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Description of the Elevator That Will Carry You Up the Mountain in Ten Minutes. ‘How like a toboggan it looks?” is the exclamation almost everyone makes who stands at the summit of the Otis Elevating Railway and looks down the inn. The new railway which Engineer Thos. E. Brown has constructed up the Eastern slope of ‘Booth Mountain, Catskill Mountains, truly is very suggestive of a toboggan, but think of a toboggan 7000 feet in length and de scending 1600 feet in that distance! It would be a “slide” fit for Titans. However, no one is going to toboggan down the Otis. No one would do it de signedly, and extraordinary care has been taken that it shan’t be done accidentally. Otis station, where the traveler changes from the cars of the Catakill Mountain Ry. to the one which will carry him up the mountain ere he can say “Jack Robinson,” that is , he have an impediment in his speech, is a little more than 2 mile South of Mountain House Station, on the C. Mt. Ry., and a little less than a mile North of Palen ville. The traveler has had a pleasant ride of 40 minutes from the river, through Catskill village, up the beautiful valley of the Cats kill Creek, “by pleasant and quiet waters and through scenes of pastoral tranquillity,” gradually approaching the mountains, which are distant from the river eight miles as the crow flies and nearly 15 as the railroad winds and turns. At Otis Station he finds e traineds cars waiting him,one for his accommo tioning and the other for the transportation of his baggage. If he look up, as doubtless he will, he will see the mountains directly in front of him, a haalf,mile or ao away, and perched high above that great white man sion, the famous old Mountain House, is a many-columned portico plainly in view. In a moment to hag bestowed himself within the car it may be the Rickerson,” named for the president of the Eievating Ry. Co., or perhaps its mate, which bears the name, ‘Van Santgaord,” of the vener able gentleman who owns the Day Line steamers and who has done very much to facilitate travel to these mountains, who has been one of the largest subscribers to this and that earlier enterprise, the C. Mt. 2) all being in readiness, the operator, hit up in the tower at the summit, is sig nalled by electricity. He starts the engines, the huge drums around which the cables wind revolve, the cars start—the passenger and baggage car from the foot of the incline and similar cars from the top, the two trains passing about midway. The passen ger, seated with his back to the mountains and facing the valley, moves, scarcely con scious of it, at the rate of 700 feet each minute, rising not quite one foot in four, one of the most magnificent views in all the world, farm and forest, hill and dale, and in the far distance the shimmering river, like ribbon of silver, spreading out before aden filling him with delight. how the vision is made, and all too quickly, forgin 10 minutes the station at the summit, about 900 ft. North of the Mountain House, is reached, and the sea to turn his eyes from the charming“prospect as briefly enjoyed{enters « carriage and is yen to his hotel he: has come up from the river in 50 min his journey from the Grand Central Station at New York Cite to the summit of the Catskills has been made in 4 hours, the time which used to be required, less than a dozen years ago, to make the trip by stage coach from Catskill Landing to the mount ain tops. If he left New York at 9 a. M., he has arrived at the Mountain House or Hotel Kaaterskill before dinner, and a full hour and a half earlier than he could have reached either hotel by any other route. The operating machinery of the Otis road is at the summit terminus. It consists of two Corliss engines, each 12x30, which drive two of Walker’s differential drums, made of cast iron and steel, each 12 ft. in diameter, one placed before the other, tan dem fashion, and glazed so as to both turn exactly together. Over each drum pass five steel cables, 13¢ in. in diameter, each ‘7500 ft. in length and 10 tons in weight, made by the Roeblings of Brooklyn, bridge fame. each pair of cables has a tensile strength of 104 tons, and as the highest strain which can come upon them is 10 tons, there is, it will be seen, a safety factor of 16.4 to one. The cables, when paying out, ran over grooved wheels placed between the rails at intervals of 80 feet. Tie each train of two cars—a passenger and a bag gage car--are attached two of the cables, Pe onto + pivoted after HEE placed underneath the drawing car, about in the painter. This disk is designed to act pre cisely as a whiffletree does on a wagon. So long as both cables are pulling equally the disk remains in its normal position, but should one cable break it is turned and throws into action the safety grip hereafter described. Three 35-lb. steel rails are laid, the center one used in common by the ascending and descending cars. There also is a safety or guard rail of heavily-bolted 6x8-in. Geor gia pine timber. About midway of the terminal points for several hundred feet the ascending and descending tracks swerve outwardly and a fourth rail is introduced. This is the passing point; here the up-going and down-going cars invariably meet and pass. It is understood, of course, that when at rest there is one pair of cars at either terminus of the line, and that when the Cars on one track move up those on the other track move down. The road is operated from a tower over the engines. Before the operator are three levers—one of which opens and closes the steam valves, another reverses the machin ery, and the third applies the brakes on the cable drums. The entire line is under the eye of the operator, who is in electric communication with each car. He has absolute control of the machinery, and should occasion require it could instantly stop the cars at any point on the fins by applying the brakes to the drums. As has