L.B. Stillwell

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Electric Railway Journal, November 25, 1916

Truss-Side Construction for Railway Cars*

The Author Outlines the Reasons for the Development of Truss-Side Designs for
Steel Cars and Discusses the Action of Car Framing in Severe Collisions,
Reaching the Conclusion That Increased Strength of Superstructure Is Essential

By L. B. STILLWELL

Consulting Engineer, New York City

Statistically considered, a car is simply a covered bridge supported near its ends. Designers have developed three types: (a) That in which the load, including the sides, ends and top of the car, is supported by the underframe. (b) The type in which the load is supported by the underframe assisted by a light plate girder on each side of the car, the depth of which is equal to the distance from the upper edge of the belt rail to the lower face of the sills, (c) The high side frame, or truss construction, in which the load is carried on the sides of the car constructed as truss girders.

It appears obvious that, if an engineer were called upon to design a covered bridge equal in length to a 70-ft. car, he would use the side-truss construction, and the question arises as to why has this type not been adopted generally. The difficulties in the way are those incident to designing the truss girders that constitute the sides so as to leave proper spaces for the windows. These difficulties call for careful proportioning of the members, but are by no means insuperable. In fact, the problem has been solved satisfactorily, as is evidenced by several hundreds of cars now in use, of which many have been subjected to exceptionally severe service for a number of years. An answer to the question, therefore, is to be sought in the history of the evolution of the steel passenger car, and this at once gives the key.

For many years cars were made of wood, a material the characteristics of which are such that it is not practicable to construct the sides of cars as trusses, with appropriate spaces for windows, owing to the practical impossibility of securing necessary strength in tension and compression at the joints between the members. Consequently, wooden cars have been so designed that the underframe, reinforced by steel truss rods as tension members, carries the load, including the superstructure.

The next stop in the evolution of the modern passenger car was the complete substitution of steel for wood in the underframe, the superstructure still being constructed of wood. The depth of the sills being limited by considerations of necessary clearance, the distance between points of support of the center sill made it necessary to employ a comparatively large section, which, of course, involved great weight.

The third step was the substitution of a steel superstructure for its wooden predecessor. In a great majority of cases this has been done without modification of the structural scheme of the car framing.

The first steel car for electric railways in the United States, if we are informed correctly, was built for the subway in New York, and in this instance the steel underframe was assisted in carrying the load by a girder on each side of the car. The upper member of this girder was the belt rail, the lower member the side sill, while a 1/8-in. web, riveted to the upper and lower members, completed the girder construction. The side sills constituted the tension members of the plate girders, and the latter carried the load, the center sills being comparatively shallow. This design has not been adopted extensively by steam railroads, although it is largely used in electric railway service.

The next step (and from a structural standpoint it would seem to be necessarily the final step) in the evolution of a steel passenger car of maximum strength and minimum weight was the development of the high side frame, or truss, construction, in which the entire height of the side frame of the car, from side sill to roof, was developed as a supporting girder. It is obvious that, when the members comprising the entire side of the car are fully developed as a truss, the load is supported by a framework some 7 ft. in height, as compared with a girder about 3 ft. in height when the members below the window line of the car form the girder, and as compared with the insignificant depth of the underframe when this alone is utilized to support the weight. The high side frame employs a side plate at the top and a side sill at the bottom. These are about equal in section and are connected by side posts specially designed to resist bending, and thoroughly braced and stiffened by the side sheets and the so-called "letter board." This structure is stiffened against horizontal deflection at the top by the deck, which may be considered aptly as a horizontal flange for the high side girder. Such a design produces a car wall of exceptional stiffness which is practically as strong at the roof as at the floor.

The high side frame, or truss system possesses not only great carrying power, as compared with the contrasted types of car framing, but its natural and logical development is a co-ordinated car structure characterized not only by great load-sustaining power, but also by exceptional capacity to resist collision impact. Moreover, this distribution of material, which takes metal from the underframe and utilizes a part of it in strengthening the sides and roof of the car not only secures a car of great stiffness and load-carrying capacity, but also tends to prevent collapse of the superstructure in case of derailment.

In severe collisions the side walls sometimes are torn from the underframe, and at other times are spread apart at the roof line. These failures obviously point to the desirability of a strong side frame and an end frame which will secure the side walls from spreading either at top or at bottom. They also point to the necessity of a thorough development of all joints of the structure.

In that type of side-frame construction which employs the members of the side walls below the windowsill line to carry the principal load, the side posts and side plate at the roof line are usually very light and, consequently, incapable of withstanding any great stress if the collision impact is applied above the window-sill line. The high side frame, however, affords a far better opportunity to minimize the effects of such stress, for the reason, as has been shown, that the side walls are of great stiffness and practically as strong at the roof as at the floor.

Generally speaking, in the case of violent collision observation shows that the underframe of one car is raised by the shock of impact sufficiently to clear the underframe of an adjacent car, and that in this position the latter, as we say, is telescoped. Before one car can enter the other, however, the body end-posts of the latter must be torn from their fastenings, and, as usually constructed, these members offer but little resistance. The high side-frame construction, however, provides in itself a comparatively very stiff structure at the roof line.

It may be pointed out here that the vestibule construction now in such general use can be utilized to good effect to cushion the shock of collision, as conaiderable energy is absorbed in the distortion or destruction of the vestibule. It is obvious that, if the car body proper has a side frame capable of resisting the shock at the roof line as well as in the under body, the effect of the collision will be concentrated - if the term may be used - upon the vestibule. This function of the vestibule as a buffer in case of collision has frequently been pointed out.

An examination of photographs of train wrecks and a study of many wrecked cars apparently justifies the following conclusions: 1. It is seldom that any serious damage is caused by the failure of the underframe. 2. In cases of collision the most serious damage usually results from the underframe of one car over-riding that of a neighboring car and destroying the superstructure of the latter by separating the side walls a distance sufficient to permit the entrance of the penetrating car body. 3. Failure of a structure occurs through a disruption of joints; members are seldom completely fractured between joints, the riveting usually proving inadequate to develop the full strength of the associated members. 4. Vestibules cushion the shock of collision with good effect, a large amount of energy being absorbed in the crushing of the vestibule members before penetration of the car body occurs.

To minimize loss of life and injuries to passengers in case of collision, the strength of the superstructure should be increased, if possible, and particularly in respect of its ability to resist telescoping or crushing, by end shock. Also the great weight and strength of the underframe are factors which contribute materially toward increasing the damage when one car overrides another. Obviously, devices for preventing the over-riding of cars, by maintaining the underframes in line, are of great value in so far as they can be made effective, but it is very difficult, if not impracticable, to construct such devices so as to prevent over-riding in case of violent collision or derailment, when the underframe of a car is frequently forced against the superstructure of another.

As regards depreciation of steel cars in normal service, about the only conclusion which can be deduced with certainty from examination of wreck photographs is the fact that, as usually constructed, the riveting of associated members does not fully develop the strength of those members; in other words, that the line of rivets is the line of weakness. It requires no argument, however, to prove that the life of an all-steel passenger car is practically the same as that of its weakest essential joints. If riveting is inadequate, either because the number and size of rivets are insufficient or because the holes punched in two connected plates are not accurately aligned before riveting, the strains to which the superstructure is subjected, even in normal service and assuming no accidents, may be expected to result in a more or less serious movement of one member with reference to the other. Unless great vigilance is exercised in keeping all joints painted, this movement will result in more or less corrosion of plates and rivets. Here, again, it seems obvious that the high side-frame construction possesses marked advantages over either of the contrasted types of framing, and particularly over that type in which the underframe supports the entire load.

When a car passes around a curve, the outer rail of which is elevated, the outer side bearing on the front truck tends to lift the car body, the lifting force being exerted vertically at a distance of approximately 2 ft. 6 in. from the center line of the car, and if the superstructure is lightly constructed it may be subjected to excessive torsional or twisting strains. So far as the effect of this lifting effort is concerned the center sill, no matter how heavy, cannot prevent the strains upon the superstructure. Under similar circumstances the high side-frame construction, which makes of the superstructure a strong steel box with heavy end walls, is affected far less seriously, since every element of the superstructure can be so constructed as to oppose the strains incident to the superelevation of the outer rail ample resisting strength.

Consideration of car design involves, naturally, the subject of truck construction and brake equipment. In 1911 we were called upon to design a special truck for steel cars 72 ft. in overall length. As it was, of course, desirable that the total weight of the car should be kept down, special attention was given to the framing of the truck to minimize its weight while retaining all possible elements of strength and to secure an easy-riding vehicle. The truck was designed and built without equalizer bars, helical springs being placed directly between the journal boxes and the truck frame. The side frame of the truck was built up of rolled members, and was of the deep side-truss, or arched bar, type of construction. The transoms were especially deep and well connected to the side frames of the truck. Extra long elliptic springs were permitted by this deep sideframe construction. In use this truck has proved very satisfactory. It is light, easy running, and its riding qualities are exceptionally good. Favorable comment by the patrons of the road, who noted particularly the easy riding qualities of the equipment, has led to the adoption by this line of the name "The Road of Ease."

Comfort of passengers is not the only consideration through which a road benefits by easy-riding rolling stock. Unquestionably the minimizing of vibration affects favorably the maintenance of rolling stock, and the power required to move an easy-running car is less than that required by a hard-riding car. Moreover, the effect upon track and roadbed is in the direction of decreased maintenance.

It may be said that the motor trucks of these cars were provided with clasp brakes - the first to be applied in electric railway service - because the weight of the cars was such that very high brake-shoe pressures had to be used. Experience extending over several years has demonstrated that the brake shoe wear is 15 per cent less on the motor trucks fitted with clasp brakes than on the trailer trucks of the same car which are fitted with single brakes, due allowance being made for the work of retardation effected by the two trucks. This is due to the lower temperature and consequent higher coefficient of friction in the case of the clasp brake equipment. It has been found, also, that the reliability in service of trucks fitted with clasp brakes is materially increased, owing to the fact that journals run cooler and the bearing surface of the journal is not disturbed in its position under the brass by an unbalanced brake-shoe pressure such as occurs when the single brake shoe is used. However, the improper application of two brake shoes per wheel may easily produce conditions worse than those which now occur with a well hung, single brake shoe.

*Abstract of a paper presented before the Central Electric Railway Association at its Toledo, Ohio, meeting. Nov. 23-24, 1916.

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Proceedings of the New York Railroad Club at meeting held at the Engineering Societies' Building, 29 West 39th Street, New York City, Friday, March 20, 1908.

The meeting was called to order at 8:30 P.M., President Vreeland, in the Chair.

The PRESIDENT [Herbert H. Vreeland] - The regular order of business, the roll call will be dispensed with; also the reading of the minutes of meeting of February 20th, 1908, as they have been printed and distributed to the members.

This is the fourth annual electrical night of this Club. Four years ago it was suggested by some of the members ot the Executive Committee that in view of the great work of extension in the field of electricity by its introduction as a motive power on steam railroads, it might be well to make a special feature for one evening of the electrical work then in progress. The first meeting was so unqualifiedly successful that the precedent has been followed by a similar meeting each year.

Last year the work of arranging the program was left to the President, who decided that it would be more interesting to the membership of the Club to have a series of addresses by engineers and others well equipped in the knowledge of electrical science rather than a single technical paper, as is the custom of the Club The same character of program has been arranged for this evening, and we have present, Mr. L. B. Stillwell, Electrical Director of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Consulting Engineer of the Hudson and Manhattan Tunnels; Hugh Hazelton, Electrical Engineer, of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Company; Mr. W.J. Wilgus, Consulting Engineer of the Detroit River Tunnel Company; Mr. W. S. Murray, Electrical Engineer, N.Y., N.H. & H.R.R.; George Gibbs; Walter C. Kerr; B.G. Lamme, Chief Engineer, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, and Mr. William McClellan, who will take part in the program of the evening. The first topic for the evening will be on the Belmont, Interborough and Manhattan & Hudson River Tunnels, by Mr. L. B. Stillwell and Mr. Hugh Hazelton, representing those various works which are the latest in connection with tunnel construction and operation that we have in this section of the country. Mr. Stillwell and Mr. Hazelton will arrange between them as to what portions of the program they will take. They will illustrate their address with a number of lantern slides. I first have the pleasure of introducing Mr. Stillwell. (Applause.)

Mr. STILLWELL - Mr. President and Gentlemen: During the six months beginning September, 1907 and ending February, 1908, six tunnels for the equipment of which my firm is responsible have been completed and opened for operation. These tunnels are the 42nd Street tunnel of the New York & Long Island Railroad Company, the Brooklyn tunnels of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Hoboken tunnels constructed by the Hudson Companies. There is not a great deal that is new to be said in regard to subway and tunnel equipment of this character. Of course there is progress each time a new undertaking is carried out and naturally each new work represents, in some respects, improvement as compared with its predecessors, but there is nothing radical or startling in the equipment of these tunnels as compared with that of the sections of the New York Subway system which were completed several years ago.

There are, nevertheless, certain new features, especially in connection with the work of the Hudson Companies which Mr. Hazelton and I will lay before you, and in connection with the signaling and special safety devices installed in the Brooklyn tubes of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company which I have asked Mr. Waldron, Signal Engineer, of that Company, to describe.

The 42nd Street tunnels are distinguished from the others by the use of an overhead conductor rail in place of the usual third rail supported on the ties of the road bed.

Certain legal questions affecting the Company's franchise have been raised in connection with the 42nd Street tunnels and they are not yet open to the public.

The Brooklyn extension of the Interborough Company is in operation as far east as Borough Hall and is carrying from fifty to sixty thousand passengers a day.

The Hoboken tunnels are in operation between Hoboken and 19th Street, New York, and are carrying approximately the same number of passengers per day.

Before undertaking to describe the work on these several lines completed within the last year I have prepared a few figures concerning the operation of the Subway lines of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company which I think will be interesting as showing that the operation of these lines, as far as passenger service is concerned, is on a scale which compares favorably with the most important railroad systems of the country. These facts I think are not generally appreciated. The application of electricity to the terminal problems of some of our large railway systems has proved of enormous advantage and this work has naturally attracted the especial attention of railroad engineers. The equipment of the New York Subway may be regarded as the logical development of the trolley car, which evolving itself into the train of several cars, as used on the New York elevated, then to the heavy eight car Subway trains, has carried us in respect to the power used in the movement of the train very considerably beyond the limit established by the heaviest passenger locomotive. In other words, engineering development in the railway field, starting in one case with the trolley car and working up to the heavy train unit, and starting in the other case with the steam locomotive and substituting electric equipment for steam, has led to a common goal as regards magnitude of the power employed and the purposes for which it is employed. Obviously great benefits must result from the contact and co-operation of the men educated along these two lines of experience. The following figures will illustrate the magnitude of the operations of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in Greater New York.

During five weeks day ending March 18, 1908, the Manhattan division operated on the average 188,451 car miles per day. The average number of passengers carried was 827,783.

The Subway division during the same period operated an average of 137,906 car miles per day and carried an average of 691,911 passengers.

Combining the two divisions we have a total average car mileage per day of 326,357 and a total average number of passengers per day of 1,519,694. On the basis of these figures the annual car mileage of the Interborough systems exceeds 100,000,000 per annum. It exceeds by nearly 50 per cent. the aggregate passenger car mileage operated by the N.Y., N.H. & H.R.R. system and is approximately equal to the entire passenger car mileage operated by the New York Central railroad system, according to the latest figures which I have. (1906.) It is more than double the passenger car mileage of the Erie system and falls little short of the aggregate operated by the Pennsylvania lines east of Pittsburgh.

The eight-car express trains of the Subway division have motor car equipment aggregating 2,000 horse power and the total weight upon motor driven axles is about 225,000 lbs. without passengers. The electric locomotives of the New York Central Railroad are equipped with motors carrying 1,600 horse power and the weight upon the drivers is 137,000 lbs.The equipment of a Subway express train, therefore, exerts tractive effort exceeding that of a New York Central Railroad locomotive by about 60 per cent.

Express trains in the Subway are operated under a headway slightly exceeding two minutes and considerations of safety in train operation require special equipment and special vigilance and care upon the part of the operators to an extent hardly parallel on any other railway. I wish to say right here, in the face of much newspaper criticism which has been leveled at the operating officers of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, that these men in general deserve not censure but the utmost praise that can be accorded them. They are not only exceptionally faithful but exceptionally skillful in dealing with problems, in some respect more difficult than any that have been presented hitherto in passenger transportation.

Mr. Stillwell described the equipment of the several tunnels, using lantern slides to illustrate his remarks. The following is a summarized statement:

New York & Long Island Railroad Company's Tunnels.

There are two stations on the Long Island side of the river; one at Jackson Avenue and one at Van Alst Avenue. The present terminal Is located at the point last named, where there is also a loop for the operation of shuttle trains and cars which may be operated simply in the service under the river. Beyond Van Alst Avenue the tracks emerge to the surface. The plan contemplates the operation of steel trolley cars over various lines in the Borough of Queens and through the tunnel to the New York side without change. The conditions governing the operations of these tunnels, therefore, differ materially from those governing in the case of the Hudson and Interborough tunnels, by reason of the fact that it is necessary to provide for the operation of trolley cars which, when outside the tunnel sections, are supplied by the ordinary overhead trolley. To meet these conditions a contact rail supported from the roof of the.tunnel over the center line of the track is used as a substitute for the ordinary third rail construction. This rail is a standard T section, weighing 20 lbs. per yard. It is supported upon insulators carried on adjustable brackets which are bolted to the flanges of the tube sections. In the concrete sections of the tunnel the insulators and brackets are similar but the brackets are secured to the concrete roof by expansion bolts. The bracket which carries the insulators is adjustable in four directions. The rail is supported at intervals of about 9 ft.

Car No. 601 of the New York & Queens County Railway Company is the first self-propelling car that ever traveled through a tunnel beneath either the East or North rivers. This car on September 24, 1907 was operated successfully through the north tube of the 42nd Street tunnel. As an illustration of the great urgency with which the equipment of these tunnels is rushed to completion it may be noted that this car was operated within two days' time after the work on the tunnel proper had been completed to a point which enabled the workmen to get out of the way of the car.

As the clearance above the roof of the car is very slight it became necessary to design a special contact pantagraph. This pantagraph occupies, when depressed to its lowest position, but 8 ins. vertical above the roof of the car, including 1 3/8 ins. between the support of the pantagraph and the top of the car roof.

Interborough Rapid Transit Company - Brooklyn Tunnels.

In the equipment of these tunnels the same general system of power supply is adopted as has been used in the equipment of the original sections of the subway.

A new sub-station is erected in Willow Place, Brooklyn, and power is transmitted to this point from the power house at 59th Street and North river in the Borough of Manhattan. This power house is connected by cables to the power house of the Manhattan division of the Interborough Company at 74th street and East river and power as supplied from each of these plants is therefore available at the sub-station in Brooklyn.

The distance of transmission by cables laid in ducts is unusual; being something more than seven miles. The voltage employed is 11,000 volts; the frequency 25 cycles per second; and the system three-phase.

On account of the restricted clearance in the tube sections the standard third rail construction could not be used and a rail of special section was installed. This rail weighs 80 lbs. per yard This type of rail and its supports were designed primarily for the Hudson tunnels but were adopted also for the equipment of the Brooklyn tubes of the Interborough system.

In operating the tube sections of the original subway under the Harlem river it has been found that a very small leakage of water quickly causes a breakdown across the surface of the insulators. The rail used in the Brooklyn tunnels, therefore, is carried upon insulators which are designed with reference to a maximum drip surface. The rails are 60 ft. long and are of special quality; their resistance approximating eight times that of standard copper. They are bonded by two 500,000 c.m. copper bonds.

The electric conductors for lighting and for signals are carried upon the walls of the tube.

A hand rail is provided for employees or for passengers who, in emergency, may leave the trains and walk upon the bench walk which is provided at the side of the tube.

The arrangement of the apparatus in sub-station No. 21 differs in some respects from that adopted in previous sub-stations of the Interborough system, notably in the fact that the gallery which carries the switch gear is raised only a few feet above the level of the floor.

Electrical Equipment Of East River Tubes Of The Interborough Rapid Transit Company.

Power Circuits

The same general system of power circuits is used in the tubes as has been found so satisfactory in the original subway equipment. This consists of a third rail which supplies power to the motors in the usual manner with a return through one of the track rails, both of which are bonded with compressed terminal bonds. The other track rail is used for signal circuits only, and is bonded with the usual signal bonds.

The third rail is fed at two places in each tube by a 2,000,000 c.m. cable, one feeding point being located at a point under Willow Place, Brooklyn, and the other near the bottom of the river, and the rail in each tube is entirely independent of that in the other. An accident or short circuit in either tube need not, therefore, interfere with the operation of the other. All of the above feeders are fed from sub-station No. 21, located in Brooklyn, but each third rail is also connected to its corresponding rail of the main line at Bowling Green.

At the end of each feeder and at Bowling Green suitable switches are installed which permit disconnection at any of these points.

The track rails are also fed at two places by 2,000,000 c.m. cables which are insulated to reduce the electrolytic conditions. No switch or other means for disconnection are considered necessary in the return circuit.

CONTACT RAIL

The splice bars, which are of special design, grip the outside inclined edges of the rail and are bolted together with two in. bolts passing under the rail.

The same splice plates are used for anchoring the rail, the two bolts in this case passing through a special cap which is fastened to the top of the anchor insulators. Each rail is anchored twice near its middle point.

A wooden board 8 1/2 ins. wide covers the rail in the same manner as in the main line of the original subway. The method of carrying this board is however special on account of the clearances. A wrought iron bracket bolted to the ties is used tor this purpose in the tubes instead of the posts bolted to the rail used in the original construction. This form of construction has some advantages for use under salt water, as the protection board is clear of the rail and, therefore, not liable to be alive in wet spots.

DRAINAGE

While we do not expect great leakage in the tubes as constructed, an equipment has been installed which is considered sufficient to take care of anything short of an actual break in the tube structure.

For this purpose sumps have been provided at five points in the tubes, each having a storage capacity of about 1500 gallons from which the water is pumped by air driven pumps discharging through 6 in. cast iron pipes to the sewers in either Brooklyn or Manhattan.

For these pumps a room has been excavated out of the solid rock section between tubes, the sump being located under these rooms below the track level. Each of these rooms are approximately 7 x 14 ft., and are designed for the installation of two Cameron pumps each having a capacity of 600 gallons per minute.

In the present equipment we should have six of these pumps, one each in the sumps on the inclines, and two at the bottom giving a total capacity against a leak from either side of 2400 gallons per minute. The arrangement of air and discharge piping is such that a break in any line can be cut out by suitable valves without seriously affecting the efficiency of the system as a whole. In normal operation all pumps will be automatic starting and stopping from floats in the sumps, and the pipe lines will be connected so that a break in any line will not shut down all of the pumps even though the valves at the break are not closed.

Air for the pumps is supplied from two independent compressor plants, one located at each end of the tubes, having a combined capacity of about 3800 cu. ft. of free air per minute.

The compressors are high speed direct connected motor driven with automatic starting devices which start the motors when the pressure on the line falls to any predetermined point and stop them when the pressure reaches 90 lbs. per sq. in. These plants have separate feeders and are supplied from independent sources of power.

Should the amount of water exceed the capacity of the above equipment, or should it from any cause entirely fail, an emergency pump car has been provided, having a capacity of 2,000 gallons per minute, which can be placed at the point of trouble and connected to our discharge lines. This equipment consists of a motor driven centrifugal pump capable of pumping against a head of 200 ft. with an auxiliary pump for priming. The whole apparatus is mounted in a special car, which also carries the necessary suction and discharge hose and connections and wire sufficient to reach a feeding point.

VENTILATION

The piston action of the trains passing through the tubes makes a draft almost a gale which in operating conditions furnishes ample ventilation, openings being provided at each end for admission of fresh air and the discharge of the old air.

In order to provide air to passengers in stalled trains, should the line be blocked for any considerable time, and also to quickly remove the smoke from a fire or short circuit of any kind, a rather novel ventilating plant has been installed which may be of interest.

At each end of each tube air flues have been installed terminating in nozzles extending into the tube toward the middle of the river. These flues are connected to blowers located at the top of the ventilating shafts at each end, which are arranged so that the air may be discharged at a high velocity through the nozzles into either tube. This it is expected will act as a kind of injector forcing the air from the ventilating shaft at one end through the tube out of the ventilating shaft at the other end.

Under normal operation this forced draft will be in the direction of traffic through both tubes. Should it be desirable to reverse this direction, dampers at each plant will change the flow to the nozzles in the other tube. These dampers are electrically interlocked, so that it is impossible to blow the air into both ends of either tube at the same time.

The ventilating shafts are divided by a partition wall, and all openings between tubes are closed by sliding doors so that the forced circulation of air in one tube will not be discharged into the other tube.

