Show THE GROWTH I j OF THE TROLLEY Notwithstanding Objections it Has Come to Stay COMPETITOR TO STEAM I WIRE ENOUGH IN USE TO GIRDLE TIrE EARTH < ElecSrle Trnction is Yet in Its Infancy In-fancy AltliotisU the Progress Made Dnrinsr the Last Six Years 1st Something Most Remarkable New York March 23 1895The story tof the trolley wire properly told would be one of the most marvelous romances of material progress ever penned But the time for its complete recital has not yet come for electric traction is yet In its infancy Before I anotner decade has passed the dynamo I dyna-mo is likely to be complete master of land transportation in America Six years ago there were no success lull trolley railroads In existence On the first of January 1895 trolley wires Stretched over 9008 miles of surface tracks or mcre than twothirds of all I r the lines in the country that may properly be termed street railroads N As motive power for anything that I runs on rails the horse and the patient mule have about fulfilled their I mission for of the 3519 miles of I street railroad not operated by the i I trolley 662 miles are run by cable and 614 miles by steam motors leaving I only 2243 miles over which the jolting I I horse car still rolls tinkling along I after the old style I The First Success With the Trolley Success with the trolley was first I achieved 1n Richmond Va by Maurice Plynn once wellknown in New York II I in opposition to one another instead of in business harmony but still profitably profit-ably because horse roads may be operated on much smaller capital than trolley lines But it was apparent soon after the introduction of electric traction that the old competitive scheme would not do Long lines running many cars could be operated much more economically But the expense ex-pense of running short lines by wire was found to be about as great as by horse power sometimes greaterand I when the increase of capital was con sidered there was occasionally a decrease de-crease instead of an increase in profit The owners of several small roads however could combine their properties proper-ties to great advantage and so ever since 1SS9 the consolidation process has been going forward without intermission inter-mission The present system employs less men to move the same number of passengers than would be required under the old order but the increase of business more than makes up for the apparent falling off in the number of employees forI have it on the authority of one of the best posted trolley ma iates in the United States the introduction of electrlo traction been noticed that the trains run light1 er than ever before while the trolley cars with their more freqeuent schedules sched-ules and cheaper fares are crowded The Battle Royal Between the Locomotive Loco-motive anti the Dynamo Now the trolley men are getting ready to put up a big fight with steam for longdistance transportation It will bebut a short time beioe the electric elec-tric webs will begin to come together That centering at Boston will touch the one spreading from Providence it h ud I i 4g hi JL J2L Z CAll irLu TTii LrijMLjiiijijiiag rTShf i aBxta a B g r A BROOKLYN TROLLEY MAIL CAR I I 2 M 9 k t4 1 A TROLLEY FREIGHT CAR SPOKANE by reason of his connection wIth the i politics of this town Other men had vainly tried to make the trolley go in bther places but Flynn whose public i career ihad been brought to a close k had unbounded faith In the devices of Frank J Sprague the electrical inventor in-ventor and the two devotee months of closest application and thousands of dollars to the erection of power houses j and the putting up of wires in Richmond Rich-mond It was an intensely excited group that gathered in the new powerhouse power-house one day a little more than five I years ago All the preliminary work I bad been imade everything was now I In order for the first working = test On I the rails outside stood a car from the roof of which he strange Wheel tipped trolleypole slanted up to the wire Presently the pistons of the engine I en-gine began to travel back and forth and the Jynamoes to drone Then the in the The men took places car 1 motorman turned iiis lever the car I moved TJ e Trolleys Growth Begins 4 A Although the practicability of the I 1 trolley was abundantly demonstrated on < the first day of its operation in Richmond it was months before it was V certainly known that it could unto un-to I economically and during that time the most careful records of the cost of adminiMratioii in every department were kept Not a week passed during all the first year perhaps not a day that someone interested in the introduction Intro-duction of trolley roads elsewhere did not visit Richmond for tile purpose of studying the roads there Within a I half year core of surface railroad I companies in scores of cities had decided de-cided to abandon animal power for the surer cleaner wire and mary I new companies had been formed to tJ build roads to be operated by it I As rapidly as these companies could be financed the building of the new I roads nnd the transformation of the old oucs was begun Men who had I never been suspected of unusual initiative I in-itiative force and executive power I suddenly developed these character1 Istics and traveled by way of the folley from comparative financial In significance to opulence It is speaking speak-ing within bounds to say that