Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1900: Vol. 56, Nov. 1899 to April, 1900Various
History
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1900: Vol. 56, Nov. 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
This is the construction used upon the New York, New Haven, and
Hartford Railroad, as can be seen from Fig. 30, which is a photograph
of a section of the road. The third rail, it will be seen, is raised
but slightly from the ties, just about as shown in Fig. 29. One
objection to this construction is that persons and animals can receive
shocks by touching the center rail and one of the side ones at the same
time, as, for example, by standing with one foot on each. Such shocks
would not prove fatal to men, as the currents used for railway work
are not of a sufficiently high electro-motive force to produce death,
but the shock is nevertheless very severe. Horses and cattle would be
killed outright, as these animals are not able to withstand as strong
a shock as human beings. To render the third-rail system safer, and
also to improve the insulation of the conducting rail, the construction
illustrated in Fig. 31 has been devised. The only difference between
it and Fig. 29 is that the rail _b_, instead of resting upon the ties
between the tracks, is carried upon a side support _c c_ and is housed
in with boards _a a_. To take the current from it a wheel is mounted
upon a shaft projecting from the side of the car truck.
[Illustration: FIG. 32--ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE ON THE BUFFALO AND LOCKPORT
RAILWAY.]
From the foregoing brief description of the essential features of the
several systems devised for conveying current to the moving car by
means of conductors placed underground or upon the surface, it can
be seen that while the result can be accomplished in many ways, and
is actually accomplished in a number of instances, nothing has been
brought forward so far that is as free from objection as the simple
trolley, if we disregard the unsightliness of the latter. It is this
unsightliness that has created a demand for something else, but the
substitutes, while capable of doing the work, are far more costly and
can not be said to be as reliable under all conditions of weather.
The sphere of action of the electric-railway motor is not confined to
street railways or suburban transit, but extends to the legitimate
domain of the steam locomotive. In many places electric locomotives are
used to move freight trains made up of cars of the largest capacity,
this same work having been done formerly by steam locomotives. In
the city of Baltimore, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad uses electric
locomotives, of greater capacity than any steam locomotives so far
made, to draw trains through the tunnel that passes under the city. The
general appearance of an electric locomotive can be judged from Fig.
32, which shows an engine of average size at the head of a long freight
train.
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