The Patton Motor Company was a street car manufacturer in Chicago.
The Patton Motor Company was a street car manufacturer in Chicago.
The Patton Motor Company was based in 340 and 342 Dearborn St., Chicago, where it manufactured around 1898 patented electric street cars. These were used as a feeder for trolley lines, for nightwork or for long distance work. They were particularly adapted for service where, because of operating expense, the trolley equipment was unsatisfactory. They required no poles, no wires, no power house, no bonding of rails but only ordinary track. The company guaranteed to provide street car service under average conditions for less than two cents per car mile for power. [1]
A gasoline engine was used to drive a dynamo, which in turn operated the electric motor. The principal claim of the inventor was the use of a storage battery, which accumulated the power of the dynamo, when on a down grade, or at rest, and which was automatically connected in to assist when the work was heavy.
The gasoline was stored in a tank in the roof of the car. The tank capacity of 23 gallons (87 litres) was sufficient for 150 miles (240 km). During a trial run at Racine, Wisconsin on 8 July 1896 over the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad the car attained at times speeds of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) and surmounted grades of up to 55 feet to the mile (10%) without difficulty beyond perceptibly slowing down. [2]
The motor cars were used as a smoking car and motor at the Chattagnooga Rapid Transit Company and as an independent motor by the Cedar Falls (Iowa) & Normal Railway. [3] A combination double truck car was also on offer. [4]
A cable car is a type of cable railway used for mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
Frank Julian Sprague was an American inventor who contributed to the development of the electric motor, electric railways, and electric elevators. His contributions were especially important in promoting urban development by increasing the size cities could reasonably attain and by allowing greater concentration of business in commercial sections. He became known as the "father of electric traction". Demonstrating an aptitude for science and mathematics, Sprague secured an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1874 and, after graduation in 1878 and 2 years at sea, resigned to pursue his career in electrical engineering.
Carlisle & Finch is a manufacturer of nautical equipment founded in 1894 in Cincinnati, Ohio where, as of 2024, it still has its headquarters. The company's main products through its entire history have been searchlights, mostly for marine applications. It was also known for navigation beacons used by airports and lighthouses.
The Chicago City Railway Company (CCRy) was an urban transit company that operated horse, cable, and electric streetcars on Chicago's South Side between 1859 and 1914, when it became merged into and part of the Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) metropolitan-wide system. After that time it owned electric streetcars, along with gasoline, diesel, and propane – fueled transit busses. Purchased by the government agency Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in 1947, it was liquidated in 1950.
Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's first and largest museum of mass transit vehicles. While the main focus of the collection is trolley cars (trams), it also includes rapid transit trains, Interurban cars, trolley buses, and motor buses. The Seashore Trolley Museum is owned and operated by the New England Electric Railway Historical Society (NEERHS). Of the museum's collection of more than 350 vehicles, ten trolley and railroad cars that historically operated in Maine were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as Maine Trolley Cars.
Woods Motor Vehicle Company was an American manufacturer of electric automobiles in Chicago, Illinois, between 1899 and 1916. In 1915 they produced the Dual Power with both electric and internal combustion engines which continued until 1918.
The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, also known as the North Shore Line, was an interurban railroad that operated passenger and freight service over an 88.9-mile (143.1 km) route between the Chicago Loop and downtown Milwaukee, as well as an 8.6-mile (13.8 km) branch line between the villages of Lake Bluff and Mundelein, Illinois. The North Shore Line also provided streetcar, city bus and motor coach services along its interurban route.
Kenosha Area Transit is a city-owned public transportation agency based in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962.
The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local services which complemented the Pacific Electric "Red Car" system's largely commuter-based interurban routes. The company carried many more passengers than the Red Cars, which served a larger and sparser area of Los Angeles.
The Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) was operator of the street railway system of Chicago, Illinois, from 1913 to 1947. The firm is a predecessor of today's publicly owned operator, the Chicago Transit Authority.
The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission was the municipal public utilities commission for the city of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, as well as the surrounding area. Its former office in downtown Kitchener, constructed in 1931 in Beaux-Arts style, has been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act as both historically and architecturally significant, and is one of the Kitchener's few surviving historic public buildings.
The Fox River Trolley Museum is a railroad museum in South Elgin, Illinois. Incorporated in 1961 as R.E.L.I.C., it opened in 1966 and became the Fox River Trolley Museum in 1984.
A hybrid train is a locomotive, railcar or train that uses an onboard rechargeable energy storage system (RESS), placed between the power source and the traction transmission system connected to the wheels. Since most diesel locomotives are diesel-electric, they have all the components of a series hybrid transmission except the storage battery, making this a relatively simple prospect.
Aberdare Urban District Council Tramways operated a tramway service in Aberdare between 1913 and 1935. It was the only system in the United Kingdom which consisted of a tramway with feeder services run by trolleybuses from the start. The trolleybuses used the Austrian Cedes-Stoll system, and became increasingly difficult to maintain. Parts of the trolleybus network were converted to tramways in the early 1920s, and the rest stopped operating in 1925, when no trolleybuses were available for service. The tramway continued for another ten years, but was closed in 1934 and 1935 as a result of a downturn in the prosperity of Aberdare, due to collieries closing and the population dwindling. Motor buses took over the local services once the tramway had closed.
The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had 230 miles (370 km) of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, and the South Bay towns along Santa Monica Bay.
The Omaha & Southern Interurban Railway Company built and operated around 1907 an interurban railway from South Omaha, Nebraska, to Belleview College and Fort Crook, six miles (9.7 km) south.
The Evansville & Eastern Electric Railway was put into operation on 10 June 1906 was one of the very few electric lines in the United States which did not parallel a steam railroad.
The Everett–Snohomish Interurban was a 9 miles (14 km) long interurban electric railroad between Everett and Snohomish, Washington. It was inaugurated by the Everett Railway & Electric Co. of Everett, on December 1, 1903.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .