Electricity and Steam. Railway Traction of the Future.

Progress, Volume V, Issue 8, 1 June 1910, Page 262

Electricity and Steam. Railway Traction of the Future.

The application of electric traction to steam railroads continues to show gratifying results. Although no figures have been mad« public as to its economy, the electrical operation of the suburban tracks

and terminals of the New York Central and New Haven lines has been carried on throughout the year with unbroken success. The New York Central electric zone is being extended to "White Plains, and the New Haven Company are building a mile of experimental overhead line beyond Stamford, preparatory to the extension of the system to New Haven. The latter company have also ordered two experimental freight locomotives, and it is the intention to operate the whole line from New York to New Haven, a distance of nearly eighty miles, with electric traction both for freight and passenger-service. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company are having fifty locomotives of 4,000 maximum, horse-power built for the operation of their tunnels and terminals in New York city. An important improvement in these engines is the removal of the motor from the axle and placing it above the frame, with a view to raising the centre of gravity and reducing the stresses on the track and roadbed. Mention should be made here of a most important enlargement of the capacity of central power stations by the introduction of low-pressure turbines between the low-pressure cylinders and the condensers, in such power stations as are now operated by reciprocating engines. In the 59th Street power station of the New York subways the maximum output of 8,000 kilowatts of the big crosscompound engines has been increased to 16,000 kilowatts by interposing a Curtiss turbine in this manner.