since I 1SS9 literally hundreds of great fortunes for-tunes have been made out of electric traction Moreover the work of extension ex-tension is yet going on more rapidly than ever notwithstanding the depression depres-sion that has borne down upon us for almost two years for while he annual an-nual average of new electric mileage i has been but a little over SSO 1441 I I miles were first operated in 1834 The I Is invariably followed by an average Increase of about 30 per cent in the number of passengers carried Some of the electric railway combinations combi-nations have become exceedingly powerful operating hundreds of miles of track carrying myriads of passengers pas-sengers employing men enough to make an army and being capitalized to the tune of millions What Cities Lead in the Trolley It is hard to say in which of the great cities the trolley has been most notably developed Baltimore is at the front with the first underground electric elec-tric railway in America the Brooklyn I will communicate with the Connecticut webs and they will reach along the coast of the sound till their lines arp I continuous with those of Vestchester county New York Then between Nw t York and Boston there will be unbroken unbrok-en electric communication Thus the first battle between the power of the locomotive and the power of the dynamo dyna-mo is likely to take place along thp line of the Consolidated railroad connecting con-necting Boston and New York Already the steam railroad people understand this and are preparing themselves to supplant steam with electricity elec-tricity The Consolidated is not the only trunk railroad that is getting I ready to take this step either for it Is understood that the Pennsylvanias management proposes soon to operate Its branches by wire The Consolidated road however has gone further than any other steam line since It has engaged en-gaged a competent electrician at a high salary has built two extra tracks from New Haven to New York for the special purpose of ntroducing plectric traction and has bad many of its new cars built light so as to be better adapted to the new traction method Trolley men generally understand that many problems have yet to be solved before longdistance electric traction will be a success not the least of which is the leakage due to the fact that trolley wires have to be left bare This will render it imperative that powerhouses be built at short in itervals along such trunk lines as use electricity and some experts cay the expense of constructing and maintaining maintain-ing an adequate chain of powerhouses and the necessary wire between New York and Philadelphia for Instance will be greater than the cost of operating oper-ating the same stretch of road by means of locomotives Mail Express and Freight By Trolley Trol-ley While the steam lines are retting ready to fight the trolleys with their own weapons the latter have nlready invaded the field of the former in other ways than by competing for passenger traffic in suburban regions and between be-tween towns Late last autumn sixty two lines in the United States and Canada Can-ada were carrying the mall fiftyeight on government contract thirtyfive lines had inaugurated express service and fiftyfive were hauling freight Six lines hauled steam road freight cars over electric rails thirtyseven had special freight car service of their own nine had special express cars five had special mail cars and eight had combination mall and express cars These figures the latest available should all be increased to be accurate 4ti 7 I I ROYAL MAIL CAR TROLLEY OTTAWA surface system is a marvel of intricacy and extensive mileage the sym that interpenetrates Minneapolis is a model of rapid transit and systematic operation opera-tion the lines in St Louis are a constant con-stant joy to the people there who erstwhile erst-while were dependent upon the mule for street car motive power the Philadelphia Phila-delphia system covers many miles and represents millions of capital and systems sys-tems quite as perfect though less extensive ex-tensive are to be found in scores of smaller cities east and west north and south New York and Chicago are far be I A TROLLEY LOCOMOTIVE total capitalization of the trolley roads cannot be given with absolute accuracy ac-curacy but Mr Blake editor of the Street Railroad Journal probably as well pofted upon this subject as anyone any-one in the country places It between 5500000000 and 600000000 It is worthy of note that the trolley foads have maintained their earning power generally in spite of the hard times and In rome cases have shown a steady increase Concentration of Lines The modern tendency towards concentration con-centration of business interests bas received re-ceived great impetus from the introduction Intro-duction of the trolley Before 1889 nearly every city supported several ttret car companies often conducted c hind most other cities as regards the trolley New York being by all odds the most backward of all Probably I the most extensive single suburban and intramunicipal system Is that of I the New Jersey Traction company which connects Jersey City New York Hoboken Newark the Oranges I and other cities and towns In the state whose population is chiefly suburban I Before this year Is completed unless disaster overtake It this gigantic corporation cor-poration will greatly Increase Its mileage mile-age