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| Monday, September 6, 1869 (13406) | |||
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Monday, September 6, 1869 |
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Posted by Richard Rabinowitz on Thu Feb 3 21:36:11 2005, in response to Re: People abroad not liking us, posted by Richard Rabinowitz on Thu Feb 3 21:21:46 2005. THE NEW YORK TIMES · TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH, 1869THE ELEVATED RAILWAY Successful Trial Trips of the West Side Railroad in Greenwich-Street The Line to be Completed by November Description of the Means by Which the Cars are to be Driven Names of the Stockholders and Officers of the Company Trial-trips were made on the new West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in Greenwich-street yesterday, in which several stockholders of the Company and other invited guests participated. The first section of the road, from the Battery to Cortlandt-street, is completed, and posts for receiving the rails are erected, and many of the rails are laid on the next section, from Cortlandt-street to Thirtieth-street. It is anticipated that the road will be in condition for the transportation of passengers from the Battery to Thirtieth-street by the first day of November next. For the present route of travel will be over a single track; but it is intended, eventually, to construct another track on the west side of Greenwich-street and Ninth-avenue, and along the whole route to Yonkers, to be used, for cars returning to the starting point, while the present one will be confined solely to the carrying of passengers going north. The experimental trips made gave ample satisfaction to all who passed over the route, and the opinion was universally expressed that, if the construction of the road over the remaining sections be as well done as on the first, the enterprise will prove to be a complete success. The riding was remarkably smooth and easy, and the speed satisfactory. The rate at which the car was yesterday operated was fifteen miles per hour. Twenty miles can be made, if required, just as easily. It is not intended, however, that the rate of travel shall, ordinarily, exceed that of yesterday. The mode of propulsion is an "endless chain," so called, but really a wire rope, which passes over a drum at either end of the section, and runs thence between the rails over which the car moves; the motor being a steam engine underneath the sidewalk at the corner of Greenwich and Cortlandt streets. To this wire ropes are attached, at distances of 150 feet apart, small iron uprights, or projections, running on wheels on a narrow track provided expressly for the purpose, the rails of which are about sixteen inches apart. Pendant from the bottom of the car is an iron beam that may be thrown out or drawn inward by operating a brake at the end of the car, and when thrown out, is the material against which the upright presses itself, and thus forces the car onward. On reaching the end of any section these uprights follow the direction of the endless rope, and going over the curved line there, are reversed in position, and they then return to the large drum at the other end, where they are again, one by one, sent off on propelling duty as before. The car, meanwhile, passes over the space between the two sections (never more than the width between the opposite curbstones of a street, say twenty-five feet,) by force of the momentum it has gained, and at the next section meets one of the uprights attached to the rope traversing it and is thus propelled toward the terminus of that section. This proceeding is continued along the entire route. The engines necessary to operate this endless chain are to be located in Greenwich-street, at the corners of Franklin, Bethune and Twenty-second streets, the one corner of Cortlandt-street and Greenwich being placed there merely as the motor for the other half mile of the route, which according to the act of incorporation, had to be [several lines were not readable on microfilm]. The upright posts and the rails resting on them have been tested first at the place of manufacture, Buffalo, before shipment hither. The flanges of the wheels (every car being provided with eight double trucks,) are an inch and a half in width, which, added to the weight of the car itself, would seem to make it impossible that they should ever get off the track. In addition to this, the floor of the car itself sets very close to the rails, thus throwing the whole weight on that portion of each wheel which may be at the times in contact with the rail. Every other precaution that prudence or experience could suggest has also been taken. The sections are to be inspected by Commissioners appointed in the act of incorporation before the road is thrown open for regular travel, and no fares can be collected until the certificate of these Commissioners has been filed in the offices of the Secretary of State and of the Mayor to the effect that the road is in a perfectly safe condition. By the terms of the act, these Commissioners are compelled to test the strength of the road with a car placed upon the track loaded to a weight equal to at least three times the ordinary weight of a passenger car proposed to be used thereon, with its occupants. The cars, ten of which are already completed, are each calculated to seat comfortably forty passengers, there being seats across the end as well as at the sides, and also in the center . The rails are now arriving from Buffalo, and probably there will be a sufficiency of them here by Friday next to insure the speedy completion of the track to Thirtieth-street. Until the down-track shall have been laid there will be turnouts or sideways used at the Battery and at Thirtieth-street to enable the car to get into position for making return trips either way. When the road is put into full operation it is intended that a car will pass a given depot every eight minutes. The difficulty of steep grades is entirely overcome by the use of traction rope with stationary power, although at one point of the route the incline is 130 feet to the mile, and at its upper end in the neighborhood of Harlem, 280 feet to the mile. Another advantaged possessed by this mode of travel is its comparative freedom from noise, as well as the obviation of all delay in consequence of street obstructions, a matter which now seriously interferes with the transit of passengers by horse-car routes. The act of incorporation under which this Company is formed was passed April 22, 1867. It fixes the fare for each passenger for any distance within the limits of the City, not exceeding two miles, five cents; for every mile or fractional part of a mile in addition, thereto, one cent; provided that when the railway is completed and in operation between Battery Place and the vicinity of the Harlem River, the Company may at its option, adopt a uniform rate not exceeding ten cents for all distances on Manhattan Island. The Company is by the same act compelled to pay a sum not exceeding five per cent of its net income from passenger trains, into the City Treasury as a compensation to the Corporation for the use of the streets. The original stockholders of the Company were Messrs. C.T. Harvey, William E. Dodge, William H. Fogg, William H. Appleton, R. T. Underhill, John P. Yelverton, Turner Brothers, Chauncey Vibbard, Fred B. Fisk, John B. Murray, Wm. W. W. Wood, Moses A. Hoppock, John Perkins, Edwin Booth, D.D. Williams, Chas. D. Bigelow, De-Witt Clinton Jones, W. S. Guruee, S. M. Pettingill, John H. Hall, Alanson Trask, Isaac Scott, Stephen Cutter, D. Crawford, Jr., F. T. James, Frank Work, George L. Trask, H.F. Lombard, H. F. Spaulding, S. M. Pettingill, A. S. Barnes, R. P. Getty, and Samuel D. Babcock. The capital stock is about $1,000,000. The officers of the Company are: President, D. N. Barney; Directors, S. M. R. P. Getty, Pettingill. A. S. Barnes, Chas. T. Harvey, J. H. Benedict, and C. E. Miller; Secretary and Treasurer, H. W. Taylor; Manager and Chief Engineer, Chas. T. Harvey; Attorney , Edward C. Delevan; Counsel, Hon. Jos. S. Bosworth. The office of the Company is at No. 48 Cortlandt-street. -from http://www.nycsubway.org/irt/9thave/ |
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