Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898, page 79 by Various Authors
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y means of the tightening gear. It is then firmly fixed to the insulator on the carrier arch The tension in the copper wire is taken up by a second portable ladder, which is also provided with a tightening gear and can be clamped to the rails in the same manner as the trolley, so that the trolley can then be pushed behind the second carrier arch and the process previously described repeated. By the tension in the wire the carrier arches acquire the necessary stability, while without the procedure previously described it would be impossible to use such light arches attached to the sleepers. On permanent lines, the extreme ends of the wire are attached to properly anchored picket posts. On portable lines, on the other hand, the trolley with the wire drum is fixed to the rails at the end of the line, as shown in Fig. 3, so as to enable the line to be lengthened or shortened, as may be required, with ease.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE STRAINING GEAR AND TERMINAL ANCHOR.]
Care is taken in insulating the drum and ladders so as to prevent leakage from this erecting trolley to earth. The feeders from the power house to the overhead wire and to the rails respectively are erected on light iron posts, which have also been standardized by Mr. Koppel. A specimen of these posts with an anchored stay is shown in Fig. 4. All these details are arranged for convenience of the contractor required to rapidly equip a line of railway, which can also be removed as soon as the work has been done.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--LIGHT POLE FOR CARRYING THE FEEDERS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE KOPPEL LOCOMOTIVE.]
The locomotive used is varied in form with the gage of the line, but we are particularly concerned with those for gages under 24 inches. One form of such locomotive without a hood to protect the driver is shown in Fig. 5. In this locomotive the gear is the same as that of the next illustration, but it is securely boxed in a watertight iron cover. The controlling gear is then placed vertically in front.