The fan equipment at each end consists of two steel plate blowers, each having a capacity of about 46,000 cu. ft. per minute against a pressure of about 3 oz. per sq. in. One of these blowers is held as a reserve permitting the regular repairs without cutting off the emergency feature of the plant. While one blower is large enough to supply all the air required, the second can be started if conditions demand, thereby slightly increasing the air supplied.

The operation of the ventilating blowers and dampers is placed in the hands of the despatcher at the Bowling Green station, who has entire charge of the apparatus in the tube as described hereafter and is in close touch with the conditions existing therein.

Each blower is provided with an automatic starter so arranged that by pushing a button in the office at Bowling Green the blowers will be started at each end of the tubes. A similar button controls the operation of the dampers, directing the flow of air through the tubes.

EMERGENCY APPARATUS

This feature of the equipment has received very careful consideration, as it involves not only the operation and safety of equipment, but possibly the lives of passengers in the tubes. After considering several alternative plans, it was decided to place the entire operation of the trains through the tubes in the hands of a competent man who would be at all times located in the office at Bowling Green station, and to give this man all possible means of getting information in regard to conditions in the tubes as well as means for handling any emergency that might arise.

To this end there are located at each manhole throughout each tube (about 300 ft. apart) a telephone connecting to a switchboard at Bowling Green from which the motorman of a train in trouble can tell the despatcher the exact nature of the trouble. At all of these points there are also located emergency alarm boxes which can be pulled in case of an accident requiring the cutting off of the current. Pulling this box instantly cuts off the current and at the same time rings a gong in the Bowling Green office telling the despatcher just where the trouble is located.

By means of the train indicator, which will be described under the signal system of which it is a part, the despatcher is enabled to see at a glance how many trains are in that tube which are in trouble and can act accordingly even though he fails to get into direct communication with the motorman by the telephone system. As described above he then has control of the blower system if he considers it necessary and has the necessary authority for starting the operation of other trains which will not endanger the one in trouble.

While the use of wood in these tubes is almost eliminated, there is a possibility of a fire in the insulation or other material which it is at the present time impossible to eliminate, and to have ample means at hand to promptly check this kind of accident, we have installed at each manhole a liquid fire extinguisher, and in case this is not sufficient a 2 1/2 in. fire hose which is always in place with ample water supply in the lines.

TUBE LIGHTING

A special effort has been made to make the lighting of the tubes as permanent and reliable as possible. Two independent circuits have been run in each tube either one of which will provide light enough to enable one to walk safely through the tunnel. These lines are fed from separate transformers on our lighting feeder which is entirely independent of any of the power equipment and supplied from a separate plant in the power house. For protection against the failure of this equipment an automatic switch has been provided which will throw the tube lights to the power circuits at once upon the failure of the regular supply.

STATION LIGHTING

The general type of station lighting of which Borough Hall is an example is similar to that of the old equipment with which you are familiar. We have, however, provided more light and supplied a greater portion of these lights from our power circuits, so that the station will be reasonably lighted in case of the failure of either supply.

Of the several tubes equipped by my firm during the last year or two the tubes of the Hudson Companies have afforded the best opportunity for the incorporation of new features. These will be described in some detail by my partner, Mr. Hugh Hazelton, who has been in immediate charge of this work. The one point which we have tried to emphasize is the elimination of every thing combustible from the cars, so far as this is possible. We have adopted a seating arrangement suggested by practice on the elevated lines in Berlin.

The grades of these tubes are exceptionally heavy, rising to as much as five per cent. in one instance, and I would point out that it is only by the multiple unit system of electric operation that we can operate with safety on such grades. With this equipment we are not dependent upon the brakes, in case of emergency, to hold trains on grades, as in case of the failure of the brakes the trains may be held by reversing the motors.

I will now give way to Mr. Waldron who will describe the signal system installed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in the Brooklyn tubes.

Mr. WALDRON - Mr. President and Gentlemen. At Mr. Stillwell's request, I will briefly describe the new features introduced in connection with the signaling in the East River Tunnel of the Interborough System:

What is known as the Brooklyn Extension of the New York Subway consists of a double track road from Fulton Street, New York, down Broadway to Bowling Green, under the East River to Borough Hall station, Brooklyn, and four tracks beyond that point. At the south end of the Bowling Green station, the South Ferry Loop tracks leave south bound main line track, curve around to the South Ferry station over the top of the Brooklyn tracks, and join the north bound main line track at south end of Bowling Green station. The grade leaving Bowling Green station for under the river, is decending three and one-tenth per cent., and approaching Borough Hall station from under the river is ascending three and one-tenth per cent.

The problem given to the Signal Department of the I.R.T. Co. was to signal these tracks in such manner as to permit the maximum number of trains to pass under the river in safety, and not neglect the service at the South Ferry station. It was found that the greatest speed a train could acquire in passing under the river, would be about 60 miles per hour and that the speed at the top of the three and one-tenth per cent. grade would be about 22 miles per hour. The signals were located so as to provide for the safe braking distance at the maximum speed of train, at point where signal is, and should a motorman disregard such signal, his train would be brought to a stop before reaching a train in next block in advance. The junction of the South Ferry Loop track with the north bound track from Brooklyn, at the south end of Bowling Green station, at the top of the three and one-tenth per cent. grade, introduced some very interesting features.

The study of this, made with a two minute headway service from Brooklyn, and a four minute headway service around South Ferry Loop, showed conclusively that in order to run any kind of service, it would be necessary for north bound trains from South Ferry to skip the Bowling Green station, and also necessary to reduce to a minimum the delays occasioned by stopping trains from Brooklyn on the steep ascending grade, as every train so stopped requires from 12 to 15 seconds to release brakes and get train under way.

It was therefore decided to install a complete system of visual indications in the Bowling Green tower, and arrange this in such manner that the operator at that point would have a miniature reproduction of the road between Wall Street, New York, and Borough Hall, Brooklyn, and know the exact location of all trains on that road. He would have under his jurisdiction the control of signals and stops at both entering ends of tubes, so that when a train for any reason should be delayed in either tube an unusual length of time, he could immediately prevent other trains from entering therein. It was also arranged that either track under the river could be used for traffic in reverse direction in a safe manner. When used in this way, the automatic trips will clear up automatically as the train approaches them. The entire control of traffic through the tubes is under the jurisdiction of the operator at Bowling Green tower.

The apparatus at Bowling Green tower for reproducing the condition of tracks under the river, and showing the location of trains passing through from New York to Brooklyn or reverse, consists of a box about four feet long, two feet high, and one foot wide with black glass front, behind which are placed colored lights. On the face of this glass are two narrow strips about 1/2 in. wide, which are arranged to represent longitudinal sections of each tube under the river, and when there are no trains in the tubes, these are green ribbons of light extending from Borough Hall to Bowling Green. Miniature signals in their correct location are placed on this model. When a train enters the tube at either end, the green light is immediately changed to red for the block which that train occupies. This red light follows the position of the train through the tunnel. Just as soon as a train passes out of a block, the green light is again displayed in its rear.

To reduce as much as possible the delays which the junction south of Bowling Green would occasion to trains from Brooklyn and South Ferry Loop in entering Bowling Green station, there were installed additional signals and stops with cut overlap track sections which permits trains to approach towards the Bowling Green station immediately upon the preceding train starting from station platform without decreasing the factor of safety. It is found that this arrangement makes a saving of about nine seconds to each train from South Ferry Loop, and of about 12 seconds to each train from Brooklyn, over what would be the case were the same method of control in vogue at this station as at other stations in the subway.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company has been trying for a number of months to get permission to install this same arrangement of signals at the approach to express stations, but up to the present time have not been granted the necessary authority to do so. If these changes were made, two additional express trains in each direction per hour, could be added to the Subway service.

The PRESIDENT - Mr. Hugh Hazelton, Electrical Engineer of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company.

Mr. HAZELTON - Mr. President and Gentlemen: Mr. Stillwell has already told you that there is nothing new and certainly nothing radical about the equipment of the Hudson tunnels. The state of the electric art is such at present that it is not necessary to try anything new or experimental on a railroad of this kind. There are, however, a number of features which may be of interest, as it has been the intention to provide, a little more perhaps than usual, for the comfort and convenience of the passengers especially in the car design, and I hope to explain some of these features to you to-night.

You are doubtless familiar with the Hudson tunnel lines, as they have been pretty well advertised recently, but a brief description may be necessary in order to explain what the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad has done and what it expects to do in the way of improving service between surburban towns in New Jersey and New York City.

The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad system will when completed comprise about 19 miles of tunnel, of which six miles are now in operation and six additional miles of tunnel are completed ready for oncrete sidewalls, ballast and track. By the end of the year it is expected that about 16 miles of tunnel will be completed and in operation. The line now is operation begins at Hoboken where a terminal station is placed adjacent to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad station, and from this point cars run to 19th Street and Sixth Avenue. The Sixth Avenue line will be extended eventually to 33rd Street, where a terminal will be built. On the New Jersey side a station will be placed adjacent to the Erie Railroad station, there will also be a station directly below the Pennsylvania Railroad station. There are two downtown tunnels that cross under the river between the Pennsylvania Railroad station and Cortlandt Street, and the Terminal station for these downtown tunnels is located on Church Street between Cortlandt and Fulton Streets. This Terminal is located so as to be within convenient distance of the business portion of the city. The Terminal at 33rd Street and the stations up Sixth Avenue furnish convenient access to the shopping district, so that when the road is completed a passenger, either from the Lackawanna, Erie or Pennsylvania railroad, or from trolley lines at Hoboken or Jersey City, can ride under the river directly to the shopping district along Sixth Avenue, or to the heart of the business district near the Church Street Terminal. A pair of tunnels are to run west under the Pennsylvania right ot way to a point about two miles west of the Pennsylvania Railroad station at Summit Avenue, where the tunnels come to the surface and the tracks will connect to the Pennsylvania tracks.

There is a traffic arrangement between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, whereby the Pennsylvania local trains from Newark will run through the downtown tunnels from Summit Avenue to the Church Street Terminal. The cars of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad will also run over the Pennsylvania Railroad lines as far as Newark, so that when this joint service is in operation it will furnish rapid and efficient transportation between Newark and New York. The train headway will be much closer than on the present Pennsylvania schedule, and the time will be about 15 minutes less than the present time from Newark to Broadway, and the trip will be made without change of cars.

It is expected that the traffic over the lines of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad will be of a nature similar to the present ferry traffic, where the number of passengers in the rush hour is from one-tenth to one-sixth of the total number per day. It may also be likened to the traffic over the Brooklyn Bridge where the number of passengers during the rush hour is about one-eighth of the total number of passengers per day. In order to provide for this heavy rush hour traffic, special provisions have been made to load and unload transfer passengers with the least possible delay. It is the intention to run trains during the rush on a one and one-half minute headway, and the stations are of sufficient length to accommodate eight car trains.

In order to avoid delay and danger all grade crossings have been eliminated by building the tunnels one above another at junction points. The tunnel construction allows a way for avoiding grade crossings which could only be accomplished with great expense on surface lines or elevated constructions.

In order to handle passengers with the least delay, the terminal stations have been provided with two station tracks for each incoming track, so that while a train is standing at the station another train may enter the station without delay. The Terminals are also provided with platforms on each side of the train, one of which is a loading and the other an unloading platform, so that passengers leave from one side of the train and enter the train from the opposite side, thus avoiding any confusion. The same plan is carried out at the terminal station at Hoboken and at 33rd Street, Sixth Avenue. In addition to this provision at the station platforms the cars are provided with doors at the center as well as at the ends, so that when the trains are standing in the terminal stations each car will have three exit doors and three entrance doors. The car doors are arranged to slide into pockets at the sides of the car. They are supported on hall bearings and are operated by air cylinders controlled by the guard. The valves which admit air to the cylinders are so designed that as the door closes, a certain amount of air is retained in the exhaust side of the cylinder to cushion the door when it has reached a distance of about four inches from its closed position. In passing through the last four inches of its travel, the door moves quite slowly in order to prevent catching passengers' clothing. The edge of the door is also protected by rubber hose to further prevent the possibility of injury.

The cars are of steel throughout, including roof, headlining and doors. The floors are made of carborundum cement laid on corrugated steel plates.

All wires are covered with asbestos braid and placed in iron conduit pipes. No pains have been spared, therefore, to make the cars thoroughly fireproof. In order to provide for the center doors and at the same time minimize the weight of the car body, a truss frame was designed with five panels, the center door occupying the middle panel. The depth of this panel is about 7 ft., which is equal to the height of the side of the car. It follows that for a given strength the weight of this truss is much less than that of any girder or truss beam which could be placed below the car floor. In the Interborough steel cars, which have no center doors, the side sheathing of the car forms a plate girder about 3 ft. in depth, which carries the weight of the car. It will be seen, however, that the introduction of a center door would cut through the girder at the point where the maximum bending moment occurs. It is believed, therefore, that the truss construction is very much better adapted to cars with center or intermediate doors.

To show the strength of the truss construction, one of the Hudson cars was loaded with 190 workmen and the resulting deflection was less than 1/16 of an inch.

The end framing of the car has been made unusually strong in order to prevent the possibility of damage from rough handling in switching or in case of collision. Steel castings which project about 8 ins. above the top of the buffer timbers have been rivetted very securely to the center sills so that in case of collision if the platform of one car is forced up over the platform of the adjacent car, the buffer timber will strike against these steel castings where the force of the impact would be used up in crushing the buffer timber.

The cars are arranged to accommodate forty seated passengers. The seats being placed along the sides of the car. The seats are divided by 12 partitions which reach about to the height of the passenger's shoulder, and therefore form convenient supports to lean against. At each seat partition a vertical post extends from the edge of the seat to the hand strap rod. These posts are made of drawn steel tubes covered with porcelain enamel, so that they can be easily kept clean.

The cars are brilliantly lighted and in addition to 30 16 c.p. lamps for the general illumination, there are four lamps supplied from a storage battery placed under the car. These storage battery lamps remain lighted at all times, so that in case the current goes off the third rail, the passengers are not left in darkness.

Each car is provided with two 150 h. p. motors and the current is suppled to these motors from a contact rail placed at the side of the track. The location of this contact rail is identical with the contact rail of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, and also the Long Island Railroad Company. The contact rail is a special channel shaped section weighing 75 pounds per yard. This special section was required in order to get the rail and the necessary insulators within the limited space left by the curved section of the tunnel.

The rail is of a composition low in carbon and manganese and the conductivity is only about one-eighth that of copper of equivalent section.

The contact rail is protected by a continuous plank 2 inches thick and 9 inches wide placed about 4 inches above the top of the contact rail. This protecting plank is made of Jarrah wood obtained from Australia. This Jarrah wood is very hard and close grained and is particularly desirable for this purpose on account of its very slow burning qualities. For example, the flame of a blow torch was directed against a plank of Jarrah wood 1 inch thick, and it took 12 minutes for the flame to burn through the wood, whereas with a similar piece of oak treated in the same manner the time required to burn through was about eight minutes. It was also found that after the flame was removed from the Jarrah wood it would not support combustion. The Jarrah wood costs about $10 per thousand board feet more than first quality oak, but it has less tendency to warp and crack and is practically unaffected by moisture.

In closing I wish to give you the results of some experiments we recently made to determine the time which a passenger may save by using the Hudson tunnels in place of the ferries over the river, that is, the actual time required for a person to go from Broadway and Dey Street to the Pennsylvania station over the Cortlandt Street ferry, was found to be 25 1/2 minutes. At the time of day when the test was made the ferries were running on seven minutes headway, and the time required in crossing the river is about 10 minutes. It is expected that the Hudson & Manhattan trains will run on 1 1/2 minute headway through the downtown tunnels, and the running time between the Pennsylvania station and Church Street Terminal is 3 1/2 minutes. The total time, therefore, from Broadway and Dey Streets to the Pennsylvania trains in Jersey City by way of the Hudson tunnels will be about 10 1/2 minutes. A saving of about 15 minutes will, therefore, be made in the time from Broadway to Pennsylvania station in Jersey City by the Hudson tunnels.

A similar determination has been made from a number of actual tests on the time required for a passenger to go from the Lackawanna station at Hoboken to 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue by Christopher Street ferry and surface trolley. This time was found to be from 32 to 38 minutes, depending upon whether the passenger was fortunate in catching a ferry boat and making good connections with the trolley cars. The actual running time from Hoboken to 33rd Street Sixth Avenue through the Hudson tunnels will be 17 minutes, and allowing for the time to get on a train at Hoboken and to get off and get to the street at 33rd Street, the total time from Hoboken to 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue may'be taken as 20 minutes. This shows a saving of from 12 to 18 minutes. In addition to the saving in time the tunnel service affords means for avoiding the delay and danger of ice and fog on the river, and it is therefore believed that the service will not only prove attractive to the present residents of surburban towns in New Jersey, but that it will also help materially to build up a large section of desirable property which has hitherto been backward in developing on account of imperfect transportation facilities.

The PRESIDENT - We will next have the pleasure of listening to Mr. W. J. Wilgus.

Mr. WILGUS - Mr. President and Gentlemen: We have heard Mr. Hazelton refer to the fact that nowadays there is little room for making radical departures and experiments in the application of electricity to traction problems. If I were entirely sure that those who are to follow me this evening held .the same view, I would have less doubt about how I should treat our topic. But I will assume that differences of opinion will not arise.

Since July first last, the electrification of the New York Central lines entering the Grand Central Station has been completed and all trains of that Company are operated by electricity in a manner that is successful from an operating, as well as from engineering and financial standpoints. The result of observations of this operation has brought out a number of interesting features which are apart from the question of propelling trains electrically. They may be termed the by-products of the electrification of a steam railroad.

One point is the fact that with electric operation it is feasible to use other than the ground surface, which in a city like New York is of immense advantage. In other words, it is possible for a railroad to utilize what may be termed its air rights, for overhead and underground structures which is impossible with steam railroads. This is a very important advantage, as may be inferred from the fact that due to the use of electricity as a motor power, the value of the property of the New York Central at the Grand Central Station if increased in value to the equivalent of the frontage on Fifth Avenue only two blocks to the west, will add $50,000,000 to the assets of the Company.

Another feature is the ability to save a great deal of money in the lighting of stations and terminals. With a power station economically designed and operated for providing propulsion current it is practicable to provide at a low cost, additional current for the lighting of stations and yards, and for other purposes apart from the movement of trains. To illustrate the money value of this advantage, it is expected that when the Grand Central terminal is entirely completed and the electric zone in operation, a saving in the lighting of stations and yards and providing power for running draw bridges, elevators, etc., will amount to over $200,000 per annum.

Another advantage of having large power stations for the movement of trains is their availability for supplying current for labor saving devices in connection with freight terminals. As you all know in the operation of such terminals along the river front there are a number of isolated plants for operating float bridges, elevators, moving platforms, cranes and similar devices. Investigation will show that in almost every instance the propulsion electric current can be used to great advantage.

Another feature is the cheapness of power at times of the day when the movement of trains is light. As is well known, power stations are designed with sufficient capacity to handle service during the peak hours, say one hour night and morning. During the other hours of the day the cost of the production of power is simply the cost of burning coal under the boilers. This cheaply produced power may be used to run switch engines in yards that are usually operated at times when passenger travel is not heaviest. In one yard I have in mind a saving of $114,000 per annum can be effected in this manner.

In connection with the electrical operation of steam railroads another feature has been developed which is, I think, very important, viz: the feasibility of establishing reliable safety devices in connection with the signal system. For instance, as a check on motormen, a device may be used which will beyond preadventure bring trains to a stop in case they improperly attempt to pass signals. This device makes entirely safe and feasible the use of one man at the head of the train instead of two, as is now very common on electrically operated "steam railroads," where one acts as the operator and the other to observe and check signals. This duplication of men means undue cost of operation, and if it can be safely dispensed with by mechanical means, a large saving in train expenses will ensue. Such automatic stops will also do the same work as surprise tests in detecting men who flagrantly run by signals in the stop position.

Our President has told me that he could give me no more than five minutes, and that time is about up now. I thank you for the attention you have given me. (Applause.)

The PRESIDENT - Mr. W. S. Murray, Electrical Engineer of the N. Y., N. H. & H. Railroad will speak on the electrification work of the New Haven between Stamford and Woodlawn.

Mr. MURRAY - Mr. President and Gentlemen: I consider it an honor to say a few words to the New York Railroad Club; but before coming to the interesting topic I am expected to speak upon I want to express my regrets at the absence of Mr. Calvert Townley whom I so inadequately represent. While I have represented the New Haven Road and am somewhat familiar with the subject of its electrification I have not trusted myself to get up and talk generally about it for fear that I may take up too much of that valuable five minutes time allotted to the speakers; so, I have rather confined myself to a typewritten manuscript which I will read as quickly as I can. I will say that it does not deal with technicalities. It is somewhat light and I hope you will bear with me while I get through with it.

Mr. President, Fellow Members and Guests: It is a privilege to have the opportunity and honor of addressing you. In advance of what I have to say on the subject assigned, I wish to sincerely couple my regrets to those of my hearers in the absence of Mr. Townley, to whom the honor was first entrusted, and whom I so inadequately represent.

While I am not unmindful of the concrete subject, to which I am harnessed, viz: "The advancement that has been made in the operation of trains by electricity," I am not going to occupy your time by an historical sketch of the chronological increments in the betterments of steam or electric traction, but hold to the present. Ever since I elected to embark upon the good ship "Electricity," which, by the way, was not entirely a pleasure excursion, I, doubtless, have been relegated to that class of specialists known as Electrical Engineers. It is true, I probably know less about all other subjects than I do about electricity, and so in this dangerous condition, like the drowning man and the straw - enough said!

Gentlemen, to-night, is your electrical night. To-night the steam and electrical engineers mingle with one another. Instead of it being once a year I would that it were all the year around! I recognize with anxiety and concern the classification of steam and electrical engineers. How foolish the steam engineer who does not take his hat off to the electric locomotive; how foolish the electrical engineer who does not keep his hat off to the steam locomotive. At this juncture I am reminded of a remark I once heard a prominent electrical man well up in the problems of electrical traction make in an effervescing moment of enthusiasm, he said:

"Yes, gentlemen, we've got the old steam locomotive harpooned in the neck."

As I listened to this it reminded me of the time I once threw a harpoon. It was not at a locomotive, but it was, with all intent, at a sword fish. I had waited patiently all day for the opportunity, and you can imagine my exhultation when I saw the point of that javelin disappear under the surface of the water and its shaft come to a sudden stop, and then things happened. I felt my dory give a convulsive throb; it seemed to ride up about four feet on the crest of an unbroken wave. The 300 fathoms of line I had spun out with a song that drove all other thoughts from my mind, so much so, indeed, that while in a daze of amazement watching the last fathoms disappear over the prow of my little craft, I was totally unprepared for the cruel shock which came when my line finally brought up hard. When this happened, it seemed as though everything in the world had left me, but the ocean. No, this is not quite right for I did find myself astride of the little flagpole I had carried with me in leaving the boat. This having been installed upon the stern post was the only offer of detention I had, but it was not strong enough. It was not over a mile from shore so, of course, I had no difficulty in wading to it, and there I crawled up on a high rock to see if I could locate my boat, but naught but the expanse of the sea met my eye. Two weeks after this, 110 miles up the coast, the hugh carcass of a whale was cast up on the shore. A harpoon was discovered firmly imbedded in his neck, and what at first seemed a mystery, in the fact that the line from the harpoon lead to the mouth of the whale, was afterwards explained in discovering my dory inside of him, and so gentlemen, I know you can understand now my antipathy for throwing harpoons.

The steam locomotive is the possessor of my highest esteem and respect. It is the rule, the electric locomotive is the exception. But let us be willing to let the exception prove the rule. I always shudder when I hear some electrical man use that timeworn expression, "Well, the steam locomotive will soon be relegated to the scrap heap," and let me remark that it will be a "heap" of a big "scrap" before it is. The electric locomotive belongs as much to you all, as it does to us. There are differences between electric locomotives, as my good friend, Mr. Wilgus, and I admitted at the last meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and in these differences there exists food for the royal appetites of electrical engineers who are earnestly and conscientiously looking for the electric engine, whose characteristics best conserve the duties for which it has been called.

It is no little privilege to lay before you, the old school of conservative practise, our new ideas. You are by right of eminent domain our judges and masters. While the electrical engineer may unravel in his own mind the various technical details in his consideration of whether this electrification or the other is one properly related to direct current or alternating current, the final great tripod on which any or all of them stand is Reliability of Service, Fixed Charge and Operating Expense.

