The factory is located at Cicero, and can be reached by the Garfield Park car of the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad Company, as far as Forty-eighth street, and from that point the electric cars go direct to the factory.

Representatives of the company will be present to meet you upon arrival.

Trusting we may be favored with as large a number as may find it possible to attend, we are, yours very cordially,

SIEMENS & HALSKE ELECTRIC COMPANY,

By C. S. Knight, Vice-President.

President Sergeant-This invitation will be received with the thanks of the Association. The chair has no doubt that as many of the delegates as possible will avail themselves of this invitation.

It has been suggested that, as we have nothing on the programme for this evening, it might be made ladies' night at this hall; and the delegates are requested to bring the ladies here to view the exhibits. This was suggested to me last night by the Ladies' Committee, and is a very good idea.

The first paper upon our programme this morning is entitled "Maintenance of Car Equipment." It will be presented by Mr. J. H. Vander Veer, Superintendent of Motive Equipment, Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company, Borough of Brooklyn, New York City.

MAINTENANCE OF CAR EQUIPMENT.

Mr. Vander Veer presented the following paper:

The American Street Railway Association—

Gentlemen In giving the writer's views as to the proper care of car equipments he expects them to be thoroughly criticised, but, at the same time, to have borne in mind that different conditions obtain in different cities.

When the writer was first put in charge of a street railway equipment, the road had a certain number of cars and it took all of them to operate the road, except from 8:00 p. m. to 6:00 a. m., during which time all inspections were made and all possible overhauling. If a car broke down during the day every one possible was put to work on it, including the motorman and conductor. As the motormen in those days all carried a kit of tools with them and inspected the motors at the end of each round trip they were very helpful when it came to over

hauling. However, those days have passed away with the double reduction motor.

In the maintenance of motor equipments to-day, where almost continuous service is demanded and high mileage made, only those equipments fitted with both oil and grease boxes will safely run over forty days without a thorough overhauling. To do this overhauling a large road will be obliged to do it at a number of different points. To overhaul a motor car thoroughly it is advisable to have at each overhauling shop, extra trucks with motors mounted and all in first-class order ready to run under a car body whose trucks and motors need overhauling. To properly lift the body from the trucks four duplex chain hoists, or air hoists, conveniently located together with two cross timbers and four stirrup irons form as good a combination as can be found, and will do the work with the least possible injury to the car body. When body is lifted the truck to be overhauled is run out and the good truck substituted, car lowered, connected up and turned over to the operating department. The whole operation takes about one hour, and for that length of time only is the use of the car body lost. For convenience in overhauling, a suitable crane, properly located, equipped with a carriage and another duplex or air hoist, will be found of great convenience. Such a crane can be readily made in any blacksmith shop and for the arm a piece of old rail can be used. When the motor is opened the armature should be lifted out and placed on a suitable rack, where commutator can be cleaned and armature tested for insulation. The fields should also be tested for drop, and where there is a drop those fields and armatures should be used in motors by themselves, keeping new and rewound fields and armatures in motors by themselves. This prolongs the life of the equipment and reduces the number of crippled cars taken off the road. The motor shell should be thoroughly cleaned out, either by compressed air or by washing with kerosene. The grease in the grease boxes should be taken out and put in the gear case and the grease boxes thoroughly washed out with kerosene. Brush holders should be taken out and thoroughly inspected and cleaned. At the same time you have the best opportunity for truck inspection. The writer has found that all overhauling done with car standing over the pits, the bottom half of motor dropped, does not allow the thorough overhauling necessary to keep the motor equipment in the shape it should be kept, besides tying up a complete equipment while such overhauling is being done.

In the matter of general inspection a car started out, say to-day, in perfect order, will safely run five days before being necessary to inspect again. In this connection, to inspect from twenty to twenty-five cars per day, one man can be responsible for the proper inspection of all trolleys, including the taking out and replacing any defective poles, wheels or springs, and the straightening of all bent poles. Another

REMARKS OF MR. N. H. HEFT ON "INVESTMENTS IN STREET RAILWAYS."

Mr. Heft, Meriden-Mr. President and members of the American Street Railway Association: While my time has been given to building these roads, I have not been required to direct any of my energies to raising the money for the construction. Our board of directors has done that. I have centered my energies in the direction of seeing how I could best spend the money to make the investment the most desirable; and while I believe that it is necessary to look after your municipalities, your legislature and your representatives in general, yet I believe the greatest benefits that will come to the street railway investments in the future will be through the mechanical and electrical engineers, by improving the present equipment of these railroads. I believe that our attention has never been sufficiently called to this matter, and that in a great many cases we have suffered by this lack of attention given the question of car equipment in the dead weights that we are hauling to-day per passenger. We haul one passenger for five cents, for whom we are compelled to stop our cars twice, to take him on and to let him off, and whose weight averages one hundred and fifty pounds. In going over the question of dead weights that we are hauling to-day, I find that for every passenger we are hauling seven hundred and twenty pounds of dead weight, exceeded by the steam railroads only to the extent of one hundred and thirty-seven pounds, with their standard steam railroad equipment.

