Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

218 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. Fig. 2.—THE INTERIOR OF A METROPOLITAN RAILWAY ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE. but in the matter of rapid acceleration, prompt working of trains, and the ability to exert enormously increased power when required, the electric locomotive is decidedly superior. At present, the legitimate field for electric traction appears to be the operation of numer- ous trains on a crowded line at reasonably fast speeds, and most of the important applica- tions of electric power are of this character. For this traffic electricity is far better than steam, as no steam railway could carry out a train service corresponding to that of the London underground railways, the Liverpool and Southport section of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and the North-Eastern electric sections in the Newcastle district. There are also many electric systems of a somewhat similar character on the Continent; and of course the electrified railways of New York, Chicago, and other American towns are even more remarkable than those in this coun- try. There is a possibility that, as electric suburban systems become more general in the towns, it will be found desirable to link up the various systems by electrifying the inter- mediate sections of main lines ; but it is hardly likely that electric main line services will be other than exceptional in this country for a long time to come. In America almost every little township has its electric tramways, and in many cases the systems have been linked up, so that it is possible to make town-to-town journeys of con- siderable length and at good speed. In fact, on many of these lines speeds of fifty or sixty miles an hour are nothing unusual between towns. Yet the commercial electric railway generally is still one on which a frequent and heavy train service is conducted, and high speed work is performed principally by the steam locomotive. There are two other conditions under which electric traction is desirable—where a railway terminus is approached through tunnels, and for working trains through long tunnels where the steam locomotive is at a disadvantage or undesirable. For example, some of the Amer- ican. railways enter New York by means of a tunnel section, and now all trains are moved electrically over this section. In fact, the elec- trification has been carried considerably fur- ther than the tunnels necessitate, and, with the exception of the long distance trains, most of the traffic is in some cases now worked electrically. In Paris, the Orleans railway is similarly operated for a few miles. In London, we have the case of the Metropolitan Railway, where the long distance trains are now hauled by electric locomotives between Harrow and Baker Street and beyond, and of the Great Western trains running between Paddington and Aidgate Stations. Fig. 3.—AN ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE FOR HAULING STEAM TRAINS OVER THE ELECTRIFIED SECTIONS OF THE LONDON METROPOLITAN RAILWAY.