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2012 Anniversaries

225 years ago - 1787
May 25 - The Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia, charged with revising the Articles of Conferation.
Jul 13 - Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance.
Sep 17 - The Constitutional Convention approved and signed its proposed new Constitution.
Dec 07 - The first state to approve the new Constitution was Delaware.

200 years ago - 1812
Jun 08 - President James Madison signs the declaration of war against Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812.

150 years ago - 1862
Feb 06 - Union soldiers under General Grant captured Fort Henry in Tennessee
Mar 08 - Confederate ironclad Virginia attacked the Union blockading squadron at Hampton Roads and sank two ships
Mar 09 - Union ship Monitor fought the Virginia to a draw in the first battle of ironclads
Apr 06 - The Battle of Shiloh began. 23,000 were killed or wounded in the two days
Apr 24 - Flag Officer David Farragut's Union fleet took New Orleans
Jun 25 - The Seven Days' Battles begin in Virginia, leading to a Union withdrawal towards Washington, DC
Aug 29 - Confederates won the two-day Second Battle of Bull Run
Sep 04 - Lee's first invasion of the north
Sep 17 - In the battle of Antietam, 26,000 were killed or wounded as the Union Army under General McClellan turned back Lee's invasion of the north
Sep 22 - Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
Dec 13 - Conferderates killed or wounded over 12,000 Union soldiers under General Burnside in the Battle of Fredericksburg, while losing only 5,000 men

125 years ago - 1887
Jan 09 - An grip car of the Geary Street Park & Ocean Railway was shattered by an exploding bomb.
Jan 13 - Dynamite destroyed a Sutter Street Railway grip car and severely damaged its trailer on Post between Larkin and Post. At least one passenger was seriously injured and the Sutter Street company offerred a $1000 reward.
Feb 06 - An grip car of the Geary Street Park & Ocean Railway was destroyed by an bomb at Fillmore and Geary.
Feb 16 - J. E. Stiles and H. C. Dean were arrested and charged with bomb attacks on the Sutter and Geary Street cable lines.
Mar 04 - The strike of carmen on the Sutter and Geary Street cable lines collapsed.
Mar 06 - The Brooklyn Cable Company opened its experimental Johnson ladder cable line in Brooklyn, NY
May 12 - The Wyandotte line of Kansas City's Metropolitan Street Railway opened for service.
Jul 15 - The Brooklyn Cable Company closed its experimental Johnson ladder cable line in Brooklyn, NY
Sep 06 - Frank J Sprague's Union Street Railway electric installation in Saint Joseph, MO opened.
Sep 18 - The main line and the 15th Street line of Kansas City's Grand Avenue Railway opened for service.
Sep 26 - The Daily Alta California reported that The Casebolt Overhead Cable Road in Oakland's Blair Park was operating successfully.
Oct 02 - The Mount Adams and Eden Park Ry (Cincinatti, OH) had a serious accident because the cable looped around the grip.
Oct 12 - A runaway car of the Kansas City Cable Railway smashed into a carriage occupied by President Grover Cleveland and his wife.
Oct 27 - The Wyandotte line of Kansas City's Metropolitan Street Railway was extended.
Nov 17 - The Troost Avenue line of the Kansas City Cable Railway started service.
Nov 22 - The Cottage Grove Avenue line of the Chicago City Railway was extended.
Dec 15 - The main line of Kansas City's Grand Avenue Railway was extended.
Dec 20 - Henry Root brought suit against the North Chicago Street Railroad for patent infringement.

New York Giants record: 68-55, 4th place. Manager: James Mutrie.

100 years ago - 1912
May 05 - The last day of operation of the Geary Street Park & Ocean Railway.
Dec 28 - The first day of operation of the San Francisco Municipal Railway.

New York Giants record: 103-48, 1st place. Manager: John McGraw. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series 4 games to 3 with one tie.

75 years ago - 1937
May 27 - The Golden Gate Bridge opened.

New York Giants record: 95-57, 1st place. Manager: Bill Terry. The New York Yankees beat the Giants 4 games to 1 in the World Series.

50 years ago - 1962

San Francisco Giants record: 103-62, 1st place. Manager: Alvin Dark. The Giants played another three game playoff with the Dodgers (as in 1951) and again lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series, 4 games to 3. If McCovey had hit the ball two feet higher...

25 years ago - 1987
May 30 - Turk Murphy, traditional jazz trombonist and band leader, died

San Francisco Giants record: 90-72, 1st place. Manager: Roger Craig. Won the NL West, but lost a 7-game playoff to the Cardinals

Anniversaries Archive

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Edison's New Electrical Railway.

From The Scientific America, February 3, 1894.

Edison Electric Railway

[from The Scientific American of June 5,1880.]

EDISON'S NEW ELECTRICAL RAILWAY.

But for the chronic aptitude of this generation never to wonder at anything, we might expect to witness expressions of surprise as it becomes known that we are to be whisked through the country at the rate of thirty, forty, or fifty miles an hour by an agent invisible and unknown save by its effects; but the moment electricity is suggested as a motive power for railways, the never to be surprised public say, "Why not?" Nevertheless, the practical application of the electric current to this purpose seems never to have had a prospect of success before the experiments of Dr. Siemens, in Berlin, in 1879, and the present extended experiments of Mr. Edison. It is a subject fraught with difficulties, and while it has always offered a seemingly promising field for inventors, the expense attending experiments of this class has been a most effectual barrier to progress.

Mr. Edison, more fortunate in this respect than many of our experimenters, has not been hampered by monetary difficulties, and having had ample means for carrying out his ideas in practice, he has been enabled to develop his inventions more rapidly perhaps than any other man living.

His new electric railway at Menlo Park is built ov r natural ground, with little or no grading, and with no regard for curves or grades. It is at present something over half a mile long, and is soon to be extended to form a mile circle. The present rolling stock consists of one electric locomotive and one open car. The general appearance of the railway and its equipments will be seen in our engraving. The motor is precisely like one of Mr. Edison's electrical generators, figured and described in our columns some time since, and the motive power is supplied by his stationary engine, the power being converted into electrical energy by a single generator.

The current thus created is conveyed to the track by two copper wires, one wire being connected with each rail. The armature of the locomotive makes four revolutions to one of the drive wheels. The machine is managed about like a steam locomotive, and it pushes ahead with wonderful energy.

By invitation of Mr. Edison, representatives of this journal were present at a recent trial of this novel motor, and had the pleasure of riding, with some twelve or fourteen other passengers, at a breakneck late up and down the grades, around sharp curves, over humps and bumps, at the rate of twenty-five to thirty miles an hour. Our experiences were sufficient to enable us to see the desirableness of a little smoother road, and to convince us that there was no lack of power in the machine. Mr. Edison says that he realizes in the locomotive seventy per cent of the power applied to the generator. He will soon add four more cars and apply improvements which he has in contemplation. This grand experiment is designed to test the applicability of the electric current to this purpose and to develop a railway system suitable for plantations, large farms, and for mining districts, and perhaps it is not entirely visionary to expect that our street and elevated railways may at no very distant day be successfully operated by electricity.

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Chicago Cable Cars on Chicago Day.

From The Scientific America, January 27, 1894.

Chicago Day

A correspondent doing business on Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, has favored us with some interesting photographs taken on Chicago day, October 9. One of these views we reproduce for the benefit of our readers. The people who were fortunate enough to get in or on the Wabash and Cottage Grove Avenues cable cars made a slow and painful trip to the Fair grounds. Business was never more thoroughly suspended throughout the city than on that day. The weather was perfect, and when the gates of the Exposition grounds were opened at six in the morning the people stood in lines waiting to enter, and the procession of visitors never ceased until late at night. Every kind of conveyance was put into requisition and the combined effort was inadequate to cope with the enormous crowds. There were 716,000 paid admissions and 37,880 persons entered on passes, so that Chicago holds the record for the largest number of visitors on one day.

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The Extensions of the Metropolitan Traction Company, of New York City.

From The Scientific America, June 30, 1894.

NY 9th Avenue

We illustrate what is really a striking scene in the development of street transit in the city of New York. It represents the last act in the conversion of a roadway originally constructed for horse-drawn vehicles into a double-storied avenue, in which two forms of mechanical car traction are used. The view is taken at 9th Avenue, near 98th Street, and shows the construction of the new cable conduits and tracks of the Metropolitan Traction Company, of this city. The company at present operates the cable line extending from the Battery through Broadway and 7th Avenue to 59th Street, to whose operations we have already devoted considerable space. The new cable line whose construction we illustrate starts from 7th Avenue at 53d Street. Through this street it passes under the tracks of the elevated road, reaching 9th Avenue, where it turns to the north and, still keeping under the tracks of the elevated structure, reaches 98th Street. It is to be run by cable from the 50th Street power station of the Metropolitan Traction Company.

The Broadway line at present in operation represents 56,000 feet of single track. Measured in the same way, the new 9th Avenue line gives 30,000 more feet. This is not the only new cable line whose construction is in progress. Starting from Broadway and 23d Street, another line is now being constructed to Lexington Avenue on the same street, and then north to 72d Street, giving 30,000 more feet of track. The two cable lines are to stop for the present at 72d Street and at 98th Street respectively, but they are manifestly an incomplete solution of the transit question, so the following extensions and connections are in prospect. It is proposed to carry the Lexington Avenue line straight up to the Harlem River; the 9th Avenue line is to be extended north, and probably at 109th Street is to run into 8th Avenue and thence north to about 116th Street. Here it is to divide, one portion running east and north to where Lenox Avenue meets the Harlem River, while the other branch is to go up St. Nicholas Avenue and Kingsbridge Road to Kingsbridge, almost the extreme northerly point of Manhattan Island. But the most interesting point is in another aspect, for it is hoped to run all the lines north of 77th Street and Lexington Avenue and 98th Street and 9th Avenue by electricity, an underground trolley system being employed. The cable system of traction is recognized as a very efficient one, increasing in efficiency as the number of cars driven at once increases, but it has several attendant disadvantages. A car cannot drop the cable on a curve. Where few cars are run the expense per car materially increases. The cost of maintenance for keeping the plant in order, the wheels oiled and the general apparatus in condition is very great. In electricity, many of these disadvantages are, to a great extent, overcome, and the result of the Metropolitan Traction Company's experiments in the direction of developing electric traction by underground conduit system will be watched with great interest.

