Rollercoaster Subway Line
"How are you going to build a subway on street - level?" ask the doubters. "Are you going to run your trains up hill and down, like a rollercoaster?"
That's just what Mr. Kearney expects to do!
Don't laugh, Mr. Rail. You've often " let her drift over the hill" yourself. By experiments he found that passengers experience no " sinking" sensation on a grade less steep than one in four. His trains, could easily climb a grade of one in six, but to provide a margin of safety he decided upon grades of one in seven.
At this grade a run of 150 feet from the end of the street - level platform takes the line down to a level where tunnel rights are secured. This method of station and line construction, it is claimed, would result in a saving of 40 per cent over that employed in building the present New York subways. In smaller cities, where a single - track line could be used to advantage, a saving of 66 per cent in construction cost could be made.
In the Kearneyized subway all expense for the installation and operation of elevators would be done away with.
" The Kearney High Speed System will stand the light of the closest investigation. I have proposed nothing that with present day knowledge cannot be put in immediate practice with complete success. My invention is put forward with full confidence that it will find acceptance both in popular and scientific thought and that the materialisation of my plans will prove a development of the first importance in the history of transportation."
Like most inventors, Mr. Kearney has had a long and rough road to travel in obtaining recognition.
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