Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1915 — WILL ELECTRIFY ALL ROADS [ARTICLE]

WILL ELECTRIFY ALL ROADS

Railroads Already Preparing for Change, Is the Assertion of Chicago Engineer. Electricity for transportation purposes is just in its infancy and it will not be long until all the transcontinental railroads will be using electricity for motive power. This Is the belief of H. A. Strauss, a consulting engineer of Chicago. “The railroads are gradually coming into the belief that electrical motive power Is the thing,” Mr. Strauss said. "It is cheaper than steam, cleaner and has a greater propelling power. “The transformation will be gradual. It will begin at the terminals first, then extend to the mountain grades, and then the intervening spaces will be electrified. Some of the Eastern roads have now electrified their terminals, and the Great Northern is using electric motive power on the Cascade tunnel division to take the trains through the mountains. They are using the regenerative control of electricity, in which the motors on the locomotives move the wheels on the ascent, and on the descent the wheels move the motors, thereby generating electricity for the next ascent.” Several transcontinental lines are now acquiring water rights along their route with the end in view of electrifying their roads, Mr. Strauss continued. "The Milwaukee, St Paul & Puget Sound, known here as the Milwaukee road, has now let contracts for seven hundred miles of electrification of their road in the West,” he said. "The Denver & Rio Grande and the Great Northern are quietly acquiring water rights, and it is only a question of time until electricity is used on all roads.”