been shown, there is not the least probability of the cables breaking, inas much as their strength is many times any strain that can possibly be put upon them. But in the event that they should break, or be cut maliciously, there is ample protec tion. To each car, in addition to the ordi nary brakes, is attached a safety grip. If either cable should part the pivoted disk to which they are attached would ro tate and throw the grip into action. This grip consists of two toothed surfaces, and a toothed “‘dog” which swings on a pivot. The dog” is moved directly either by a governor, which we shall presently de scribe, or by the cable disk.When engaged, it sinks its teeth into the wooden guard rail, and thereby draws the other toothed sur faces into action. The guard rail is thus embraced on three of its surfaces, the grip exerting a force of about 26,000 lbs. The car will not stop instantly, but gradu ally, within a distance of about 25 ft., and almost imperceptibly to the occupant of the car. The governor referred to above is a wheel which runs on the guard rail ahead of the grip. It is operated by cen trifugal force, which in case the speed of the car should exceed 14 miles an hour would throw the grip into action, as described. ‘That is to say, the grip, working automatically, by a system of springs, would be applied instantly (1) if the cable should break, or (2) if the car for any reason should exceed a speed of 12 miles an hour. The engine also is fitted with an automatic brake, which would be applied should the speed of the cars exceed 12 miles an hour.) These grips before being sent out of the Otis Bros.’ shops were thoroughly tested by attaching them to a platform loaded with pig iron and sliding in a gallows frame. When the platform had acquired the desired velocity the grips were thrown into action, and the distance moved was almost exactly that calculated. Substantially the same safety appliances have been employed with entire success by the Messrs. Otis in thei elevators at Eldora do, in the Palisades of the Hudson. That they will perform all that may be required of them cannot be doubted,and there need not be the slightest apprehension on the part of the public. Indeed, passage over the Otis Elevating Ry. will be attended with far less danger than over other rail roads having heavy grades whose cars are fitted with the ordinary brakes only. the passenger cars are 44 ftrong and will very comfortably seat 75 persons, though 90 or 100 even could be placed in the 15 seats. The seats, which are stationary, are made of chestnut slate, have curved backs, and are stoutly braced. These seats are counterparts of those used by Otis Bros. in their elevators in the Eiffel tower, where the conditions of grade are somewhat sim ilar to those of the Otis road. The car floor is on an angle which is the mean be tween the greatest and loast inclination of the road. The ends of the cars are glazed, the sides are open, with sliding canvas cur tains. On one side passengers are prevented from falling out by fixed horizontal iron rods, and on the other or entrance sides by wooden bars which are dropped into socketm en have entered and the . The ceilings are Rand ‘the outside of the cars wine color, lettered in gold with a red shading. On each platform is the ordinary wheel brake. Each car is mounted on two 4-wheel trucks. The baggage cars are sim ply platforms, with sides and without tops. The road runs through no less than four heavy rock cuts, one of them 45 ft. deep, from which about 70,000 cubic yards of rock was removed. The track is laid on a tim ber superstructure throughout its entire length, with the exception of 1000 feet at the lower or East end, where the rails are laid on cross-ties ballasted with broken stone. Between the three principal trestles longitudinal stringers are laid on sub-sills, the former supporting cross-ties which carry the rails. These trestles have a total length of 2600 ft. and a maximum height of 72 ft., containing over one million feet of yellow pine timber, and with other timber used in track superstructure, the totals will reach nearly one and one-quarter millions feet. The trestles are very heavily timbered and will sustain vastly more of strain than they ever by any possibility can be subjected to. The grade line is made by a combination of circular and parabolic curves, so that the cars balance each other when equally loaded--when not equally loaded, the en gines, which are connected and work to gether, supply the deficiency. The steep est grade is 34 ft. to the 100. ™ ( The road was surveyed last December. Construction was begun in the latter part of January following and the road was to have been completed by July 1, but as is usually the case in undertakings of this ,nature delays have occurred. The tim ber, for various reasons, did not arrive from the South as early as was expected, and the contractors were unable to make a good start with the erection until about the middle of May, but by increasing their forces to a maximum and embracing every opportunity to push the work all the timber was framed and in place by the latter part of June, although it was necessary to haul a large portion of this timber with teams to nearly the top of the mountain. The contract to build the second or middle trestle was made after the other work had been started, the original intention having been to cover this spot with an embank ment, but the difficulty of securing suitable material necessitated a change of plan. The point where this trestle is located is over a deep ravines and so rough as to almost prevent the use of horses, which are indispensable in this kind of erection. The contractors, Messrs. Mairs Lewis, writing us on Wednesday, said : “* We are now com pleting the station and engine and boiler houses at the upper end, and the station, platforms and sheds at the lower end or junction with them, Mt. Ry., and expect, so far as our contract is affected, to