Highland Park Railway at Detroit

The Fisher Electric Railway at Detroit.

We have at various times given accounts of the Highland Park Railway, at Detroit, Mich., which has been in operation for over a year, and are now enabled to illustrate the system, which is due to the inventive genius of Mr. Frank E. Fisher. In the illustrations, for which we are indebted to the Street Railway Journal, Fig. 1 shows the motor complete and Fig. 2 one form of the car arrangement employed.

Fig. 1. — Fisher Electric Motor.

As will be noticed, current is supplied by a third rail supported upon insulators placed in a conduit 8 in. square. The conduit has a slot opening 3/4 in. wide, in which the contact wheel or device travels, bearing directly upon the conductor within.

Mr. Fisher employs two methods of attaching the motor to the car. In one he suspends the motor under the car, and in the other method, which is illustrated in Fig. 2, the motor is placed on the front end of the car, which is inclosed by a cab, the motor man acting also as a conductor, having charge of the fare box.

The length of the road is 3 3/4 miles, and, being a suburban one, comparatively high speeds can be attained. Thus, it is said that the average speed attained is 18 miles per hour.

At present there are running on this road four cars equipped with 10-h. p. motors, giving them sufficient capacity to haul an extra car with full load. The generating dynamo is of 25,000 watts capacity, and delivers the current at a potential of 500 volts to the cars. The road has an extremely neat and compact station at the Detroit City end of the line, convenient to the railroad from which fuel supplies are obtained.

Fig. 2. — Motor Car on the Fisher Electric Railway, Detroit, Mich.