The hair on the heads of our younger members and guests will be gray, before, if ever, they see the good old reliable steam locomotive taken off transcontinental lines. Data is young to-day, but analyzing what we have brings out some significant facts. A pound of coal burned under the boilers of our central station at Cos Cob will produce twice the draw-bar as a pound of coal burned in the fire box of a locomotive. Electric machines will yield twice the locomotive miles per diem as their steam brothers, and their repairs for the same mileage will, even at this day, be one-third. These two departments of economy take the measure of electricity's application. Large cities may dictate the electrification of their railroad terminals to safeguard their people and abate the smoke nuisance, but outside of these limits, the railroad company is permitted to play its own hand, and I do not have to ask your agreement to a fact that unless electrification is a business proposition-and. by business proposition I mean, that for a dollar spent, after interest, depreciation, insurance and taxes, have been paid, there remains six or eight cents for someone else - Steam will remain.

I would I had time to launch myself into a description of some of the failures we have had with the alternating current system. These have been much more interesting and instructive than our successes. Trouble! What else! But what one of you here to-night ever got anything that was worth while that you did not have to sweat blood for it? Who but my esteemed friend, Mr. Walter C. Kerr, has better illustrated the point than when he told his inimitable story about Michael and Patrick, who while furling sail on to the gallant royal topsail yard fell therefrom, together, Pat taking the upper position in their gravitorial descent to the sea. In reply to Mike's supplication that he hoped the Lord was with him, Pat said: that if he was, he was "going some" - and so trouble, like grades or curves, only requires more tractive effort to cut through it, and you've got to be "going some."

Trouble is of two casts: Surmountable and Insurmountable. There is no mistaking when the one or the other is present. Do you remember the first time you shot at the little round bull's-eye, and all your lead seemed to go up in the right hand corner of the target? There was trouble present, but if the bull's-eye had been all by itself you would never have known just why you didn't ring the bell. Gentlemen, it all depends upon whether you can see the cause of your mistakes. We have made some, but we can see them, and they are not fundamental, and when they are wiped out they will not return. They have to-day been magnified because they have been the cause of our holding complete electric operation in abeyance. Our brother company operates 100 per cent.; the New Haven 50 per cent, electric. Had we adopted the D. C. method of propulsion, doubtless, we would to-day be operating 100 per cent. Would that be a reason for adopting it? Yes, to some, but not to those who really know the New Haven conditions.

Inalienably attached to each other are long distance and high voltage and there has ever followed the desire to convert this high tension power into mechanical work with the least number of transformations. If we are at one apex of a triangle, we do not go to another via two legs unless there is a fence in the way, and sometimes we even get over the fence.

I have purposely avoided technical data in my talk with you to-night. The technical nights on the floors of our engineering societies offer vast and splendid opportunity for this. Two years ago, Mr. Townley described to you the nature and reasons for the adoption of the Single-Phase System on the New Haven road. The specifications you heard that night have been taking shape in the form of a power house, line and locomotives. All the shots are on the target, some of them have rung the bell. Considering we were forced to meet the D. C. current condition, south of Woodlawn, thus complicating to a great extent the control of our electric locomotives, I, somehow, feel safe in the hands of a patient public, who will for the sake of advancement of the simplicity of electric traction, wait until we correct the sights for those remaining shots.

I thank you for your attention.

The PRESIDENT - We will next hear from Mr. George Gibbs, Chief Engineer of electric traction and terminal station construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Mr. GIBBS - I have been asked to speak briefly upon the advance, since our last Electrical Night, in the application of electricity for the operation of trains. I am somewhat at a loss how to deal with the subject in a ten minutes talk in a manner which would be helpful or novel.

The general subject of heavy electric traction has continued to excite the interest of engineers, and much has been written upon the subject in papers before societies and in the technical journals. There has been steady advance made in our knowledge of general application methods but as yet no complete and authoritative figures for operating results are obtainable.

Since our meeting a year ago the following very important projects have been put into complete or partial operation, or have been decided upon. I give a brief list only of projects involving steam railroad conditions, as distinguished from those of single-unit light trolley operation.

The New York Central & Hudson River R. R. Co. has put into complete electric operation their New York terminal. The change from steam to electric train operation went into effect on July 1st, a year ahead of the date set by law for the conversion. It should be understood that I refer to the operation of New York Central trains and not those of New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad which run into the same terminal and which are now in progress of equipment for electric operation. This work of conversion to electric operation has been accomplished coincidently with the progress of an entire re-construction of the terminal station and yard still under way, and without material interference with the regular daily operation of a very dense passenger traffic. It constitutes an engineering feat of the highest importance, and an epoch in the history of electric traction. I would commend to your attention the admirably clear and concise paper read before the American Society of Civil Engineers on the 18th inst. by Mr. W. J. Wilgus, Vice President in charge of the conversion.

On July 24th last, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company inaugurated in part their electric service between the Grand Central Station, New York City and New Rochelle, and later extended service to Stamford, Conn., 21 miles distant from Woodlawn. This installation is of special interest as the first application in this country of alternating current motors for the propulsion of heavy steam railway trains, and the first application anywhere of large .single-phase alternating current electric locomotives for high speed trunk line passenger service; the Erie Railroad installation, mentioned elsewhere, antedates the New Haven by a month but is in the nature of branch line and light work. On the continent of Europe three-phase alternating current has been used for electric locomotive service for some years, but the single-phase installation on the New Haven constitutes a radical departure from foreign practice, and a distinct novelty upon the scale contemplated. An interesting feature of the installation is found in the necessity of operating these alternating current motors over the tracks of the New York Central terminal which are equipped for direct current only, and that this dual operation has been accomplished is a tribute to the ingenuity of electrical designers. The progress and completion of the New Haven installation will be watched with interest by railroad men everywhere.

On June 10th the electrification of a division of the West Shore Railroad of the New York Central Company, between Utica and Syracuse, N. Y., was put into operation. This is a double, and in part, three and four track line of 44 route miles and 106 track miles length. It is equipped for third rail direct current operation of local service trains, and results will be watched as an important test of the economic and traffic fostering effect of electric traction on an existing steam railway, and of its ability to retain local passenger business in competition with the interurban trolley.

On June 18th the electrification of a portion of the Rochester Division of the Erie Railroad was completed. It is a single track line 34 miles in length, equipped for light service of one or two car trains, taking power from high tension overhead trolley, supplied with current from Niagara Falls.

On September 24th the first trial trip through a sub-aqueous tunnel under the East River from 42nd Street, Manhattan, to the Borough of Queens, was made. This tunnel is known as the "Belmont Tunnel," and has been designed only for the operation of trolley cars, and has not yet been put in regular service. Mention might be made of the fact that this was the first tunnel connection with the Borough of Manhattan.

On January 7th the tunnels under the East River from the Battery to the Borough of Brooklyn were placed in regular operation, the line being a continuation of the existing New York subway system and operated as a through route therewith.

On February 25th the Hudson Tunnel Companies began the regular operation of their North, or Morton Street tunnels, between Hoboken and 18th Street and Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, thus completing the first through transit line from New Jersey to New York City under the waters of the Hudson River. The electrical characteristics of this installation do not present any special novelties, being quite similar to those in use on the New York Subway. Thus, at the present writing the Borough of Manhattan is in direct railway communication with the main land in New Jersey and with the adjacent portion of the City across the East River on Long Island.

It is probable that during the present year another link will be completed under the Hudson River, (the Hudson Companies downtown tunnels) and the one under the East River at 42nd Street put in regular operation, leaving, of those under way, only the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's terminal and tunnels for a later date. At the present writing all of the Pennsylvania Company's six tunnels, two under the Hudson and four under the East River are connected, and their lining and finishing is progressing.

Other important projects of interest to railway men were dexermined upon during the past year, as follows:

Electrification of the Cascade Tunnel of the Great Northern Railway in the State of Washington, and the electrification over the Bitter Root Mountains on the Pacific Coast Extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.

The former project at present contemplates only electric haulage through the two and three-quarter mile tunnel on a 1.7% grade, and is undertaken largely because of the difficulty of ventilation with steam haulage through this long tunnel.

The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul project is more extensive and involves the operation of a 54 mile mountain division having grades of 1.7% approaching the summit from both sides, each approximating 25 miles in length. The line includes numerous tunnels with a summit one of 8,700 feet in length, and it is expected to haul over the grades electrically, without doubling, the ruling road train load of 1800 tons behind the tender.

Both the above projects will use current generated from water powers, and are expected to produce highly economical operating results, and in the case of the St. Paul, electric haulage will do away with the danger of fire in a National Forest Reserve country of great scenic beauty.

The PRESIDENT - Mr. Walter C. Kerr will be the next speaker.

Mr. KERR - Mr. President and Gentlemen: Those who were to speak to-night were intended to speak for ten minutes and also that the general topic was the advances which have been made in the application of electricity to the propulsion of trains and to important signal systems. I regret that I am not quite so able to speak on such advancement as some of our electrical brethren; but I wish to say a few words on the subject generally. I regret to say that I am not going to be able to do justice to this subject.

All such advancement is served up to us by our electrical brethren rather rare - that is, before it is done. Then again in somewhat different form when it is done. This serving is done on all occasions. Then a little later we have it again, or what's left of it just as we would have hash for breakfast-and so those of us who are a little slow have a hard time finding an unpreempted topic for our ten minutes under the general subject. So many advancements as they first come to us are or the kind that haven't quite arrived that it seems to me reasonable, even fashionable, for me to choose trom that class.

In the application of electricity to the operation of trains, my chief wonder is that so little of it has been done during the past three or four years. Of course everything negative since Oct. 23 is forgiven; but prior to this very little was actually done in proportion to the advanced state of the art, and especially in proportion to the amount of di cussion held concerning it.

One of the things which impresses me is the great cost of much that is proposed; I mean first cost. I am not intending to be pessimistic much less to fail to credit the good advances that have been made by the many industrious workers, backed often by the liberal hand of capital, which frequently seems more than willing to spend freely and wait long for returns; but now with some twenty years of development - the last five being especially high in quality - is it not a little strange, and therefore fair to question, why we can count on our fingers all the instances in which steam track has been electrified?

The advantages of electric traction over steam for long tunnels early appealed to the railroads, and resulted in the equipment of four properties: the Baltimore tunnel, the Sarnia tunnel, the P.R.R. New York Extension, the Detroit tunnel of the Michigan Central.

About every railroad entering a large city and having considerable suburban traffic has perennially contemplated electrification. Three - the Long Island, the New York Central, and the N.Y.,N.H.&H. - have constructed; each however having for its primary cause the necessity of connecting with tunnel electrification.

Dozens of railroads contemplated electrification on various branches. Four have proceeded to action - the West Jersey Division of the Pennsylvania, the Rochester Division of the Erie, the Utica-Syracuse section of the West Shore, and the Denver and Interurban Division of the Colorado Southern.

The early installations of the New Berlin and Nantasket Beach Branches of the N.Y.,N. H.&H. are not here included, as they should perhaps be regarded more as interesting pioneer experiments.

About every railroad with a heavy mountain grade has had engineers figure and electric companies propose over and over again how to make the needed improvements. Not one has constructed, and only one seems to have immediate intentions.

In all:

Four tunnel electrifications,

Three suburban, but all related to tunnels,

Four branch lines,

No mountain grades.

When one reflects upon the almost unparalleled degree to which electric devices and systems have been applied to the many industrial and public serving arts - the rapidity with which they have been seized upon, used, and then extended, until nothing seemed too new or too good to become obsolete, one cannot resist the inclination to ask why heavy electric traction has not made more headway.

There seems to be no question about the sufficiency of the apparatus - whether it be of one phase or another - nor yet of the transmission systems, whether one be better than another. No one seems to have doubted the ability of the best systems of electrification to substantially meet every requirement by way of traction, acceleration, speed, grades, endurance, economy, and all other necessities.

The advancement has been great. Perhaps it has been commercial, but has it been commercially attractive as judged by use? I think it fair to assume that first cost has been one of the important factors standing between merit and adoption.

It is easy to say that it takes time to disseminate information; for the right men to become educated; for old methods to give way to new ones, but it also takes time to earn or borrow money enough to pay for expensive things.

The moral of all this is my belief that the time has come to get down the costs. The arts have developed sufficiently to let this be done. It is not merely the cost of electric apparatus, which at best is expensive - but all costs that enter into the non-electric processes.

This getting down and holding down of costs is an art in itself. It forms no part of electric engineering per se. It is an attendant of every form of engineering, and particularly of construction processes.

An electric railway is about 15 or 20% electrical and 80 to 85% other things. Electrification of a steam road is perhaps 75% electrical and 25% other things.

This is not the time to discuss the several factors that have of late appeared to reduce total costs, nor those which have loomed up to increase them, but it may be pertinent to remark that the turbine has cut the cost of generating units in half. Large boiler units and their attending train are on the eve of a similar reduction. These in turn cause proportional reductions in the structures which contain them.

Briefly, the cost of generating plant is on the right road. I have seen good thermodynamic engineering reduce the normal cost of a heating system 50%. I have seen good engineering contemplation reduce the cost of coal handling apparatus even more - while skill and experience frequently cut a normal foundation cost in half without impairment. Such results are now relatively difficult because of the great and unwarranted increase in the cost of labor and material - yet this enhances their absolute value.

What we want is to get good men on the job who know how, and then keep them on it. We want the man with the axe. The kind who knows how to save by the hundreds of thousands through new methods of procedure rather than by shaving a dollar here and there off from standard conventional practice. This is the spirit and talent we want - not merely the spirit of economy, but the talent of capacity. Such talent begins to exert its force in the early planning of a job and keeps forcing until the finished end.

If all who help make costs will help reduce them, we may not see a certain class of cars and their electric equipment grow from $12,000 to over $20,000. We may see the cost of electric locomotives less appalling. And we may hope to see field work do something more attractive than double its cost whenever it hits a snag. If cost can thus come down some, and the more or less incorrect ideas - of those who must bear them come up some, we may begin to realize the effectiveness of their meeting on the plane of progress.

It is my opinion that if much of the technical advancement now made in the application of electricity to the operation of trains is to be made effective, it needs vastly more attention paid to the restraint of costs - to which end there may need to develop certain restraining combinations of diligence, skill, and nerve that I trust would not be deemed unlawful.

The PRESIDENT - Mr. B. G. Lamme, Chief Engineer of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., will speak on Freight Locomotives for the Spokane & Inland Single Phase Railway.

Mr. LAMME - I will describe an electric railway system which is operating freight locomotives over a fairly large territory. This is the Spokane & Inland Railway which operates out of Spokane, State of Washington, a line of 116 miles in length. It is not one straightaway line of this length for there is one branch 40 miles long, the main line therefore being 76 miles long. The system is direct current in Spokane but single-phase alternating current is used immediately outside the city, and right at the beginning of the alternating current part is an up-grade of 2 per cent. 8 miles long. In working out the original proposition all available data was obtained but as the line had not yet been laid out fully, complete information regarding the extensions could not be furnished. What information that was given indicated that the extensions would, in general, be level or slightly rolling country. It turned out afterward that only about 10 miles of the entire road was level and about 40 per cent of the total length represented grades of 1 1/2 per cent, up to 2 per cent. The general tendency is up-grade out of Spokane. At first it was considered that the heavier service would be toward the city, the general trend of the grades thus being favorable.

However, a rather heavy outgoing service has developed certain difficulties which I will explain later. The first electric equipment of this road covered 21 motor-equipped passenger cars, each with 4,100 H. P. motors per car, these cars to be operated either alone or with trailers, or in multiple unit. The order also covered six freight locomotives, each equipped with 4,150 H. P. motors. A later order covered eight freight locomotives of somewhat larger capacity, to which I will refer later.

The first six locomotives were equipped with four motors, each of the geared type. The motors had the usual one hour ratings and I will show wherein this method of rating did not prove entirely satisfactory. The locomotives were somewhat similar in appearance and construction to ordinary interurban cars, there being two swivel trucks, each carrying two geared motors. Each locomotive weighs 50 tons. With the gear ratio used, each locomotive can develop about 15,000 lbs. tractive effort for one hour at a speed of about 15 miles per hour, and can develop continuously over 7,000 lbs. tractive effort at about 21 miles per hour. The 2 per cent, grade for 8 miles was considered to be the most severe condition and as this required about 15,000 to 18,000 lbs. tractive effort for slightly over one half hour the motor equipment, with its one-hour rating of 15,000 lbs. tractive effort, was considered ample for the service. However, on account of the numerous grades which were encountered it was found that the locomotives were worked too close to the maximum temperature. This was due principally to the fact that the method of ventilation first applied was unsuitable. The motors on these locomotives were artificially ventilated or cooled, as is now the regular practice of such equipments, but the air was supplied from blowers geared to the axles of the locomotives. This method of blowing is effective at high speeds but possesses the defect that the amount of air blown through the motors decreases very rapidly as the speed decreases with heavy load. In other words, the blowers deliver the least air at the time they should deliver the most. Also, no air is blown over the motors when the locomotive is at standstill. In order to overcome this difficulty separate blower outfits were supplied which operate at full speed continuously independently of the speed of the locomotive. This gave the required ventilation and the locomotives so equipped, are able to handle their service over the present line without overheating. However, on future extensions of this line more difficult conditions will probably be found in the way of verv long continuous up-grades and it may be necessary for these locomotives to be operated with lighter loads on such service.

On the new order covering eight locomotives the question of more severe conditions was taken into account at start. The type of locomotive is very similar to those first built, having two swivel trucks, each with two geared motors. Each locomotive weighs 70 tons. The motors are so proportioned that with the gear ratio used, a continuous tractive effort of over 16,000 lbs. can be developed at a speed of about 15 miles per hour, while a one-hour tractive effort of over 25,000 lbs at a speed of 11 to 12 miles per hour can be developed. These locomotives are rated on tractive effort instead of horse power and it is to be noted that the continuous tractive effort is slightly greater than the one-hour tractive effort of the old locomotives. From what I have said before regarding tractive effort required on the 8 mile, 2 per cent, grade, it is evident that these new locomotives can do this service, at about the continuous tractive effort, and therefore these locomotives could handle this load on such a grade indefinitely. In other words, the normal service of the locomotives on the grades is made to conform with their continuous tractive effort and the one-hour tractive effort is simply a margin or emergency condition.

A lesson to be learned from this is that in electric freight service where a heavy tractive effort is required for long periods, or even in passenger service where there is heavy service with few stops, the locomotives should be rated in tractive effort and not in horse power and should be rated on the continuous tractive effort and not on the one-hour rating, which is the present practice with electric equipments. There is one important difference between a steam and an electric locomotive. In a steam locomotive there is a certain maximum tractive effort which it can develop, and this can be developed as long as desired without detriment. In an electric locomotive, however, the limiting tractive effort is not dependent upon the equipment itself, but upon the power which can be supplied to the locomotive from the transmission system. The maximum tractive effort which can be delivered by an electric locomotive is usually far in excess of what it can safely develop without overheating the motors. Over quite a wide range, the losses in a motor and the tractive effort which can be developed, are almost in proportion to each other, and as there is a limit to the losses which can be allowed without overheating there is also a limit to the tractive effort which can be developed without overheating. As the heating is a function of the period during which the losses are developed it is evident that the motors can be rated at various tractive efforts, depending upon the duration of the run. It is evident that the motor can stand a greater loss and therefore develops a larger tractive effort for one hour than it could for 5 to 10 hours, which would correspond to the continuous rating of the motors. Therefore if the hauls are short and the service intermittent the motors could be rated in a tractive effort corresponding to such service, while if the hauls are of long duration the motors should be rated in tractive effort corresponding to such larger periods. In freight service therefore the proper rating of the locomotive should be in terms of the continuous tractive effort which they can develop without undue heating, and any higher ratings for limited periods should simply be considered as emergency ratings. The horse power rating of such locomotives should be incidental, as the horse power with a given tractive effort is a function of the speed and the speed in turn is a function of the voltage applied. Therefore, where a wide range of voltages is available on a locomotive, which is the case with singlephase systems, then the horse power is an indifferent term, for it depends upon the voltage applied to the motors and upon the tractive effort. The motors can therefore have almost any horse power rating, depending upon the tractive effort rating and the speed which can be developed with the various voltages available. Such horse power ratings are therefore liable to lead to confusion, and the locomotives should, in practice, be rated in tractive effort at any speed within given limits. This method of rating points to the reason why forced ventilation is being adopted on electric locomotives. Experience shows that with artificial cooling the continuous tractive effort rating can be increased from 50 per cent, to 80 per cent, in many cases, while the one-hour rating will be increased a very much less amount, and in motors where such a method of ventilation is applied in the best manner the continuous rating continues to approach fairly closely to the one-hour rating; that is, it may become 65 per cent, to 75 per cent, of the one-hour rating. In the first Spokane electric locomotives this condition was not met as perfectly as in the later ones, principally because the modification in the method of ventilation which I described could not be applied as effectively as would have been the case if the apparatus had been arranged for this method in the first place.

That is all I will say about the Spokane Railway, but I will add something on the question of electric locomotives for replacing steam. Several speakers this evening have mentioned this and it has even been hinted at that some people think that the steam locomotive will be a curiosity in 10 years. The question was put to me some years ago by a man connected with a trade journal, as to how soon electric locomotives could replace all the steam locomotives now in this country. So I figured awhile on it and then told him that, as a rough estimate, I would say that if all the electric manufacturing companies in this country should shut down their other electrical work and devote themselves exclusively to the manufacture of electric locomotives, they would be able to replace all the present steam locomotives in from 10 to 20 years. This was on a basis of no repairs or renewals and no increase in the railroad business. Assuming that the increase in the railway business and the repairs and renewals about balanced the increase in the growth of the electric manufactories, then it would still require about 10 to 20 years for the steam railroads all to become electric. As I stated, this was on the assumption that all other electric work was abandoned. But as the power house and transmission systems would also have to be built in sufficient quantity to permit the operation of these electric locomotives, the conclusion was drawn that the steam locomotive would not become a curiosity in this country for many years to come, even assuming that the railroads were willing to electrify as fast as the material could be manufactured. So I think we may assume that the steam locomotive has at least a 20-year lease on life even from the most optimistic view of the electric man.

The PRESIDENT - Mr. William McClellan, Vice-President of The Campion-McClellan Co.

Mr. McCLELLAN - Gentlemen: As these electrical nights of the New York Railroad Club come and go, the position of the Electrical Engineer certainly becomes more gratifying. The lists which have been made of work that has been completed prove beyond any doubt that the prophecies of former years have been fulfilled. The electrical engineer has shown that the electric locomotive and multiple unit car can do all the work that has, heretofore, been done by the steam locomotive or any other means of transportation. He is now in the process of proving that he can do this work more cheaply and better.

One point is worth emphasizing, and is important in connection with what has been done. No matter how great or difficult electrification problems may be ahead of us, we can never have harder ones to solve than we have already been met successfully in the New York Central, the New York, New Haven, & Hartford, and the great tunnel electrifications close by us.

The immediate results of these successes is that the electrical engineer is getting a hearing on the score of merit instead of necessity as heretofore. The railroad manager is beginning to realize that electrification can provide increased traffic and revenue, and increased capacity on the same trackage; is flexible; and, perhaps, can be operated on a cost basis which makes it a paying proposition.

Mr. Kerr has referred very sensibly to the question of cost. We must acknowledge that the expense is usually great. The improved service which accompanies electrification should not be forgotten, however, for the comparison is often not a fair one. It would be better to make estimates for the improved service with all that goes with it, first on the basis of using steam, and second on the basis of using electricity. The amounts, in many cases, would be found very nearly equal - if, indeed, the steam could provide the required service at all.

It is also worth noting that the attack of electrical engineers on the field of heavy transportation has spurred on our steam friends to greater attainments. Improvements have come in the design, the capacity, and the efficiency of the steam locomotive which enable it to meet its younger rival with much greater resistance.

The question has been asked as to why, after these successes, general electrification does not come more rapidly. The great cost has been assigned as the most potent reason and this is undoubtedly true. No matter what financial results may be shown to be possible after electrification, millions must be financed and spent before the results appear. This financing must be done, in many cases, while carrying on operation far beyond the normal capacity of the road.

It has also been stated that the manufacturing facilities of the country along electrical lines would not permit of rapid wholesale electrification.

But there is another reason of equal or greater importance and this is the uncertainty of the proper system to adopt. Railroad managers look at improvements and changes from the standpoint of their whole lines. They are unwilling to grow enthusiastic over general electrification when the men who know most about the technical details cannot agree as to the best method.

We have to-day five systems which are of sufficient value to have been adopted in various parts of the country:

1 - The Third Rail, 650 volts.

2 - The Single Phase, 3300-11000 volts.

3 - The Three Phase, 3300-11000 volts.

4 - The 1200 volt Direct Current.

5 - The Gasoline Electric Car.

