File:Book of the Royal blue (1897) (14781031323).jpg

Identifier: bookofroyalblue25balt (find matches)
Title: Book of the Royal blue
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Baltimore and Ohio railroad company. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Middle Atlantic States -- Description and travel
Publisher: Baltimore
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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(HE Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is of interest to students of electrical development because the first electric locomotives ever used for heavy trunk line service were installed on this line. In 1893 municipal requirements, as well as considerations of safety and convenience, demanded the use of some type of motive power other than steam locomotives for the operation of this tunnel through the city of Baltimore. As a consequence, alternates were absolutely unknown. The decision, therefore, to use electric locomotives and the construction of these locomotives themselves mark an important epoch in electric history. The locomotives furnished for this first installation were of the gearless type, weighing ninety-six tons each. Each unit consisted of two four-wheel sections coupled permanently together, and each carrying a section of the cab mounted upon it, and equipped with two motors of the type known as the AXB-70. The characteristic feature of this motor was that it was gearless.
Text Appearing After Image:
NEW PASSENGER ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE contract was entered into with the General Electric Company for supplying electric locomotives capable of handling passenger service. It is difficult to appreciate today the courage that was required to make this decision at that period in the history of electric development. Only seven or eight years had elapsed since the electric railway motor had emerged from the experimental stage and had first been applied to the operation of actual street railway cars. The modern development of electric traction and modern types of electric motors and equipment ordinary railway motor is built independent of the driving axle and transmits its power to the axle through gears, but the AXB-70 was built concentric with the axle and transmitted its power directly to the driving wheels. In this respect these original Baltimore and Ohio locomotives were prototypes of the heavy electric locomotives built since 1907 for passenger service on other lines entering New York City.

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