and compete still more hotly than now with the steam road for the I enormously profitable passenger traffic of the region it has preempted Wherever the trolley tracks parallel I those of the old steam lines it has < 7 < > > > f < i now for at the time they were made ten more lines contemplated carrying the malls seven were preparing to carry express and twelve freight No doubt there will be a still further fur-ther increase as soon as the proper changes in state laws can be made for in some states notably Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania Rhode Island and Massachusetts Massachu-setts all states in which trolley development de-velopment has been ensiveelectric freight and express service has hitherto hither-to been prohibited There has been much talk of trolley roads In strictly rural regions for the transportation of crops from the farms to the stations of steam railroads but this plan though it seems an alluring one has nowhere been put into actual operation so far as I have been able to learn The express service has been best systematized in St Louis the mail service in St Louis Philadelphia Toronto and Brooklyn The freight service has yet to reach the period of rapid development but it is beginning in states as widely separated as Maine and Washington Perhaps the most novel adaptation of the trolley has been made in St Louis where a fully equipped ambulance car is in operation opera-tion or shortly vill be Revolutions Accompanying Trolley Development No such enormous development as that achieved in electric traction could possibly take place without working a revolution in more than one contributory contribu-tory Industry In this case there has been a great Increase In the building of very large and stationary team engines running much more rapidly than any others at ail similar in size I and weight excepting those of ocean steamships Great impetus too has been given to the manufacture of wire It is estimated that three miles of copper cop-per filaments0ire needed for every mile of track and the wire in actual present use would more than reach entirely around the world Add to this what has been discarded as worn out and the necessary surplus and it is likely that the trolleys have already used up quite 75000 miles For heavier rails too there has been a great demand as it was early discovered that the old type used by the horse railroads would not do at all under the new order l or-der The wheels of horse cars merely rollover roll-over the rails thus wearing them but I slightly but the wheels of the trolley I cars bite the metal at every turn and the light oldfashioned rails were soon I worn out Forfhis reason rails weighing weigh-ing ninety pounds to the yard have had to be substituted for the thirty live pound rails that were amply adequate I ade-quate under thr old system It vas feared for a time that the additional i expense thus rendered necessary I I would be so great as in some C > Cps to j compel a chaqge back from trolley to horse power Of course there have been enormous demands for dynamos switchboards cars railroad tIes and sleepers and wooden and iron poles and equally of course the brains of hundreds perhaps thousands of inventors have been set to studying how to Improve the various vari-ous so as to make it possible < to operate the roads more cheaply and satisfactorily An Imlnstry AVipetl Ont WhIle the trolley has stimulated certain cer-tain industrife and spurred the genius of theinventor it has worked great hardship in several directions The president of one of the most successful success-ful trolley roads in the United States told me a day or two ago that an average aver-age of at least ten horses were employed em-ployed to every car in operation under the old system The total number of street cars now in use is 41009 of which 22477 or more than half are i electric At least 400000 horses would I i be required to haul these cars were it not for the introduction of the trolley Ait the beginning of the trolley extension exten-sion the value of good railroad horses averaged 125 each but they have since been bought for from 25 to rHO or I from onefifth to onethird of their former for-mer value As fast as the companies adopt electric power they throw their useless horses upon the market at whatever price is offered As the average Jife of the tailroad horse is but about four vpnrs thp An nual demand was formerly for about 75000 the present demand would be I apparently for about 100000 had not the trolley stepped in As a matter of i fact however the farmers cannot nell I I now more than from 10000 to 15000 a I year and the cell is raoidly decreasing decreas-ing Unquestionably this has had much to do with the present distress in regions re-gions where horses are the staple Added to falling off in the demand for i horses there is also a much smaller j demand than before for hay oats and other fodder In the development of the trolley the storage battery has been quite lost sight of save by a few enthusiasts but It does not therefore follow that it will never be heard of more Inventors are working at It and dreaming over it and when it is so perfected as to do the work cheaper and better than it is now done there will be another revolution but till then the progress of the trolley overhead underground or by the rail is sure to be continuous rapid and triumphant DEXTER MARSHALL |