Among these systems, no conservative engineer is willing to make a general choice at present, for our knowledge is insufficient. Only one thing may be safely asserted, and that is that the general electrification of trunk lines absolutely demands the use of high voltage current, and by this we mean from 6000 to 11000 volts or higher.

What is required is a broad view, if all that is spent and done, is not to be changed at great expense later. Perhaps each one of these systems may be of superior value under favorable circumstances for this piece of road or that terminals. But we are not electrifying small portions of roads or terminals. We shall ultimately electrify whole systems, and a choice of method now must be made with this fact in mind. Right here is necessary the experienced railroad manager with his acquired greater perspective, joined with the. trained and experienced electrical engineer with his knowledge of the technical practicabilities. With these two working together, slowly and carefully, but confidently, holding the problem off until sufficient of the future can be seen to determine the outcome, real progress will be made. We can confidently expect progress of this sort but nothing which is wholesale, rapid, or radical.

The PRESIDENT - A gentleman who was unable to be present this evening, Mr. C. L. De Muralt, Consulting Engineer, and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan, has sent in a paper entitled "Some Notes on the Speed Question in Electric Service." This will be printed in the proceedings of the evening.

The attendance at this meeting of 515 members who, with very few exceptions, have remained until the closing hour of the session, may be accepted as emphatic evidence of their appreciation, and is highly gratifying. It also suggests that the policy of the Club in having an electrical night as an annual feature of its season's programme for practical education and mental enlightenment, is a matter of mutual benefit and pleasure that is regarded as wise, and that meets with cordial approval.

I desire on the part of the Club to express our thanks to the eminent gentlemen who have favored us with these very interesting remarks and illustrations on this important subject.

[daveklepper]

The locomotives were practically identacle to the New Haven EF-1 freight loocomotives, and two or three of the New Haven's migrated to the B&M during WWII after the NH got all its EF-3 4-6-6-4's.   The B&M then made the small modifications to make them identacle in every respec to their own

 2-4-4-2.'s

[wanswheel]

Electrical Review and Western Electrician (1913)

TWENTY YEARS' PROGRESS. - L. B. Stillwell, consulting engineers, 100 Broadway, New York, has published a very handsome booklet describing and illustrating the important engineering works designed and supervised during the past 20 years by engineers now associated with the firm. Among the more important installations referred to is the electrical equipment of power house No. 1 of the Niagara Falls Power Company, the Manhattan Railway Company power house, New York Edison Company Waterside Station No. 1, the Fifty-ninth Street power house of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the Pratt Street power house of the United Railways & Electric Company of Baltimore, the electrical and mechanical equipment of the Hudson & Manhattan Railway Company, operating the tunnels under the North River between New Jersey and Manhattan Island, and the electrical equipment of the Hoosac Tunnel of the Boston & Maine Railroad.

Western New England, January 1911

A New Chapter in Hoosac Tunnel History

The Interesting Operations of Electrifying the Five-Mile Hole in which Workmen Sometimes Cannot Breathe - How the Ley Company of Springfield is Doing the Job that Means Great Improvement to Transportation - The Fascinating Facts and Traditions of the Big Tunnel's Construction Years Ago

By Edwin W. Newdick

No more variegated interest attaches to anything you can think of than to Hoosac Tunnel. It is the tomb for nearly two hundred lives, the storage vault of ten million dollars, the hiding place of four and a half miles; it is the battle-field, where, after twenty-five years of skirmishing, retreating and fighting, mcn won their way through the stone of one of Nature's fortifications; it is the prison where wasted and perished the hopes of the men the job was too big for, but it is the hall of fame for those who finally pushed the hole through; here were mined nearly two million tons of rock and this same hole is the well from which flows nearly every day about a million gallons of water; here were made great contributions to the development of the use of air and nitro-glycerine for tunnelling; to the big junk pile here was added a seventy-ton machine costing thousands of dollars, designed to bore right through the four-mile wall of rock. In the history of the making of Hoosac Tunnel is material for romance and tragedy, examples of wonderful engineering and invention, contributions to the development of transportation and industry and samples of mixed finance, strange politics, great fame and sorry failure.

And now another chapter is being written - Hoosac Tunnel is being electrified and the general contract is being put through by a Springfield firm, Fred T. Ley & Company. The stunt being done there now is no mean one for there is a train in the tunnel almost all the time; the place so reeks with poisonous gases that booths for the workmen to go into and breathe air "made to order" have to be provided. Incidentally the contractors built a power house in six weeks - at least, completed it ready to receive machinery. It won't be many months before big electric locomotives will be hauling trains through the tunnel, the old foul gases will be pumped out, then no more will smoke hide the lights in there and fill the place with poison.

Admiration may well be aroused and praise given for the dispatch with which the electrification of the Hoosac Tunnel has been undertaken and is being pushed through. President Mellen of the New Haven Road was elected President of the Boston & Maine about the middle of September and here is the electrification of the tunnel well along toward completion. It takes something of courage to dump several millions of dollars into this work, for this money spent must "earn its keep." However much, justly or unjustly, the New Haven road may be criticized for other things, the people of Western New England may well show fairness enough to appreciate the progressive railroad administration which is giving them an electrified Hoosac Tunnel.

Few people fully realize the very great importance of the work being done there. Hoosac Tunnel is the neck of the hour glass. The transportation between Massachusetts and the West. by this important route is limited by the amount that can be sifted through the Hoosac Tunnel. Signal lights on the ends of trains are snuffed out by the bad gases. It is so smoky that electric light signals can't be seen a few feet off. So to assure the maximum of safety but one passenger train is allowed in the tunnel at one time and but two freight trains, one on either track. Electrification will mean the installation of electric semaphore signals, absence of smoke so that the signal lights can be seen and, consequently, trains can then be run as safely in Hoosac Tunnel as anywhere. Incidentally passengers will be able to go through without the stinging smell of the bad air, the asphyxiation taste and the irritating cough which they now suffer.

The Boston and Maine Railroad has oil burning engines for use in the tunnel, but there haven't been enough of them; "oil burners" are not as powerful as coal burning locomotives so that coal burning engines had to be used, too. The tunnel has a grade of twenty-six to forty feet per mile from both ends to the central shaft. Through this tunnel go every six months freight trains that would reach twice as far as from Boston to Chicago and passenger trains as long as once between these same two cities. The Boston and Maine has about fifteen oil burning engines, including four new ones which are the largest of their kind in the world.

Beginning of the Tunnel's History

They say that the first record of the tunnel idea was made in 1819. In 1825 the scheme for the canal from the eastern part of Massachusetts to New York state through the Hoosac Mountains was talked up strongly. Loami Baldwin, son of the man of the same name who first produced Baldwin apples, was the engineer at the head of the commission that investigated. He was enthusiastic for the proposition. But that same year the first railroad in the country was built at Quincy and over the few miles of its length granite was hauled by horse power. The canal project was heard of no more, for the development of steam locomotives and railroads came fast. In 1842 the Boston & Albany was operating. In 1845 the railroad from Boston to Fitchburg was completed, then the Vermont and Massachusetts road was built to Greenfield. Then came the gathering of forces for the big problem.

Capital shied at the venture and no wonder. An eventual cost of five times the early estimates, and twenty-five years of fighting for accomplishment of the project, then its completion only by numerous outlays of money by the state, proved that there was ample justification for the hesitancy of capital. In 1851 the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company began work, putting some effort into piercing the mountain but more into trying to dig into the money pockets of could-be investors. The mountain was not as hard a proposition as the pockets; the railroad company didn't get very deep into either. The company was over its head in difficulties; it raised a full voice and empty hands to the state for help. The state government had a great time scrapping over the project. The political gauntlet was run by various bills designed to help through the great tunnel. There was voting and vetoing and all the concomitant complications. Between the refusals of the state to help and the conditions attached to money granted, the poor railroad company didn't have to dig a very big hole into the mountain to bury all its assets. Nor was the getting of money the only source of worry. The company got into trouble spending it. Two contracts were made with E.W. Serrell & Company, oif Philadelphia, one in 1856 and one in 1858. Trouble came thicker and faster, but the strength to repel them became less and less and all the while there was the harrassing crossfire of legislation so confused by ignorance, mistakes and amendments that friends and enemies were in as doubtful security as when an angry woman throws something.

The Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company didn't achieve any more unblemished success than when, January 7, 1851, its board of directors formally voted to break ground for the tunnel the following day. There is nothing to prove that the vote was not excellently carried out. 'Tis said that a North Adams Congregational minister, one Rev. Robert Crawford, later a Presbyterian at Greenfield, struck the first spade blow in the opening exercises next day at the spot chosen for the west end of the tunnel. But the parson's goodly example was as poorly followed in that case as it doubless was in sundry others. The parson dug well, but not far. The next start of the tunnel was made on the east side of the mountain and now no one knows where Rev. Mr. crawford made his humble beginning for the great bore.

The Cost and the Failures

The entire cost of the tunnel has been variously figured out at from ten million to twenty million dollars. The first contractor, Serrell, undertook to build forty-five miles of railroad, and the tunnel besides, for three and a half million dollars; of this about half a million was to be in railroad stock. After the second contract with Serrell was made, the state was asked to take one hundred thousand dollars of the railroad stock and the bill passed the legislature only to be vetoed by Governor Gardiner. The contract was soon after surrendered. Herman Haupt & Company made a contract for a little under $3,900,000 of which less than four hundred thousand was to be in cash, about six hundred thousand in railroad stock, two million in state bonds and nine hundred thousand in railroad bonds. In 1857 a thousand feet, four per cent of the distance (and about the easiest part at that) had been done. Then came many and grevious complications which had their climax in reported irregularities. A new state engineer succeeding one involved in suspician, refused to certify enough more work for the contractors to enable them to get another installment of money. The work stopped. Governor Gardiner signed a bill in 1862 for the state to undertake the building of the tunnel at a cost not to exceed two million dollars. The Haupts gave up their contract and the railroad surrendered all its property. For over two years, nothing was done. In 1863 the state appropriated $3,800,000 to be added to the unexpended balance and applied to the building of the tunnel.

The state carried on the work, letting out subcontracts. B. N. Farren took the contract for the work at the west end. There was encountered "porridge" or "demoralized rock," that mixed with air and water made a granular slush. It was one of the most disheartening difficulties encountered. So great was the tendency of this rock to cave in that a brick arch had to be built at the west end and now extends for something like seventy-five hundred feet into the mountain although but a small part of it was done by the Farrens. The state plugged along and made considerable progress. In 1867 Consulting Engineer Latrobe urged that a contract for the work be given. An act was passed authorizing the expenditure of five million dollars. Francis and Walter Shanly of Canada, one of the twelve bidders, were awarded the contract for about $4,600,000. They had had extensive experience, having done big contracts of tunnelling abroad. They lacked neither ability, energy nor determination and "through fire and flood, strikes and political bickerings, jealousy and indifference, the Shanlys steadily pushed to completion the work which they had undertaken."*

*J.S. Harrison: "The Great Bore," p. 17.

Here were men big enough for the job. Everything was organized and improved. A ninety thousand dollar pump was installed. At times there were a thousand men employed. Work was done day and night. Men from about ten nationalities, and not the gentlest fellows out of Sunday school on a pay-day night, were employed in the tunnel. "Miners" they were called and some wild doings they had in the formerly quiet rural hamlets. Some of the miners had worked in the Mont Cenis tunnel that was then the only tunnel in the world longer than the Hoosac. The engineers under the contractors were men worthy of the job and with the energy and ability that characterized the new regime; A. W. Locke (brother of Franklin B. Locke of North Adams,) was in charge of the east end work; Benjamin D. Frost was at the west end and Carl Wederkinch supervised the work at the central shaft. The work was pushed to completion after numerous difliculties and despite the disheartening set-backs which the Shanlys encountered even in greater number than the previous contractors had. But these men seemed able to do almost anything - except fail.

A Gigantic Boring Machine

Ah! the tragedy and the trial, the persistence and the strength that it took to rend out the rock and make room for the holeful of blackness that is Hoosac Tunnel! Ever so bare an outline of the story has been suggested here. From beginning to end the project, so huge and so new to experience, generated strange happenings, some fascinating in their horror, some interesting in their greatness and many important in their contribution to the sum total of knowledge. South Boston made an interesting contribution. It weighed seventy tons and was a giant machine with rotating knives designed to cut a whopping big, round hole twenty-four feet in diameter right through the backbone of Massachusetts; it started out finely; fame fluttered about the mastodonic auger and seemed ready to go to roost on it. The machine cut a big circle and then the core was blown out. It went through the first ten feet finely. Then the machine quit and, alas! she ne'er bored more. But it was an interesting contribution, so interesting, in fact, that around North Adams you can still find quite a number of people who paid the required admission fee of twenty-five cents to go into the shanty built over this mechanical Leviathan and see it.

It took forty yokes of healthy Berkshire oxen to haul the machine up to the scene of operations. Oh! but there was a scene, the simultaneous driving of forty "yoke of cattle" to one task! Must there not have been an impressive fugue of Gee's, Haw's and Whoa's in ear humana, cyncopated with the score of cracking whips and colored by the elusive, ever-recurring motif of rural curses! You are stumped to find a person who saw or heard that masterpiece of cattle driving and has forgotten it. Generations of horsemen, coachmen, motormen and chauffeurs have followed and will follow the fast disappearing nobility of ox-drivers; never will be revived the art of guiding the all reinless, almost brainless, heavy, sullen oxen, each yoke of them half deliberation and the other half determination.

Another boring machine, made in Fitchburg and first used at Hoosac Tunnel, was a great success and was one of the two things used that contributed most to the accomplishment of the task. This successful boring machine, if we may call it that, was the Burleigh pneumatic drill. Its three hundred blows to the minute made the time required to get out the rock only a fraction, maybe one-fourth, of the time that would otherwise have been required. Pneumatic drills were first used abroad and the hint was taken in this case as in several others at Hoosac Tunnel, from Mont Cenis. But Charles Burleigh developed his own drill largely from his own ideas. It was in 1865 that it was first used at Hoosac Tunnel. The Deerfield River was dammed near the east end of the tunnel at a cost of $128,000. It was expected that power would thus be derived for compressing air to be used at the west end as well as at the east end. But it was found that there was not all the power needed for the drilling at the east end.

Tales About Nltro-Glycerline

One of the most effective instruments used in this surgical operation on nature was nitro-glycerine. Few people were then familiar with this terrible explosive; then, as now, it was not wise to get very familiar with it. The stuff was made right at the tunnel - it is bad business to carry it far. There is still a note of awe and wonder in the voice of those who tell of Him who created and commanded this supernatural fluid. He was George M. Mowbray and was undoubtedly the most expert man in his line in this country and perhaps in the world; he had few competitors. Mr. Mowbray, or Professor Mowbray as he is commonly called, was using nitro-glycerine in Pennsylvania to drive oil wells. In 1865 he came to the tunnel and inside of a few small buildings in a ten-acre lot, he established the industry thus labelled, "Nitro-glycerine works. Dangerous! No visitors admitted." An assistant engineer of the tunnel work has thus described the manufacture of the explosive: "... in this building (the acid house) were eleven stills, used in the manufacture of a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acids. This, when prepared, was carried to the converting room and there poured into stone pitchers arranged in wooden troughs surrounded by ice cold water. On the shelves above the troughs were arranged glass jars, one to each stone pitcher; into each jar was poured chemically pure glycerine and this was conveyed, drop by drop, to the corresponding pitcher below by means of a syphon. Immediately below the glycerine jars was a two-inch iron pipe through which was forced a current of cold air; this was distributed to each pitcher by means of a rubber pipe. During the forty-five minutes that the glycerine took to run off into the pitchers, the greatest care and closest attention was required."

Weird and wonderful are some of the tales twined around Professor Mowbray and his liquid pet. When Eagle Bridge near North Adams was knocked from its foundations and lay an obstruction to traffic and operations to replace it, it is said that the master exploder happened on the scene. Those in authority asked him if he could blow the bridge out of the way; he replied that he could. They guessed that that was what they'd have do. "Very well, gentlemen, please stand back," said Professor Mowbray, taking a small bottle from his pocket. His directions were followed with willingness and alacrity. In a little while the bridge was out of the way. The stories have it that Professor Mowbray always carried a good sized dose of nitro-glycerine in his pocket. He gave a lecture on its manufacture and use one night in North Adams. Demonstrating it, he hammered a few drops and blew the hammer to bits. The habits of this gentleman who worked and toyed with this wonderful liquid were noted as minutely as Roosevelt's were a few months back. Professor Mowbray is said to have smoked an increditable number of cigars made "special" for him and costing twenty-five dollars a hundred. Like most geniuses (Oh, blessed consolation!) he had a strong tendency to lie abed late in the morning. A particularly romantic touch is given by the tradition that his breakfast was invariably bread and honey taken in bed with several of those "special" cigars. After this some men might expect to be told that he used his nitro-glycerine for tooth wash or shampoo.

It is told that in his spare time, the professor used to go out in the back yard and blast off small pieces of stone for a hearth he was making. But tradition leaves incomplete some details; why not have him use nitro-glycerine to start the morning fire? But wherever the truth may end and invention begin, there is no doubt that Professor Mowbray was very much of an expert in making and using nitro-glycerine. He called his particular brand "tri-nitro-glycerine" and it is said to have been thirteen times as powerful as gunpowder. He had great success in using the explosive and comparatively few accidents, his nitro-glycerine works having been blown up only a few times. People stood so in awe of the liquid that some were ready to believe that even a harsh word could explode a charge of it. Tradition has done an artistic job in explaining the discovery of the fact that the explosive is comparatively safe when very cold. The story is that a load of the explosive was being hauled over the mountain from the works at the west end to the east end of the tunnel. It was very cold and the driver took several over-doses of whiskey in an endeavor to keep warm. Then he got to driving carelessly. Later he was found lying (as calmly as the fellow who first told this story) at the bottom of a steep bank down which he had tumbled and bumped and rolled with the jug of nitro-glycerine that he held curled up in his arms as he peacefully slept. The "nitro" was frozen and (so the story ends), ever afterwards, it was the custom to keep nitro-glycerine cold for purposes of safe handling.

The Horrors the Tunnel Caused

But not all the incidents in the stories of the use of nitro-glycerine have as pleasant endings. On one occasion, three men were blown up by the explosive and literally blown to bits. As many of the scattered pieces as could be found were collected. So absolutely hopeless was the identification of the remains that, although the men were of different religious afiiliations, it was impossible to separate them and one funeral had to be conducted for the three.

More revolting still were two accidents at the central shaft. When the shaft was about a quarter of a mile deep, a workman fell the whole distance to the solid rock bottom. In an old copy of a Troy newspaper, it says that not a bone in his body but was broken and that the body was so limp that it "could be rolled up like a side of leather." There were some incredibly narrow escapes. Engineer Wederkinch, one of the geniuses of the work, was going down an elevator and was almost at the bottom of the shaft when a jack at the top broke into several pieces and fell. Nine junks of metal struck the elevator on which the young engineer was descending. One piece went entirely through the two inch plank of the floor of the elevator, but Mr. Wederkinch was not struck, In another instance, a group of men were sitting on a box when several rats ran past them. All the men got up and chased the rodents and, only a few seconds after, an enormous rock fell upon the box and crushed it to splinters.

The most terrible fatality in the entire twenty-five years of struggle to build the tunnel happened on October 19, 1867. The central shaft was then about six hundred feet deep. Gasoline was used for lighting the shaft. In the buildings over the mouth of the shaft were offices, tool rooms and the mechanism for raising and lowering the elevator buckets and for running the pumps to keep the water out of the shaft. There were thirteen men working in the bottom of the shaft, dependent, in a dozen ways, for life on the men above them. A bucket of rock had just been hauled up when a tank of gasoline exploded in the power house at the top. Flames attacked the building. The bucket was dumped with great haste and an attempt made to lower it to the helpless men below and get them up while the mechanism would operate. The fire melted off the connections of the bucket elevator and the bucket fell. The first landing above the opening of the shaft, loaded with tools, gave way and three hundred drills, sledge hammers, and so forth, fell in a shower on the workmen six hundred feet below. Then the buildings over the mouth of the shaft collapsed and burning beams, charred wood, sparks and ashes, fell down the shaft that became filled with burned, unbreatheable air. The fire broke out at one o'clock in the afternoon and all night men worked to clear the mouth of the shaft. At four o'clock in the morning, Sunday, a brave man, Thomas Mallory, was lowered by a rope around his body into the black, elliptical hole fifteen by twenty-seven feet and six hundred deep. Several hundreds of people waited in anxious suspense through the centuries of minutes, till more than a half hour had passed and the signal came to draw up the man on the rope. Mallory panted the words "No hope!" and fainted. No one knows how the men in the shaft died - they may have been suffocated, drowned, or killed by the hail of steel and timber. The bottom of the tunnel was filled with water ten or fifteen feet deep and charred wood, timbers, and water covered the bodies. A year later the machinery was again ready to be worked, the water was pumped out and the bodies were recovered - and recognized.

The first train went through the tunnel February 9,1875. Just about thirty-five years afterwards the Springfield contracting firm of Fred T. Ley & Company began the first work of electrification. The work is under the direct charge of Messrs. L.B. Stillwell and H.S. Putnam, consulting engineers, reporting to the engineering department of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The contracts for turbines, generators and locomotives has been given to the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company and the contract for boilers went to the Bigelow Company of New Haven. A big power house has been built by the Ley Company and a storage house for electric locomotives is now almost entirely completed, already a great deal of drilling has been done and many of the supports for the electric wires put up. The rails will be bonded, an electric signal system installed and a new epoch in the history of Hoosac Tunnel will have begun.

Difficulties of Work in Tunnel

It is pretty tough work in that tunnel. The workmen are on a train of fourteen platform cars fitted up especially for the work. This train carries a generator which provides power for about three hundred sixteen-candle power lights used by the workmen and runs the compressors which furnish the air for drilling and, often, for breathing too. The train has a dining car provided by the road, for men working in that terrible atmosphere have to keep their stomachs pretty well filled in order to stand it. But they do stand it hour after hour all day. Every time a train passes, the men have to stop work, for the atmosphere becomes absolutely unbearable. On the platforms of every other car are "air locks," booths eight feet long, six feet high and five feet wide. These are practically air tight tents and when a train passes or men become wobbly from long breathing of the foul air, they go into one of these booths, open a pipe connected with the compressors and take a good long drink of real good air. This compressed air is washed before being compressed. The generator is run by steam piped from the engine. When the workmen are a thousand feet or so from the tunnel openings, it takes ten minutes after the passage of a train for the air to get so that the men can work in it. In the parts of the tunnel farthest from an opening, it sometimes requires twenty minutes for the atmosphere to clear enough so that the men can stand it. One might think that the contractors would have great difficulty in retaining the men who do this work. Not one has quit the job. That is partly because they are well paid, partly because they are provided for as carefully as possible, but largely because of the unusual loyalty which characterizes members of the Ley organization.

Nor is the bad air the only difficulty; a lot of the rock encountered in drilling is so hard that we find it inadvisable here to literally quote the workmen's statements as to how hard it is. For a long distance the rock is so hard that a drill with the best temper that a man can give it, will bump its way through only about an inch of this rock. Those who ought to know say that the reason is that there are quartz nodules in the stone. The Burleigh drills that were used in the tunnel forty years ago struck three hundred blows a minute; the drills used now strike double this number. Yet in drilling the hardest of this stone, it takes three hours to pierce eighteen inches of two inch hole, while the normal rate would be about an inch a minute. An average of about two hundred and seventy-five men have been employed in the electrification work in the tunnel.

The system of electrification will be very similar to that used on the New Haven road between Stamford and New York. An eleven-thousand-volt electric current will be generated at Zylonite, two miles from the west portal. This will be a coal burning station. There will be switching stations for handling the current at each end of the tunnel. The current will be three phase. The Ley Company's first work was building the power house which is two hundred feet long by one hundred feet wide and about one hundred feet high. There are five thousand yards of concrete and a million bricks used in its construction. There will be four boilers of five hundred horse power each, with room for six more, enough to provide all together five thousand horse power. These boilers will have induced draughts so that no smoke stacks worth noticing will be needed. A tunnel of concrete will bring water from a pond one hundred and forty feet away to the condensers and another tunnel will carry the heated water back around the pond and empty near the further shore so that the water emptied warm cannot be drawn back to the condensers until it has had time to cool. In addition to this precaution there is a cooling system. Some of the water escapes from the discharging tunnel in spray.

Water for the boilers will come from about ten artesian wells. Another Western New England man, F.A. Champlin of East Longmeadow, is drilling the wells. They will be capable of delivering ten thousand gallons of water a minute. Each well will be a little over one hundred feet deep, a water vein being encountered at that depth.