We have alluded to the new character of a two-storied system as suggested by the scene illustrated, for virtually the center portion of the street is abandoned to the two railroads. Whether an underground road, on the lines of the London Underground, will yet make its appearance is a matter of surmise. If so, and if it should be built on a street occupied as is the one we illustrate, then we should have a three-storied street. It is to be hoped that our rapid transit problem may be solved without recourse to a method which has proved in many ways so disagreeable as has the London Underground. An electrical underground road would be free from most of the troubles in the way of discomfort which are encountered on the English road.

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Orange Mountain, N. J., Cable Incline Railway.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1893. Volume IX, Number 1.

The top of Orange Mountain, located in the well known and beautiful town of Orange, N. J., twelve miles from New York City, will soon be accessible by means of a cable incline railway. This incline, which is now being installed by the John A. Roebling's Sons Company, of 117 Liberty St., New York, will connect at its lower terminus with the Delaware, Lakawanna & Western Railroad at Highland Avenue, and with the Orange & Newark Electric Railway, and will bring the top of Orange Mountain within sixty-five minutes of Wall Street, New York City.

The incline is 3,700 ft. in length, and has an average width of thirty-four feet. The minimum grade is 8 per cent., and the maximum grade 14 per cent., the average being 11 per cent. The gauge of each of the tracks is eight feet. The roadbed consists of broken trap rock to a depth of eighteen inches, upon which rest the ties which are twelve feet in length, and spaced thirty inches between centers. T rails are used, weighing sixty pounds to the yard, breaking joints alternately; the rails are spiked directly to the ties and the joints are connected by six-bolt angle fishplates. The tracks for the greater part of the line are eighteen feet between centers, but converge slightly at the foot. Considerable grading had to be done, and as the railway employs no trestles the construction of the road necessitated at one point a rock cut 60 ft. deep and 400 ft. in length.

The power station (see Fig. 1) is located at the top of the incline, is 36 X 97 ft., outside measurement, is of trap rock with brick finish, and is very substantial in appearance. The engine room is 60 X 33 ft. inside measurement. The arrangement of the machinery is shown in Fig. 2. Two cables are used; one as a main cable and the other, of the same size, as a safety cable. They are of the Roebling standard type, with hemp center, and one and a half inches in diameter. At the power station, as will be seen in Fig. 2, the main rope is carried around the

safety cable is about the quadrants of two horizontal drums, similar to the main driving drums, 8 ft in , diameter, as shown. The driving drums are solid, and are each keyed to a hammered steel shaft 8}| ins. in diameter in the swell, and 7^-6 ins. diameter in the bearings. Also keyed to these shafts are two spur wheels 95^ ins. pitch diameter, geared to a common steel pinion 24J4 ins. pitch diameter, mounted on a 7 in., hammered steel shaft. The gear wheels have 86 teeth each, with a 3% in. pitch and 10 in. face. The pinion has 22 teeth and a loj/i in. face, and is driven by a pair of engines with cylinder dimensions 16 X 24 ins. The engines are arranged with reversing link and cut-off at J% full stroke. The speed of the engine is 124 revolutions and that of the driving drums 31 revolutions per minute.

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Accidents on Cable Railways.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1885. Volume I, Number 3.
The best constructed cable railways are liable to accident. These accidents, however, are usually slight, confined generally to breakage of cable, or ineffective working of the grip or the brake, imposing delays varying from half an hour to a couple of hours.
Accidents to individuals have been, as a rule, limited to the loss of a hand or a crushed foot, now and then, but on the whole there are less accidents from the cable railways than from the steam tramways.
A short time ago a very serious accident occurred on the Highgate cable road, London. The car was on a steep grade, and the grip failing to clutch the cable, notwithstanding the brake was shut down hard, the car ran down the hill into the car waiting at the bottom of the grade, completely demolishing both cars and injuring four people. The occupants of the waiting car perceiving their danger, having alighted, only those in the runaway car were injured.
Cases of this kind are of very rare occurrence, and although accidents to the brake or grip are not by any means uncommon, they do not usually result in more serious inconvenience than the failure to stop and start when desired.

from Mems.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1885. Volume I, Number 3.
Edinburgh, Scotland. -- The construction of the first street cable tramway in Scotland is about to be begun on the north side of Edinburgh.

from Mems.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1885. Volume I, Number 3.
Andrews & Clooney (N. Y.) report among other orders a number for wheels from South America, some 75 sets for John Stephenson Co., also a number for J. G. Brill & Co. and J. M. Jones' Sons. They have just completed some elevating sheaves for the Kansas City Cable Railway.

from Mems.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1885. Volume I, Number 3.
The Third Avenue R. R. Co. (N. Y.) has just closed a contract with Andrews & Clooney to furnish and lay the curves, switches and castings connected with the cable road depot to be built at Tenth Avenue and 125th Street.
The Third Avenue Railroad Co. has work on road bed nearly completed on about three miles of double track line on 10th Avenue, and about 1,600 feet on 135th Street. This experimental line of cable road is to run from the Harlem to the Hudson on 125th Street and from 125th Street north to the end of Tenth Avenue, which is above 225th Street. It is probable that cars will be running on a large portion of the line by the first of April. If this trial of the cable system is satisfactory to the company and popular with the public, cable power will doubtless soon supersede horses on the old line of the company.
President Lyon, of the Third Avenue Co., has spared neither pains nor expense in building cars for tbe new cable line of the company. The most noticeable features of the cars are a very high clerestory, which carries the centre lamp well up out of the way and gives a very nice roomy appearance: the platforms are provided with two gates, only one on each being allowed to be opened, thus compelling passengers to get on and off the car on side nearest the walk; a woven wire screen on sides and wooden frame at ends prevent persons from slipping under the car; doors are hung from the top; six windows on a side.
Superintendent Robertson, of the Third Avenue Co., N. Y., has designed and built an open car having two rows of reversible cane seats similar to an ordinary smoking car. The sides are closed, compelling passengers to get on and off only at the end of car. It is probable that their new Tenth Avenue cable line will have a large summer traffic, and the company seems bound to deserve it.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1885. Volume I, Number 5.
Chicago Cable Roads. -- For the first time, we believe, since the South Side (Chicago) Cable lines started up, there are reports of failure, on account of snow and ice during the recent cold snap. We can't see, however, that this is any argument against the cable, as horse car lines were stopped at the same time all over the United States.
Chicago. -- A grip was broken on the Madison Street switch the other evening, and all switching from one track to the other, on both the State and Cottage Grove lines, was done with the assistance of horses.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1885. Volume I, Number 5.
The Brownell & Wight Car Co., St. Louis, Mo. have in course of construction, equipment for two new street railroads to be built in St. Louis in the spring, one of them to be operated by cable. They have in addition a large amount of work for other cities; among these orders being one from Mexico. Their car for the New Orleans Exposition is ready for shipment, they having held it until the rush of freight was over, so as to avoid long exposure in freight yards. This car is intended for use in summer or winter and comprises many novel points. It must certainly attract the attention of all street railroad men who see it and receive the favorable opinion of those who are anxious to have comfortable cars in summer without being compelled to have a double equipment.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1885. Volume I, Number 5.
St. Louis Cable Road. -- An exchange has the following: "The contracts for St. Louis Cable road have all been let, except that for the steel rails. The power station at Franklin & Channing Avenues is nearly completed. The New Albany Rail Mill Company, of New Albany, Ind., has the contract for the conduits. Each will be made of 1/4 inch sheet iron, rivited every 4 1/2 feet to ribs or yokes made of 40 pound steel railroad iron. It will be made in sections of eighteen feet in length and placed in position, when it will be riveted together in one continuous piece. There will be two conduits, one for each track, making the entire distance covered six and two-fifths miles. These conduits will be surrounded with a layer of concrete not less than six inches thick. The twenty-four passenger and fifteen grip cars will be of the most approved pattern, and are to seat forty passengers each. The boilers will be three in number, 60 inches in diameter and 20 feet long, to furnish power for 250 horsepower engine. The Fulton Iron Works have the contract for the winding machinery, pulleys, drums, etc.; Philip F. Stifel for the granite and the paving between the rails, and John A. Roebling's Sons Company, of Trenton, N.J., the contract to furnish the 34,500 foot 1 1/4 inch cable.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1885. Volume I, Number 5.
Andrews & Clooney- have just made for the Kansas City Cable road, and are now making for the 10th Avenue (N. Y.), Cable road, a number of springs to be so applied as to relieve the cable of sudden strain. They are graduated in such a manner as to indicate at any time the amount of resistance of the car. Why would it not be a good plan to attach to such a graduated spring a pencil to mark on a ribbon of paper to move by clockwork in such a way as to indicate the exact amount of load at any part of the trip, and the average amount of power required to haul the car or train?

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, April, 1885. Volume I, Number 6.
The contract for wire cable for the St. Louis Cable Railway, has been given to Jno. A. Roebling, Sons & Co., Trenton, N. J. It is of steel wire, endless, 1 1/4 in. diameter, 34,000 feet long, weighing 75,000 pounds.
The Brownell-Wight Car Manufacturing Company, St. Louis, received the contract for the rolling stock for the new St. Louis Cable Railway, consisting of 24 passenger and 15 grip cars. Cars must be run at intervals not exceeding five minutes, and the fare will be five cents.
The New Albany Rail Mill Company received the contract for the conduit of the St. Louis Cable Railway, requiring 1,900 tons of iron.
The Smith, Beggs & Rankin Machine Company, St. Louis, took the contract for engine and boilers for the St. Louis Cable Railway. There will be one Corliss engine, 24x48, sixty-nine revolutions, and three boilers, 60 inches diameter by 20 feet long, giving a capacity of 250 horse-power. Foundations for duplicate sets of machinery will be put in.
The Fulton Iron Works, St. Louis, received the contract for the winding machinery, pulleys, sheaves, drums, etc., for the new cable railway in that city.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, April, 1885. Volume I, Number 6.
Alfred Egerton, Superintendent of the Albany (N.Y.) R.R. Co., is investigating the various systems of cable traction, with a view to adopting one of them. He invites correspondence on the subject. A few cars and some track will be added this spring.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, April, 1885. Volume I, Number 6.
Mr. Wm. P. Craig is to furnish the material and build about six miles of street road in New Bedford, Mass., using the Johnson steel girder rail He writes that his prospects are good for building several more roads in the eastern states, using this rail. He has contracted to build an extension to the Bushwick Road, in Brooklyn. E. D., comprising about 2 1/2 miles of track. He also expects, in a few days, to commence work on laying the curves and switches connecting the cable road on Tenth Avenue, New York, with the depot, and this road is expected to be running as soon as this work is completed.

