Easton's Electric Railway

Easton's Electric Railway. Karl Stirner Arts Trail. , The Third Electric Railway , The nation's third electric railway was located in Easton. Built for regular passenger service, operation began from this point on January 14th, 1888. Eventually, the system expanded across the Lehigh Valley, and for roughly 65 years, provided fast, inexpensive and clean transportation throughout the region and to points beyond. Ultimately replaced by private automobiles, intercity highways, and buses, Easton saw its last trolley run on June 6th, 1953., The City's steep slopes presented a unique challenge to 19th Century railway designers. The cable technology that predated trolleys towed cars up and down hills mechanically by clamping onto a continuously moving underground cable. Unfortunately, these systems were very expensive to maintain, and require steam plants to operate. New advances in electricity and motors brought down costs significantly, but had a drawback: without cable propulsion, metal wheels on metal rails provided little traction, making hills difficult to climb, and dangerous to descend., The Easton Trolley Balanced Weight Mechanism: A "Simple" Solution , To allow trolleys to travel the steep incline between Downtown and College Hill, engineers took a simple approach; simple machines, that is: the inclined plane, the pulley, and the wheel and axel. A short track running directly between the summit and base of the hill (incline plane) carried a wheel sled (wheel and axel) loaded with pig iron. This sled was connected to trolleys by an assist cable. To account for the different track lengths, a steave (pulleys) synchronized movement at both ends of the cable. As the trolley ascended the hill, the sled descended, and vice versa. Once a trolley had traveled the length of the system, the counterweight sled was fastened into position to await a trolley going the opposite direction. Unlike cable cars, the tow line did not power the trolleys movement; instead, it reduced a trolley's effective load using gravity and basic physics, allowing the electric motor and brakes to do the rest. The Easton Balanced Weight Mechanism was one of only two of its kind in the U.S., [Captions:] , Easton's electric trolley making its inaugural run on January 14th, 1888, Trolleys, such as this one on Centre Square were a part of daily life in Easton for over half a century. Their service contributed to commerce, both along their routes and Downtown, and was a vital link between Easton's neighborhoods., Even with the Balanced Weight Mechanism, traveling steep hills by trolley could end in disaster. On November 10th, 1891, an assist cable broke loose from a car, resulting in the derailment shown above., A drawback to the Balanced Weight Mechanism was that it needed to alternate between uphill and downhill trips. Trolley schedules were timed to accommodate this and a side track allowed moving cars to pass others waiting for the counterweight to return. . This historical marker was erected by City of Easton, Pennsylvania. It is in Easton in Northampton County Pennsylvania