One thing more before we are entirely away from this entire question of the electric operation of the standard railroad: The use of this silent, all-powerful motive force is by no means to be confined to suburban or to branch lines. The New Haven management is steadily engaged in lengthening and extending its New York suburban zone. In the beginning, while it still was in a decidedly experimental state, this zone extended only from the Grand Central Terminal to Stamford, Connecticut--some thirty-four miles all told. Now it has been extended and completed through to New Haven, practically twice the original distance. In a little while it is probable that the New Haven will have completed another link in this great electric chain which slowly but surely it is weaving for itself. And there are traffic experts in New England who do not hesitate to express their belief that in another ten years, perhaps in half that time, all through traffic between New York and Boston--235 miles--will move behind electric locomotives. There is nothing particularly visionary in this. Last year I rode a longer distance than that on a standard express train--the Olympian, one of the finest trains upon the North American continent, which means, of course, in the whole world. And the electrification of the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, whose boast it is that it owns and operates the Olympian, was then but half complete. To be even more exact, only one-half of the first unit of installation, from Harlowton, Montana, to Avery, Idaho, had been installed. Workmen were still busy west of Deer Lodge, rigging, stretching the wires, finishing the substations and making the busy line ready for electric locomotives all the way through to Avery. And it was announced that when Avery was reached and the first contract-section completed--440 miles, about equal to the distance between New York and Buffalo--work would be started on another great link to the west; this one to reach the heart of Spokane itself. And in a little longer time electric locomotives would be hauling the yellow trains of the Milwaukee right down to tidewater at Seattle--a span of trollified line equaling roughly about one-half the entire run from Chicago to Puget Sound.[9] [Illustration: THE OLYMPIAN The crack train of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, drawn by an Electric Motor.] [Illustration: ORE TRAINS HAULED BY ELECTRICITY Where the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul and the Butte, Anaconda, & Pacific Railways cross near Butte, Montana.]