in the history of a number of roads, such as the Erie, Wabash, Union Pacific, and others.
What are known as the Erie wars in 1868 illustrated the worst evils of this class. Two or three operators bought within a few weeks options on a large amount of Erie stock for the sum of $72,000, and obtained possession of sufficient proxies to elect one of their own representatives as president of the road. After thus obtaining control of the property, the railway was charged at once with the $72,000 spent in acquiring it, and the speculators then commenced selling the stock for a fall. This was eagerly purchased by the Erie's rivals, the owners of the New York Central road, and, instead of a fall, the price of Erie stock rose from 68 to about 80. As this threatened to ruin the Erie operators, they issued $5,000,000 worth of fraudulent stock, which was sold at 80, and on its discovery the speculators for a fall realized an enormous profit in addition to the $4,000,000 proceeds from the sale of fraudulent stock. In the legal proceedings which followed large sums of money were spent in buying up elections, legislatures, and judges, all of which were charged to the Erie road, and at the end of two or three years, when the ring lost its control, the indebtedness of the Erie had been increased by about $65,000,000, which prevented its stock from paying a dividend for twenty years.
A certain amount of hostile feeling has always existed between the public and the railways, which fortunately is diminishing with the better understanding of the questions in dispute. Practically the whole difference hinged on the matter of rates, and both sides have been at fault in treating this subject. The railways have at times made very unjust discriminations between different persons and different localities, and, on the other hand, the public in attempting to correct these abuses have passed laws which have been equally unjust to the railways. The problem of rates is an exceedingly difficult one to legislate upon, as no fixed rule can be justly applied in every case as to the proportional charges for different distances. A large proportion of the transportation of this country falls within the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Law, which in respect to rates leaves considerable discretionary power in the hands of the Commission. See Interstate Commerce Act.
Elevated Railways. Elevated railways is the name given to railways which run along a line of streets on girders supported on iron pillars erected on the street surface. The first elevated railway was a short line built in New York City in 1867, but the successful operation of such lines did not take place until 1872, when the New York Elevated Railroad Company began running trains on a line from Battery Park along Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue to Thirtieth Street. From this time on the growth of the elevated railway system of New York was rapid, and succeeding years saw lines built in Brooklyn, Chicago, and Boston. Liverpool, Berlin, and Paris are among the foreign cities which possess elevated railway lines. The modern construction of elevated railways in America consists of steel pillars or columns erected along each curb line about 60 feet apart. The tops of these columns are connected across the street by plate girders (see Bridges), and these girders carry others generally one under each track rail, reaching from one pair of columns to the next longitudinally of the street. The railway track is laid on these longitudinal girders, and consists of cross-ties with rails spiked to them in the usual manner. The stations are carried on elevated platforms level with the railway, and access and egress is had by means of stairways and elevators. On the Barmen-Elberfeld Railway, operated by electricity, the cars are suspended from the elevated structure. The principal elevated railway in Berlin is a viaduct of masonry, presenting fine architectural features.
Mountain Railways. The term mountain railway is applied to lines whose grades are too steep to be operated by locomotives, depending upon adhesion only for their drawing power, and which, therefore, necessitate the use of some special system of securing greater traction power. Several such systems are employed. The two principal ones are the Fell system, with a central, elevated, double-headed rail laid sideways, which is gripped by horizontal wheels on each, side, which greatly augment the adhesion, and the system with central racks in which vertical cog-wheels work, whereby the adhesion of the ordinary driving wheels is greatly assisted in drawing a train up the incline, and the descent of the train is kept under control. This latter system embraces the Riggenbach, Abt, and other systems. In tourist lines ascending the steep sides of mountains for the sake of the views, a cog-wheel working in a central track is generally used as the sole means of propulsion up the inclines. Lastly, where the ascent is steep, straight, and fairly short, a cable is employed for hauling up the vehicles, resembling in principle the inclines worked by ropes in mines, a system which has also occasionally been adopted for the steep inclines on ordinary railways.
CENTRAL-RAIL SYSTEM FOR MOUNTAIN RAILWAYS.
The central-rail system was first adopted for crossing the Mont Cenis Pass by a railway laid mainly along the road between Saint-Michel and Susa, a distance of 48 miles, having a gauge of 3 feet 7⅝ inches and surmounting a difference of level of 5300 feet between Susa and the summit, with a total variation in level between its termini of about 9900 feet. The ruling gradient was 1 in 12, the average gradient about 1 in 17, and the central rail, raised 7½ inches above the ordinary rail-level, was laid along all gradients exceeding 1 in 25; while the minimum radius for the curves was 2 chains. The greatest train load carried over the Mont Cenis Fell Railway was 36 tons, and the heaviest locomotives employed on it weighed 26 tons. In this system the grip of the horizontal wheel on the central rail not merely secures sufficient adhesion to mount steep inclines, but also serves as a very effective brake in the descent, and keeps the locomotive firmly on the line in going around sharp curves.
The Rimutaka incline, on the Wellington and Featherstone Railway in New Zealand, with a
