The Street Railway Journal

Vol. VIII. NEW YORK $ CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER. No. 9. The Annual Convention of the New York State the organization of the Rochester Railway Co., Mr. Beck- Street Railway Association. ley was vice-president and secretary, and succeeded in the following year to the office of president of that company, The tenth annual meeting of the Street Railway which position he now holds. Association of the State of New York will be held at the Mr. Beckley is also largely interested in street railway United States Hotel, Saratoga Springs, on Tuesday, Sep- affairs of other cities, where his administration, as in Roches- tember 20 at io a. m. As already stated, there will ter, been marked with great executive ability fore- , be has and two papers presented to the Association, entitled “Recent sight. The paper read by him at the last meeting of the Improvements in Cable Traction,” by Geo. W. McNulty, New York Street Railway Association on “ Electric Mo-* engineer of the Broadway tive Power for Street & Seventh Avenue Rail- Railways,” shows that he road Co., New York, and is an enthusiastic advo- “ Recent Improvements in cate of the use of the Electric Traction,” by L. electric system for street H. Mclntire, engneer of railway purposes, and his the Union Railway Co., company being one of the New York. These papers first in New York to adopt will undoubtedly be fol- electric power on a large owed by a very interest- scale, the street railway ing discussion on these fraternity owe a debt to subjects by the gentlemen Mr. Beckley for the ex- present. It is hoped that position of the fact that an unusually large delega- the electric railway can tion will attend the meet- be made commercially ing. successful under the con- We take pleasure in pre- ditions imposed in large senting the portrait of Mr. cities. John N. Beckley, president of the Association Electric Progress in for the current year, with Chicago. a brief sketch of his life. Mr. Beckley was born in The plans for the elec- Orleans County, Decem- trical equipment of the ber 30, 1848. He received South Chicago City Rail- his education at the Gene- way Co. have been decided see Wesleyan Seminary upon, and are as follovvs: and Genesee College at The road will be twelve Lima, N. Y. Choosing law miles long, all double as a profession, he was ad- track, and a seventy five mitted to the bar in June, pound Wharton girder rail 1875, at Batavia, N. Y., will be used throughout. where he practised for two About three-fourths of the years. In 1877 he re- track is now laid, and moved to Rochester, N. work on the remainder is Y., and was appointed being pushed rapidly for- city attorney of Rochester ward. The power house, in 1882, and reappointed twice to that office, first in May, for which the ground was broken August 8, is located 1884, and again in May, 1886. In June of the latter year very near to the centre of the system and on the Calumet Mr. Beckley resigned the office of city attorney and River. The building is to be of brick, 180 ft. deep by entered the law firm of Bacon, Briggs & Beckley with 100 ft. front. The car house will also be of brick, and which he has since been connected. The firm has since will be 270 X 73 ft. The equipment of the power house been increased by the addition of C. J. Bissell, and is now includes three 22 X 48 Allis-Corliss condensing engines Bacon, Briggs, Beckley & Bissell. belted direct to 200 k. w., Edison, bipolar generators. Mr. Beckley was instrumental in the organization of The boiler room will contain three Stirling water tube the South Park Street Railway Co., of Rochester, and the boilers, each fitted with a Stilwell & Bierce live steam Crosstown Street Railway Co., of Rochester, and aided in purifier. the organization of the syndicate which purchased all the The car equipment will consist of twenty-five eight- street railway interests of Rochester and vicinity in 1890. teen foot, closed car bodies, made by the St. Louis Car Co., He was appointed secretary of the Rochester City & and mounted upon McGuire pressed steel trucks, each Brighton Railroad Co. in November, 1890, and held that having a seven foot wheel base. Each of the cars will be office until the organization of the Rochester Railway equipped with two twenty horse power, Westinghouse, Co., which last named company took over all the street single reduction motors. The number of cars will prob- railway companies mentioned above. The first year of ably be increased by fifty in the spring. SJ° THE STREET RAILWAY JOURNAL. September, iS 92. The Washington & Georgetown Railroad •Co.’s ment. The floor is