Electric to Supplant Steam 



Roads in California 



ALIFORNIA, with its invitation to enterprise in hydro-electric 

 motive power, will soon find electric roads generally supplanting 

 the present steam roads. Already, in the cities electric car lines 

 have almost exclusively taken the place of older lines. 

 Suburban and inter-urban traffic is largely cared for by railways 

 run by electricity. Projects are being formed to have third rail 

 or trolley systems carry trains on longer roads now using steam. 



The street car railways of San Francisco, Oakland, Alameda, 

 San Jose, Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, Riverside, Red- 

 lands, Bakersfield and other cities are all using electric power of 

 which a great portion is obtained from mountain streams. The San 

 Francisco system is the ninth in size in the United States, and receives 

 its current from the California Gas and Electric corporation. This com- 

 pany has for years been furnishing power to the Oakland Traction Com- 

 pany, which operates a suburban railway between Berkeley, Oakland and 

 Alameda. San Jose, the center of the fruitful Santa Clara Valley, is the 

 hub of a large suburban system running to Santa Clara, Alum Rock, 

 Saratoga and Los Catos, while extensions are projected to Palo Alto, San 

 Mateo, Mount Hamilton, Berryessa, and other points. 



The longest interurban electric roads are in the vicinity of Los Angeles. 

 There are five hundred miles of track altogether, controlled by three 

 companies radiating from the city. One of these companies owns three 

 wharves at Redondo, where electric locomotives handle all the freight and 

 lumber which is unloaded from vessels by electric hoists. This company 

 receives its power from a plant on the Kern River, 125 miles distant, 

 showing the practicability of hydro-electric power in generation, trans- 

 mission, and distribution for operating railways. 



Then further north there is the North Shore road, which has been 

 using the third rail with success for about a year and a half. It receives 

 its current from the Bay County system, 180 miles from the Colgate 

 power house, and 250 miles from the De Sabla power house. But of all 

 the longer electric roads in California, most attention has been attracted 

 by the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose Railway, generally known as 

 the Key Route. The trains on this line are frequently of nine and ten 

 cars. The motive power is received through a diamond shaped trolley, 

 having a play of 18 to 84 inches with contact on a brass roller 30 inches 

 long and five inches in diameter. This trolley was specially designed for 

 the Key Route after a large Eastern manufacturing company had de- 

 clared that a collector heavy enough to take the required current could not 

 be furnished. This system is notable for Its cleanliness, fine rolling stock, 

 and general accommodation. 



In the last few days the new Vallejo and Napa Valley Electric Rail- 

 way has commenced to take a part in the Napa and San Francisco traffic. 

 This reminds one that the Southern Pacific is planning, it is said, to elec- 

 trify much of its track — the Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda lines, the 

 steam line to San Jose; and the mountain division between Sacramento 

 and Truckee is to use electric locomotives, taking power from the hydro- 

 electric plant on the Truckee River. Numerous other systems are being 

 projected throughout the whole State. 



The introduction of hydro-electricity into portions of the old steam 

 roads is a forerunner of the electrification of all the roads in the State. 

 California is peculiarly favorable to such electrification because of its water 

 powers. Such systems are in line with the development of the Sacramento 

 and San Joaquin Valleys. 



