ELECTRIFYING RAILWAYS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 September 1924, Page 8

ELECTRIFYING RAILWAYS.

PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Professor Parker Smith is con firming his articles, on the of foreign railways in “World Power,” in the June issue of which a discussion of the United States systems will, be found. With ithe exception of the Virginian railroad, the electrification of which was decided upon in 1923, practically all th« railroads considered by the author were electrically equipped before the war. Ly the end of 1920 there were eighteen railways of a main line character electrified, and these are noticeable by one particular fact. Not only have the American railways and manufacturers been pioneers in low-ten.sion direct current, but they have also, evoi.-ed the high voltage direct current system. The electrified mileage is . much greater than in any other country (1517 route miles and 3346 track miles), while the Chicago, Milwaukee,, and •' St. Paul railway has the longest electrified section in the woirld,® amounting to 646 route miles and 1 860 track nines. In America, there, is no, “national” system, as is seen in European countries. No single system, it is suggested, could satisfactorily meet the very great variation in traffic densities, geographical conditions, and power supply. Again, whereas many of the earlier electrifications were undertaken to meet the special needs of suburban lines, the later schemes have been carried out to. increase the carrying capacity of the lines concerned or to enable difficult and sparsely populated routes to he worked more economically. Further, the trend of recent locomotive design in the United States is in the direction of geared drives. With few exceptions, side rods and colliding rods are not used, pure rotary motion being much preferred. This practice leads to the use Of several motors per locomotive and a radically different arrangement from the side-rod, and coupling rod drives peculiar to European practice where the number of motors is generally small and centre of gravity high.