Mr. Holmes on the Traction Company's Troubles.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
Mr. C. B. Holmes, Superintendent of the Chicago City Railway Company, was recently interviewed by a reporter on one of the Chicago dailies, and expressed himself as follows on the subject of the Philadelphia Traction Company's mechanical difficulties:
"The first piece of cable road constructed in Philadelphia was put in one year ago last summer, and was something like a mile in length. The projectors of the road had previously visited this city and we made them familiar with our methods of construction and our various appliances; but they expressed the conviction that our expenditure of money had been too great, and they endeavored to construct an equally effective road at a cost of about half the money.
"Their first construction cost them, I am told by their engineer, something in the neighborhood of $146,000, and it proved an utter failure. It was taken up and thrown away. Last season the same company constructed from twelve to sixteen miles of cable track, which was in some respects an improvement on the first experimental mile put in a year before, but the construction was altogether too light and had no ability to resist the lateral pressure of frost, which is simply enormous. If our construction here had been made in the same way, it would have given us even more trouble than they had, as our frost goes so much deeper and its pressure is so much greater.
"I notice in the papers that the cost of this road is stated to be $600,000, but it is my impression, received from various sources, that the expenditure was much greater -- probably over a million. This construction had no ability to resist the great lateral pressure, and as soon as the frost came the slot closed. The engineer of the construction told me that they had taken up the pavement, inserted wedges in the slot, and forced the slot open, and had attempted to hold it open by inserting bolted rods between the slot-iron and the stringers upon which the rails are placed. But this afforded only temporary relief, for as soon as the temperature changed again the slot not only closed but drew the rails themselves toward the slot, so that in operating the cars with horses a large number of wheels and axles on the cars were broken.
"This information," said Superintendent Holmes, "was given me by the President of one of the companies in Philadelphia. We have never had the slightest trouble with our construction here in Chicago in the way of the slot closing, as we made special provision to guard against that, it being the thing to fear most. That feature of the construction was made perfectly secure. As is known to all the citizens of Chicago, the iron-work and the concrete which inclose the iron-works were made with special reference to intense frost.
"Statements have been made in the Eastern papers that the cable line here had been troubled with its slot closing up. These reports are wholly without foundation. The only thing that could have given rise to any such impression was the fact that in the construction of the road we received a few car loads of slot-iron that had a ragged edge from imperfect rolling. The parties who furnished this iron instructed us to return it at their expense, but we had 1,500 men at work, and the streets torn up, and we could not afford to wait for new shipments of iron, but were obliged to use this, purposely placing the slot-irons closer together than a finished state would permit, and afterwards chipping off the ragged edges. That was all, or nearly all, that was done before the cars commenced operating. A few spots were finished afterward, but with this exception there has been nothing to give any impression whatever that our slot had ever closed on us.
"There have been a few cases, especially in the early days of the system, when inexperienced drivers have held on to cables too long and thereby cut them, but experience has relieved us of all trouble of this sort. We have had two cases when minor portions of the machinery have proved of insufficient strength under the intense strain at times brought to bear upon them, but we have strengthened these parts by adopting much heavier machinery. In February one section of this heavy machinery was placed in position, and to-day we have received and are hauling to the works the last of this heavy machinery. When occasion arises, or as soon as it is possible to do so, we shall remove the last portion of light work and insert this heavier construction in it place.
"The last winter has been an unprecedented one in severity of frost and volume of snow, but it has been of use to us in enabling us to discover wherein were the weak points of our construction, and so completely remedy them. The weak and imperfect construction adopted in Philadelphia should not weigh against the true merits of the cable system.
"It is absolutely necessary," said Mr. Holmes, in conclusion, "that the construction should be strong and stable to insure comfort to the public and to the operators. When this is done, there is no system yet devised which will compare in excellence with the cable system for transportation in large cities."

Cable Railway Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
The New York Cable Railway Company proposes to use these patents.
The 125th Street and 10th Avenue route will probably try another system.
The National Cable Railway Company controls the A. S. Hallidie grip patents.
The National Cable Railway Company reports being in negotiation with companies in Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati and has sold a license for Omaha.
There is a Commission, now sitting in the Tribune Building, appointed by the Supreme Court to consider the applications to the court for permission to construct roads upon all the routes laid out.
The 155th Street Elevated Railway, New York City, has as yet done nothing. Its projectors expect to obtain the consent of nearly all the property owners. The required consent of the Board of Aldermen has been obtained.
The grip used on the Brooklyn Bridge appears to be no good. Whereas a good system should take three cars with one grip, on the Bridge one grip is needed for each car. By a proper system the car should start at once with the grip at the Brooklyn end and not use locomotives at all.
The Chicago Cable Company claims to have run right along during the past winter when the steam roads were completely blockaded up with snow. Some say that its stock has depreciated since using the cable ; others say the reverse; we call for the figures.
In Brooklyn, a cable railway company has been reorganized and a commission appointed. The Nassau Cable Railway Company is the company's name. The commission reported that a cable road was not needed. This report has not yet been acted upon by the Court.
In Philadelphia an experimental grip and tube are being fooled with. A mile and a quarter was laid from Columbia Avenue to the Park, and had to be thrown out. Now 15 miles are down, of the Bonzano wrought iron tube, and this has so far proved a failure, from all that we can hear. It will probably cost more to experiment and reconstruct than for a license to use some well tried system.
The National Cable Railway Company made a proposition some time ago, to put its system on the Brooklyn Bridge and carry passengers for 2 cents each, instead of nearly 4. The reduction of fare by the Bridge people is claimed to be the direct result of this proposition. The Cable Railway people would have sold sixty car tickets for a dollar and let foot passengers go free.
The Kansas City Cable Road made a trial trip with the Board of Directors on the 2d inst , and it was in every way successful. By the time we go to press, they will probably be running regularly. This road is built on the two-cable system owned by D. J. Miller, who is constructing the Third Avenue Railroad Cable line in New York City, and which so far seems to possess great advantages over the single cable svstem, there being at least six railroads in New York City and vicinity which are awaiting the opening of the Third Avenue line about June 1st, which, if as successful as predicted and as Kansas City is, they will at once adopt and commence to build.
The New York Cable Railway Company, if the Commission reports favorably and the court approves the report, and then the Board of Aldermen will give its consent, will go in vigorously, commencing with Lexington Avenue, to supply the future wants of New York City pretty liberally. The movement by rail in New York City was 284 millions of passengers in 1884, and will probably be 420 millions in 1890. and 830 millions in 1990; so there must be 136 millions to be provided for in six years. The great bulk of the people see no more people in the street now than formerly. They don't recognize the increase though in 4 years there has been an increase of 73 millions carried by the street railroads in New York City. The elevated roads have had an increase of about 21 millions in 3 years ; about 40 millions since 1880.

from Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
The Washington St. & State Asylum, R.R. Co. (Binghamton, N. Y.), will extend its line to the Insane Asylum, a distance of 1 miles, using cable power.

from Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
The Kansas City Cable Railway Co. (Kan.), is not in operation yet.

from Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
The North Hudson County Railway Co. (N. J.), will open its cable railway for business July 1.

Cable Railway Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
The New York Cable Railway Company proposes to use these patents.
The 125th Street and 10th Avenue route will probably try another system.
The National Cable Railway Company controls the A. S. Hallidie grip patents.
The National Cable Railway Company reports being in negotiation with companies in Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati and has sold a license for Omaha.
There is a Commission, now sitting in the Tribune Building, appointed by the Supreme Court to consider the applications to the court for permission to construct roads upon all the routes laid out.
The 155th Street Elevated Railway, New York City, has as yet done nothing. Its projectors expect to obtain the consent of nearly all the property owners. The required consent of the Board of Aldermen has been obtained.
The grip used on the Brooklyn Bridge appears to be no good. Whereas a good system should take three cars with one grip, on the Bridge one grip is needed for each car. By a proper system the car should start at once with the grip at the Brooklyn end and not use locomotives at all.
The Chicago Cable Company claims to have run right along during the past wintor when the steam roads were completely blockaded up with snow. Some say that its stock has depreciated since using the cable ; others say the reverse; we call for the figures.
In Brooklyn, a cable railway company has been reorganized and a commission appointed. The Nassau Cable Railway Company is the company's name. The commission reported that a cable road was not needed. This report has not yet been acted upon by the Court.
In Philadelphia an experimental grip and tube are being fooled with. A mile and a quarter was laid from Columbia Avenue to the Park, and had to be thrown out. Now 15 miles are down, of the Bonzano wrought iron tube, and this has so far proved a failure, from all that we can hear. It will probably cost more to experiment and reconstruct than for a license to use some well tried system.
The National Cable Railway Company made a proposition some time ago, to put its system on the Brooklyn Bridge and carry passengers for 2 cents each, instead of nearly 4. The reduction of fare by i he Bridge people is claimed to be the direct result of this proposition. The Cable Railway people would have sold sixty car tickets for a dollar and let foot passengers go free.
The Kansas City Cable Road made a trial trip with the Board of Directors on the 2d inst , and it was in every way successful. By the time we go to press, they will probably be running regularly. This road is built on the two-cable system owned by D. J. Miller, who is constructing the Third Avenue Railroad Cable line in New York City, and which so far seems to possess great advantages over the single cable system, there being at least six railroads in New York City and vicinity which are awaiting the opening of the Third Avenue line about June 1st, which, if as successful as predicted and as Kansas City is, they will at once adopt and commence to build.
The New York Cable Railway Company, if the Commission reports favorably and the court approves the report, and then the Board of Aldermen will give its consent, will go in vigorously, commencing with Lexington Avenue, to supply the future wants of New York City pretty liberally. The movement by rail in New York City was 284 millions of passengers in 1884, and will probably be 420 millions in 1890. and 830 millions in 1990; so there must be 136 millions to be provided for in six years. The great bulk of the people see no more people in the street now than formerly. They don't recognizee the increase, though in 4 years there has been an increase of 72 millions carried by the street railroads in New York City. The elevated roads have had an increase of about 21 millions in 3 years; about 40 millions since 1880.

from Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1885. Volume I, Number 7.
The Cable Cars are not yet running in Tenth Avenue, New York, but will start up shortly. This company has just purchased 100 sets of hand-made harness from J. F. Leahy, the manufacturer, 245 Tenth Avenue.

from Repairs in the Brooklyn Bridge Cable.

