ADVANTAGES OF THE BICYCLE SYSTEM.
The peculiar construction of the two-story Bicycle cars, four feet wide, fourteen feet deep, and forty-two feet long, shaped like a plank turned edge-wise, makes them many fold lighter and stronger.
Speed and economy of transportation with reduced cost of construction.
A great saving of expense in grading and land damages.
A greater proportion of paying to non-paying load by the use of narrow two-story deep cars.
A great reduction in cost and wear of rolling stock.
A large saving of friction in rounding curves by the substitution of Bicycle spindles for ordinary car wheel axles, and consequent economy of power in moving trains, and a rate of speed more than double that heretofore obtained on railways, with comfort to passengers, and economy in the conveyance of freight.
Greater safety; as a train grooved between an upper support and lower rail renders any derailment impossible, and the train must run true, smooth and safe.
Spreading of rails by this system will be entirely unknown, the weight being centralized on the rail, both on a curve and a tangent.
A many-fold saving in the consumption of fuel, as the weight of cars drawn would be about one-sixth the weight of the ordinary cars, and the seating capacity double.
The two-story cars of this system are 14 feet in depth, 42 feet long, leaving 6½ feet in the clear for each series of compartments, and are reached in loading and unloading by two-story platforms in the depots and spiral staircases at the end of such cars as may be thought desirable on through trains. The material of which the car is constructed is wood veneer, held in place by steel bands and rods. The cars now in use have nine compartments below and nine above, each room having seating capacity for six people, face to face, seated as in a hack, 108 seats in a car. This cellular construction, like the bamboo, insures great strength and lightness. A triple band of steel encircles the car lengthwise. At the top, center and bottom, ten bands of steel encircle the car vertically opposite each division wall of the compartment, which practically divides the car from top to bottom. Eighty-eight steel rods run through between the seats across the car, the ends being in the steel frame, and thus draw the whole solidly together. The corners of the car, being covered with steel, are protected, and the strength and lightness are unsurpassed. Thus one hundred pounds is made to do the work which requires ten hundred to thirty hundred pounds in the old-fashioned heavy two-rail car.
There are eighteen doors on each side of the car, making thirty-six in all.
The veneer of which the car is constructed is three thicknesses of one-eighth of an inch each, with grain of inner layer running opposite to that of outer layers. The seats are of thin veneer running across the car, two in each compartment. This car will seat 108 persons and weighs a little less than five tons.
At the top of the car, as shown in illustration on page [9], are the bolsters holding the trolley wheels which support it in an upright position. On each end, and supporting the car, are trucks which swivel the same as ordinary car trucks, and are supplied with wheels forty inches in diameter. These wheels are constructed of the best quality of steel, light and yet very strong. Spiral springs are used in cushioning the motion of the car, and are placed in the bolster directly under the center of the car.