Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — PULLED BY LIGHTNING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PULLED BY LIGHTNING.

How the Intramural “L” I« Operated at the 'World’s Fair. In the Intramual Railway and its operation the public visiting the World’s Fair found one of its strongest attractions. The remarkable extent of ground embraced within the boundaries of the Columbian Exposition rendered the question of adequate and satisfactory transportation one of considerable gravity. The idea of using surface cars could not be entertained, and this left but one alternative—an elevated read. As the Exposition was to be symbolical of the highest point reached by nineteenth century civilization, the operation of the road by steam was out of the question, and the plan Anally adopted was an electric elevated railroad running almost entirely around the Fair and obtruding itself as little as possible. The line, consisting of 14,800 feet of double track and 1,900 feet of single track, was not laid out until after the work of construction had been begun on

nearly all the Fair buildings and many of them completed, and the line is necessarily circuitous. The exhibit in this power house is the most complete single exhibit of advanced types of mechanical and electrical machinery in motion at the Fair. In the center of the building stands the electrical wonder of the Fair, and, indeed, the electrical wonder of the world—the great 12-pole, 1,500 kilowatt electrical generator, coupled directly to the huge 2.400horse power Corliss engine. This generator is the largest ever constructed, and although it is rated at 1,500 k. w., -or abou 12,100-horse power, it can be operated to give 3,000-horse power under emergencies. Its tremendous size precluded the possibility of its shipment complete to the Fair. The different parts were, therefore, sh pped separately, and were put together for the first time in the power house itself. The transportation service is effected by trains running at four-min-ute intervals, each train consisting of a motor car and three trailers, the trains weighing sixty-three tons each,

seating 280 people, and the cars being of the same length as those generally used on elevated roads—about forty-five feet from end to end. The weight of these trains, as compared with a train drawn in the usual way by a locomotive, shows a saving of about twenty tons dead weight. The cars are open, with doors in each side opening at the seats. By means of a lever at the end of the car all the doors are opened or closed simultaneously, and one man opens the doors of two cars. Thus three men only—one motorman and two conductors—suffice to operate the train, where five would be required in ordinary steam elevated service. The motor cars and trailers are each forty-six feet long. The motors are the most powerful railway motors yet constructed, developing 133-horse-power each. They are geared for a speed of thirty miles an hour.

INTRAMURAL ELECTRIC ELEVATED ROAD AT THE WORLD’S FAIR.

2,100-HOUSE—POWER DYNAMO, WITH FLYWHEEL 18 FEET HIGH.