have the entire work completed in a few days, ready to turn over to the company for a per son.” One road probably will be opened by July 20, e ‘There's no railroad in the world just like Otis Elevating. It differs from the ordinary roads of this character in its com pound vertical curves, which are so de signed that the upper car and the weight of the cable on its track exactly balance the lower car and its cable. In other words, from the time, the cars start to the finish of the trip the engine power exerted is a constant quantity, whereas on an ordi nary inclined plane the engine power exerted is a maximum at the start, nothing at the middle of the trip, and after passing the center point does negative work by holding back on the cable. This is an original plan of Engineer Brown's, and probably is the most difficult piece of engineering on the work.” The~6 only inclined road in this country approaching the Otis in importance is the one at Lookout Mountain, which is a direst incline; its length is 4500 ft. and the eleva tion 1400 ft. There is also an inclined road in Switzerland; and one recently con structed up Mount Vesuvius attains some 200 ft. more elevation than the Otis, but it really is two roads, a change being made half-way up to other cargo operated by an other cable and engine power. , the chief engineer of the Otis road is Thomas E. Brown, Jr., of New York (who de signed and built the enormous elevators at Eldorado or Weehawken, and also those in the Hiffel tower), the principal assistant engi neer Gaylord Thompson of New York, as sistant engineers W. G. Howell of Washing ton,D. C., and Chas. F. Parker of New York to the latter of whom The Recorder readers are indebted for much of the infor mation here given.. The contractor was Chas. L. Bucki of New York;—grading and track-laying, Pen ‘nell, O'Hern Co. of New York; timber ‘At New _. “OF Yonkers, whose ™ fame as “elevator-builders is world-wide, furnished the engines and elevating machinery, which were set up by their superintendent, Fred Grossman. The cars were built by Jackson Sharp of Wilmington, Del. The total cost of the road and its equip ment is $275,000. The company’s officers are Chas. L. Rick erson of New York president, C. C. Hager of New York secretary and treasurer, Chas. A. Beach, General Superintendent of the C. Mt. Ry., has charge of the organization of the road for operation. Allen Banks of this village, an experienced and careful engineer, will be the engineer and operator at the summit. Wm. Whitcomb, for years a popular conductor on the C. Mt. Ry., will act as conductor and supervise trans portation over the new road.At the sum mit there will be a ticket agent, a baggage man and a helper, and at the Junction a ticket agent and a baggageman.+ Each passenger car will carry a brakeman. The only other employer will be a fireman at the summit and a trackman. The agent at the summit will be C.W. Garrison, for several years agent at Mountain House Sta tion. His baggageman will be W. H. How ard of Cairo. The brakemen will be August Graf and Chas. Stewart. The other employes have not yet been engaged. The fare on the Otis Elevating will be 750, with no charge for baggage. The stage fara up or down the mountain has been $1.25, with a charge of 50c, for each trunk car ried. Thus the cost of the mountain jour ney has been reduced a dollar and the time has been lowered nearly an hour and three quarters. By another year an electric railway will be constructed from the moountain terminus of the Otis to Tannersville, by way of the Laurel House and Haines'’s Falls. That this new railroad will prove to be very popular cannot be doubted, and it will inevitably largely increase the passen ger business of the C., Mt. Ry. It beyond all question is the shortest, quickest and best route to the mountains. Heath—Niklewicz _The marriage of Counselor Orliff T. Heath and Miss Jessie Niklewics took place at the Methodist church, in this village, on Tuesday morning at 9:30 o’clock, and was witnessed by a large company of friends. The decorations consisted of banks of ferns attractively arranged. The bride, who wore a white silk, on train, with veil and carried a bouquet of yellow roses, was con ducted by the ushers down the North aisle to the altar, where she was met by the groom. The maids of honor were Miss Josie Smith of this village and Miss May L. Ostrander of Peekskill, who wore pale blue silk dresses and carried bouquets of yellow roses. Chas. Foote, Melvin Van Aken, B. Wiltie Shaler and Wz. Thorpe were ushers. The usual ritualistic cere mony was performed by Pastor McCartney, the groom and bride repeating the service. Mr. and Mrs. Heath left on the 11:03 West Shore train for Lake Minnewaski, in the Bhawangunk Mis. The bride received many and valuable presents, and she and her estimable husband have the well-wishes of the entire community. Literary Note: The “Robin Head of Vermont” is the title aptly given to Ethan Allen by the Vermont historian, the late Henry Hall, whose Life of Ethan Allen is to be pub lished immediately by BD. Appleton Co. Appletons’ Bummer Series for 1892 will open with “A Little Norse, or Ol’ Pap's Flaxen,” by Hamlin Garland, author of ‘Main Traveled Roads,” etc., whose rapid recognition and advance in the last three years have been a striking feature of con temporary literary effort. In England Mr. Garland has taken rank as a genuinely American, writer of exceptional power. The second book in the Summer series will be **.A Tale of Twenty-five Hours,” an in genious and entertaining novelet by two clever and well-known story-writers, Bran der Matthews and George H. Jessop,
Newspaper Details
Catskill Recorder
Catskill, New York, US
Fri, Jul 15, 1892
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Francisco N.
USA 29 Dec 2025
Other Publications Near Catskill, New York
Catskill Recorder and Greene County Republican
Catskill Recorder and Democrat and Democratic Herald
Catskill Recorder