From The Street Railway Journal, July, 1885. Volume I, Number 9.
The Sun says: Preparations are being made to put in two large new sheaves for the traction rope at the New York end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Advantage will be taken of this interruption of the railroad travel to cut the rope and shorten it when splicing it together again. The rope has now been in constant operation for twenty-one months, dragging heavy trains of two cars each over the bridge each way. There has been some wear, but about the only noticeable effect of the strain has been has been to lengthen the rope about 1 1/2 per cent. It is said that ropes used by the Chicago street cars last about nine months. The workmen about the bridge assert that the bridge rope is good for two years more.
In speaking of the grip used on the bridge Col. Paine said that the greatest difficulty experienced at first was in closing the little grip wheels on the rope with just the right force. "When the sheave lining was new the wheels scarcely opened wide enough to let the rope up between them, and the toggle joints which brought them toward each other had so little purchase that the men turning the brakes had to use all their power to keep the grip from slipping. But, as the lining wore away, of course the purchase of the toggle joints grew more powerful, and the brakemen, still throwing their weight on the brakes, set the grip six or eight times tighter than necessary. That held the car fast enough, but it indented the sheave linings and wore them unevenly, so that the grip was likely to catch every time at the same spot of the circumference. To overcome this an automatic device was put on the grip, which regulates the pressure on the rope so that it can never be too great nor too small. Before that was adopted the sheave linings wore out in sixty days. They will now last twice as long."
This rope will be strong enough, it is said, when the additional traffic is put on after the tracks are extended across Centre street, New York.
A rope gives way because the wires are worn out by the friction of the grip, but there is no danger that the rope will at any time break apart and allow the cars to run down into the stations.

from Notes.

From The Street Railway Journal, July, 1885. Volume I, Number 9.
M. M. Green, Pres. Hockwo Valley Railroad, is reported to have said, in a recent interview :-- "The cable railroads of San Francisco beat all the surface street roads in existence. They run up hill and down, sometimes at an angle of forty-five degrees, with perfet ease and great rapidity and security. The cars are some of them fifty or sixty feet in length. They can increase or decrease the speed through their clutch on the cable, and when they come to a clear space they shoot ahead with great rapidity. The cable roads of Chicago are mere tramways compared with the San Francisco cable roads."

Cable Railway Directors.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The last meeting of the old board of directors of the Cable Railway Company was held at No. 206 Broadway, Tuesday, July 7; and a new board was elected for the ensuing year by the stockholders. There are 20,000 shares into which the capital stock is divided, and 19,995 of these were voted on at the meeting. All but nine of them were voted on by Mr. Charles P. Shaw as attorney or owner. Mr. Shaw reported on behalf of the retiring directors, in his capacity as counsel to the board, the transactions of the past year. He said in substance that no legislation had been made against the company, and that he saw nothing in the way of the cable railway being constructed in the near future. The assaults on the company's charter and franchises by interested parties must fail of their object, for no objection had been raised that had not been fully answered. Of the $15,000,000 5 per cent 50-year gold bonds authorized by the company for construction purposes only, not one had been withdrawn from the trust company. Of the $25,000,000 of second mortgage income bonds now in preparation for issuing, not one had been sold in advance or promised to any one. So the assets of the company consisted of 95 per cent of every share of the 20,000 shares of capital stock, and all the mortgage bonds, aggregating $40,000,000, with $2,000,000 capital stock, and all were available. All the expenses of the company thus far had been borne out of the private pockets of the syndicate, and the company, being entirely out of debt, was equipped, by its securities and right to call for assessments on its stock to the extent of $1,900,000, in a satisfactory manner to build its roads.
The following directors were then elected for the coming year: Wallace C. Andrews, Homer A. Nelson, Augustin C. Moss, Joshua B. Shaw, Rowland N. Hazard, John J. O'Brien, Thomas W. Evans, Samuel B. P. Higgins, and William S. Williams.

The Uptown Cable Road.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
It looks as if New York would soon be able to judge of the merits of cable railroading. Everything but the cable is ready for the road that is to run from 125th street and Eighth avenue, through Tenth avenue to 187th street. The officials say that cars will be run by the cable August 1st. Then the road is to be extended along 125th street to the East River if no legal trobules arise. The slit between the car tracks, which opens into the cylinder through which the cable runs, is about an inch wide. An iron shank runs from the bottom of the car through the slit and grips the cable. The grip is similar to that in use in Chicago, and is not at all like that in use on the East River Bridge. In place of the wood lined sheaves there is a lower jaw which is stationary and an upper jaw which rises and falls, having a bearing of 20" on the rope. When the cars are to be started the "driver" closes down on the jaws, which pinch the rope like a vice. It is said by the officials of the road that the cars will start and stop easier than the horse cars do. At first they will be run at the rate of about seven miles an hour. This is a little more than a mile an hour faster than the average speed of the horse cars. The cable cars of Chicago attain a speed of between nine and ten miles an hour, and when things get into good working shape this will probably be the speed on the New York line.
The Fourth Avenue horse railroad is pushing its line up beyond Eighty-sixth street, its present terminus. By the first of October it is expected that the road will be in operation to 137th street.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The new cable road on Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., has been commenced.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The Brownell & Wight Car Company, St. Louis, has recently delivered twelve cars for the new cable lino in that city; and is now at work on thirty more for the same company.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The first cable-car over the Ninth street incline of the new strect railway in Kansas City, Mo., descended recently on its trial trip to the Union depot. The test was entirely satisfactory, and the road will shortly be opened for business.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The New York Cable Ry. Co. met at 210 Broadway, July lHth, and elected Win. S. Williams, president, Homer A. Nelson, vice president, Thus. W. Evans, treasurer, A. L. Earle, secretary, and Chas. P. Shaw, counsel. It expects to commence laying track inside of three months.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
J. R. Maxwell, president of the Brooklyn & Long Island Elevated Cable Railroad Company, says: -- You can depend on it that if any people can make the cable road a thorough success we can and will. We are going to build a structure strong enough to bear a Pullman car, and that is about equal to a thirty-five ton locomotive.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The Central Park, North & East River R.R. Co., (Belt Line) having determined upon building a cable road on West street & Tenth ave., below 59th street, gave an audience and hearing to representatives of the different cable systems or parts of systems on Thursday the 23d. Its decision as to which one it would adopt (if it arrive at any decision) was not made known.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The Third Avenue Cable Line. Steam was turned on and the machinery for working the cable of the Third Ave. R.R. (cable line), on Tenth avenue and 125th street, was started for the first time on Tuesday, the 21st inst., at 12.30 P. M. in the presence of president Lyons, chief engineer Miller, superintendent Robertson, and a large number of stockholders and invited guests, including some of the most prominent civil and mechanical engineers in the couutry.
The immense engines and working machinery moved off noiselessly, and as perfectly, in obedience to the touch of chief engineer Miller, as though they had been in motion for years, amidst the loud and prolonged cheering of the assembled company.
The engines (two of them) are of 350 H. P. each, with cylinders 24" x 48". The driving machinery outside of the engines proper weighs over 300 tons, including four pairs of driving drums, each operated independent of the other, especially arranged for the double cable system.
The cables will be placed in position on the 27th inst., and it is expected to have the road in operation by August 1st.

from Personal.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
W. H. Hazzard, S. L. Husted, Wm. M. Thomas, and James Howe, comprising the executive board of the Brooklyn City Railroad, have been recently inspecting the new cable railroad in Cleveland.

from Personal.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
Mr. Chas. B. Thurston, president of the Jersey City & Bergen R.R. Co. of Jersey City, was quite severely shaken up by an accident at the cable depot, on Tenth ave., last Saturday, the 18th, whilst viewing the cable plant with some friends. He inadvertently stepped upon a loose plank, which precipitated him into the wheel vault below, a distance of 12', cutting his left cheek open and otherwise bruising him.

A New Cable System.

From The Street Railway Journal, September, 1885. Volume I, Number 11.
President W. H. Hazzard and Directors Seymour L. Husted, James Howe and W. M. Thompson, of the Brooklyn City Railroad, and Messrs. Fitzgerald and Lynch, of the De Kalb Avenue line, have recently been in Cleveland, O., inspecting a new cable system of propelling cars. It is known as the Johnson patent and is just being introduced. Mr. Hazzard is very favorably impressed with it, judging from the following notes, which we take from the Eayle:
According to Mr. Hazzard and the samples of cable brought back by the committee, the appliances differ in almost every particular from those commonly used in the few cable roads now in operation. The cable consists of two wire ropes made up of six one-quarter inch strands, wrapped around a half-inch cotton cord and held an inch apart by steel clamps or cross bars placed at five-inch intervals. This runs over wheels set at a slight angle, not more than an inch below the slot in the roadway, in a conduit just largo enough to hold it. The grip is a big wheel half au inch thick, just fitting in the slot, and looking much like an overgrown buzz saw, the teeth of which do the gripping. As the car starts the wheel revolves its teeth, fitting between the cable bars, and when once braked up the car runs at the full speed of the cable. By loosening the brake so that the grip wheel can revolve slowly the speed of the car may be diminished. The conduit can be cleaned by merely dropping the cable to its floor, and letting it run for a few moments. This sweeps the dirt into pits placed at intervals whence it can be readily removed. No difficulty is observed in turning corners. The lot in which the trial took place was a square holding five hundred feet of track. All the cars were pulled around its four corners without trouble.
"It is the best cable contrivance I have yet seen," said Mr. Hazzard. "Will we adopt it? Ah, that I cannot tell. Our committee will consider it. The question of the adoption of any system has not yet been reached by us. We inspect everything which seems to possess practical value. The system I have outlined to you possesses many advantages, apparently. We would not need to cut our cross ties to utilize it, the conduit being so small, and it is estimated that our lines would be equipped with it at a cost of not more than $40,000 per mile, including everything."

