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.
MOTION OF THE BICYCLE CAR AS COMPARED WITH STANDARD GAUGE CARS.
The spiral springs placed in the center of the Bicycle car allow only a vertical motion, whereas the ordinary standard gauge cars, from their width and the arrangement of their springs, allow an extreme swaying motion, which in a long journey becomes very trying, and to a great many persons is the cause of “sea-sickness.”
When a Bicycle car is rounding even very sharp curves, and at a rapid rate of speed, the swaying motion or tendency to throw the occupant laterally, is very slight and can scarcely be felt. The reason for this is obvious, as the Bicycle car is held rigidly, so far as any lateral motion is concerned, but tilts naturally to the right or left according to the direction of the curve.
With these cars it has also been found, that the greater the speed the smoother they run, providing the rail itself, upon which the cars run, is true. But supposing for the sake of argument that the rail is not smooth or true, even the uninitiated can readily see, that the Bicycle car having only half the number of wheels, meets only one-half the inequalities of the rail, and wherever these occur, cause only a vertical motion, whereas the standard gauge cars have both the lateral and vertical motion, in consequence of being let down first on one side and then on the other.
As we have already shown, the Bicycle car is absolutely controlled by the overhead structure, both from any tendency to bound or leave the track in any possible manner; in fact by its momentum it is also self supported, like the bicycle, causing only a slight strain on the structure, even when maintaining a high rate of speed. This being a fact it can readily be seen that the side motion of the car could not in any case be great, and a speed of even 100 miles an hour could be maintained without inconvenience to passengers.