Show THIRD KAIL SYSTEM new electric plan tried on railroads in new england members of the american society of civil engineers in attendance at the nantasket Nan beach of a year ao will remember the exhibition of electrical propulsion by the trolley on the branch line of the kew york new haven hartford railroad says the engineering Il ecord another step in the experimental equipment of steam railroads rail roada for electric traction has now been taken in the trial june 27 along the line of the third rail method of contact the power conductor in this system is a third line of rails laid between the service rails and entirely supplanting the overhead construction st the third rail ia in section like a flattened letter A and is supported eup ported by ash blocks let into the ties before use blocks are boiled in vacuum pans with a tar compound to fill each poro with insulating and preservative material the continuity of the third rail circuit is secured by each end of ono rail to that of the next by means of two heavy copper bands the electricity is taken from the third rail by two eliding shoes hung loosely from abo car one suspended between tho axles of each truck by two licke which allow it to elide easily over tho top of tho third rail and make perfect contact with it all the time the current is brought to the motors through the controllers and cincu t breakers and returns to the track rails by the wheels the experimental section is three and half miles long at highway cros ings tho third rail is discontinued the conductor acine carried under in cables and the car pass ing the crossing by momentum the trial was considerably in excess of a mile a having been reached |