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
A New Twenty-two Ton Cable is to be put into the conduits on the eastern end of the Market street, Philadelphia, line. A new method (not stated) is to be employed in putting it into place.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
The Lane National Cable Railway Co. , capital stock $300,000, has been organized in Covington, Ky., by H. N. Lane, G. B. Kerper, S. M. Lemont, Albert G. Clark and John Kilgour, to manufacture cable railway machinery.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
Andrews & Clooney, New York, have completed their contract for furnishing iron work for switches, curves, entrances to depots, &c, for the cable road of the Third Avenue Railroad Company. The contract amounted to over $10,000.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
Thomas L. Johnson, President of the Cleveland St. Railway Co., and inventor of the new cable system, has examined the plant of the Brooklyn City Railroad Co. with a view to the use of his system on its road. He will prepare a minute estimate of the expense of putting his system on Fulton street from the Ferry to East New York. The estimate will cover every item pertaining to the road from the cost of laying conduits and establishing the driving plants with their big boilers and giant engines to the wear and tear on the grip, so that the exact cost of building and maintenance may be ascertained beyond question. No system yet shown Mr. Hazzard and his associates has appeared to possess so many advantages as this of Mr. Johnson.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.
Petitioning, For Cable Roads. A petition, signed by nearly seventy thousand bona fide names, in favor of the cable road system, has been presented to the Board of Aldermen. The petitioners complain that the present means of transit in this city are totally inadequate, and that the charge of a second fare when a change is made from one line of cars to another is an injustice. The New York Cable Railway Company, says the petition, proposes to remedy these causes of complaint by building several trunk lines of railway from Kingsbridge and the Harlem river to the Battery, with cross-town branches, connecting with all the ferries on both sides of the city, and to charge a fare of five cents, without any extra charge on change of cars. In view of the benefits the cable road will confer on the working people, whose fares constitute the largest part of the revenues of the railroad companies in this city, the petitioners request the Board of Aldermen to consent to the application of the company to construct and operate its system of railways."

The Cable Railways.

From The Street Railway Journal, November, 1885. Volume II, Number 1.
Among the busiest men in this city are the officers of the New York Cable Railway Company. The report of the commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court to pass upon the question whether the railways mentioned in the petition of the Cable Railway Company ought to be constructed and operated, unanimously recommended the construction of the railways.
Mr. W. C. Andrews, representing the syndicate which will furnish the money to carry on the work, says: "We are abundantly able to go on with the plan which we have laid out, and we are thoroughly convinced of the entire practicability of the cable system. There is a pressing need in this city of additional street railroad facilities, and to properly appreciate what this demand is it is necessary to study the vast increase of the past fifteen years in the business, traffic and population within the limits of this island. We propose simply to supply New York City with au ideal surface system of communication. It is intended to furnish a thorough system of transit, with due consideration to the convenience and economy of the people and the development of property interests. Our plan embraces three axial lines, partly on the surfaoe and partly elevated, to give continuous transit from the Battery to Harlem River. The other lines are transverse and ohiefly surface ones, intersecting the axial lines and connecting with the ferries on the Hudsou and East rivers. These axial routes in connection with the cross-town lines will, it is thought by the commissioners, lead to a great improvement in the taxing values of property on the cross streets and lateral portions of the city, which are now comparatively out of the way. The great popular advantage of the system is that a person starting anywhere in the city may, on payment of a single fare of five cents, reach any other point in the city. The system of transfers will be such as to admit of this, and with the least inconvenience to the passengers."
"The plan of a comprehensive system of lines, all under one management and ownership, is desirable to the public who patronize the street railroad, as well as to all others in any way affected. The proposition of the company to carry passengers for single trips over the main line and branches at a single five-cent fare is entirely practicable, so far as the management of the business is concerned, and it presents to that very large class of our people to whom the expense of street car fares is an unavoidable tax, the possibility of choosing comfortable residences far away from the more crowded portions of the city without any increase in this personal tax. A careful study of the existing street car traffic in this city shows that, exclusive of the Fourth avenue horse car line, which makes no separate report, the fourteen other surface roads show, in February, 1885, a market value of 48.61% greater than the par value of their stocks and bonds. Their gross earnings for the year 1883 amounted to $8,355,545, equal to 30.17% upon their total capital. An expensive operating system left them still a total, net, of $2,407,871, or about 8.69% upon the entire nominal capital, taking them good and bad together. Their total market value at this time, distributed on the mileage of 1883, amounts to about 8431,000 per mile."
"There is a wonderful amount of opposition shown to these cable roads, but it is not unlike that which opposed the elevated roads. Lot-owners thought that the iron road was like a Juggernaut to them, but instead it has turned out to them a very Argonaut of wealth. The cable road will undoubtedly be a great benefit to New York. The problem is a growing one every day. There was a passenger traffic in 1874 of 152,927,233. Ten years later (1884) that traffic became 302,183,362. Now, that is an increase of 200%. Carry that forward ten years longer in the same ratio, aud it will be 604,000,000. How are these people going to live here and do business? The elevated roads carried 96,000,000 of people last year, and have reached their capacity; all other railroads, 187,000,000, and we are hanging by the strap now, there are no seats for the people who ride. When we get a surplus over, that in ten years of 420,000,000 of people who can neither get a seat nor hang on the strap, what are we going to do? This is the exact question before us. A great many people who now ride on the elevated railroads don't like it because they have got to walk a distance at either end to get to the stations. They will take the cable cars because they can ride to their very doors. But there is this fact before us -- there is this 420,000,000 to be provided for ten years hence, very soon after these oable roads can be completed; a 420,000,000 who, with all our present methods, can neither get a seat to sit on nor a strap to hang on. That is the problemto, solve. And in that question aud its solution lies the future interest, growth and welfare of our city."

Brooklyn Bridge Railroad.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1886. Volume II, Number 3.
There are now several models of cable grips at the superintendent's and engineer's offices. These are to receive a thorough examination by two experienced engineers, who are said to be experts in matters of this kind. If any contrivance presented seems worthy of trial, no objections will be raised to such trial. On the contrary, every facility will be afforded for a thorough test.
The Brooklyn Bridge Company have ordered six cars for the bridge railroad. They will have the Eames vacuum brake and the usual equipment of bridge cars. These will have two side doors in addition to the end ones. The object is to afford better facilities for entering and leaving the cars.
The bridge receipts for the week ending Dec. 19 were the largest in the history of the structure, being an average of $2,057 per day.

Denver, Col.

From The Street Railway Journal, January, 1886. Volume II, Number 3.
The first successful attempt at trial trips of the new cable car was made Dec. 19th, over a portion of the track of the Denver Electric and Cable Railroad Company on Fifteenth street. The car ran a considerable distance, and at the satisfactory rate of eight miles an hour. A dynamo of twenty horse power furnishes the motive power for the car. Quite a large number of prominent citizens took rides on the car. Prof. S. H. Short, of the Denver University, has worked very hard to make his invention a success, and his efforts seem to be already reaping their reward. The company have hoped to get their cars running in six weeks or a month. The car which is now being used in making trial trips, is shaped and fitted up very much like an ordinary street car, and is fully as handsome in its style and appointments as any street car in Denver. It was made by Woeber Brothers, of West Denver. The dynamo and other machinery, which is located in a building near the corner of Fifteenth and Tremont streets, and which is used to propel the car, was mode by F. M. Davis, of Denver, and all the plant and material used by the company will be of Denver manufacture. Ex-Governor Johu Evans, W. N. Byers, Rodney Curtis and other well known Denver gentlemen are among the the officers and directors of the new company.

A Cable Road Without Grips.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1886. Volume II, Number 5.
A new system of cable railway is being tried at Binghamton, New York, which is of especial interest, because it dispenses altogether with the grip. Two cables are used, one driven in the ordinary manner by a stationary engine, the second, and smaller, cable taking motion from the first. This second cable is led continuously over a loose drum or pulley fixed under the car. While the drum is free to revolve, the cable simply imparts motion to it and the car does not move, but by the application of a brake stopping the motion of the drum, the car is carried forward with the cable.

from Street Railway News.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1888. Volume IV, Number 8.
Binghamton, N.J.
The Washington Street & State Asylum Railw*ay Company has put in about half a mile of cable on the Ross Park end of the road on the tail rope system, and is running one car, which connects with the electric car at the bridge. It was found that the electric motors were too slow on these grades of six and eight per cent. A 12 H. P. engine furnishes the power, and the rope, one half inch in diameter, is wound up on a drum or windlass, made of wood and about six feet in diameter. The car travels down the grade by gravity and hauls out the rope.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, February, 1887. Volume III, Number 4.
A new device for a cable road owned by the
RASMUSSEN CABLE CO.,
a new company of which H. W. McNeill is Manager, has been in experimental operation on the West Division Railway near Garfield Park for several months, whioh promises to reduce the cost of cable construction very materially, and it is claimed by its inventors that it will also save a large percentage of the cost of maintenance. This cable is of novel construction, having buttons or collars around it at short intervals that interlock with the teeth of a sprocket wheel attached to the car and extending down through the slotted track.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1887. Volume III, Number 5.
A new device for a cable road owned by the
RASMUSSEN CABLE CO.,
a new company of which H. W. McNeill is Manager, has been in experimental operation on the West Division Railway near Garfield Park for several months, whioh promises to reduce the cost of cable construction very materially, and it is claimed by its inventors that it will also save a large percentage of the cost of maintenance. This cable is of novel construction, having buttons or collars around it at short intervals that interlock with the teeth of a sprocket wheel attached to the car and extending down through the slotted track.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, March, 1887. Volume III, Number 5.
Mr. H. W. McNeil, manager of
THE RASMUSSEN CABLE,
has succeeded in convincing the experts that he has got a good system, and as soon as the weather permits he will commence building a road 2 1/2 miles long in Sioux City, Iowa.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, April, 1887. Volume III, Number 6.
Brooklyn Cable R. R. Co. The line began making regular trips March 6. The power was supplied by a 250 H. P. engine at Grand and Park avenues. The route is from Broadway, E. D., through Park to Washington avenue, thence to Yanderbilt avenue and Fulton Ferry. The tracks of the De Kalb avenue line are used as far as Washington and Concord streets, thence they are continued to Navy street, and running into Park avenue extend to Broadway. At present the cable portion of the road begins at Grand avenue, though the cable traction will shortly be extended all the way to the ferry in one direction and a mile and a half along Central avenue to Evergreen Cemetery in the other. The company derive their rights from an eighty-nine year lease of a franchise secured from Deacon William Richardson. Its promoters and almost exclusive owners are Thomas L. Johnson, his brother, A. L. Johnson, of Cleveland, and A. J. du Pont. The most important difference between the Johnson system, in use by this company, and those commonly in use, is in the construction of the cable itself. This consists of two three-quarter inch cold wire ropes with a cotton core, laid side by side at a distance of an inch apart, and connected together at every six inches by steel bands, or lugs, and presenting somewhat the appearance of an elongated and extremely narrow rope ladder. It is by means of these lugs and not by any grip of the cable that the cars are propelled. They are the only portion of the cable visible through the iron slit, or slot, at the top of the conduit through which the cable travels. Underneath the center of the car is a wheel with twelve peculiarly shaped spokes, and when the car is ready to start this wheel is let down until its spokes are caught and turned by the lugs, and in this manner the propelling force for the vehicle is furnished. The rate of speed obtained at present is seven miles an hour, and will ultimately be increased to nine miles. The company will soon have enough cars to dispatch them under three minutes' headway.

