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Successful Tour of Road
Meigs Elevated Railway News
EAST CAMBRIDGE
The Meigs Elevated
"The City Government, Middlesex County Commissioners, and a large number of citizens, upon the invitation of the Meigs Elevated Railroad Construction Company, visited the works of the company in the Ward Monday afternoon, to witness the working of the system under the Meigs patent. A section of roadway had been contracted with sharp grades and sharp curves, and upon it was placed the steam engine, tender and passenger car. The engine weighs 20 tons. The tender carries two water tanks capable of holding about 1800 gallons of water, commodious coal bins, and a boiler to make steam for [h]eating the train. The car is a little more than 51 feet long and weighs 34,000 pounds, it being from 8,000 to 14,000 pounds lighter than an ordinary car of its length. It can seat 73 passengers easily and 84 with but little inconvenience. The experiment Monday afternoon gave ample evidence of the capacity of the engine and train to traverse grades and successfully encounter sharply defined curves; also demonstrated that the engineer had complete control of the train when descending a heavy grade. So far as could be seen by the observers, the experiments were eminently successful, and all present seemed satisfied with the result. The company propose to petition the cities of Cambridge and Boston and the town of Watertown for locations so as to run their road from the centre of Watertown to Bowdoin Square."
Source: Cambridge Press, January 29, 1887
