Correspondence. Electrical Railways.

Abstract

London Railway had at least proved that electrical traction could Dr. Hopkinson. be applied to railways on a large scale with economy, safety, and convenience to the travelling public. Correspondence. Sir BENJAMIN BAKER, Vice-President, thought that, in order to Sir Beqjamin appreciate the degree of success attained on the South London Baker. Railway by Messrs. Mather and Platt, and to give full credit to the directors for their enterprise in adopting the electric system of traction, it was necessary to recall the popular view held on the subject only three years ago. At that time, the general manager of the Metropolitan Railway told a Parliamentary Committee that his company had been negotiating for two years with electrical companies, as they were anxious to get rid of sulphur and other disagreeable concomitants of steam-locomotion on their line, but the results had been so disappointing that he had visited America himself to see what had been done there in the direction of electrical traction. The only really practical experiment, he said, that had ever been made either in the United States or Canada in the direction of substituting electric motors for ordinary locomotives was on the Manhattan Railway in New York. The experiments there cost %20,000, and the electric motor had been a t once withdrawn and was lying on the rails rusting and rapidly decaying. According to the official report, he said, the .electric motor, a t a speed of about 12 miles per hour, cost five times as much as a steam locomotive. Referring to the Report itself,