Claims for the Fairchlld Cable System.

From The Street Railway Journal, May, 1887. Volume III, Number 7.
The advantages claimed for the Twin Cable System over the "grip systems" are: --
1. Only a shallow conduit is required, so the first cost for the street structure is only about one-fourth that of other systems.
2. As there is no extra wear on the cables in starting, stopping or slowing up, engineers are of the opinion that the cables will last three or four years.
3. The speed of the cars is entirely under control of the brakemen, and can be reduced on the curves and grades to any desired speed, or made to travel twice as fast as the cable on the straight track and moderate grades. By this means each car can be kept on schedule time independent of the others.
4. Vacuum brakes can be used on all the cars, and a slot brake is provided to hold the car on steep grades.
5. The cost of maintenance can be reduced to the ordinary and usual depreciation in machinery due to wear and tear, without special destruction to any one of its parts.
6. The conduit is so shallow that there is no danger of the slot closing by frost pressure.

MELBOURNE TRAMWAY CABLES.

From Railway World, February, 1898. Volume VII, Number 2.
In our February issue of last year mention was made of the excellent record of a cable made by Messrs. George Cradock and Company on the Collins Street line of the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company. The cable had been in constant service for 52 weeks and 14 days, the speed being 10 miles per hour. This record was a most creditable one, as the average length of service of cables previously in use was 16 weeks and 1/3 of a day. We are now informed that one of Messrs. Cradock's ropes has been working on the Bourke Street line for 90 weeks and 2 days, during which time it has run 111,712 miles. The rope has now been withdrawn. Two previous ropes of other makers worked respectively 29 weeks and 1 day, and 35 weeks and 3 days, and the best record hitherto made on this line is 54 weeks and 66,395 miles. The length of the rope is 18,000 ft., with a circumference of 3 3/4 in. It was specially made for cable tramwav work from Messrs. Cradock and Company's patent improved crucible steel.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, February, 1888. Volume IV, Number 2.

from Notes and Items.

From The Street Railway Journal, August, 1885. Volume I, Number 10.

Powell Street Promenade - 07-July-2011

Here is the Powell Street Promenade on the east side of Powell at Geary.

The Powell Street Promenade is part of the city's program of introducing neighborhood parklets. On street corners along Powell from Ellis to Geary, there are aluminum platforms with planters and railings. They may provide good spots for photographing cable cars.

I stood on the platform on the west side of Powell near Geary with my new camera and took this photo of car 25.

Looking up the Mount Adams Incline about 1906. By this time, the incline was carrying electric streetcars. (Source: Library of Congress. LC-D4-19280).

A view of the Mount Adams Incline between 1900 and 1910. (Source: Library of Congress. LC-D4-70061). September, 2011 Picture of the Month.

Looking down from Mount Adams as a streetcar rides the incline to higher ground. (Source: Library of Congress. LC-D4-73362).

Cincinnati Inclines

Cincinnati had five inclines (funiculars):

Mount Auburn/Main Street/Lookout - 1871-1898
Price Hill (separate passenger and freight inclines) - 1874-1943
Mount Adams/Eden Park/Highland - 1876-1948
Bellevue/Clifton/Elm Street/Ohio - 1876-1926
Fairview/Crosstown - 1892-1923

Inclined Planes.

From Cincinnati Illustrated: a Pictorial Guide to Cincinnati and the Suburbs By Daniel J. Kenny. 1879
The hills which form the boundary lines of so much of the City proper, threatened at one time to prove a serious barrier to its growth, and to interpose grave obstacles in the way of the full enjoyment by the great names of the people of the pure air and delicious scenery of such beautiful spots as Mt. Auburn, Clifton, Mt. Adams, Burnet Woods and Price's Hill. For all but the happy few who were able to keep their own horses and carriages in the City, all opportunities for recreation were limited to the resources of the valley, thickly covered with houses and extending from the Ohio on the South to the foot of these hills on the East, North and West. The disadvantages thus entailed upon the people were mooted for terracing the whole surrounding steep ascents, and it was even proposed to dig passage ways by running through the acclivities. Both plans were defeated, owing to the enormous expense involved beyond all proportion in excess of the comparatively meagre advantages they would have conferred. The difficulties of providing easy and rapid transit from the crowded streets beneath to the summit of the hills, and the beautiful well-wooded and spreading uplands beyond, seemed for a while insuperable, but all were at length overcome by the happy expedient of the Incline Railways. They were the natural supplement to the whole system of the street passenger cars, and at once opened all the gates to what to most had been a forbidden region, tempting as it was with its cool, invigorating atmosphere, its groves of shade trees and rich green turf.
There are four of these Inclined Planes leading to the several hill tops.

The Highland House.

The Mount Adams and Eden Park Inclined Railway starts from Lock street, near Fifth, a short half mile east from Fountain Square. Its length is 1,000 feet, and the elevation 350 feet above the level of the Ohio. The Plane, with its connections, cost nearly $500,000. The principal attraction at the head of the Incline is the Highland House, an immense and costly structure in many terraces and compartments, the daily resort of thousands in summer, especially on the evening of the numerous concerts. There is also a pony track and a riding school. The connection from the head of the Incline to the Walnut Hills is by the Eden Park, Walnut Hills and Avondale St. R. R. This road runs through Eden Park and overlooks the City on the west and the river and Kentucky hills on the east. In order to correctly understand the situation of the City, the visitor should cross on the steam ferry that leaves the foot of Lawrence street every few minutes for Newport. While crossing, a splendid view of Mount Adams, crowned with the small Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception, which stands out clear against the sky, and is visible from almost every part of the City, is obtained. Mount Adams is very interesting, from the fact that it is the view upon the greatest elevation to be obtained from the eastern outskirts of the city. The ground originally formed a portion of the Longworth estate, and was given to the City by the executors upon the sole condition of maintaining an Observatory, with a competent professor, upon the spot. For some time this was done, and observations were duly taken and recorded; but since the Signal Service has been thoroughly organized in Washington, and the Cincinnati Astronomer placed at its head, the observations have been discontinued, and the instruments, one by one, have been removed, and a new Observatory has lately been built in the northeast, on Mount Lookout.

Mount Auburn Inclined Plane.

The Mount Auburn Inclined Plane was the first built in the City. Its projectors were looked upon as rash experimenters, and its failure predicted both upon financial and mechanical grounds. Its success, however, has been very great, and the public spirit of its constructors undoubtedly led to the erection of all the others.
The Cincinnati and Clifton Inclined Plane R.R., frequently called the Elm street line, starts from the foot of the hill at the head of Elm street. The Bellevue House stands at the summit, and is another of the great afternoon and evening summer and autumn resorts. Concerts are frequently given, the admission to which is generally free. The following statistics relative to this line will be found of very general interest:

Length of Inclined Plane track, 962 1/2 feet

Perpendicular height from floor of lower to floor of upper depot, 293 1.6 feet

Grade, 33.83 feet

Diameter of drums around which 2 steel wire ropes to each car, wind, 14 feet

Weight of drums, driving wheel and their shaft, 24 tons

Weight of the 2 cars, each 7 tons

Weight of wire ropes, 6 1/4 tons

Weight of safety wheel, around which the third, or safety, rope runs, 3 tons

Weight of cars, ropes and machinery in motion each trip, and stopped by the engineer with a single brake, 47 tons

The power is supplied by a double engine, with cylinders 16 by 36 inches. The usual running time is 90 seconds, but trips have been run in 47 seconds. The third, or safety, rope has no connection with the engine or other draft machinery, and the brakes are so arranged that the engineer can apply all three at once, either of which is so powerful that he can stop the cars at any time within thirty feet. The capacity has never been properly tested; 25,000 have been transported up and down in one day. This Plane connects at the bottom with both Vine and Elm street cars, and at the top with a line running to Corryville, Zoological Garden, Burnet Woods Park, and Clifton, 1 1/2 miles in length, the latter, in conjunction with the Plane, being owned by a stock company, with a capital of $300,000.
Price's Hill Inclined Plane -- Runs due west, from the foot of Eighth street to the summit of the hill, close to which is a public garden, a house for refreshments, concert rooms, etc. There are two planes on this line, one for passengers, the other for teams and freight, running side by side, but completely independent of one another. They are each 788 feet long, the angle of elevation 24�, and the grade 44.66 feet in 100. The ropes on the passenger plane are tested to a capacity of 40 tons, and on the freight to 70 tons. The power on the first is of 70 and on the second of 100 horses. The cost of building both was about $150,000. The fare on all these Inclined Planes is the same, viz., five cents for each trip.

Price Hill

Looking up the Price Hill Inclines. The passenger incline is on the left and the freight incline is on the right. That is a "Herancourt's Fine Bottled Beer" wagon on the nearer car on the freight incline. (Source: Library of Congress. LC-D4-19282).

A ticket for Cincinnati's Price Hill Incline.

From Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and its Neighbors By the Federal Writers' Project, 1943, page 452.
PRICE HILL INCLINE, (fare 5 cents; with streetcar transfer, 10 cents) serves as the continuation of W. Eighth Street up Price Hill. Its eastern terminus is at W. Eighth St. and Glenway Ave.; its western terminus, 350 feet above the base, is on the south side of Matson Ave. at W. Eighth St. It has a double track, 800 feet long, containing moving cables that draw a passenger car on each track back and forth at intervals of a few minutes. Passengers may transfer from inclined plane to streetcar and vice versa, but unlike the Mount Adams Incline this one does not carry streetcars.