I think that the street railroad managers should turn their attention to the question of equipment to see if we cannot get rid of some of this dead weight per passenger. We expect to produce within the next two months a car, including the entire equipment, that in dead weight will not exceed two hundred and twenty-seven pounds per passenger.

I have been very much gratified in listening to the paper of Mr. Yerkes. I have also been very much interested in what our friend Wyman has said. He is always good, and I have also listened with great pleasure to our friend Vreeland, of

brake beams are hung by links, these should be renewed where signs of wear show. At this repair shop should be concentrated all classes of repair work, not only repairs to bodies and trucks, but all electrical repairs. The writer believes it pays for all railway companies to make their own repairs to electrical apparatus, including the making of armature coils and renewing of commutators.

In connection with the latter the writer has found that hard drawn copper makes the best commutator. This is bought in lengths and the bars sawed off with an ordinary metal saw. It will be found that the same bar will often do for several types of commutators. In making commutators yourself it is well to study out the diameter and increase that over those turned out by the factories as much as you can safely get between the brush holders. Drop forged bars can also be had for any width of commutators you wish.

On repairs to controllers, hood switches, etc., most roads will find it cheaper to buy the ordinary repair parts and then assemble them.

In conclusion would say that the writer has found it is advisable to make car body repairs, painting, rewinding armatures, making commutators, armature coils, field spools, etc., by piece work. If good inspection is provided and the prices honestly watched, both the company and its employees are gainers by this method. The writer has in mind a case in point. A shop was operated by day work and the regular carpenters' wages were $2.25 per day of ten hours. Cars that were being remodeled were costing $120. This was changed to piece work and each car given to four men for $110 per car. It was found that the men could do it easily for this and make about $6 over their regular wages. They soon became so expert at this line of work that the price was cut to $80 per car gradually and the cars are being turned out at this price now, and the men are averaging $2.50 per day. Close inspection, however, is a necessity. Respectfully submitted,

J. H. VANDER VEER.

President Sergeant-The thanks of the Association are due to Mr. Vander Veer for his able paper. I trust that it will be very fully discussed by all the practical men that are here— and I do not think there are many impractical ones. I want to call on some one to open this discussion, and I will ask Mr. E. G. Connette, of Nashville, to speak. I know he is able to discuss this paper thoroughly.

REMARKS OF MR. E. G. CONNETTE ON MAINTENANCE OF CAR EQUIPMENT."

Mr. Connette, Nashville-Mr. President and gentlemen of the Association: My primary education in the railway busi

ness being with steam railway systems, has probably diverted my mind in a different direction from the opinion of some street railway people in regard to the inspection and maintenance of street car equipments. You know that when a locomotive makes its trip of one hundred or perhaps one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles, it then enters the round house and is inspected and cleaned and all necessary repairs made before it makes its next trip. So with the line with which I am connected I adopted this method. When a car comes in from its trip of one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles, is it first cleaned, then inspected. All parts of the motors, including the wire connections, brush contacts, and all parts of the truck are properly inspected, loose parts tightened up, and all minor repairs made, and the car is prepared then for its journey on the following day. My experience with that method for perhaps ten years prompts me in saying it has been entirely satisfactory. It is argued by some that daylight inspection is better because the men have a better opportunity to see and perhaps feel more like working in daylight than they do at night. That is true to a certain extent, but with a limited car equipment, and perhaps with the car barns located in such a manner that it would be inconvenient to have the cars run in during the day from time to time to have the inspection, cleaning and repairs made, it therefore becomes necessary with some companies to do the work at night, and this to a large extent is so with the system in Nashville. But, as I have stated, the system of cleaning, inspecting and making minor repairs at night has been very satisfactory. If a car goes out in the morning and something occurs to disable the car and it is brought into the shed, and the defect is caused by the lack of inspection at night, proper action is taken, and that is an incentive to the night inspectors to do their work properly, because if they do not do it, results will tell. The general overhauling of the car is done by the regular repair force in daylight, and we make it a rule to give the motors a genuine overhauling perhaps once in six months. About two years ago we had a very large exposition in Nash