Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1891 — ELECTRIC CARS UNDERGROUND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ELECTRIC CARS UNDERGROUND

An electric underground railway has been opened in London and is now in successful operation. The road-bed consists of two tracks laid in two underground tunnels and the rails, with few exceptions, are not less than forty feet underground, while in many places they go as deep as one hundred feet. At the stations the two tunnels

are brought into an enlarged chamber, ana the passengers are here raised and lowered by elevators. The cars are twenty-nine feet in length, and a train consists of an electric locomotive and three cars capable of accommodating one hundred passengers to the train. The locomotives weigh ten tons and are one hundred horse-power each. There is no gearing of any kind, the current being picked up from a center rail carried on glass insulators, the track serving as return conductors. The operation of the cars is said to be very satisfactory, but the reverberating noise of the train while running through the tunnel is very disagreeable.

FRONT SECTION OF SUBTERRANEAN ELECTRIC RAILWAY.