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from Business Notes.

From The Electrical Engineer, August 28, 1896. Volume 18.
Douglas. -- The cable tramway, constructed by Dick, Kerr, and Co., was opened for public traffic on Saturday last.

from Business Notes.

From The Electrical Engineer, September 4, 1896. Volume 18.
Douglas (Isle of Man). -- The opening of the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway, which has been promoted by the Isle of Man Tramways and Electric Power Company, Limited, to deal with the traffic from the Victoria Pier, Douglas, to the north end of the town, was celebrated by a public demonstration. The reason of the adoption of cable rather than electric traction on this piece of line is the extreme severity of the gradient.

from Tramway Notes.

From Transport World, August, 1896. Volume 5.
Douglas. -- The Upper Douglas cable tramway is practically completed, and cars will commence running early in the current month. The cables for the line, wound on two enormous reels, were drawn up to the power station on the 1st ult. The cables weigh upwards of 20 tons, and were hauled by means of traction engines to the power station at Ballaquayle Road. The cables had to be taken up Broadway, one of the steepest gradients in Douglas, and in the steepest part of the hill the wheels of the engine began to skid. Blocks were placed under the wheels, and the traction engine was subsequently taken to the top of the hill, when the cables were hauled up by wire ropes to their destination. The Isle of Man Tramways Company have shown commendable enterprise in the issue of a coloured poster descriptive of the route of the electric tramways from Douglas to the top of Snaefell.

DOUGLAS CABLE TRAMWAY.

From Transport World, September, 1896. Volume 5.
The formal opening of the Douglas Cable Tramway took place on the 26th ult., in connection with the opening of the central promenade. A public celebration marked the completion also of the double line of tramway which now extend right up to Derby Castle gates. At night, the whole shore, from end to end of the fine bay, was illuminated, and there were displays of fireworks.
The cable tramway is now working regularly, and the service is much appreciated. The upper town has previously had no means of communication with the lower town, and, consequently, the value of property on the route will be much increased with the opening of the tramway. The cable tramway has been constructed by Messrs. Dick, Kerr, and Company, and it is equipped with the latest appliances. A fine power station has been built near the upper end of the line, and, altogether, the plant is an excellent example of a modern cable tramway.

Elevated Proposal Proposal for a cable-driven elevated railway. (Source: Expos� of the Facts Concerning the Proposed Elevated Patent Railway. 1866.).

butte coc

montana magazine

montana hs

uw digital collections
Trolley Folly By Brennen Jensen Baltimore City Paper February 21 - February 27, 2001

http://www.cityofdunedin.com/city/?page=feat_tram THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DUNEDIN TRAM

http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/new_zealand/about_destin/dunedin/dunedin. html

"Taming the hills: The hills that rise so sharply from the waterfront were in time conquered by the first cable tramway to operate outside the United States. Suggested in 1879 by a 27-year-old engineer, George Smith Duncan, the pioneer line was built by a company he founded. The line ran up Rattray Street and curved to the left at St Joseph's Cathedral, the curve being overcome by a "pull curve" - a number of small wheels that eased the wire rope round the curve but still allowed the cablecar to grip. The innovation was later adopted by major cable systems throughout the world.

"A continuously running endless cable ran beneath the roadway and was gripped by a projecting arm when the passenger car was to move. Each car had a brakeman who could grip the cable at will and who also had a variety of brakes to hold the car still when it was not engaged to the cable. The cablecar system, based on the design of the world's first (San Francisco, 1873), became a landmark. By the turn of the century three private companies were operating services to Roslyn, Mornington, Maryhill and Kaikorai. Duncan later crossed the Tasman to design a cable tramway for Melbourne; this was later reputed to be the best laid out in the world. The cars trundled up and down the hills of Dunedin for three-quarters of a century. One by one the lines closed, and finally the Mornington cars made their last journeys in 1957. The decision to abandon the system evoked much opposition, as the city was hard to imagine without the quaint cars. (A cablecar from the Maryhill line is in the Early Settlers' Museum. The Guinness Book of Records accords Baldwin St (1:1.266) as being the world's steepest.)"

http://www.sligofamily.com/Alexander.htm

"He was also a Director of the Roslyn and Kaikorai Tramway Company and a Director in several other public companies."

http://www.kaiser.aix.de/global/cablecar.html

The Wellington Cable Car

"The design of the cable cars would appear to have been based on that of the Mornington Cable Cars and the Kaikorai Trams, both of Dunedin, which first ran in 1883. Plans of the original cars state the builder as Mark Sinclair of Dunedin and the year of construction as 1901."

http://www.tramarchives.homestead.com/Page1.html

Maryhill tram in color

kc pub lib photos
Dunedin trams
Trams (Trolleys) in New Zealand
New Zealand Train Images. "697 kb MPEG animation of Dunedin's long closed Maryhill cable car"
Tramarchives
CHAPTER XLVIII/STREET RAILWAYS AND GRAVEL ROADS
From NPS: "In 1862, the first of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Co.'s horse drawn street cars rolled down tracks laid in the Avenue's center. In 1892, the company installed a cable car system similar to that of San Francisco. Two cables pulled the cars up and down the Avenue between the Navy Yard and Georgetown. However, on September 29, 1897, the company's powerhouse at 14th St. and the Avenue burned-down. An electric system replaced the cable cars the next year. On the Avenue, the electric wire for the cars was placed in the old cable system's underground conduit, thus sparing the Avenue from unsightly overhead wires. The Capital Transit Co.'s last electric street car traveled the Avenue from 14th St. to the Navy Yard on January 28, 1962."
Virtual Tour of Denver's Uptown District.
Edinburgh tram No.226
Irene Love of Bellevue Road is one of a small group of enthusiasts working on the restoration of Edinburgh tram No.226.
"This tram started life as a cable tram, before being converted to electric in 1923. It then lay in a field for many years, in the Borders, used as a holiday home. It now requires a lot of cash and dedicated work to restore it. It is hoped that one day it will run again, and members of the Edinburgh public can travel on that wonderful mode of transport." The Group is holding a fundraising CAR BOOT SALE on Saturday 20th June, Drummond Community High playground from 9am to 12 noon.
ed226.gif
"Originally built in 1903 as a cable car by the Dick Kerr Company of Preston, 226 was rebuilt as an electric car in 1923. The tram was rescued for preservation in 1987 by Lothian Regional Transport.

"The Tramway Classics range features popular trams seen on the streets of Great Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century."

VALLEY CITY STREET AND CABLE RAILWAY.

November 10, 1884, a report made in the Common Council recommended that permission be given for the construction of a cable railway in Lyon, Union and East Bridge streets, and an ordinance was passed February 16, 1885, granting a franchise with conditions. Some efforts toward starting the work were made in the following year, without much progress. The Valley City Street and Cable Railway was incorporated June 6, 1887 - President, Wm. P. Innes; Secretary and Treasurer, Robert W. Innes; Engineer, Wm. Phenix. Their first cable line was in Lyon street, from the foot to Grand avenue; and horse-car lines in connection were constructed from the foot of Lyon to Waterloo and down Grandville avenue to the south city line, also across Fulton street bridge and to the west city line, and one north from Lyon on Barclay street. The company began work in August, and the horse-car branches were running in October. The cable in Lyon street was drawn to place April 13, 1888, grip cars ran on the 16th, and soon began their regular trips. The power house is by the Lyon street and Grand avenue corner, where very powerful steam machinery is placed to operate the line. The lines in the early part of 1890 are:

Lyon and Bridge street (cable), from the corner of East Fulton and East streets over Fulton, Union, Lyon, Canal, and East Bridge streets and Grand avenue. Ottawa street (cable), from the City Hall by the way of Canal and East Bridge streets to Ottawa, and over North Ionia and Taylor streets to the north city line at Sweet street. West Third ward line (cable), from Pearl street and business center to city limits by Louis, Spring, Wealthy avenue, Sheldon, Wenham avenue and Lafayette streets. Grandville avenue line (horse), from Canal street and business center to city limits south on Grandville avenue. West Fulton street line (horse), Fulton, Straight, Jackson, Pine and Bridge and business center. Barclay street line (horse), Coit, Trowbridge and Clancy to D., G. H. & M. track. Ionia street line, south on Ionia to and beyond the city limits.

Some seven miles of roadway are completed, or nearly so. A central power house plant is in the course of development and construction, at the foot of Lyon street, between Campau street and the river. Twenty-five passenger and twenty-three grip (cable) cars are in use, also fifteen passenger cars drawn by horses. The capital invested is near half a million dollars. There has been some change of officers and management. Directors chosen July 3, 1889: A. J. Bowne, James Blair, John W. Blodgett and A. D. Rathbone, of Grand Rapids; W. S. Crosby and John M. Hagar, of Chicago; H. P. Breed, of Minneapolis - President, A. J. Bowne; Vice President, J. W. Blodgett; Secretary, W. S. Crosby; Assistant Secretary, Accountant and Purchasing Agent, H. P. Baker; Treasurer, James Blair.

St. Louis City Revised Code Chapter 8.92

8.92.100 Rules and regulations for running streetcars.

D. Vigilant watch to be kept. The conductor, motorman, gripman, driver or any other person in charge of each car shall keep vigilant watch for all vehicles and persons on foot, especially children, either on the track or moving towards it, and on the first appearance of danger to such persons or vehicles, the car shall be stopped in the shortest time and space possible. (1948 C. Ch. 63 � 9: 1960 C. � 595.020.)

8.92.110 Regulations when tracks intersect with railroad and other streetcar tracks.

At all points where the streetcar track may intersect or cross any steam railroad track, every streetcar shall be brought to a full stop not less than ten or more than twenty-five feet from nearest point of intersection, and shall not proceed to cross the railroad track until, upon sufficient investigation, the conductor, or other proper agent appointed by the company for that purpose, is assured there is no danger of collision, whereupon the person in control of the car shall be signaled to proceed. At all points where the street railway track intersects or crosses other street railway tracks, the car shall be stopped immediately before crossing the same, so as to avoid danger of collision. The car going in an eastwardly or westwardly direction over, on or crossing any intersecting street upon which other streetcars are run shall be entitled to the right-of-way to pass before any car going in a northwardly or southwardly direction at the point of intersection of the streets. It shall be the duty of the conductor, motorman, gripman, driver or any other person in charge of the car going in a northwardly or southwardly direction to run the car when approaching the intersection of other street railways so as to stop in due time and give the right-of-way to the car going in an eastwardly or westwardly direction on the intersecting line. In no event shall this clause be so construed as to sanction or allow a wilful or wanton collision by the conductor, motorman, gripman or driver of a car running in an eastwardly or westwardly direction. (1948 C. Ch. 63 � 10: 1960 C. � 595.030.)