of white maple in narrow strips, and System Completed. the iron columns are to be encased in terra cotta, termin- ating in a handsome capital of the same material and pro- On August 6, last, just two years from the date of the tected for about four feet above the floor by a bronze base. passage of an act by Congress requiring that within two On one side opening out from the company’s offices is a years the two principal railway companies in the city of visitors’ gallery, having swelled fronts or bays, and orna- Washington equip their lires for mechanical traction, the mented with a wrought iron guard with a brass railing. first cable train was run over the Pennsylvania Avenue 1'he two engines are of the Reynolds-Corliss type, division of the Washington & Georgetown company’s sys- 750 h. p. each, with 36 X 72 in. cylinders, and were manu- tem. Within a week twenty trains were running, and be- factured by the E. P. Allis Co., of Milwaukee, Wis. fore this paper reaches our readers all the horses will have From the centre of the crank shaft to the rear end of the been withdrawn and the entire system, em- cylinder head, the engines measure thirty-two feet. The £3 ' bracing miles of track, will be f AR engines are coupled to either end of the main shaft which twenty-two HOUSE operating by cable. The company, and es- is sixty-six feet long and fifteen inches in diameter. Each pecially its president, Mr. Henry Hurt, the cable drum of a pair is driven independently from the engineers and contractors are to be congratu- same pinion by means of two-inch Stevedore manilla lated on having completed their Herculean rope. This is a new departure in cable driving, being task on time and in so creditable a manner. the first power plant equipped in this manner, and so far All parties engaged in the work must cer- is working in a very satisfactory manner. The three tainly experience a thrill of satisfaction in rope pinions are nine feet eight inches in diameter, and having been the agents for the construction are each operated by means of a Weston-Caperon clutch. of such an admirable system. The rope pulleys are each twenty-six feet in The accompanying diagram (Fig. i) gives diameter, and the centres of the shaft of each an excellent illustration of the relation of the set are distant from the main shaft centre, different lines, embracing the system and their respectively, thirty and forty-seven feet. To location with reference to the public build- compensate for any inequality in the drive, ings. The Seventh Street line (seven miles), two more ropes are used on the short centres it will be remembered, has been in operation in each set, and two sets have nine and seven ropes respectively, while the third has fourteen and twelve ropes. The winding drums are fourteen feet in diameter and are of the differential ring type, having been manufactured by the Walker Manufacturing Co., Cleveland, O., which com- pcacc 1 AGRICULTURAL SMith&onion _J 00 GROUNDS Public I Icarou) -felTt T § GROUNDS II SsJL IS CA«r.c«o 0 0 about two and a half years, and it was the success had with this line that determined the company to cable the s, entire system. The new construction, therefore, em- h braces fifteen miles, and, as above stated-, has been completed within the last two years. The character of the street construction was illustrated and described in our December, 1891, issue, where it was stated that the track consisted of an eighty pound, Johnson girder, grooved rail of the English type. With such a substantial construction and the streets paved with asphaltum flush with the rail, a ride along the avenue in one of the handsome trains of open cars (Fig 2) gives one a sensation more nearly like the floating in a boat upon a placid lake than we remember to have found on any other FIG. I.—CABLE SYSTEM OF THE WASHINGTON &. GEORGETOWN line. RAILWAY CO. The power house, which is to operate the new lines, and which we have before illustrated, is a handsome six panv also manufactured the tension carriages and ele- story brick and iron structure, 190 X 240 ft. and 100 ft. vating sheaves and frames. There are three sets of wind- high, on ground occupying an entire block facing on D ing drums, each making 18.56 revolutions per min- Street a short distance from the avenue. The power ute and giving to the ropes a speed of nine miles per house occupies the rear of the ground floor, and the hour. The three ropes are of the following length : That company’s offices, the first two floors, front to the right of on the Navy Yard division, 31,435 ft.; the one on Four- the main entrance.

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