The electricity will be generated by two Westinghouse turbines with room to install a third. There were five hundred men employed on this job at the power house and work was carried on night and day for a month until completion on the day agreed was assured. It may be concluded that the railroad asked the Ley Company to make great haste for the company certainly did. The big turbines weigh sixty tons each. In order to provide for their installation on the day agreed, the Ley gang put up a trestle one hundred and twenty feet long and eighteen feet high in a day and a half.

The electrification of the Hoosac Tunnel is the most important improvement for New England transportation which will have been effected within a considerable number of years. The importance and extent of this improvement will not be appreciated until the improved facilities which will inevitably result from the electrification, are in use. The improvement will be a credit to Western New England and to the contractor who is doing it, and will add still further to the many interests that attach to Hoosac Tunnel.

Compressed Air, August 1911

PNEUMATIC HAMMERS ELECTRIFY HOOSAC TUNNEL

The Hoosac Tunnel is the longest tunnel in the United States, and only within the present year have trains been run through it by any other motive power than steam. It is now completely equipped with and operated by electricity, and an account of its electrification forms the piece de resistance in a recent issue of the Electric Railway Journal. The most strenuous part of the work was, of course, the drilling of the holes and the securing of the hangers and wires through the tunnel. The following account is reproduced from the source indicated.

The erection of the hanger brackets and stringing of wires in the tunnel was carried on under the most difficult working conditions. Only one track at a time was given up to the contractors and trains were operated constantly on the other track at intervals as frequent as safety permitted. At all times when work was being done in the tunnel the air was very bad, because of the smoke and gases from oil and coal-burning locomotives passing through on the single track in use. After the passage of a train, all work had to be suspended for ten to twenty minutes, sometimes longer, to allow the worst of the smoke to clear out. It was found necessary to construct air compartments on the train supplied with cleaned air from the compressor car to serve as refuges for the men during such periods. Owing to atmospheric and traffic conditions, the construction force was able to utilize less than one-half the time in actual work. These factors more than doubled the time that would otherwise have been necessary for the construction work in the tunnel. The tunnel is ventilated from a central shaft 1,100 feet deep, at the top of which is a large suction fan which draws fresh air into the tunnel from both portals and exhausts the smoke and gases up through the shaft. With a strong wind from the east or west the far end of the tunnel is sometimes very poorly ventilated.

CONSTRUCTION TRAINS.

The railroad furnished and equipped for the contractor two special tunnel work trains, each consisting of an oil-burning locomotive, two locomotive tenders, a boxcar containing an engine-driven generator, a box car containing three blacksmiths' forges and anvils, an air compressor car, thirteen platform cars, a coach fitted up as a dining car and a freight caboose. The platform cars were ordinary flat cars on which were built working platforms 11 ft. above the rail with low sides to prevent the workmen from falling off. Posts 6 in. x 4 in. were set in each stake pocket and cross beams of the same size were framed across to support the 2-in. plank floor. The car floors and the working platforms were made continuous throughout the train by steel aprons at the ends. Trap doors were built in each working platform so that the men could reach the car floor by ladders. A 1½-in. air pipe for the compressed air supply was run along each side of the working platforms and globe valves were inserted at frequent intervals for attaching the drills. On the floor of every third platform car a wooden air lock 14 ft. x 5 ft. x 4 ft. was built, into which the men could retreat during and after the passage of a train. An air valve was provided inside these locks which when partially opened created sufficient pressure to keep out the surrounding smoke and gases and provided fresh air for the men in the lock.

The equipment on each train for drilling the roof holes for the hanger bolts consisted of seven H.C.-12 Ingersoll-Rand hammer drills and several pneumatic hammers which were used for drilling holes in the side walls for the attachment of signal cable brackets. In the compressor car, which was placed next to the locomotive, was mounted a steam-driven class A-l compressor with a capacity of 285 cu. ft. of free air per minute. It received steam from the locomotive at 90 lb. pressure and delivered the air at 90 lb. pressure into a receiving tank of 77 cu. ft. capacity. A small steam pump was used for pumping cooling water from the tenders through the compressor jacket and back to the tenders. The compressor intake was carried down close to the rails, where the air was purest, and was covered with a fine-mesh wire screen to keep out as much dust and dirt as posible.

The generator was a 28-kw direct-current machine, and was driven by a marine engine supplied with steam from the locomotive. In spite of the moisture and dirt in the tunnel at all times neither of the generators on the two trains failed in any way during the time they were in use. The trains were wired throughout and six sockets for attaching five-light reflector clusters were placed along the railings of the working platform on each car. Strings of incandescent lights were also run along the sides of the cars for general illumination of the tunnel walls. Each train was also equipped with a system of signal lights in the caboose, locomotive cab and compressor car by means of which the conductor could signal the engineman to move the train forward or back and signal the compressor attendant to start or stop the compressor.

The coach, which was fitted up as a dining car, was used to supply the men with hot coffee and sandwiches and to heat any other food the men brought with them. In order to stand the effects of the smoke and gases it was found necessary to keep the men well supplied with food, and they were allowed to go back to the dining car at frequent intervals to get food or coffee. The dining car was fitted with an air valve the same as the locks on the platform cars so that the air was kept fresh at all times. A complete outfit of surgical and first-aid-to-the-injured supplies was kept in the dining car, as also were an oxygen tank and air helmet for rescuing any one overcome by gas out in the tunnel. These helmets were never needed, however, although a number of men were overcome during the construction work.

About forty men were employed on each train. These included a foreman in charge, four sub-foremen, one steam engineer, one electrician, one carpenter, one cook, one blacksmith and helper and thirty laborers, in addition to the locomotive engineer and fireman, brakeman and conductor. In spite of the trying conditions under which the men worked not a single man employed on the tunnel trains quit work while the construction was in progress. The construction forces of the contractor were directed by M. J. Daly, general foreman in charge of the work.

CONSTRUCTION WORK IN THE TUNNEL.

The construction work in the tunnel included the drilling of 1,000 holes 2 ½ in. in diameter and 18 in. deep in the roof of the tunnel for the catenary hangers; 1,500 holes 1¾ in. in diameter and 6 in. deep in the side walls for telephone and signal cable hangers; drilling and blasting down the rock roof of the tunnel in many places to obtain the necessary clearances and erecting the catenary and trolley wires. A preliminary survey of the tunnel was made to determine the height of the roof at the hanger locations so as to prepare in advance the hanger rods of proper length. This survey also showed that the roof would have to be blasted down in many places to obtain the necessary clearance.

The first work train was run into the tunnel on November 6, 1910, and the second was equipped and put in use on November 29. Both trains were stored in the North Adams yard when not in the tunnel. The work of drilling the roof and side wall holes was carried on from both ends of the tunnel, with the two trains progressing toward the central shaft. It was necessary to keep the two trains on opposite sides of the central ventilating shaft with the locomotives always coupled to the ends of the trains nearest the shaft, so that the men on the platform cars would not be bothered by the gas of either locomotive. One track was given over to the work trains for periods of from nine to twelve hours, beginning at 8.30 a. m.

The drilling of holes for roof bolts was carried on simultaneously at five locations 100 ft. apart above each train. The train was spotted by manipulating the conductor's valve on the caboose and was moved only as required by the progress of the drilling. The time required to drill each hole varied from twenty minutes to four hours. Some of the rock was very hard, and at one location 65 drills were required to drill three holes, each 18 in. deep. A large stock of drills was carried on each train and one or two blacksmiths and helpers worked continuously in the forge car sharpening the drills as they were removed from the machines. All holes required for blasting down the roof were drilled from the work trains, but the blasting and cleaning up was done by the force of miners regularly employed in the tunnel by the railroad company.

The Electric Journal, October 1911

The Hoosac Tunnel Electrification

H. K. Hardcastle

On September, 1910, it was decided to electrify the Hoosac Tunnel and approaches including the yards at each end. On May 18th, 1911, the first train was drawn through by electric power, while continuous electric operation of the total traffic was begun on May 27th.

The Hoosac Tunnel is the longest tunnel in the United States, being 25,081 feet long from portal to portal. It pierces the mountain range between the Hoosic and the Deerfield Rivers in the Berkshire Hills, its location and the general arrangement of tracks being shown in Figs. I and 2. Where the rock is soft the tunnel is arched with brick, but in the greater part the rock is hard and the walls are bare rock. To drain off the large amount of water encountered, the tunnel was run on a grade of 26.4 feet to the mile from each portal to a short level stretch in the center, at which point a 1,028 foot shaft extends to the top of the mountain for ventilation. The work of digging this tunnel was started in 1851, and the first train went through February 9th, 1875. It is straight and double tracked from end to end and cost about twelve million dollars.

The electric zone extends from the little tunnel west of the North Adams station to a point about a quarter of a mile east of Hoosac Tunnel station, the total distance being 7.92 miles. The electrification includes the yards at North Adams, about two miles of the main line between North Adams and the west portal where the grade is about 0.75 percent; then 4.75 miles of the tunnel which was constructed on a 0.5 percent grade leading from both ends up to the central shaft, and the yards at the east portal, including three-quarters of a mile of main line, having a grade of about 0.5 to 0.7 percent. In all 21.31 miles of single track is electrified.

The traffic at this point has been exceedingly heavy and with the smoke and steam incidental to steam operation, the tunnel has long been the limit of the capacity of the division, besides being exceedingly dirty and disagreeable to passengers. With the tunnel electrified automatic block signals have been installed and the capacity of the tunnel increased three-fold by allowing three trains on the same track at the same time. This was not safe before, as signals would not have been visible. Instead of being a nuisance the tunnel has become a pleasure in summer on account of its coolness and all passenger trains go through with the windows open.

The method of operation is for the electric locomotive to couple on in front of the steam locomotive as shown in Fig. 3, and pull the train, locomotive and all through the tunnel. Meantime the fires of the steam locomotive are left undisturbed so as to avoid filling the tunnel with smoke and gases. The success of this method is daily demonstrated, for it is usually possible to see out from the central shaft, a distance of 2.37 miles.

Overhead single catenary construction for 11,000 volts single phase was chosen as the system best adapted for this electrification, and the equipment is in many respects similar to that of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between Woodlawn, N. Y., and Stamford, Conn.

POWER HOUSE

The power house has been built at Zylonite, about 2.5 miles south of the west portal of the tunnel. It is located near the old power house of the Berkshire Street Railway and uses a pond back of this station to supply cooling water for the condensers. From this location it will be possible to supply power to the street railway system without additional transmission lines if it is decided to abandon the old power house, and the station can be used entirely for this purpose if a hydro-electric plant is later built on the east side of the tunnel to supply the railroad. Water for the boilers is furnished by ten artesian wells 100 feet deep, and the coal is brought in from a switch on the Boston & Albany Railroad.

The building is of brick on a concrete foundation 100 by 200 feet and is about 80 feet high. The basement floor is on a level with the ground, and is divided into three sections. The section at the east end or boiler room basement contains the Worthington duplex boiler feed pumps, the forced draft apparatus consisting of two steam turbines driving Sturtevant blowers, and the ash hoppers and ash cars. The middle section, or engine room basement, contains two Westinghouse-LeBlanc jet condensers, a service pump, the oil filter and gravity oil system, a battery room containing a 120 ampere-hour storage battery, transformers for supplying the lighting system and power for the station apparatus, and a machine shop.

The section at the west end contains the switch house. Here are located the two 60,000 volt oil circuit breakers, with heavy grid resistance and impedance coils to prevent excessive current during a short-circuit. The grid resistance is in shunt with automatically operated oil switches, so connected as to cut the resistance in series with the line load when a short-circuit occurs. The resistance is of such a value as to limit the current on a dead ground to 600 amperes which the main circuit breaker then interupts, thus completely opening the short-ciruit.

On the second floor is the boiler room, which extends to the roof, and contains four 500 horse-power water tube boilers, equipped with underfeed stokers, the stokers being operated by a chain belt from the forced draft apparatus. Each boiler is supplied with a superheater which superheats the steam 100 degrees F. The other boiler room equipment includes a Sturtevant staggered tube economizer, two I2-foot induced draft fans, a feed water heater, a feed water weigher, two traveling combined hoppers and weighers for coal, and a service water tank which supplies gland water to the turbines, the jacket water for the compressor and water for the wash rooms. Space has been left in the boiler room for four additional boilers with their necessary equipment.

The coal is unloaded from hopper cars into a receiving bin under a trestle. From this it is raised 75 feet to the roof by a bucket conveyor, shown in Fig. 4, of 40 tons per hour capacity. Here it passes through a crusher to a 75 ton storage bin. Both the conveyor and crusher are operated by 20 horse-power inductlon motors.

As mentioned above, there is a pond near the station from which cooling water is taken for the condensers. In order to keep down the temperature of this pond a spray cooling system has been installed. This consists of two sprays or pipe lines about three hundred feet long mounted above the pond, Fig 5, from which the \vater is pumped through 110 spray nozzles. The water is pumped through the spray system by a centrifugal pump driven by a 100 horse-power induction motor. There is also an engine driven pump for use in emergency. The cooling water for the condensers is drawn in from the upper end of the pond, and discharged through a long flume leading to the lower end. The pumps supplying the sprays draw water from the discharge of the condensers and what is not used in the sprays goes out through the flume.

Like the boiler room, the engine room extends to the roof. It contains two main units, each consisting of an 11,000 volt, three-phase, 3750 k.v.a. (single-phase rating) generator coupled to a double-flow steam turbine. The auxiliaries consist of a 100 kw steam turbine exciter unit, a 100 kw motor-driven exciter, a small motor-generator set for charging the storage battery, an air compressor and a 30-ton hand operated crane.

One end of the power house is given over to the switchboard alcove and the rooms containing the remote control switching apparatus, the lightning arresters and the chief engineer's office. The switch board is set at a slight elevation above the engine room floor. It is a dull finish slate board with eleven panels. All 11,000 volt circuits are controlled by oil switches operated from the board by remote control. The generator voltage is regulated by two Tirrill voltage regulators.

A diagram of the electrical layout is shown in Fig. 6. One phase of the generator supplies the trolley load, one phase the power load and one phase goes to ground. The Berkshire Street Railway, however, is supplied by an ordinary three-phase transmission line. For the railway locomotive system there are a set of three-phase station bus-bars and four separate feeder bus-bars which receive power through oil circuit breakers from the main bus-bars. The ''trolley'' bar of the feeder bus-bars furnishes power for the electric locomotive load and the "control" bar furnishes power to operate the circuit breakers which control the various sections of the track at the west portal and at the repair shop. The "trolley" and "power" lines are protected by an electrolytic lightning arrester, and the "control line by a low equivalent lightning arrester. The "power" phase of the feeder bus-bar also furnishes power to a feeder for the hand-control operation of the circuit breakers at the switch houses. A reactance coil is located between the main station bus-bars and the feeder bus in the "power" and "control" phase to prevent excessive current during a short-circuit.

This may be made clearer by assuming a short-circuit, say a flash-over of a pantagraph insulator, on one of the locomotives somewhere on the line. The rush of current through the series transformer in the switch house operates relays which make the connections between the "control" wire and the mechanism operating the section breaker in the switch house which controls that particular section. The section breaker does not open, however, as the control wire is not yet energized. The rush of current then operates an overload relay at the power-house which opens the switches in succession cutting a heavy resistance in series with the trolley phase. At the same time the overload relay has operated a switch which energizes the control wire and thus, as the proper connections have already been made at the switch house, as mentioned above, the proper circuit breakers open to cut off current from this section. If for any reason these circuit breakers at the switch house do not open the circuit at the end of a given interval the switches at the power house will open, removing all power from the trolley phase.

TRANSMISSION LINE

The current is transmitted at 11,000 volts from the power house to the switch house at the west portal over a double circuit transmission line 2.42 miles in length. The corner towers, Figs. 4 and 7, are formed of four uprights made of angle-iron strengthened by angle-iron cross pieces and diagonal braces. These uprights support at their top an angle-iron frame work on which are mounted the porcelain insulators that support the wires. The uprights are set in concrete foundation piers. The towers along the straight part of the line are formed of two eight inch channels connected together by angle-iron braces and diagonals and tied together by a cross piece at the top. These towers carry two angle-iron cross arms and are supported on two concrete foundation piers set at right angles to the direction of the line. They are spaced about 300 feet apart on the level.

The transmission line consists of five stranded copper cables, two of which carry current for the trolley or locomotive load and are suspended from the cross arms at one side of the tower, while the power and control wires are suspended in a similar manner from the other side. The cross tie at the top of the tower carries an insulator to support the ground wire which also serves as a guard wire protecting the transmission line against lightning. The line terminates at the switch house at the west portal which controls the entire system. The switch houses at the east portal and at the repair shop are not connected to the transmission line, but are fed through the trolley wires of one or both main tracks. Therefore, as long as current is on either one of the main track trolley wires the remainder of the system can be operated.

The same towers which carry the transmission line also carry two telephone wires supported on one of the cross braces between the channels about ten feet below the high-tension wires. Noise due to inductance on the telephone line is prevented by frequent transposition of the wires, the two wires being turned through 90 degrees between each tower. The effect of inductance is further reduced by one-to-one transformers put in series with the line, one wire being led through the primary and the other through the secondary. The static charge is taken off through impedance coils connecting the two telephone wires, the center point of the coils being grounded.

OVERHEAD CONSTRUCTION

Outside the tunnel two different systems have been used to support the overhead line. For two and three track sections on the main line the supporting bridges are built-up trusses of the type shown in Fig. 7, formed of seven and eight inch channel top and bottom chords with light angle posts and double diagonal rod braces in each panel. These bridges are supported at each end by A-frame towers formed of two eight inch channels braced with right angles, the plane of these towers being parallel to the center line of the tracks.

In the yards, where more than three tracks are equipped with overhead wires, instead of the steel bridges, cross catenary span wires are suspended from the apex of A-frame steel towers built of eight inch channels, with their sides in a plane at right angles to the track, Fig. 8. The messenger cable insulators are suspended from these stranded steel cross catenary cables by stranded steel wires of suitable length. Each tower is grounded by a cable clamped to the apexes of the towers. The anchor bridges are box trusses supported on heavy A-frame towers with latticed sides stififened with double diagonal braces.

The overhead trolley system is sectionalized into twelve units consisting of two tracks in the east portal yards; east bound main track and west bound main track of the east portal; east bound and west bound tracks of the tunnel; west bound main track from the west portal to the west end of the North Adams yard; a section of the east bound main track and a cross-over opposite the west portal switch house; two sections of the long siding between the North Adams yard and the west portal switch house; the shop yard; four tracks in the North Adams yard, and the east bound main track from the west end of the North Adams yard to the west portal switch house.

An interesting point in the overhead construction is the crossing of the double track 11,000 volt alternating-current railway trolley and the single track 600 volt direct-current trolley lines of the Berkshire Street Railway, just west of North Adams station. A view of this crossing is given in Fig. 9. The 600 volt trolley is sectionalized with wooden section insulators eight feet long on each side of the crossing, and is carried over the crossing under an inverted five inch channel which is supported by stranded steel cable span wires. This channel iron is on the same plane as the 11,000 volt alternating-current trolley wires but is insulated from them by similar eight foot section insulators. The direct-current trolley wire in this crossing section normally carries no current. On the north side of the crossing a feeder is connected to the 600 volt trolley wire and carried to a switch on top of a wooden pole. When this switch is closed by pushing up on a rod, 600 volt direct-current is fed to the crossing channel and trolley wire so as to permit a street car to pass over the crossing with current on. When the rod is released the switch opens by gravity, and by making another contact, grounds the channel iron and the direct-current section of the trolley. The section insulators in the 600 volt trolley are grounded at the center of their length so that the 11,000 volt current can not leak past them in case of breakdown of any of the 11,000 volt section insulators.

The messenger cable outside the tunnel consists of a five-eighth inch stranded steel cable which supports a No. 0000 grooved copper conductor by rigid hangers of varying lengths at intervals of ten feet. The contact wire, which is No. 0000 grooved Phono-electric, is carried 1.75 inch below the copper conductor by double clips attached in the center of the ten foot spans between the hangers. On curves the conductor and contact wires are both suspended from the messenger by inclined hangers having double clamps.

Inside the tunnel on account of the small clearance and the great amount of moisture present, the erection of an 11,000 volt trolley presented quite a problem. The supports are 100 feet apart and consist of U-shaped brackets parallel to the track, held in place by 1.25 inch wrought iron bolts extending 18 inches into the rock or brick arch. These bolts were split at the upper end and hammered home on a wedge, but prior to setting the bolts, the holes were filled with cement, and the cement rather than the wedges being relied upon to hold the bolts in place. Two U-pieces support a bracket of the type shown in Fig. 10, by means of two 150,000 volt triple petticoat porcelain insulators and these brackets, which extend across the track, in turn support the messenger cable through 150000 volt insulators. As these primary and secondary insulators are in series, the combined dielectric strength is 300,000 volts.

Owing to the limited clearance in the tunnel the two contact wires are lowered to 15 feet 6 inches above the rails. For the same reason the messenger cables are supported 14 inches inside the center line of the track. This gives a minimum clearance of 12 inches between the messenger and the roof of the tunnel. In order to provide maximum conductivity a five-eighth inch stranded copper wire cable is used for a messenger. The twin contact wire hangers are designed to allow some vertical movement of the trolley wires. All parts of the tunnel hangers are made of bronze.

 

 

DIFFICULTIES OF THE WORK

The difficulties encountered in erecting the overhead construction in the tunnel without seriously interfering with the traffic must have been seen to be appreciated. The fact that it has heretofore been costing about two dollars to replace a tie owing to the fact that often the men could work only a couple of hours in the whole day, and that it was a common occurrence to have men brought out unconscious, owing to the bad air, may indicate something regarding the conditions in the tunnel.

To reduce the amount of smoke and handle the heavy freight trains during the work of construction, the railroad company purchased four large Mallet compound oil burning engines. The erection work was done by men on two specially constructed work trains each consisting of an oil burning locomotive, two locomotive tenders, a box car containing blacksmith's forges and anvils, an air compressor car, thirteen platform cars on which were built working platforms eleven feet above the rails, a coach fitted up as a dining car and a freight caboose. The trains were piped for compressed air supply and thoroughly lighted by electricity. On the floor of every third platform car a wooden air lock was built into which the men could retreat during and after the passage of a train. An air valve was provided inside these locks which, when partially opened, created sufficient pressure to keep out the smoke and gases, and provided fresh air for the men in the lock.

The construction work in the tunnel included the drilling of 1,000 holes, 2.5 inches in diameter and 18 inches deep, in the roof of the tunnel for the catenary hangers; 1,500 holes 1.75 inches in diameter and six inches deep in the side walls for telephone and signal cable hangers; the drilling and blasting down of the rock roof of the tunnel in many places to obtain the necessary clearance, and erecting the messenger and trolley wires.

In order to make the working conditions as good as possible the large fan at the top of the central shaft was run continuously, and the two work trains were kept on opposite sides of the shaft with their locomotives coupled to the end nearest the shaft so that the men would not be bothered by the smoke of either locomotive.

ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES

The electric locomotives were built in the Baldwin and Westinghouse shops. Three of the locomotives are intended primarily for freight service, and have a maximum tractive effort of 67,000 pounds and a maximum speed of 30 miles an hour. The others are intended for combination passenger and light freight service, and have a maximum tractive effort of 40,000 pounds, with a maximum speed of 50 miles an hour. These locomotives are identical with the exception of the gear ratio, and by changing the gears and pinions it would be possible to change a passenger locomotive over to a freight or a freight over to a passenger. Each locomotive weighs 130 tons, 96 tons of which are on the drivers, and is 48 feet long between couplers, the total wheel base being 38 feet 6 inches.

The locomotives have two articulated trucks, each truck consisting of two pairs of 63 inch drivers with seven foot rigid wheel base, and a pair of radial pony wheels 42 inches in diameter. The trucks are of very heavy and substantial construction. They carry the draft rigging and are connected together by a heavy draw-bar. The cab is supported by four spring loaded friction plates on each truck. One truck center pin is arranged with longitudinal play relative to the cab, thus relieving the cab of pulling and bumping stresses. The power is supplied by four 375 horse-power single-phase motors mounted directly over the driver axles and bolted fast to the frame, thus being entirely spring borne. The power is transmitted from the motor by two flexible gears which divide the load equally and prevent shocks on the gear teeth and also give the motors a chance to start under heavy load. These gears drive a quill surrounding the driver axle with 1.5 inch clearance, and run in bearings in the motor frame. The quill is in turn connected to the wheels by a system of long helical springs which allow the wheel to follow any inequalities in the track without affecting the motor.

Owing to the short rigid wheel base with the radial lead trucks, the light dead weight per axle, the concentration of weight near the mid length of the locomotive, and the high center of gravity, these locomotives ride very smoothly and are exceptionally easy on the track.

The electrical equipment consists of :

Four 375 horse-power single-phase motors.