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Centennial History of the City of Washington, D. C.: With Full Outline of ... 1892

By Harvey W. Crew, William Bensing Webb, John Wooldridge

p 342-343

The Seventh Street road was changed to a cable road May 1, 1890. The plant by which the cable is propelled is situated on Square No. 504, between Water and Four and a Half streets, and fronting on the Arsenal. In this power house are two engines, each of two hundred and fifty horse-power, but capable of five hundred horse-power each. The legislation under which this cable road was built was permissive only, but in 1890 Congress passed a supplemental act requiring the entire system of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad to be operated by cable or electricity, and the change to be completed within the time required by law, which expires August 6, 1892. The power house in which the machinery will be located is being erected on Square No. 255, between Thirteen and a Half and Fourteenth streets, and D and E streets Northwest. The estimated cost of the machinery to be erected in this building is $150,000. There will be two seven hundred and fifty horse-power engines, and eight one hundred and eighty-four horsepower boilers. The total length of the cable road belonging to the company will, when completed, be eleven miles of double track, and the the entire cost of the change is estimated at $3,500,000.

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The Washington Electrical Hand-book: Being a Guide for Visitors from Abroad ... - Page 101-103

Electric industries - 1904

THE SYSTEM OF THE CAPITAL TRACTION CO.

The first street car service in Washington was begun in July, 1862, when the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company ran its first horse cars on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Pennsylvania Avenue line has been operated without interruption since, and as the public's need for service in other sections were manifested, they have been met by the other lines and various extensions.

When it became apparent that the horse car was not adequare, in the later '80's, the company considered what form of mechanical system would best meet the condifions. The overhead trolley system, then just beginning to be generally used, was properly not allowed in Washington, and the cable, the only other successful method of propulsion then available, was adopted. The Seventh Street line was first equipped, and immediately after that was put into operation, in 1890, work was begun on the other lines, so that August, 1892, found all the Washington and Georgetown Railroad's system operated by cable. This system continued to give satisfactory service until September, 1897, when the burning of the company's large central power station, at Fourteenth street and Pennsylvania Avenue, put all the lines except Seventh Street out of commission. The fire occurred after 11 at night, but the disabled cable cars were hauled off the street and the trail cars started out with horse power on a regular schedule the following morning.

In the meantime, the conduit electric system had been developed and proven satisfactory on the Metropolitan Railway Company's lines in Washington and also in New York, so the company's directors decided not to rebuild the cable power station, but to equip the entire road with that system. Fortunately the concrete cable conduit was well adapted to the electric system, and work was soon begun on the track, power station and cars so that both the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourteenth Street lines were electrically operated from the company's own power station in April, 1898. Parts of the lines had been run some months before that time.

The Seventh Street cable road was also rebuilt, the work being done without interruption to the cable system, which was driven by a separate station, now abandoned.

In September, 1895, the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company and the Rock Creek Railway Company were consolidated under the name of the Capital Traction Company.

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Horse Car - 175 Years
June 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the return of the cable cars after the 1982-1984 reconstruction. Read San Francisco: Cable Cars Are Here to Stay by Val Lupiz and Walter Rice. Pay a visit to Bruce Kliewe's website full of photo of the 1982-1984 reconstruction.

Horse Car - 175 Years
26-November-2007 marks the 175th birthday of the Horse Car. Read a new article on its history and an 11-March-1906 newspaper article about Michael Houlihan, who drove the URR's franchise-protecting horse car line on California Street

The Sutter Street Railway - San Francisco's Second Cable Car Line
Read Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria's illustrated article "The Sutter Street Railway - San Francisco's Second Cable Car Line"

125 Years - Beginning of Cable Traction in Chicago - 125 Years
28-January-2006 marks the 125th anniversary of the beginning of cable traction in Chicago, Illinois, when the Chicago City Railway's State Street line converted to cable traction.

1906 Earthquake and Fire - 100 Years
18-Apr-2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire.
21-Jun-2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the return to service of the Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway, the first cable car line to return to service after the Earthquake and Fire.
17-Aug-2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the return to service of the California Street Cable Railroad after the Earthquake and Fire.

100 Years - End of Cable Traction in Chicago - 100 Years
21-October-2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of cable traction in Chicago, Illinois, when the former Chicago City Railway's Wabash Avenue line and the North Chicago Clark and Lincoln lines converted to electric traction.

Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest
The 47th Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest is scheduled for Tuesday, 09-June-2008 at noon in Union Square.

Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest
The 46th Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest is scheduled for Tuesday, 03-June-2008 at noon in Union Square.

Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest
The 45th Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest is scheduled for Thursday, 12-Jul-2007 at noon in Union Square.

Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest
The 44th Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest is scheduled for Thursday, 13-Jul-2006 at noon in Union Square.

Contest: San Francisco Without Cable Cars
See the winning entries in our 2006 Contest, conceived by Walter Rice, who has generously provided the prizes.

2006 Contest
Please participate in our Contest, "San Francisco With a $5 Cable Car Fare", conceived by Walter Rice, who has generously provided the prizes.

2006 Contest
See the winning entries in our Contest, "San Francisco With a $5 Cable Car Fare", conceived by Walter Rice, who has generously provided the prizes.

2006 Contest
Please participate in our 2006 Contest, conceived by Walter Rice, who has generously provided the prizes.

First Cable Tram Outside of San Francisco - 125 Years
24-Feb-2006 marks the 125th anniversary of the first cable tram to run in Dunedin, NZ, on the Rattray Street line.

The Feel of the Rope
Reflections on Life at the San Francisco Cable Car Division
Nick Tomizawa has created a dvd, The Feel of the Rope/Reflections on Life at the San Francisco Cable Car Division: "a tribute to the men and women that carry on a San Francisco tradition that has continued for over 130 years. Through the words of employees past and present representing two generations of operators, managers, maintainers, trainers, and car builders, you will get an insider's look at what makes the cable cars the most unique transit system in the world."

Last Sydney Cable Tram - 100 Years
14-Jan-2005 marks the 100th anniversary of the last cable tram to run in Sydney, on the King Street line.

Pacific Avenue Abandonment - 75 Years
17-Nov-2004 marks the 75th anniversary of the abandoment of the Pacific Avenue remnant of the Sutter Street Railway. See Walter Rice's article "The Sutter Street Railway", which focuses on the technical innovations of the Sutter Street company.

Upper Douglas Cable Tramway Abandonment - 75 Years
19-Aug-2004 marks the 75th anniversary of the abandonment of the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway on the Isle of Man. Walter Rice kindly provided two articles he wrote about the Isle of Man Railway and the Manx Electric Railway.

Jones Street Shuttle Abandonment - 50 Years
06-Feb-1954 marks the 50th anniversary of the California Street Cable Railroad's Jones Street Shuttle. I have collected some contemporary newspaper articles.

Cable Car Senior Luncheon Raffle Tickets
How can you buy a raffle ticket to support the senior citizen luncheon put on by the people of the Cable Car Division? Read the News.

San Francisco Municipal Railway/Cable Car Division
25th Annual Senior Citizen's Holiday Luncheon See the News for an important announcement about the San Francisco Municipal Railway/Cable Car Division 25th Annual Senior Citizen's Holiday Luncheon.

Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest
The 40th Annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest is scheduled for Thursday, 16-Oct-2003.

Great Orme Tramway - 100 Years
08-Jul-2003 marks the 100th anniversary of the upper section of the Great Orme Tramway

New: Tales From the Grip
I am proud to be the host of gripman Val Lupiz's new quarterly column: the Tales From the Grip.

California Street - 125 Years
10-Apr-2002 marks the 125th anniversary of the California Street Cable Railroad. Visit the San Francisco Cable Car Museum site for Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria's article "A Century and a Quarter of Cable Car Service on California Street".

The Cable Car Home Page 1996 -- The Cable Car Home Page - 15 Years -- 2011
November, 2011 will mark the 15th anniversary of this website.
I wish I had written down the date I started it.

Go Giants Go Giants Go Giants

Great Orme Tramway - 100 Years
31-Jul-2002 marks the 100th anniversary of the lower section of the Great Orme Tramway

Wells Fargo - 150 Years
18-Mar-2002 marks the 150th anniversary of Wells Fargo

Sutter Street - 125 Years
27-Jan-2002 marks the 125th anniversary of cable traction on the Sutter Street Railway. Visit the San Francisco Cable Car Museum site for Walter Rice's article "Celebrating 125th Anniversary of San Francisco's Second Cable Car, The Sutter Street Railroad - History & Technology".

Geary Street - 125 Years
16-Feb-2005 marks the 125th anniversary of cable traction on the Geary Street Park and Ocean Railway. Read Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria's article "When Steam Ran on The Streets of San Francisco," about steam street railway operations, including the Geary Street company's steam dummy line to Golden Gate Park.

Of Cables and Grips:
The Cable Cars of San Francisco
Second Edition
by Robert Callwell & Walter E. Rice, Ph.D.

The second edition of Of Cables and Grips: The Cable Cars of San Francisco -- not yet available in a print-and-paper book format -- is available on this web site.

They're Back! - 25 Years
June, 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the return of the cable cars after the 1982-1984 reconstruction. Read San Francisco: Cable Cars Are Here to Stay by Val Lupiz and Walter Rice. Pay a visit to Bruce Kliewe's website full of photos of the 1982-1984 reconstruction.

June 03 - The California Street line reopened after the Great Reconstruction
June 04 - The Powell/Hyde Street line reopened and the rebuilt Washington/Mason carbarn and powerhouse was dedicated after the Great Reconstruction
June 21 - The Powell/Mason Street line reopened and the city held a major celebrtion after the Great Reconstruction

A Visit to Angels Flight
In July, 2011, we made a visit to Angels Flight

Angels Flight is Back
Angels Flight in Los Angeles returned to service on 15-March-2010.

Happy Holidays
Do you remember when Santa arrived at the Emporium by cable car? Read Joe Lacey's "Christmas on the Cables" to find out more. Read more about decorated cable cars, a living holiday tradition.

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