Work Will Commence at Once—Plans and Specifications—The Route—How Cars Are Propelled

Satisfactory arrangements were concluded yesterday between the promoters of the Woodstock Electric Motor line and Messrs. Schurtz & Tobin, whereby the construction of the line is assured. Engineers are already at work preparing plans and specifications, and surveyors will be sent out on the line at once. The signers to the subsidy will ratify their agreement, and as they are all property-holders and considered responsible, the contractors have accepted this agreement.

Note: The Richmond and Woodstock lines were unusual in the way they began – not as a company gaining a franchise from the city and then seeking a subscription to fund its construction from property owners, but as a collective of property owners raising their own subscription and then shopping around for a company that could construct and/or operate the line on their behalf. As it happened, this particular deal with Messrs. Schurtz & Tobin (representing the Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company) fell through, and the property owners then negotiated a deal with the Thomson–Houston Electric Company (a forerunner of General Electric) instead.

The road is to be nearly six miles long. It begins at a point on Fifth street, East Portland, where the present street railway ends [meaning the southern end of the Willamette Bridge Company’s East Fifth street line] and runs out to Washington street [now SE Lincoln], along Washington to Eleventh, and up Eleventh to the Oregon & California [Southern Pacific] rail road, thence along the right of way of the Oregon & California to the Powell’s valley road, and up the road to No. 2 school house on the corner of William Kern’s place, where the power house will be located. From this point, the line runs north to the Meier & Frank tract, thence east through that tract to the east line of the Kelly donation land claim, thence north a mile and three-quarters, and then east a quarter of a mile to the center of the Woodstock addition in section 18.

Note: This is not exactly what ended up being built, and there is no mention of the Richmond branch. Note also the obvious mistakes in the route, where it uses “north” instead of “south” – if the line turned north from the Powell’s valley road, it would not reach Woodstock!

The road will be operated by overhead wires and the Sprague motors. It is intended that the wires shall be extended along the street railway on Fifth street and down across the Morrison street bridge.

Thus it will be seen that we shall soon have an electric motor line across each bridge, the one across the Morrison street bridge running to a point some six miles northeast [sic: this should be southeast; this article consistently messes north and south up!] of the bridge, and the one across the steel bridge running out to Fifth street with a branch to Albina. In view of all this it is but natural to suppose that the street railway between the two bridges will soon be changed to an electric motor line, and it may be expected that the slow horse cars will soon be a thing of the past on both sides of the river.

As no electric motor line has yet been in operation here, there are many in the city who have but little idea of one, and a description will be interesting to them.

There are several ways of running cars by electricity. One is by electricity stored in boxes, which are placed in the car and run until the electricity is exhausted, when another “box full” must be put in. This is, as yet, a very expensive style. Another method of running cars by electricity is by a wire laid between the tracks or under one track. This is expensive and troublesome, as it is very difficult to keep a wire in such positions properly insulated.

The most common and successful plan of operating such roads is by means of a wire suspended over the cars by cross-wires running from poles on each side of the street. This wire runs from the power house, where the electricity is generated, and connection is made with the motor under the car by means of a trolley wheel, which is supported by an arm rising from the roof of the car, at the base of which is a flexible spring, allowing the trolley great freedom, either vertically or laterally, yet always maintaining its position on the under side of the wire, which renders it able to follow around switches or curves and not leave the wire. The motors are placed beneath the car, out of the way and where there is no danger of shocking the patrons of the road or even magnetizing their watches. These motors are capable of running in either direction with equal facility, are strong, durable and highly efficient, with parts inter-changeable. A loaded car moving from 12 to 15 miles per hour may be reversed and brought to a dead stand-still in a space of six feet. This has been tried many times to satisfy doubting people, while the control over the car is so perfect that any ordinary car driver can learn to handle a car in a very short time, the actual work being much less than driving a team of horses. Owing to this perfect control the cars can be allowed to run at a higher rate of speed through the streets of a crowded city, and when the country is reached, if the track is in good condition, can move along at almost express train rate. The same current which supplies the car with power to move serves to illuminate it brightly at night. The noise which gearing generally makes is done away with by having each metallic gear mesh into one of vulcanite fibre and which, strange to say, outwears the metallic one.

The generating station may be run either by steam or water power. It consists of the mechanical generator, the engine or water wheel, which is belted to the dynamo, a machine to all appearances the same as is used for lighting but of slightly higher tension. A very essential part is to have a current of sufficient tension to be transmitted a distance of from on to five miles without too great an outlay for the copper conductor, and yet to have the tension safe to life. The current travels out over the wires, goes to the cars, then to the rails and returns by the rails to the generator, thus completing the circuit. People fearful of a shock may be pleased to know that they cannot possibly obtain one unless they at the same instant touch the wire overhead and the ground, and in the event of a wire breaking the instant it touches the ground it draws out an extra amount of current, which instantly melts a safety device on the pole and cuts this particular wire off from the remainder of the system, rendering it as harmless as a piece of rope that may be lying in the street.

The element of safety applies to the machines as well as to people on the street for unless such a device were inserted the dynamo would “burn up,” as the electrical people term it, or in other words the machine would become so hot from the sudden overload as to char or carbonize the insulation and render it valueless as a generator. With the overhead system there is a “feeding in” device by which the size of the conductor supported above the track is reduced to that of a telephone wire, while the main body of the current is carried on the wires on the poles alongside. This system is completely covered by patents, and is coveted by all companies using an overhead system, for it is impossible to “cut the line” out for a distance of more than two poles, since it is fed onto the trolling one or working conductor at every second pole. Thus if a wire breaks it falls to earth, melts the leaden catch and is harmless. The car comes along, the “motorneer” sees the fault, lowers the trolley, and allows his momentum to carry him to the next feeding pole, and away he sails, and the passengers know naught of the break. When he reaches the end of the line he reports break at pole number—, the line man is detailed to fix it up, and the public is none the wiser, With single wire lines this occurrence would be a very serious matter, necessarily cutting off all current from the point beyond the break, and stopping all cars thereon.

The expense of operating is at least one-third less than by horses, even when fuel is expensive. The number of employees is lessened, and the company can pay better wages to those who remain. There is also great advantage over a cable in that there is more possibility of speed, no heavy cable to use up power, and no risk of it getting out of order at each and every pulley. Besides, it can be put in for about one-quarter or one-fifth of what a cable system would cost.