One air-blast auto-transformer.

Two 11,000 volt pneumatically operated pantagraph trolleys.

One 11,000 volt oil circuit breaker.

Three preventive coils.

Four groups of pneumatically operated unit switches.

Two 10 horse-power single-phase motors for driving the compressors.
One pilot governor operating a compressor switch.

Two 7.5 horse-power blower motors.

Two 20 volt storage batteries for operating the magnet valves.

One motor-generator set for charging the batteries.

One speed limit relay.

Two master controllers.

Two temperature indicators for showing the temperature of the main motors.

The necessary control circuits, receptacles and jumpers for multiple unit operation.

With the exception of the main motors and storage batteries which are mounted on the trucks and the pantagraphs on the roof, this apparatus is all mounted inside of the cab, and is so arranged as to be visible and easily accessible. The motors are of the series commutator type with short-circuited auxiliary field windings. Twelve taps giving different voltages are brought out from the auto-transformer for acceleration and speed control of the main motors. The overload tripping mechanism of the oil circuit-breaker operates in conjunction with a dash-pot which prevents the circuit breaker from opening as a result of momentary surges in the high-tension line. The circuit-breaker is closed by an air cylinder and opened by a spring and the weight of the moving parts when the control circuit to the magnet valve is broken. This circuit is connected through a removable contact plug in the master controller and a contact disc on the overload trip plunger. The plunger latches open when operated by an overload and can be released only by pressing the reset button on the master controller with the controller handle in the off position.

Each of the unit switches in the switch groups is provided with a magnetic blow-out, and is operated by air through a magnet valve and an air cylinder. The main circuit connections and the order in which the switches are closed for acceleration are shown in Fig. 12. The main motors are all connected in parallel, and any motor may be cut out by opening a battery switch in the control circircuit to its switches, without affecting the other motors.

An overspeed relay is provided which will automatically disconnect the power lines from the motors at a predetermined maximum speed. This will prevent the locomotives from being accelerated to a speed that will damage the motor armatures, but does not prevent their attaining excessive speed on a down grade. The relay consists of two coils the cores of which are balanced by a rocker arm and carry a contact disc. One coil is energized through a series transformer by the current in a motor lead, and the other by the voltage across the motor armature. The relay disc is normally held away from its contacts by the unbalanced weight on the rocker arm, but when the motor is running at such speed that the coil energized by the voltage across the armature overbalances the coil energized by the decreased current passing through the motor, the relay disc lifts and makes a contact which, through an auxiliary relay, opens the control circuit to the main motor switches.

A very complete shop for the maintenance of the electrical equipment has been built at North Adams. This contains drop pits with hydraulic jacks, well lighted inspection pits, a 15-ton electric crane and machine tools for doing any ordinary repair work.

[wanswheel]

Dave, thanks for explaining the train in the photograph. I wondered why it wasn't a 6-car train.

Excerpt from A Life of George Westinghouse by Henry G. Prout (1921)

In the decade before the Great War the people of the United States saw the beginning of the steel passenger car on railroads, and they saw its use extend quickly from the tunnels of New York out over all the great lines of railroad. Westinghouse was one of a very small group of men who initiated and brought about this event. No doubt others had speculated about it in a more or less academic way, but it is possible, and indeed probable, that the first man of authority and influence, having actual responsibility for immediate construction, to suggest and urge steel cars was Mr. George Gibbs. Whether Gibbs first suggested this to Westinghouse, or whether Westinghouse first suggested it to Gibbs, does not seem to be a matter of prime importance. They worked together, and Westinghouse threw into the scale strong conviction and his influence and force. Another powerful man soon joined the movement, Mr. Cassatt, then president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company had been formed to build the first subway railroad in New York. Mr. Gibbs was appointed consulting engineer in charge of the designing and installation of the mechanical equipment, which included road-bed, track, signals, and cars.

Mr. L. B. Stillwell was consulting engineer in charge of the electrical equipment. They were set to do pioneer work. They were faced with a set of conditions that had never been brought together before. They had to consider and largely to contrive methods and materials to meet these conditions. Heavy and fast trains were to be run at short intervals, calling for volumes and potentials of electric current never before used in railway working, and this was to be done in tunnels just large enough to take the four tracks. Only an engineer, and not every engineer, has the background to enable him to realize the complications of the situation.

Before the mind of Mr. Gibbs arose the danger of fire with wooden cars, in case of a wreck or a short circuit. He talked often with Westinghouse about the danger and the possible precautions. Westinghouse asked why steel cars should not be used. At that time there were no railroad passenger cars built entirely of steel, and no one had seriously proposed them. Mr. Gibbs replied that he thought that a practicable steel car could be built, but the tunnel construction was well advanced and the time was short in which to design a car from the ground up and get it built, in quantity, for the opening. A great number of details must be worked out to get a car of acceptable weight, cost, appearance, and performance, going back to shapes not then made by the mills and involving new dies, rolls, and patterns. He had designed a wooden car, metal-sheathed outside and sheathed underneath with fireproof material. He proposed to install all wiring in fireproof conduits and to suspend all apparatus below and out of contact with the underfloor. It was recognized that this did not fully meet the case, but it did diminish the fire risk.

Westinghouse was urgent and ready to help, and Mr. Gibbs undertook to design a sample steel car. He talked with Mr. Cassatt, who faced the same problem in the project for electrical operation of the tunnels into New York. Mr. Cassatt at once fell in with the plan and offered to have the car built at cost in the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania. The car was designed and built. To save time, commercial shapes were used. Consequently, the car was not handsome, and it was too heavy to be finally acceptable; but it was the basis of a redesign. There was strong opposition to the innovation, not only amongst the subway people but in the shops where the car was built; but the hearty indorsement and reliable cheerfulness of Westinghouse were always sustaining, and the practical support of Mr. Cassatt was a great help. The interest of two of the most important car-building companies was aroused. They consented to make propositions to build 300 steel cars and to guarantee their delivery within a certain date at a reasonable price - about 10 per cent more than a wooden car.

Thus assured, Gibbs recommended that the first equipment of the subway should be all-steel cars. Of course there was a fight, and a hard one. Those who believed in the present expediency, if not the final superiority of fireproofed wooden cars, were many and strong and well intrenched. The matter got into the daily newspapers, and one great journal pointed out the appalling prospect of dreadful electric shocks to passengers imprisoned in a steel car charged with high-tension current. But the steel car won. Gibbs says: "Without Mr. Westinghouse's confidence and encouragement, and his insistence upon the safest possible construction for cars used in tunnels, and Mr. Cassatt's progressive policy in the same direction, it is evident that steel cars might not have been in general use today. Credit should be given also to Mr. Belmont (President of the Subway Construction Company) for his willingness to undertake what must have seemed to him to be an expensive experiment for the sake of providing the safest possible equipment."

[daveklepper]

Terrific stuff, again.    Note that in a previous posting, the photograph on a "three car Hudson and Manhattan train," obviously photographed at the yard just west of Journal Square station, shows a train of Gibbs designed cars, not Stillwell designed cars!  The three cars illustrated in that photograph are for the Newark - Hudson Terminal joint service with the PRR and were designed by Gibbs following standard PRR-Gibbs-Altoona practice, 50 owned by PRR and 50 by H&M, but all of the same design, aslightly shorter version of the original LIRR muc cars with center door added as was done by then to the original steel IRT Gibbs cars.  The photographer photographed the wrong train to illustrate the article!  Part of Stillwell designed car can be seen at the right of the photo on one of the yard's storage tracks.

[wanswheel]

Electrical World and Engineer, January 17, 1903

Letters To The Editors.

Conditions on the Manhattan Elevated.

To the Editors of Electrical World and Engineer

Sirs: The energetic editorial in your issue of December 20th, 1902, under the heading, "Manhattan Elevated Electrics," was inspired by a feeling with which every engineer who rejoices to see the applications of electricity extended and its practical effectivness demonstrated must sympathize, but your attack upon the executive management of the Manhattan Company is far more severe than the facts justify. I find myself also somewhat at variance with the opinion which you express regarding the third rail, and as the subject is one of great interest to the engineering profession, I avail myself of your courteous permission to use your columns in stating some of my views.

You say, substantially, that the third rail exposed to sleet and snow is all right, but that the management of the Manhattan Company is all wrong. On the contrary, I believe that an unprotected third rail is a make-shift and must be superseded by a construction securing effective protection against snow and sleet and in my opinion the executive management of the Manhattan Company is exceptionally able and successful.

First, as to the management: It is a fact that the first sleet storm of the season found the cars of the company without steel brushes or scrapers. For this failure, the management is, of course, primarily responsible; but the fact that the delay in mounting the brushes upon the cars was due to loss of time in the successful development of an improved method of applying the scraping devices, and the further fact that after the brushes and the mechanism for operating them were ordered, it was found impossible to obtain prompt deliveries from manufacturers, may at least be mentioned as extenuating circumstances. But admitting that this was a serious failure and that the management is responsible, is it not a fact that during the last three years the Manhattan Railway Company has accomplished results which call for praise rather than censure? Where is the system here or abroad that carries anything like the number of people carried by the Manhattan or that has a record in any way comparable with respect to general effectiveness and particularly to safety to the passengers carried? Recently, it has repeatedly happened that within a single hour, more than 100,000 people, practically all bound in one direction, have been carried by the trains of the company. That number of people would fill Broadway from curb to curb from City Hall to Sixty-eighth Street, a column marching 20 abreast and with less than 6 feet between successive ranks. It is a physical impossibility to carry satisfactorily such a multitude in one hour over the limited number of tracks available. Terrific crowding is inevitable and that such crowds have been carried at all without greater discomfort to the passengers and without more accidents is in itself eloquent testimony to the ability of the operating management and the discipline and faithfulness of its employees.

As regards construction, the work of substituting electricity for steam during the last three years has been quietly, systematically and successfully prosecuted upon a scale beyond all precedent. A power plant, capable of putting out during rush hours 50,000 kw, has been constructed and over 900 electrically operated cars, equivalent to a continuous train eight miles long, are in operation. In carrying out this work, it is only just to say that no board of directors could have allowed greater latitude to the engineers and no executive officer representing that board could have more intelligently and helpfully directed and co-operated with those engineers than has Mr. Alfred Skitt, vice-president and general manager of the company. The officers of the company, and particularly Mr. Gould and Mr. Skitt, have at all times impressed upon their engineers the importance of securing for the new equipment the best and in every way most effective outfit of steam and electric machinery that could be constructed, and in no instance that I can recall have the wishes of the engineers been negatived by the management.

In the main, the plans adopted have been splendidly successful. The engines and alternators during periods of maximum load put out 10,000 electrical hp each and in doing so operate as smoothly as engine-driven units of one-tenth their power. More than 125 miles of cable, operating at 11,000 volts, a potential 66 per cent higher than the highest previously used in plants comparable with this, are to-day distributing energy from the power house to seven substations, located in Manhattan and the Bronx. In power house and in sub-stations, switches and switch gear, necessarily intricate, are successfully handling the enormous power required to operate more than 900 cars of the elevated roads and those cars, two-thirds of which are equipped with motors and with a system of control necessarily complicated and until adopted by the Manhattan Railway Company scarcely tried in practical operation, are making about 120,000 car-miles per day, equivalent, for example, to 130 five-car trains per day in each direction between New York and Philadelphia.

The only part of the system which in my opinion is not, and, unless substantially modified, will not be thoroughly satisfactory in service is the third rail. In saying this I do not mean to imply that the engineers of the company in 1899 made a mistake in adopting the standard form of third rail and the standard linked shoe. Our reasoning was then valid and, indeed, is still valid, because no better plan than that adopted is to-day in operation upon any scale which would justify its adoption by the Manhattan Company. No mere theoretical demonstration of the practicability of an underrunning or side-running shoe could have justified the adoption of a device that had not withstood the test of practical operation, and in adopting what was in practical use in all comparable electrically operated elevated railways in America and in Europe, the engineers of the Manhattan Company acted with that conservatism and judgment which the management of the company had a right to expect.

But while the Manhattan Company was not justified in experimenting with a new type of third rail, involving an untried type of collecting shoes, I am personally convinced that an exposed contact rail is not the correct ultimate solution of this part of the problem of substituting a central steam plant for locomotives. I am convinced of this notwithstanding the fact that the great majority, if not all, of those engineers and operating men who have had extended experience in the use of third rail systems elsewhere are asserting to-day that the third rail as it is erected on the Manhattan system is, as you say, "a perfect success in competent hands," and I backed my opinion upon this point more than a year ago in designing and securing for the Wilkesbarre & Hazleton Railway Company a third rail system in which the contact rail is protected against snow and sleet by an overhanging timber guard. The Wilkesbarre & Hazleton Railway is not yet in commercial operation, but for the last month or two one of the cars has been running over a part of the line and during the sleet storm December 11th and 12th, which was very severe on the mountains between Wilkesbarre and Hazleton, the timber guard afforded effective protection and effectually prevented the formation of sleet upon the rail head. The sleet storm, however, although very heavy, was not a particularly driving one, and I do not regard the test as thoroughly conclusive. The side-thrust shoe used on the Wilkesbarre & Hazleton Railway is of a type recently developed by the General Electric Company. The chief engineer of the railway department of the General Electric Company informed me about three weeks ago that recent experiments at Schenectady in running through snow indicate that the new shoe will have to be modified substantially. So far as this guard and shoe are concerned, therefore, while the results thus far obtained are encouraging and while I believe that the shoe can be perfected, they are not sufficiently conclusive to justify its adoption by the Manhattan Company, even at the present date.

Before the end of the present winter it is hoped and expected that some type of collecting shoe that can be used in connection with a rail protected against sleet will have been used in practical operation to an extent sufficient to justify its adoption, provided experience during the remainder of this winter shall demonstrate that brushes, scrapers, brine cars, etc., cannot maintain the contact rail in satisfactory condition. The General Electric Company is systematically experimenting with the new shoe at Schenectady, we are of course gaining all experience possible from the Wilkesbarre & Hazleton Railway, and the Manhattan Company has asked the consent of the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity to the removal of one of the two plank guards which protect the contact rail on the Second Avenue line in order that we may try in actual service several new types of collecting shoe adapted to operation in connection with a protected contact rail. Of the very many designs which have been suggested, we have selected three thus far and if the city authorities consent to the removal of one of the two guard timbers, there is every reason to believe that we shall be able to develop a satisfactory shoe.

In some quarters the Manhattan Company and its engineers have been criticised for erecting the wooden guard planks on each side of the contact rail instead of leaving this contact rail absolutely exposed as is done by elevated roads elsewhere. These guards were required by the Department of Public Buildings, Lighting and Supplies. They were objected to by the management of the Manhattan Company, acting upon the advice of its engineers, who had had the greatest experience in third rail practice, but their erection was insisted upon by the department. Personally, I am of the opinion that the department was substantially right in the position which it took, as I have never been in favor of a contact rail carrying 600-volt current unless such rail be provided with adequate safeguards for life and property.

L. B. Stillwell

New York City

Electrical World and Engineer,  March 7, 1903

An Interurban Road With Hooded Third Rail.

A striking advance in third rail methods of operation has been made by the Wilkesbarre and Hazleton R., an interurban electric system occupying a territory in Pennsylvania all to itself, and flanked by the steam lines of the Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley systems. The map shown herewith indicates clearly the region and the respective routes. The intercourse between Hazleton and Wilkesbarre, even under the old conditions, is large. The distance between the railway terminals in the two cities by the railways named is, respectively, 50.4 and 49.6 miles. The Pennsylvania runs four trains a day in each direction, while the Lehigh Valley provides six trains in one direction and five in the other. The new electric line is 26.2 miles long between points of junction with the local electric railways in Wilkesbarre and Hazleton....

Owing to the character of country traversed, and the difference of 1,200 ft. in the altitude of the terminal points, it became a serious problem to select a route and establish a line entirely free of heavy grades and sharp curves. A private right of way, 60 ft. wide and fenced in on both sides, was acquired, and throughout the entire line there is not a grade exceeding 3 per cent., and only one curve of 18 degrees. The grade thus established necessitated some bold engineering, heavy fills, deep rock cuts, and driving a tunnel 2,600 ft. long through Penobscot Mountain, about 600 ft. below the summit and through solid rock...

The contact rail is a notable departure from common practice up to the present time, as it is protected from sleet and snow by a 2-in. x 6-in. pine plank held directly over the rail. Already this protection has demonstrated its usefulness, for during the severe sleet and snow storms of December, the cars operated with perfect ease. The added element of personal safety is also a very great factor...

Mr. L. B. Stillwell, who is consulting engineer for the company, designed the entire plant, and the road was built under his direction. He was represented during the construction period by J. E. Wallace, the construction engineer. C. A. B. Houck, chief electrician for the traction company, was associated with Mr. Wallace in the work. A great deal of interest and importance attaches to Mr. Stillwell's use of the hooded third rail, and its application in other work may follow its satisfactory test this winter.

Excerpts from Design and Construction of the IRT: Electrical Engineering by Barbara Kimmelman

http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/haer-design-electrical.html

Lewis B. Stillwell, the engineer responsible for the design and installation of the Interborough's electric power equipment, was one of the avant-garde involved in developing alternating current for use in urban railways. Before he took on the subway assignment, he was electrical director of the Niagara Falls Power Company, and consulting engineer to the Manhattan Railway Company during electrification of its lines. The Manhattan Company had obtained the services of W. E. Baker, who had supervised the electric installation of Chicago's Metropolitan West Side "el". However, the company particularly wanted Stillwell because of his experience with large high tension systems, acquired at Niagara, and earlier with the Westinghouse Company, which he applied in the design of the high voltage switching equipment at the Manhattan station.

Stillwell was even better prepared for his work on the Interborough system. He could draw on his Manhattan Railway experience, where he was applying high voltage alternating current technology to an electric traction system. He worked on both projects at once, accepting an appointment as consulting electrical engineer to the subway in 1900. He wrote to August Belmont that "my other engagements will aid, rather than interfere with, my work for your Company," an assertion borne out by the marked similarity between the elevated and subway power houses, both in system design and in type and make of equipment...

Protection of the third rail was a controversial subject. Injuries to workers along the elevated route, directly or indirectly related to the third rail, underscored the need for adequate protection in the cramped tunnels. The final decision on protection was made in 1904, late in the subway construction timetable. Parsons, Stillwell, and electrical consultant Cary T. Hutchinson considered several methods. Parsons wanted to cut down on the use of wood in the tunnels, and suggested a concrete protection of a crossed-T form, which could serve as a footwalk for workers. Hutchinson supported this proposal. Stillwell favored a wooden covering, which he felt would also form an adequate footwalk. He was impressed with the success of the third rail system of the Wilkes-Barre and Hazelton Railway, the first commercially significant installation of a protected third rail. The rail guard was a 2-inch thick pine plank above the rail allowing clearance for an over-running contact shoe.

The Interborough ultimately adopted Stillwell's design of a wood plank protection. A 2-inch thick, 10-inch wide plank covered the rail, supported 2 5/8 inches above the rail by a timber beam, running parallel to the rail, to which the protecting plank was bolted. This left open only the side toward the running rails. The horizontal board extended beyond the edge of the rail making accidental contact with the rail difficult.

[doctorwayne]

I agree:  very interesting. 

Wayne

[daveklepper]

GREAT STUFF   THANKS

[wanswheel]

Well thanks Dave! 

Excerpts from Construction of a Rapid Transit Railroad in Relation to the Handling of Passengers as Illustrated by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad by J. Vipond Davies (a paper read at the Engineers Club of Philadelphia on June 4,1910)

Capacity. - The first essential in the study of this railroad was to decide definitely on the capacity for transportation that could be furnished during the hour of maximum travel, as this factor is the basis for regulating everything that comes after. The dimensions of the property which could be acquired for stations, either downtown in New York or at Hoboken where it was necessary to locate upon private property and not under the public streets, fixed the greatest length of train that could be accommodated at 400 feet. The curvature of the railroad as laid out, particularly the short curves (radius 90 feet) entering and leaving the Church Street Terminal, made it necessary that the cars should be as short as possible and the truck centers so spaced as to reduce the overhang of the cars on curves to a minimum. The cars in the Rapid Transit Subway in New York are 52 feet long, but this length proved to be too great for the Hudson tunnels, as an eight-car train would be in excess of the maximum length of train that could be accommodated on a tangent in the stations. After considerable study the length of car determined was 48 feet 3 inches when coupled, with distance between truck centers 33 feet. All clearances in the tunnels and approaches had, therefore, to be figured in relation to this particular size of car. The clearances in the tunnels allow for a car of the same width as the original subway cars (8 feet 10½ inches), which makes a roomy car, satisfactory for passenger use. The height of the car, which does not affect the comfort of passengers, was of necessity made low on account of the clearances. The length of train determined upon was eight cars, a total length of 386 feet. A speed curve diagram was then calculated on the fixed characteristics of the railroad, the train weights, and on the assumption that motor equipment would be installed on the cars to operate at a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour on level tangent. The speed is reduced for station and junction controls, on curves, and, of course, on grades. It was figured that station stops would be thirty seconds. Experiments with the air-brakes determined the safe braking distance on various grades throughout the tunnels at which the cars loaded and operated at the calculated theoretical speeds could be properly controlled. The safe braking distance determined the spacing of signals, and as the signal system is the double overlap type (that is to say, the position of a given signal ahead is indicated to an approaching train at two signal stations previous) the spacing of signals throughout the tunnels provides for the closest possible operation permissible under ninety seconds headway with eight-car trains. The railroad is being operated on this interval successfully and regularly. The train load and the minimum train interval indicate that it is possible to operate any portion of the road to the extent of carrying 32,000 passengers in one direction in one hour. All the remaining factors entering into the design of a railroad operated for passenger service depend, therefore, on this one essential prime factor maximum capacity...

Cars. - In handling passengers, the second important point is the design of car, particularly with reference to loading and unloading, and its internal arrangement as affecting the passenger, and its relation to the station. In the first place, the train service operated by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad is essentially a short-distance service. The longest continuous distance usually traveled by a passenger -from Pennsylvania station to Thirty-third Street, or from Hoboken terminal to Church Street terminal - is less than four miles, consequently the time a passenger is in a car is comparatively short, and not comparable with the time taken on a railroad such as the electrified lines of the Long Island Railroad, or the Interborough Rapid Transit Subway, where a passenger may ride from 20 to 25 miles on a continuous trip. It is a well-known fact that a crowd of people desirous of traveling on a train will insist on using the first train in every case, and will jam itself into a train whether there is sitting room or not, notwithstanding that another train is following within ninety seconds, and in spite of the fact that crowding an already overloaded train materially lengthens the time of the station stops and interferes with the headway and progress of all following trains. The next following train may be running practically empty. It is, therefore, not essential on a road such as the Hudson and Manhattan to attempt to provide the maximum seating capacity in a car, but it is necessary to give an adequate seating capacity only under ordinary conditions and at ordinary hours, and to give the greatest floor space, for standing room, and for carrying the maximum number of people in the easiest way with the least obstruction and inconvenience due to deliberate overcrowding.

The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad trains are essentially moving terminals for the steam railroads; a very large number of passengers carry valises and other baggage; consequently, the car with the greatest unobstructed floor area is the most advantageous for such service. For this reason it is desirable to arrange the seats along the sides of the car without cross-seats, which possibly would have given but four or six seats additional per car, but which would have obstructed very materially the rapid movement of passengers. This arrangement gives a seating capacity of forty-four persons per car. A novel feature of this scheme for seating is the subdivision of seats into sections, which was devised by Mr. Stillwell. This scheme was adopted because most of the passengers desire corner seats, and for the purpose of stiffening the side trusses of the car. The subdivision of seats into sections is convenient and has proved to be very popular.

The use of the enameled rods in place of straps adds another convenience for passengers. Enameled rods are more sanitary than leather straps, and a new enameled metal loop is being tried by the Rapid Transit Subway as a substitute for leather straps.

The newspapers have so thoroughly educated the public as to the merits and demerits of side doors for cars that there is little to add here. Side doors were first used in a practical way on the Hudson and Manhattan road, and with complete success; but to get the maximum efficiency they should be used in conjunction with platforms at the level of the car floor and with station platforms arranged for loading passengers on one side and unloading on the opposite side. The cars have a clear opening of 36 inches for each end door and 41 inches for the side door. With these conditions 106 people can be unloaded in twenty-nine seconds, or at the rate of 3.65 per second, and there is not the necessity for the very wide doors which are essential where the loading and unloading is from the same side...

The installation and operation of side doors is complicated in opening and closing, as the side doors are necessarily out of sight of the guards standing at the end of the car, and the doors cannot conveniently be opened and closed by men on the platform. It would be a very serious burden to maintain men on every platform to operate the side doors. On the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad all car doors are equipped with a pneumatic device for opening and closing, and there are air-cushions on the edges of the doors. No trouble whatsoever in the operation of the doors, and practically no accidents of a serious nature, have occurred.

