The New Student's Reference Work/Cable-Road

Cable-Road, a railroad on which the cars are moved by being attached to an endless wire rope, which is kept in motion by mechanical power. Cable traction has been used in mines for many years, but it was first successfully applied to street car traction by A. S. Halliday at San Francisco in 1873. For heavy street-car traffic and for places where there are very heavy grades the cable system has been sucessfully employed. The cable, an endless wire rope of one to 1½ inches in diameter, is kept in continuous motion in a slotted groove or conduit below the surface and between the rails, and the connection with the car is made by a grip which can be controlled from the car. The power required to keep the cable in motion without load is large—35 to 75 per cent. of the full load—so that the system is at a disadvantage where the load is not heavy and continuous. The cable has been superseded by electric systems almost entirely.