Galt, Preston & Hespeler
This is a little manufacturing city of about 9,000 inhabitants, at the junction of lines to Berlin, Harrisburg and Guelph. The city is the terminus and headquarters of the Galt, Preston & Hespeler Electric Railway Company, which does a general freight business between the three cities named, over a roadbed which is capable of carrying the Canadian Pacific Company's freight cars, the transfer of which by a Baldwin light locomotive and an electric freight motor car is an important source of revenue. The freight motor car is fitted with two G.E. 1,200
motors and two type K controllers furnished by the Canadian General Electric Company. The company also operates a small freight car as a trailer for less than car load lots. It has sidings into each factory and foundry yard on the way, so that cars can be loaded or unloaded at the doors. The freight transported in large quantities includes coal, pig iron, wheat, wool and manufactured goods. The freight business averages 700 to 800 tons per month. The locomotive is run at night only after the passenger traffic of the day is over. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company issues tickets good over the company's lines.
This road is a pioneer in this line of work, and its success is said to be entirely satisfactory to the management. The rates of fare for passengers are fifteen cents round trip between Galt and Preston, and twenty-five cents round trip between Galt and Hespeler. The company has recently bought a park midway between Preston and Hespeler, which has proved a great attraction in summer.
Combination freight and passenger car—Galt, Preston & Hespeler Street Railway.
The line is nine miles in length, and is single track, with sidings. The maximum grade is five per cent. for one hundred yards, and the sharpest curve is seventy three feet radius where the sidings go into factory yards. The roadbed is of steel T-rail, laid on cedar and tamarack ties, 7 in. and 8 in., and spaced two feet apart. The switches are of the regular railroad pattern, with railroad signal apparatus.
The overhead construction is of No. 0 trolley wire with No. 00 weather-proof insulated wire for the entire length of the road. The poles are of cedar, twenty-eight feet long, and placed six feet in the ground. Five telephones arc placed at different points on the line for communication with the company's offices and power station.
The power station is a stone building 150 ft.×so ft., on stone foundations, with a brick chimney 90 ft. in height and 10 ft.×10 ft. at the base. The station is located near the center of the road. It was originally a malt house, but it has been easily adapted for its present purposes. In the engine room are two Wheelock engines of 125 H.P. each, belted direct to one 75 K. W. and one 100 K.W. generator, the former built by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, and the latter by the Canadian General Electric Company. The switchboard is of slate, with Westinghouse and General Electric appliances. The two generators can be used singly or in multiple.
The car house is a wooden building roofed with iron, 150 ft.×60 ft., and adjoins the powerhouse.
There are four motor and three trail cars for passenger service. One of the motor cars is a combination baggage car thirty-seven feet long, with double trucks (see illustration). Taylor trucks are used with Westinghouse No. 3
and G.E. 800
and G.E. 1,200
motors, St. Thomas car wheels an: used, 33 in. in diameter, 3 1/2 in. tread and 1 1/8 in. flange. The company also owns a snowplow ana a tower-wagon, together with the Baldwin locomotive and freight cars above mentioned.
The officers of the company are as follows: president, Thomas Todd, vice-president, R. G. Cox, secretary and treasurer, W. H. Lutz, directors, Thomas Todd, R. G. Cox, H. McCulloch, D. Spiers, John D. Moore, F. Clair and W. H. Lutz.
The company has an authorized capital stock of $100,000, of which $50,000 has been issues. It is also authorized to issue bonds up to $100,000, hut none have as yet been actually placed upon the market. About 220,000 people were carried during the last financial year.