120 MILES AN HOUR ON AN ELECTRICAL BICYCLE RAILWAY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XI, 14 March 1896, Page 288

120 MILES AN HOUR ON AN ELECTRICAL BICYCLE RAILWAY.

IX LiffwUti ftf-.ia* there is as interesting article by the author of * Wonders ot Modern Mechanism. * It is a ■iesrriptiou of the railway which if he is to be believed, is destined to revolutionise all oar ideas of rapid transit. An application is at the present moment lying before the United States Senate for making a line between NewYork and Washington which is to be worked on the Brott Rapid Transit System, the one condition of its construction being that the scheduled time is not to be less

than one hundred miles an hour, which necessitates a speed of one hundred and twenty miles an hour to cover loss of time from stoppages.

The General Electric Company of New York is willing to guarantee all the mechanism necessary for working such a road, and also to undertake that they will main* tain a speed of one hundred and fifty miles an hoar. The central principle of the Brott railway is that the cars run upon one wheel in the centre instead of two wheels at the sides. There is only one wheel on an elevated track. The traction wheels hare small nanges. and there are small side wheels which touch the side supports with pneumatic tyres if the cars should oscillate. The electric current will be taken from a conductor on the trolly principle, but the conductor will be carried under the:

cars. Power stations will be erected every fifty miles. An absolutely straight line will be preserved. Light trains of two cars will be run, and the supporting poles will be twenty-five feet apart. An experimental line of thirty miles is to be built between Washington and Chesapeake Bay. Xo iron

or steel is required excepting for the truck rails * The centre rail win have normally an elevation of about two feet, except at road-crossings, where it will be elevated to afford passage underneath. The cross-ties may lie on the ground or be elevated, as the nature of the ground renders desirable. A steel-trass construction wiU be used in crossing rivers or deep gullies. The wood used in the construction is to be subjected to a preserving process. The peculiar storev-and-a-half design of the car should be noted, the half-story being below, and constituting a room forty feet long, six feet wide, and four feet high, suitable for carrying baggage, the mails, etc. It is reached by outside doors. Above is the compartment for passengers. Another line is projected in the vicinity of Minneapolis. * The simple construction would seem to be well suited foe pleasure railways and light passenger traffic, and the success of these lines would undoubted! v lead to the con - straction of express lines between the great business centres of the world.’