FAST AND HEAVY RAILWAY SERVICE. 255 
the connecting cable. The general construction is that of 
a double toggle, and the weight of the shoe is sufficient to 
ensure contact, no spring being employed. There are 
four of these contact shoes on each motor car, one at each 
corner, All are ready for service. Two are normally in 
contact with the feed rail, and when, as at some switches, 
it is desirable for this rail to change sides, the correspond- 
ing shoes go into service. The device works admirably. 
The feeding system is extraordinary. It is composed 
of forty-five’ pound steel rails, like the cofact rail, sup- 
ported on and insulated from the main structure and boxed 
with boards to keep them out of mischief. These rails are 
thoroughly bonded, cross bonded when feasible, and are 
connected to the supply rail about every 300 ft., oftener at 
switches and sidings. 
On the section from the power house to the eastern 
terminus, about 17{ miles, the contact rails alone are suf 
ficient, but westward from the power house run eighteen 
feeder rails, supplying various sections of the road, and 
each conmected to the distribution board in the power 
house. On the eastern section current is taken under 
the Chicago River by lead covered cables laid in a trench 
dredged in the mud bottom. ’'There are eighteen of these 
cables, four of 500,000 c. m. each, the others of 235,000. 
¢, A, 
The motor cars are forty-eight feet long and, except 
for a steel sub-frame for extra strength, display no re- 
markable peculiarities. FEach is equipped with two G. E. 
2000 motors, like those shown in connection with the Nan- 
tasket road. At each end of the car, occupying half its 
width and projecting into the car and onto the platform, 
is a little cab containing the controlling apparatus, auto- 
matic motor pump for the air brakes, and other acces- 
sories. ‘The motor car complete weighs about twenty-five 
tons. The operation of the whole system has been highly 
successful. 
The Lake Street elevated road, equipped about a year 
later,shows some useful modifications,although the general