 given to local authorities to make regulations as 

 to the rate of speed, tho mode of use of tracks, tho 

 removal of snow and ice, and the enforcement of 

 compliance with all of these requirement* under 