 

The Railway Age, June 14, 1907

In a local service like that of the Hudson Companies the stations are from one-third to one-half mile apart, and a large percentage of the power for operating the cars is required for their acceleration. For this kind of service it is particularly desirable to minimize the weight of the cars as much as considerations of safety will permit. The problem which presented itself to the engineers of the Hudson Companies was to design a steel car with center doors and of the least possible weight....

The truss frame as illustrated herewith was finally designed as the best solution of the problem. This truss frame is arranged in five panels, the center door occupying the middle panel. As the depth of this truss is about seven feet, it follows that its weight, for a given strength, is much less than that of any girder or truss construction which can be placed below the car floor. The bottom chord of the truss is a 6-inch channel carried below the door sills and extending from end to end of the car. The top chord is a similar channel placed above the doors and extending the length of the car. The vertical members of the truss frame are 8-inch channel posts spaced at uniform distances, and placed between pairs of windows. Below the window sills these posts are braced by diagonal members to the bottom chord. Above the window sill the posts are reinforced by angle irons and plates, which arch over the pairs of windows and are riveted to the top chord. At the center door the top and bottom chords are reinforced by bulb angles, and similar bulb angles are riveted to the bottom chord below the end doors to furnish additional support for the car platforms. The truss frame is designed to carry the entire weight of the car with full passenger load with a fiber stress not to exceed 12,000 pounds per square inch in any member.

The underframe of the car is shown in an accompanying engraving. The side sills are made of the 6-inch channels already described as a part of the truss frame. The center sills are 6-inch I-beams, which run from end to end of the car. The needle beams are composed of angles with truss rods and turn-buckles. The attachment of the needle beams to the side sills is made by means of bent plates, which serve also to stiffen the posts against side pressure.

The end sills in this design have been made unusually strong in order to distribute the strains due to impact to the center and side sills. Attention is called to the shelf angle which is secured to the end sill for the support of the drawbar. This shelf angle furnishes a stronger support than the sector bar usually employed for the purpose.

To prevent the telescoping of car platforms in the event of a collision, two heavy steel castings, shown in the side view, have been riveted to the ends of the center sills. These castings extend about eight inches above the top of the buffer timbers, and if the buffer timber of one car is forced up over that of the adjacent car, it will be stopped by the steel castings before damage is done to the end of the car.

The sheathing of the ends and sides of the car consists of steel plates 1/16 inch thick. These plates are riveted to the truss frame after the latter is in place, and none of the rivets which hold the truss frame together pass through the sheathing. Therefore the plates may be removed for repairs without disturbing the truss frame.

The roof is made of 1/16-inch steel plates, coated on both sides with lead. The roof plates are supported by angle irons bent to conform to the shape of the roof and spaced about 14 inches apart. The plates are secured in place by 1/4-inch rivets with heads soldered, and all seams between plates are lapped and soldered....

The cars above described were designed and built under the direction of L.B. Stillwell, consulting electrical engineer, and F.M. Brinckerhoff, who has followed the details of this work and to whom many of the novel features are due.

[daveklepper]

Really great stuff, just great.   You are t errific.   Thanks!!!

[wanswheel]

[wanswheel]

Practical Safety Methods and Devices, Manufacturing and Engineering (1916)

Subway Cars. - The latest and safest type of subway car is that used by the New York Municipal Railway. This car has the following safety features:

Automatic speed control while the car is going down grades.
Steel construction throughout.

Plan of interior decoration developed in connection with scientific study of lighting system.

Sanitary floor corners, which render impossible the accumulation of dirt and reduce to a minimum the opportunities for germs to gather and breed.

SPECIAL SAFETY FEATURES

"Dead Man's" Emergency Control Handle. - A device incorporated in the controller operating handle that will automatically cause the power to be shut off and the brakes to be applied in case the motorman's hand is for any reason removed from handle when in operating position.

Conductor's Emergency Valve. - A device whereby, in case of emergency, the air brakes can instantly be applied to and power cut off from the entire train from any car in the train.

Empty and Load Brake Attachment. - A device that regulates the braking power in proportion to the passenger load, so that with increased load an increased braking pressure will be obtained.

Automatic Tail Light Change. - A device by which tail lights are automatically changed when reversing direction of train movement, or in case of motorman leaving train, when tail lights will show red on both ends of train.

Clasp Brakes. - Two brake shoes are used per wheel, thus producing a more uniform and smoother stop.

Electro-Pneumatic Brakes. - The latest development in Air Brakes, making possible a quicker and smoother stop than with the plain Air Brake without the electric feature.

Safety Spring Door Cushion. - Doors are equipped with a safety spring cushioning device, so that if door should accidentally strike a person, the shock would be reduced to a minimum.

Emergency Lighting System. - An auxiliary system of lighting is provided so that in case the current is, for any reason, cut off from train, the emergency system will automatically light up and remain lighted until the regular lighting is restored.

Door Interlock Signals. - An arrangement whereby the starting signal system is interlocked with the doors, so that signal to start will not reach motorman until all doors in train are closed.

Automatic Coupling. - All couplings between cars are made automatic, including Car, Air and Electrical connections, thus making it unnecessary for employees to go between cars when making couplings.

Safety Gates. - Safety gates are provided at ends of cars that come together and close opening between ends of adjoining cars when coupled, to prevent possibility of passengers falling between cars from station platform.

[wanswheel]

Building the New Rapid Transit System of New York City

Extensions to the existing systems of rapid transit in the City of New York have been planned which will involve an estimated expenditure of $366,000,000. The construction of these lines is now well under way and is being rapidly pushed forward at a rate which, it is hoped, will insure their completion by the end of the year 1917. The length of new line is altogether 110 miles, comprising 325 miles of single main-line track. These additions will make the total length of the completed system of rapid-transit railways in the city 230 miles, with 621 miles of single main-line track. The mileage of mainline track will thus be approximately doubled, though it is expected that the capacity for handling passengers will be increased threefold or fourfold.

The magnitude of this work may be at least partly realized by comparison of its cost with that of the Panama Canal, which, including the $50,000,000 paid to the French, is to cost about $375,000,000. This vast enterprise in the City of New York is progressing literally under the feet of its five million inhabitants and the other several millions of the adjacent territory whose business brings them frequently to the city, with hardly any notice or disturbance of the regular routine of business.

The cost is to be borne in approximately the following proportions, partly by the city and partly by the two operating companies which will divide the territory between them:

City of New York $1,200,000,000

Interborough Rapid Transit Co. $105,000,000

New York Municipal Railway Corporation $61,000,000

The first of these two operating companies, the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., generally spoken of as "The Interborough," operates the present subway which traverses the length of Manhattan Island, reaching into the Borough of Bronx at one end and a short distance into Brooklyn at the other. It also operates the four lines of elevated railway in Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as the surface lines in those boroughs. The so-called Steinway or Belmont Tunnel, running from 42nd St., New York, under the East River to Long Island City, was built about five years ago by interests closely associated with the Interborough but has never yet been utilized. It is now, however, to be finished, equipped and operated by that company, in conjunction with the other lines of its system.

The New York Municipal Railway Corporation is a company formed by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. to finance and operate that part of this new system of railways which falls to its share. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. is familiarly known as the "B.R.T." and both it and the New York Municipal Railway Corporation will be generally so referred to hereafter. It controls all the elevated and surface lines in Brooklyn including those which reach the famous ocean summer resort at Coney Island.

Heretofore, the operations of these two systems, the Interborough and B.R.T., have been almost exclusively confined to territories divided by the East River, the former to Manhattan and the Bronx on its west side, and the latter to Brooklyn and the Borough of Queens on the other side.

By the new arrangement, the B.R.T. gains an entrance into Manhattan by a new tunnel from the business center of Brooklyn to the lower end of New York, thence via Broadway and 7th Ave. through the center of the business and amusement districts to 59th St. Thence it turns eastward and crosses the East River on the Queensborough Bridge to a connection with the proposed lines to Astoria and Flushing. It also reaches lower New York by a series of underground loops connecting the three lower East River bridges and the new tunnel just referred to, which will permit also continuous circulation of its trains instead of bringing them in as at present to stub-end terminals at the New York ends of the bridges.

The Interborough, besides a new north and south line in Manhattan, will reach the Borough of Queens and will have two lines to Astoria and Flushing from 42nd St., via the Steinway Tunnel. Its present line to Brooklyn is to be extended by two branches, each to a point some five or six miles beyond its present terminus at Atlantic Ave. into the residential section of that borough.

The Borough of Queens, comprising Long Island City, Astoria, Jamaica, Flushing, etc., which, up to the present, has never been served by any so-called Rapid Transit Lines, will now have the two elevated lines referred to which are to be operated jointly by the two companies, linked up to both the Queensborough Bridge, the Steinway Tunnel and the 2nd Ave. elevated, and thus connecting directly with all lines in Manhattan and other boroughs...

Equipment

There has been no announcement so far of any change in type of rolling stock of the Interborough, but the B.R.T. has had a larger type of car designed (Fig. 9), providing considerably greater capacity, which will, it is thought, owing to the arrangement of the doors, permit such easy ingress and egress that there will be no more delay in loading and unloading than there is with the small cars now in use. The principal dimensions of these two cars are as follows:

Interborough     B.R.T.

Length over all, ft 51.0 [IRT] 67 [BRT]

Width over all, ft 9.5 [IRT] 10 [BRT]

Weight of empty car on each axle of motor truck, lb 30,800 (a)

Weight of the other two axles, lb 22,200 (a)

Number of seats 48 [IRT] 78 [BRT]

Capacity, sitting and standing 175 [IRT] 270 [BRT]

(a) Not to exceed 31,000 lb. per axle when fully loaded.

There have been many difficulties to overcome in connection with the design of these larger cars. Axle loads of 31,000 lb. cannot be exceeded, as this is fixed by the bridge department for the East River bridges. The motors are arranged one on each truck, instead of both on one truck, as on the present Interborough car, this, of course, giving a better distribution of the weight and taking care of some of the increase in the weight of the body and number of passengers. The limitation as to the axle loadings could not be overcome by the adoption of six-wheeled trucks, even though their use were not prohibited by the sharp curvature, as this would only involve a heavier truck with practically the same concentration of load so far as the bridge structures are concerned.

Some important improvements are to be introduced in the equipment of the cars. The combined car and air-line couplers (described in Engineering News, Feb. 29, 1912) have proven very satisfactory, and in addition to these couplers a device is to be installed in the new equipment which will also permit the automatic coupling of the electrical connections (10 in all). The coupling and uncoupling will be entirely under the control of the motorman in the cab and be governed by an interlocking device so that the electrical connection cannot be made until the air-line coupling is complete and the brakes are under control. Similarly to uncouple, the release of the electrical connection by the motorman permits him to release the devices so that the air and train couplings will part. It is hoped by these devices to materially decrease the number of accidents to men uncoupling cars, and also to reduce the time and expense of making up trains.

Before the introduction of this automatic coupler the link-and-pin type had been in general use, but even with eight-car trains on the Interborough, the breaking in two of the trains was frequent enough to show that the limit had been reached for this type of couplings. The new coupler has satisfactorily stood all the strains due to these causes, and the introduction of 10-car trains made it almost an absolute necessity. Electric pneumatic brake control wiil be used on the new equipment, insuring more nearly simultaneous action of the brakes on all the cars.

The signal to the motorman is given by the closing of an electric circuit when all the doors of the train are closed. This has been in use successfully for some little time already, and not only saves the delay due to transmitting the signal from car to car by hand, but also acts as a safety device in preventing the starting of the train while any door is open.

A species of weighing device has been introduced in connection with the air-brake system to maintain the same ratio of braking power on loaded and empty cars. As the car is stopped at the station, the variation in the load due to the discharge or receipt of passengers, actuates a piston in an auxiliary air cylinder, directly connected to the jam-cylinder. The variation in the position of this piston in the auxiliary cylinder regulates the volume of the jam cylinder, thereby regulating the effective pressure obtained from a given amount of air; thus when the car is fully loaded the volume of the auxiliary cylinder is at its minimum, and when the car is empty it is at its maximum. When the doors are closed it is automatically locked in this position until they are opened at the next station, thus preventing any change from variations in the loading due to the vibration and oscillation of the moving train.

A similar device is to be applied to the accelerating system. At present this has to be adjusted so that it will not slip the wheels of an unloaded car. With the proposed device, however, it will be so adjusted that it will be increased under load.

By these various devices it is expected to save six minutes in time between 59th St. and Coney Island. Deceleration from 50 miles per hour will be accomplished at the rate of 3 mi. per hr. per sec. (on the emergency) as compared with the present maximum of 2 mi. per hr. per sec., and from the lower rates of speed at higher rates of deceleration, while acceleration will be at the rate of 1½ mi. per hr. per sec.

 

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?132294

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?132295

http://www.nycsubway.org/cars/bmt-ab.html

[daveklepper]

One thing missing, however.   Stiollwell's consultinh work for "The New York Municipal Railway," a subsidiary of Brooklyn Rapid Transit, which morphed into Brooklyn Manhatan Transit after the Malbone St. disaster, resulting in the design of the standard BMT steel cars, the Am B, BX, and BT units, the 69-foot 10-fit wide cars.  Can you find that material?

[Firelock76]

And I though Mr. Stillwell was just Erie passenger coaches.  Whatta guy!

[daveklepper]

Absolutely terrrific material.   Thanks loads!

[wanswheel]

United States Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce hearings on railroad revenues and expenses, Washington, D.C., June 23, 1921

TESTIMONY OF LEWIS B. STILLWELL

(The witness was duly sworn by the chairman)

The Chairman [Sen. Albert B. Cummins]. Will you state your name and your general relation to the subject under investigation?

Mr. Stillwell. My name is Lewis B. Stillwell. Residence, Lakewood, N.J. Member of the board of economics and engineering appointed by the Association of Owners of Railroad Securities.

The Chairman. State your former experience in regard to matters of this sort.

Mr. Stillwell. My first 10 years of professional work were with Mr. George Westinghouse, who, as you know, was exceedingly active and very much interested in everything relating to railroad operations, with special reference to safety and economics. For the last 20 years I have been in consulting practice, with offices in New York, and my work has been chiefly, or very largely, the engineering direction of the rapid transit development in New York and in that vicinity for the Inter-Borough Co. and the Hudson & Manhattan, and the Westchester, and a number of other companies. I have also specialized in power-transmission development.

My attention has been particular directed to the question of car construction by the fact that in operating a railroad by electricity one has before him at all times an accurate record of the amount of energy or power required for the operation. It is measured and recorded by instruments which tell with great precision just what he is doing in the way of use of energy, and consequently in the use of coal.

It was as a result of the concentration of my attention and that of my staff on that subject that when the Hudson and Manhattan tubes between New York and New Jersey were equipped (as it happened in that case, we accepted responsibility for the whole equipment, from the coal pile to and including the rolling stock) that I raised the question of unnecessary waste in the steel passenger cars. And under the authority of the president of the company I employed several of the very best car designers that I could get hold of. We worked at the design of those cars. The results were approved by the builders, and those cars have been in operation 10 or 12 years.

A little later the New York, Westchester & Boston retained us to design thier rolling stock, and in that case we had a very illuminating experience. We designed a full-sized car - it was 72 feet, I think over all - and before obtaining the bids the president of the company said to me, "I should like, if you have no objection, to obtain at the same time bids on the car of the same dimensions used by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad," an electrical car operated on what we call the multiple unit system. I told him that I thought that would be a very wise thing to do, and it was done, and bids were obtained on both designs. We found a difference in the weight of the car body alone of 19,500 pounds, and in the cost of the car body, according to the bids submitted, of $4,000 per car. At the same time it was admitted by the car builder, and I think by everybody who looked at the car, that the lighter car was one which was essentially stronger, and particularly that it would afford greater protection to passengers in case of a collision or derailment.

The Chairman. This difference was in favor of your plan?

Mr. Stillwell. It was in favor of the car which my men designed. I did not do it personally; I am not a competent car designer personally, but I directed the work. And I could explain the reasons for the difference in weight and cost, but they are somewhat technical.

The Chairman. That is not material.

Mr. Stillwell. No.

The Chairman. You may proceed with your statement.

Mr. Stillwell. The board of economics and engineering, representing the National Association of Owners of Railroad Securities and the National Railway Service Corporation has been instructed to investigate and report upon rolling stock now used by the railroads with a view to its further standardization and the reduction of expense by improvements in design, construction, and maintenance.

The board has been organized so recently that it is not in position at this time to do more than indicate lines along which it believes improvement can be effected and illustrate by approximate figures, subject to correction as a result of investigation and further study, some of the economic results which it is believed can be attained. In approaching the subject, the board considers it not as related to individual railroads but to the railroads as a whole.

In compliance with Federal laws and rules of the Interstate Commerce Commission, all freight cars used in interchange service are now equipped with automatic air brakes, automatic couplers, and various other safety devices, such as ladders, devices for uncoupling, etc. The American Railway Association and its mechanical division from time to time have advocated policies of standardization which, to a considerable extent, have been adopted by the railroads. The American Railway Association, however, while it can recommend, can not enforce its recommendations upon the individual railroads. The board of economics and engineering believes that the National Railway Service Corporation, representing the security holders as a whole, and in position to secure the necessary capital, can attain many if not all of those objectives which the railroads apparently have been unable to reach. If the railroads will cooperate with its efforts to secure results so desirable to all concerned, there is every reason to expect that further and important economies can be secured.

Among the objectives toward which the board has planned to direct its investigation and efforts, the following may be mentioned:

(a) Further standardization of freight and passenger cars.

(b) Stabilizing of orders for new equipment and for replacement and repairs.

(c) Establishment of a system of periodic repairs of freight cars.

(d) Strengthening or retirement of weak cars, or their restriction to local service on home lines.

Freight cars: Standardization of freight cars as affecting interchangeability has already been accomplished in large degree. The railroads are using, however, even in identical service, cars differing materially in strength, weight, capacity, and durability.

From the experience gained in operating these cars, a limited number of standard types and sizes should be selected or developed for interchange service and thereafter adhered to, except in special cases where the reasons for deviation may unquestionably be controlling.

I imagine there will always be some special cases where insistence upon the use of general standards that might best fit average conditions would be unwise, as being perhaps not the most economical thing that could be done. I have in mind such a case as that of the Virginian Tidewater Railroad, a coal road hauling practically nothing but coal, the load being down grade. In that case the management has recently ordered and placed in operation a thousand cars carrying 120 tons of coal each. I should not presume to say that that might not be a wise thing to do, although it is in contravention of the general principle of general standardization.

Standardization should not preclude development and improvement in design and material, but should secure interchangeability as regards component parts, and it should define minimum limits of strength of essential parts. This can be done without sacrificing the advantages of competition between manufacturers in the development and sale of their specialties, as the establishment of minimum limits in no way precludes progress by improvement of material or design within the dimension limits fixed by the interchangeability rule.

It is to be expected that from time to time improvements in the production of malleable iron, of steel castings, of other materials used in car construction, will be developed. No standardization, unless absolutely necessary, should stand in the way of the prompt utilization of such improvements, and the standardization which we have in mind and which everybody else has in mind, I think, would in no way preclude such progress. The standardization which has been carried out in a considerable degree by the railroads, so far as freight car equipment is concerned, has been limited, practically, however, to such matters as the dimensions of journals, the diameters of axles and other important details, which naturally have engaged the attention of the mechanical departments and which have helped very much to increase reliability in railway service. But so far as I know there has been little, if any, systematic effort to standardize with reference to cheapening the cost of car construction or of maintenance, so far as the car body, the main parts of the car, are concerned.

Each railroad's mechanical department determines about what it thinks is right, and discusses the subject with the car builders, draws its specifications, and the cars are ordered by the individual road. The result being that there is a very great complication and variety of parts, particularly spare parts, which must be kept on hand at all interchange points where repairs are made, or if they are not kept on hand, and they rarely are, then the car when broken down must be unloaded and it must wait until the arrival of some spare part, which comes perhaps from a very long distance.

Senator Pomerene. The thought you want to leave with us is that the standardization of the railway companies thus far is as to parts, rather than as to the whole car.

Mr. Stillwell. Yes; that is it.

Senator Kellogg. You do not pretend, of course, to say that one type of car would answer for the whole United States?

Mr. Stillwell. No, sir.

Senator Pomerene. Well, the Government regulation thought differently.

Mr. Stillwell. Yes; but I think they went too far.

Senator Kellogg. They tried for six months to standardize the cars; made a great many blunders, and gave it up, didn't they?

Mr. Stillwell. Well, I don't know whether they reached any conclusions finally, but no conclusion of theirs has been adopted so far as I know, Senator.

Senator Kellogg. Now, a grain car out in my country that carries grain in the bulk has got to be a very tight car so that there will be no leakage and no water coming in it. The same is not necessary for carrying a great mass of commodities, is it?

Mr. Stillwell. Not to the same degree. Prevention of leakage, of course, is necessary.

Senator Kellogg. Well, I am speaking of leakage of grain out of the cracks in the car.

Mr. Stillwell. Yes; but I should think every respectable box car ought to be constructed with such degree of tightness that it would not leak very much grain.

Senator Kellogg. Do vou think it is?

Mr. Stillwell. No. I think it should be.

Senator Kellogg. Is it necessary in carrying the great mass of commodities to have it as tight as is necessary in a grain car?

Mr. Stillwell. No; not from the point of view you have in mind; but the expense of making it tight would be trilling as compared with the effect upon the life of the car.

Now, I am coming to a very important point which I have already discussed with some of the officers and engineers of several of the largest car-building companies. What I say now is based on their statement, and upon my own knowledge.

Standardization will enable the manufacturer to reduce his costs by reducing the number of rolled forms, sizes of plates, special pressed members and also dies and templates which he must provide, it will also reduce his costs by saving time and consequently overhead expense. What is perhaps still more important, it will effect a great saving of time and overhead expense when the cars are repaired.

As regards reduction in cost of manufacturing, saving of time and overhead expense, I was in Chicago not many weeks ago talking with the chief engineer of the Pullman Co. He emphasized the fact that they were practically without work, and that their overhead was going on. Of course that would have to be taken care of when they received more orders.

I believe that the number of freight cars of all types ordered for domestic use just before the war, 1914, I think the year, was approximately 300,000, and the facilities of the manufacturers were built up to meet that demand. The average number ordered for domestic account since that time has been something like 50,000, and the effect upon the cost of the car to the purchaser of course is very radical.

The Chairman. 50,000 annually?

Mr. Stillwell. Annually; yes, sir. In selecting or developing standard cars, life and weight are of the greatest economic importance. For illustration, if the country has 2,500,000 freight cars - and that is the approximate number - and the average life is 20 years, 125,000 cars per annum must be purchased for replacement. If the average life could be increased to 30 years, by improved design and systematic maintenance, the same result would be accomplished by purchasing 88,000 cars per annum. The difference, namely, 42,000 cars, at present prices, would cost about $100,000,000. Something over that figure at the present time.

Of course, that present price is more than double the pre-war price. We may expect some reduction in the very near future. Still, it is a very large amount. Now, the limits I have suggested, viz, 20 years and 30 years as representing the average life of a freight car are about the limits which are used by various companies, by various so-called authorities. I think the Interstate Commerce Commission figures the life of a car at 20 years, if I am not mistaken. But from my knowledge of the subject I think it might reasonably be expected that by designing a car with reference to its durability as well as to the other factors that enter into the problem, and particularly if it could be maintained, even in a reasonable degree, that we might expect an average life of 30 years.

Senator Pomerene. What would be the difference in the cost between the car with the life of 20 years, which you have in mind, and a theoretical car with a life of 30 years?

Mr. Stillwell. Well, Senator, I doubt if there would be any very great difference. I think there would be practically none whatever, I think it would depend, so far as the design is concerned, upon the selection of a few of the best cars that are now in use, probably with some improvements that might be thought out as a result of conference with the designers. I think that the improved design, and then more especially the method of repair, would account for that difference in life without an increased first cost.

The thing that makes the freight cars fall down now is the almost impossible -theoretically impossible - system of repair which is in actual use, due to the fact that the cars are for more than half of the time on the lines of companies which do not own them.

Senator Pomerene. Well, do you mean by that that your economies are matters of repair rather than of original construction?

Mr. Stillwell. You asked with reference to the life. I said that I think the matter of repairs would account for more of this proposed increase of life than the matter of original construction, although original construction, judging from our experience in.passenger cars, would be a very considerable factor, too. It would not necessarily involve increased cost.

