THE ELECTRIC MOTOR TESTS ON THE NEW YORK ELEVATED RAILROAD

Too Long; Didn't Read

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers at its last meeting of the season, held June 25, again considered the subject of electrical traction, the paper presented by Mr. Leo Daft being based upon some recent electrical work on the elevated railroads and its bearing on the rapid transit problem. The Railroad Gazette gives the following abstract: He introduced the subject with a tribute to the efficiency of the elevated railroad system as it is now operated by steam, with special reference to that section of it known as the Ninth Avenue line, upon which his experiments with the electric motor have been conducted, over which passengers are now conveyed a distance of five miles in 26 minutes for five cents, which he considered the best and cheapest municipal rapid transit in the world, and which is operated with a higher degree of safety than any other railroad in the world making an equal number of stops per 100 miles. On a recent holiday, April 30 last, 835,720 passengers were carried upon the entire system without noticeable detention or accident. The rapidly increasing traffic makes the demand for better facilities a pressing one, and as the average half million now carried daily will soon become a million, it appears doubtful if any method can be devised of providing for the growth by the use of steam motors on the present structures, which are now taxed to their utmost. To the mind of the mechanical engineer, having in view the ordinary coefficients of tractive ability, there is no remedy for this. The speaker stated that these coefficients were not entirely trustworthy. He reiterated his previously expressed opinion, based on frequent experiments, that there is a decided increase in traction gained by the passage of the electric current from the wheels to the rails, giving the details of one test where a motor with a load making a total of 600 lb. climbed a gradient of 2,900 ft. per mile, starting from a state of rest. He stated that some of those people who had ridiculed his statements had finally admitted that they were true.