RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 355 



To some extent the increased speed may be attained by 

 dividing the present long trains into two shorter trains, with a 

 fair interval of time between them. There are many splendid 

 locomotives now running, which on a fairly level line can reach 

 a speed of considerably over seventy miles an hour with a short 

 train, but would be quite incapable of doing so with a long train. 

 At the same time it is possible that if passengers increase in the 

 same proportion as the inducements provided, the short train 

 might not be sufficient for the numbers presented, and there 

 would be no other alternative but to resort to still greater rolling 

 loads and stronger hauling power. 



Perhaps electricity, which has already achieved so many 

 marvels, is destined to take a still more prominent part as a 

 motive-power in the working of ordinary railways, and may 

 help out of the difficulty by inaugurating still higher speeds 

 without the necessity of incurring stronger works or heavier 

 permanent way. In addition to its success in the telegraph, 

 in the telephone, and in its brilliant light, electricity is every 

 day coming more and more to the front as a motive-power. At 

 present many tramways and short lines, some of them in tunnel, 

 some above ground, and many of them with very steep gradients, 

 are successfully worked by electricity ; but these, being of modern 

 construction, were specially designed and equipped for that 

 method of working, and none of them as yet resort to high 

 speeds. Such rapid strides have, however, been already made in 

 the progress of this system of haulage, as to promise that both 

 increased power and speed will be forthcoming when the demand 

 for them is made manifest. Various modes of application are 

 being tried : overhead wires, underground wires, conductors on 

 the level with the rails, storage batteries or accumulators, and 

 self-contained electric motors, each and all of them being care- 

 fully tested to ascertain the comparative cost and efficiency. 

 Much will depend upon the localities and advantages to be 

 obtained for the respective generating stations. In places where 

 a large, constant, and unutilized water supply is available, a 

 great saving may be effected in the most expensive item of 

 electric working, but in the greater number of cases steam-power 

 will have to be adopted for driving the generating machinery. 

 The main question will be whether electricity in its most 

 approved form of application can haul a ton of paying load for 

 one mile at a less average cost, and at as great or greater speed 