In our experience with passenger cars, the cars which show the least tendency to fail, so far as we can judge from about 8 or 10 years of observation, happened to be the cheaper cars. One of my engineers a few weeks ago examined some steel passenger cars, and found that although they were less than eight years old there was a line of weakness developed just above the belt rail, due to an oversight in the structural design.

Now, the life of steel cars is going to be limited, ultimately, I think, by the factor of corrosion. Moisture gets in there at the rivets. That is going to be the thing that will kill the car ultimately. These cars showed a very serious weakening at the end of eight years, whereas lighter cars that we know of that have been in use as long as that, show no such sign. So I think that answers your question, perhaps.

Senator Pomerene. Well, yes, in a way. So you feel then that the life of a car depends practically not at all on its original construction?

Mr. Stillwell. I think you could pretty nearly say that. It depends more on a scientific design, and then upon its maintenance. As cars are designed now, there are several hundreds of mechanical departments of the different railroads responsible. Each man, or each group of men, will have certain ideas, which may be well founded, or they may not. In general, my observation is that those men who are naturally very, very busy with their routine duties of operation, have but little time, even where they have had the scientific training which is necessary, to go into the niceties of the design. Some of them know very little about it. They are, some of them, men who have come up from the ranks. And yet those men are the men who are determining the types and the general specifications of cars which a railroad owner buys.

Then those cars disappear all over the face of the United States, and they may not come back, some of them, for years, to the home road. They are repaired where they happen to break down, or at the nearest interchange point. What happens to them there depends a good deal upon the condition of the shop at the time and the feeling of the man in immediate charge. In the first place, it is a foreign car. If he is very busy, and he has a lot of cars of his own, he is very apt to accelerate the repairs and send the car out hoping that it will get off his division before it breaks down again. So it is passed along until some day it gets home, and then perhaps the damage has gone too far to make the repair possible.

But if he has a slack time in his shop, why, he welcomes that car, and he puts in as much time as he can on it. That is human nature. It is a system that can not possibly result in a proper maintenance of the cars.

Senator Pomerene. Well, you mean by that that the cars owned by these equipment associations would have a hard time of it on any and all of these roads; is that it?

Mr. Stillwell. They would unless they provide their own inspectors; there is no doubt about it.

Senator Pomerene. That may be an argument against your equipment association.

Mr. Stillwell. No; I understand, Senator, that that association has decided that in respect of any further financing of cars it will provide its own inspectors at important interchange points to cover exactly those points. As cars now in use become worn out to a point where it will no longer pay to repair them they will be replaced in general by cars of larger capacity and less aggregate weight as compared to the load carried. That is the tendency, and properly so, of course.

As regards weight of freight cars, its relation to the cost of operating railroads and the wide divergence of opinion as to what weights are necessary are illustrated by the fact that the standard box car designed by the United States Railroad Administration was criticized in a statement issued by the chairman of the executive committee of one of our most important railroad companies, as follows [reading]:

(1) The U.S.R.A. car weighs 16.3 per cent, or 3.3 tons, more than a possible one of equal load and space capacity; hence there should be an increase in its initial cost of about 16.3 per cent.

(2) Center sills, draft sills, steel side, under and end framing, roof, doors, floor, trucks, etc., etc., can be built lighter than those in the U.S.R.A. car and in every way be materially stronger.

Senator Pomerene. Whose criticism is that, Mr. Stillwell?

Mr. Stillwell. That is from a document issued by Mr. Kruttschnitt.

The Chairman. It will not be possible for you to finish your statement this morning, Mr. Stillwell, and we will ask you to continue tomorrow.

Mr. Stillwell. Very well, sir.

The Chairman. We must suspend at this time until tomorrow at 10 o'clock.

(Whereupon, at 11.40 a.m., Tuesday, June 28, 1921, an adjournment was taken until Wednesday, June 29, 1921, at 10 o'clock a.m.)

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Engineering News, June 10, 1915

Steel Suburban Passenger Cars for the Erie R.R.

The Erie R.R. has just put into service on one of its suburban passenger lines running out of Jersey City a train of steel passenger cars, which are of especial interest because their dead weight has been so reduced that they weigh no more than the old wooden equipment.

There is no doubt that the steel passenger car is the car of the future. The greater safety of passengers in wrecks in properly designed steel cars is alone sufficient to dictate their use, and there is a strong tendancy to make their adoption compulsory by Federal and state legislation. This is so well understood that the building of wood passenger cars has practically ceased and all new equipment is of steel.

A very serious drawback in the use of steel rolling stock is its weight. Most of the steel cars now in service are much heavier than the wooden cars which they displace. This additional weight is a source of expense from the time the car is put into service until it finally lands in the scrap heap. Every additional pound of weight in a railway car requires power to accelerate it every time the car is put in motion or its speed is increased, and must be hoisted up every upgrade that the car ascends. Again, the inertia of this weight when once in motion must be overcome by grinding up brakeshoes and carwheel treads every time the train slackens speed or runs down a grade. Besides this, the excessive weight of heavy rolling stock means - as every engineer in charge of track maintenance realizes - accelerated wear on rails and ties and additional expense for track maintenance.

There is a current idea that the heavier car is safer for the passengers in the event of collision or derailment. Of course cars should be substantially built, but it must be remembered that weight itself is undesirable from the standpoint of safety. The heavier the car, the greater is the stored up force to cause crushing and damage in a train accident. If, therefore, it is possible - as these new Erie cars appear to demonstrate - to build steel cars which shall not exceed in weight the old wooden cars, and still secure ample strength for the protection of passengers in the event of collision, the matter is one of great importance in connection with railway operation.

It is claimed for the new Erie cars that they are in reality stronger to resist shock in collisions and derailments than the types of steel cars hitherto built. This has been accomplished by the design of the car superstructure, and especially of the ends of the car, as hereinafter explained.

The general plans for the car have had the personal attention of President Underwood of the Erie, and the detail designs have been worked out under the supervision of William Schlafge, General Mechanical Superintendent, by L. B. Stillwell, Consulting Engineer, and Mr. Stillwell's associate, Frank M. Brinckerhoff.

In general, the plan adopted in the design is to make each side of the car a steel truss. The two trusses being rigidly braced together at the top and bottom by the car floor and roof, the whole structure forms a rigid framework. It is thus the car body which carries the load of the car, considered as a bridge spanning the distance between the truck bearings, and not the ear underframe. The car center sills are of light construction compared with the sills generally used on steel cars. As the deflection of these sills under load would be very much greater than that of the truss, it is evident that the truss and not the sills will carry most of the car loading. The center sill, however, is relied upon to resist buffing stresses and is held rigidly in line by its connection to the superstructure so that buckling cannot occur.

This type of steel car framing is really a further development of the system worked out by Mr. Stillwell and his associates some years ago in designing the cars for the New York, Westchester & Boston R.R....

In the design of these cars the possibilities of the future application of electric motive power to them was taken into consideration. The reduction in the depth of the center sill is especially favorable for the use of electric motors, and the cars have been so designed that electric motors can be applied to them with practically no structural change. The roof of the car has also been designed of sufficient strength to support a pantograph collector.

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MTA Employees' Newsletter At Your Service , August 2004

Lewis B. Stillwell (1863 -1941)

Lehigh graduate Lewis B. Stillwell was hired by Westinghouse to show that AC could be generated more cheaply than Thomas Edison's DC, transmitted long distances and converted back to DC for local use. Assigned to lead the giant Niagara Falls Powerhouse #1 project in 1895, Stillwell made the controversialdecision to operate the new system at (a low) 25 cycles per second. This set the standard for bulk power generation, transmission and conversion for the early 20th Century. When the Chicago and New York Els were electrified after Stillwell left Westinghouse in 1897, he oversaw construction and activation of huge, 25-cycle powerhouses, with substations along the rights of way to change AC to 600-volt DC for the third rail. This led to his joining the Rapid Transit Subway Company as director in 1900, then planning the imposing powerhouse on West 59th Street in Manhattan, and the eight substations that powered New York's new subway in 1904. (article by Robert W. Lobenstein, NYC Transit General Superintendent of Power Operations)

The Electrical Journal, October 1, 1895

At the annual banquet of the Western Railway Club, held in Chicago September 18, Mr. L. B. Stillwell, of the Westinghouse Electric Company, in responding to the toast  "Electricity as a Motive Power for Surface Railways," said in part:

Electricity never stretches, never breaks, weighs nothing, can be subdivided indefinitely with great ease, can turn corners without loss. It can transmit large amounts of energy at pressures easily controlled along wires of moderate size, and it never freezes. Its loss by friction is comparatively insignificant, and its other losses in comparison with every other known agent are almost negligible.

It is interesting to note that in employing electricity we are using not a solid, not a liquid, not a gas, but ether - that mysterious something which, as modern science teaches, penetrates all matter and fills all space. We cannot accurately define electricity, but this much at least is known. Electricity has to do with the same medium that transmits light; it is as swift as light and as strong as steel; it weighs nothing, and yet, if compressible at all, it is certainly less compressible than any known material. Let us say a push applied to one end of a circuit in Chicago is instantly felt at the other end in New York. We have within a few years come to recognize electricity as the nerve system of civilization. We are just beginning to realize that it is also muscle. We may hope that at no distant day great systems of electric conductors, noiseless, motionless, giving no sign of the work they are doing, radiating from central stations suitably located, will propel every car and train and every wheel of industry in our cities.

Power can be far more economically developed in large quantities than in small, even where coal is the source from which it is derived, and, making all allowances for losses in transmission through conductors and conversions in motors, it is cheaper to-day, so far as the cost of power is concerned, to propel suburban trains by electric motors than by steam locomotives; and where a transmission system is adopted it becomes possible to utilize any cheap power which may be found within reasonable distances - say twenty-five or even fifty miles. It is entirely within the limits of the possibilities of electric traction as now developed to operate trains within the city limits of Chicago by power transmitted from the drainage canal near Joliet.

In view of the facts to which I have briefly referred we are, I think, justified in concluding that a broad view of the situation indicates that electric traction is destined to generally supersede all other systems of traction in our large cities and their suburbs. To what extent electric traction will, in time, compete with steam in cross-country service it is yet too early to say, but, if I may be allowed to express my personal opinion, I should say that where distances are great and traffic comparatively light, it will be a long time before steam locomotives are superseded. For the cities, however, the change cannot well come too soon. It is true that the best means of transmitting power from the central station to the moving car has not been conclusively fixed upon. The overhead trolley, the conduit, and the systems in which the contact points under the moving car are charged as the car passes, and discharged when the car has passed - these, and perhaps others, are to-day in practical operation, and in no small degree successful, but they have not been in use for a sufficient length of time to make it clear that any one is superior to its competitor - in fact, it is altogether probable that here, as well as elsewhere, we shall find that no one system is best for all cases; that various methods must be employed to meet different conditions.

The Electrical Engineer, February 10, 1897

MR. L. B. STILLWELL, electrical engineer of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, has resigned, and will hereafter be connected with the Niagara Power and Cataract Construction Companies as their electrical director at the Falls. The responsibilities of the new position will be large and growing; but in Mr. Stillwell an eminently wise selection has been made.

Western Electrician, September 5, 1900

Mr. L. B. Stillwell has resigned as electrical director of the Niagara Falls Power Company, and Mr. Harold Winthrop Buck has been appointed to the position.

Those who recall Mr. Stillwell's extended connection with the Niagara power development will look upon this change with some surprise. Ever since the Niagara development was projected Mr. Stillwell has had to do with the plans. While electrical engineer and assistant manager of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company, all the electrical apparatus now in use in the present central station was built by that company under his supervision and since March, 1897, he has had charge of and has directed the installation as electrical director. It is announced that Mr. Stillwell will go to New York City and there open an office as consulting electrical engineer - a field to which for the last two years he has devoted much of his attention, notably in the equipment of the elevated railways of the Manhattan Railway company, which is now proceeding under his direction.

Science, November 16, 1900

Mr. L. B. Stillwell, formerly electrical director of the Niagara Falls Power Company, and now in charge of the electrical installation work of the Manhattan Railway Company, has been appointed electrical director of the New York Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company.

The Electrical Age, March 1906

L. B. Stillwell has been appointed electrical director in charge of the various Belmont properties in and near New York City. These include the Interborougb Rapid Transit Railway, Section No. 1, which is the subway down to the City Hall; the Interborough Rapid Transit Railway, Section No. 2, the section from the City Hall to Brooklyn; the Manhattan Elevated Railway; the New York & Queens County Railway, of Long Island City; the New York City-Interborough Railway, of the Bronx; the New York & Long Island Railroad, popularly known as the "Steinway Tunnel"; the Long Island Electric Railway Company, which owns an electric railway between Brooklyn, Jamaica and Far Rockaway; the New York & Long Island Traction Company, which owns an electric railway between Mineola, Hempstead and Freeport, and the City Island Railway, which is at present operated by horses.

Electric Railway Journal, July 27, 1912

L. B. Stillwell, New York, N. Y., consulting engineer, has recently published a very handsome pamphlet entitled "Steel Cars, Side Truss Construction." The pamphlet is descriptive, of course, of the Brinckerhoff type of unit-panel side truss form, as represented in the cars of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad and the New York, Westchester & Boston Railroad, which were designed by the firm of L. B. Stillwell. The pamphlet also discusses analytically the problem of car construction from the standpoint of the safety and comfort of passengers and cost and describes all of the framework of the two cars mentioned.

Electric Railway Journal, February 27, 1915

Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton Railway, Hazleton, Pa., will issue specifications next week for ten all-steel cars. The cars are designed by L. B. Stillwell, consulting engineer, 100 Broadway, New York.

Electrical World, March 5, 1921

Lewis Buckley Stillwell

Whose recommendations led to the adoption of 60 cycles as the standard frequency in the United States, and to whom belongs much of the credit for making alternating current a commercial success in the early days

Although the genius makes the discovery of the fundamental principle, it frequently remains for the clearheaded, practical thinker to make the conception a commercial success. Because of his engineering vision in the early days of electric service, to L. B. Stillwell belongs the credit for removing many of the troubles that impeded the progress of the use of alternating current. Back in 1887 the Westlnghouse company installed at New Orleans what was a record-size alternating-current lighting plant, but the feeders were carried on the same poles, and when the current was turned on it was found that the light intensity fluctuated so greatly that the service was useless. It looked as though alternating current was a failure until young Stillwell, but a year out of college, was sent to New Orleans. In less than two days he had by shifting the circuits eliminated the trouble. This was the first time that mutual inductance had been encountered commercially. It was not surprising then to find him working on this problem of induction, his labors resulting later in the issue of patents to him for a booster to regulate and control feeder circuit voltage, now commonly known as an induction regulator.

Upon his return from a visit to Europe in 1890 Mr. Stillwell was appointed chairman of the Westinghouse committee to select for that company a standard frequency. As a result 30 cycles and 60 cycles were chosen, and the latter has since become the standard for this country. Soon after this Mr. Stillwell was asked to direct the technical development of the plans for the first Niagara installation, which secured for Westlnghouse the initial contract for three 5,000-hp. alternators. Subsequently, in 1897, he became electrical director of the Niagara Falls Power Company and the Cataract Construction Company, remaining until 1900, when the first 50,000-hp. plant at Niagara Falls had been completed. Other important contributions to the art by Mr. Stillwell are the time-limit circuit breaker and switchboard control for remote operation.

Born In Scranton In 1863, he was educated at Wesleyan and Lehigh, where he completed in 1885 a course in electrical engineering, taking mechanical engineering the following year. From 1886 until 1890 he was assistant electrician for the Westlnghouse interests, and for the next seven years he was chief electrical engineer. In 1900 he went to New York to engage in consulting engineering, having been for the year previous retained in that capacity by the Manhattan Railway Company. That year he became electrical director for the New York City subway and elevated traction systems and later consulting engineer in charge of electrical equipment for the four Hudson River tunnels.

Mr. Stillwell's work has been of that high order which brings recognition from the engineering profession. He is a past-president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the American Institute of Consulting Engineers and was one of the two engineers elected to the board of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States when for the first time the engineering profession received such recognition from that body.

Excerpt from The Story of Electricity by Thomas Commerford Martin (1919)

In the electrical field Mr. Stillwell has taken out numerous patents, especially in relation to the regulation and control of alternating current circuits. The original broad patents covering inductive regulation were issued to him in 1888. He is the inventor also of the method now universally used to localize interruptions of service by means of time limit circuit breakers and of the method of pilot switchboard now generally used in large plants to guide the operators in the manipulation of power circuits.

In the mechanical field he is joint inventor with his partner, Mr. F. M. Brinckerhoff, of the system of framing steel passenger cars, which makes each complete side of the car from underframe to deck a truss girder, and of the anti-telescoping bulk-head construction in which the upper or compression member of the truss is utilized for longitudinal support of the upper end of a steel bulkhead at each end of the car.

Proceedings of the New York Railroad Club, March 18, 1921

Mr. L. B. STILLWELL - I had not expected to speak tonight, until I thought of a paper which was written by the late George Westinghouse and which has never been published, and yesterday I asked Mr. Herman Westinghouse whether he was going to be here at this meeting, and whether, if so, he would not present some part of this paper. He said he sailed for Europe tomorrow and could not be here tonight which he regretted; but he gave me permission to bring to your attention several paragraphs in this paper which I think bear directly on this subject. They show that Mr. George Westinghouse, practically to the very end of his life-this paper is dated March, 1913-was thinking and working along these lines of the mechanics of transportation. His paper was called "Safety on Railways, High Speeds-Some of the Effects of Heavy Locomotives and Cars," and the first quotation to which I want to call attention is this:

"When, from one cause or another, such as a broken rail, a train is derailed, the retarding action of the brakes and of the wheels running over the permanent way often brings the train to a stop without material damage. In the case of a collision between two trains, however, the impact force, varying according to the square of the speed, as I have said, is instantly ready for destructive action. The effect on the passengers of a head-on collision between two trains of cars of enormous strength running at high speed would be almost as great as if the passengers had fallen a distance of 100 feet or more, and the reason why the loss of life is lessened by the telescoping of some of the cars is because the destruction of some of the cars of the trains absorbs the momentum of the other cars over a considerable distance."

Mr. Symons has referred to the very large amount of energy involved in the case of collision. Calculations, theoretical calculation as to just how those large amounts of energy are dissipated, is very unsatisfactory. We have tried to work it out, but it always involves assumptions as to the amount of material that is in the path of the invading car, the distances through which each plate or sill or other element of the material-is going to be bent; and altogether I have never seen any satisfactory theoretical result. It seems to me that the method Mr. Brinkerhoff has adopted, namely, the study of wrecks as shown by photographs, which show in the case of various wrecks the situation as it exists at various stages in collision, gives one something like a general quantitative idea from which you can. deduce conclusions as to the general effects of reinforced end structure such as this cable reinforcement which Mr. Brinkerhoff has proposed.

In the case of a certain wreck several years ago, where a heavy freight train ran into the rear end of a standing section of Pullmans, there were 19 or 20 people killed, and those people and everything in that car were compressed in one solid mass that occupied a space of 12 feet at the far end of the car. Everything in that car had been jammed up against the end of the car-that mass was the buffer. The people in the next car, as I recall it, were hardly disturbed.

Now, the desirable thing, of course, is to distribute the structural damage; and, if you can localize it outside the cars and in the platforms-it is a good thing to do.

Another point that Mr. Westinghouse made and that I wish to refer to was with reference to the great dangers that result from high speed and excessive weight. He relates the results of a test made on the Lake Shore near Toledo, where a heavy train with two locomotives and 10 steel cars was operated at a speed of 60 miles an hour, all brakes being in perfect condition, and automatic recording apparatus provided, and it ran a certain distance beyond the point where the brake was applied. Then that same train was brought again past that point at 90 miles an hour, and the brakes were applied, and that time the train was still going 60 miles an hour when it was 700 feet beyond the point where it had previously stopped. He brings that out as a graphic illustration of the dangers of extremely high speed, involving, as he says, signal blocks of pretty nearly a mile-4,500 feet, I think-and the conclusion that he deduces is that speeds ought to be limited-that they ought not to be excessive.

Another point he refers to in another paragraph, which I should like to read.

"It often happens when developments are made under pressure, that all of the questions involved do not receive adequate attention. We now have in use and under construction a very large number of cars of weights greatly beyond what would have been thought practicable ten years ago. A modern steel Pullman car of the present construction weighs 150,000 pounds against a weight of 90,000 pounds of the Pullman car of 1900. The steels employed in their construction are of the ordinary low-carbon quality, greatly below the best quality of steel obtainable in strength, and when one's attention is directed actively to the subject, it most naturally occurs that owing to the fact that a dead extra weight is transported at heavy cost, it would be worth the consideration of car builders and engineers and of steel manufacturers to design types of cars involving the use of the highest grades of steel formed in the most advantageous shapes, and it is not unreasonable to believe that cars can be constructed which will weigh not over two-thirds as much as the steel cars now in use and those being built, and although only two-thirds as heavy, the strength of such lighter cars could be made to exceed that of the heavier cars, so that they would, as a matter of fact, stand a heavier impact blow, notwithstanding the fact that the stored force in the train would only be two-thirds as great as in the modern steel train. It follows that locomotives having only two-thirds of the tractive force would be required in place of the very heavy locomotives which are now used, or that it would often be possible to move a train of given length and carrying capacity with one locomotive instead of having to use two locomotives."

I recall that on one of the last occasions on which I saw Mr. Westinghouse, he said, "Well, how is your steel car coming on?" I said, "I am not pushing it very hard; we have a lot of other things to do, and it has been more or less incidental with us." He asked, "How much weight can you save?" I said, "I think we can save from 10 to 20 per cent. in the car body." "You ought to make it 33 per cent.," he said. I told him I did not see how we could do it, our idea being to use standard forms and grades of steel, and design the car to utilize the full height of the side frames as trusses to carry the weight, thus getting rid of excessively heavy center sills and underframe construction.

There is another point about the center sill that I want to make. I don't know how much importance you will attach to it, but I think in the long run it is going to be quite important. Some of the steel cars now used, one of these days, will come to the point where you will want to use them on branch lines or on divisions of the road which-perhaps not in the next 10 years or 20 years, but before these cars have gone to the scrap heap-will be electrified.

Now, with deep center sills, you can't put your electrical apparatus underneath the car without lifting the car too high for practical purposes; and one of the incidental results and one of the things we aimed at in working up this side frame construction-was to get that under body clear for the ultimate addition of electrical equipment. I think that is not unimportant.

Another point is this: The life of these cars, so far as any one can see, is going to be determined ultimately by the effects of corrosion. If your car is stiff and one piece does not work over the other, and if you keep it well painted, it is pretty hard to say how long it is going to last. It will be a very long time, so far as the car body is' concerned. But if the car springs and sags and the plates work, it is going to be impossible, practically, to avoid corrosion in the joints and the gradual destruction of rivets. This, to my mind, is going to be the limiting feature in the life of steel cars. If you go to the ends of some of these steel cars now, you will find evidence very apparent that plates are beginning to slip a little in some structures as is shown by the broken line of the paint at the joints.

Now, the economic aspect of the problem, in its broad view, is important. These cars have been called the Stillwell cars. I want to say that I did not give them that name. I have been calling them the Brinckerhoff cars. But he, apparently, wants to avoid some degree of responsibility, and wherever he goes I find it called the Stillwell car. We have co-operated in working up this thing, starting with the idea of saving energy. When you are operating an electric road or designing the equipment for one, your mind is pretty well concentrated on the energy consumed, and weight looms up as a big item. In steam railroad practice, that has been relatively a minor item, until rather recently. It is getting more important now, with coal doubling in price. The thing we started out to do was to save weight, and that was done first in the cars of the Hudson & Manhattan Road, which have been running a good many years.

I am not talking about trucks; we are not anxious to design or build trucks. The car body is the thing we are particularly interested in, because the truck problem is very complicated, and I must say there is a whole lot about it I don't pretend to know. The car body, however, of the Erie Main Line car, is 8,000 pounds lighter than the average steel car of other designs used on 12 representative American roads. Now, that difference in weight, other things being equal - ought to mean quite a material saving. If you are buying cars, I find that they cost about 20 cents a pound, but if you show the builder how to save 8,000 pounds in weight it is only worth five cents a pound, for some reason. However, taking five cents a pound, even that is some $400 for each car, which is worth saving when applied to the very large number of cars to be ordered, when the railroads are in position to order them.

The greater saving by far, however, is in the cost of hauling. Now, I don't know what the cost of hauling is. Some of the railroads used before the war two mills per ton mile. On that basis today I suppose it might be four mills per ton mile, and if so, taking the average mileage of the passenger cars of the 12 railroads to which I have referred, this 8,000 pounds reduction of weight would amount to a saving of about $900 per car per annum in the cost of hauling. So that you see it runs into very large amounts of money from the economic standpoint and is important in that aspect as well as others.