GETTING ABOUT

[Music] [Applause] e we're a Restless lot of folks we detroiters always going somewhere forever intent on getting about of course it would save a lot of time and trouble for all hands if we just stay put but it seems that when a man's home he has to go to work and after a man gets through with his work he has to go home or anyhow somewhere now although we think of our town as the Hub of the automobile world still it might be well to remember certainly while looking at this particular picture that there are 1,200,000 Riders on the DSR street cars and buses every day getting about safely rapidly and economically Detroit has been in the transportation business only since 19002 since the city took over the lines our growth in area and in population has been vast but the DSR has done a great job of meeting the situation what goes on back of the scenes should be of interest to every District take the Highland Park property as an example here are 30 Acres of yards for storing cars and also more than 4 Acres of floor space in the shops 300 men are employed here in shop work and a couple hundred others are at work in the baker Wyoming coolage grasset Shoemaker and Jefferson car housing maybe it never occurred to you that street cars must be inspected regularly if they are to deliver the high standard of service demanded by the DSR at intervals a powerful hydraulic jack is placed under the car and up goes 16,000 lb of street car wouldn't that come in handy when you have to change a tire on a country road well well then the when the city purchased the street railway lines at least a third of the Rolling Stock consisted of old and out-of-date cars many of them in such states of disrepair that it was necessary to junk them the new management decided that a municipally owned system must take some pride in its equipment because in a way every car is a traveling representative of the city government several 100 new cars were bought and those cars are kept and span by a year round program of spray painting striping and varnishing about 400 cars are completely done over every year nor is that all the effort expended in the cause of cleanness each car is swept out every day and each car is given a comprehensive bath on this shower rack twice a week just another way of creating rer appeal but of course we'd all rather ride in the clean car than in the dirty one after the trolley has been run back and forth in the spray then the window washers go to work where are you going boy here come back here get to work shining up those windows I never would get anything done around here if I weren't on the job to watch him now here's quite a device sort of a turntable that doesn't turn perhaps you'd call it a shuttle anyhow the car weighing 18 tons with the trucks is run on the movable platform that delivers it where it's needed maybe you'd like to know just how the street Railway Department stands financially well the line purchased for $18 million and there were Bond issues of 36.5 million a total of $53 and12 million of bonded and contract indebtedness since 1922 the department has reduced this indebtedness by 13.5 million and also has a sinking fund a better than 9 million to reduce obligations when they become due so now after 13 years of Municipal operation the railway system has a plant value of $6 million and a debt of only 31 million from an original investment of 53.5 million those are big fix and I don't understand them very well either but the experts say we're getting along splendidly with our street car system more important to you you and to me is the fact that we do have clean cars that run frequently and rapidly and cheaply and help us in getting about perhaps you don't know what makes our street cars run well it isn't so simple a matter as winding up a rubber band here in this city-owned Powerhouse is created the energy that pushes the trolleys along the tracks in one year 112,000 tons of coal are burned a drag scraper moves the coal from The Yards where it is stored to an endless belt conveyor that carries the fuel to the bunkers at the rate of 200 t an hour the heat maintained in the boilers is 2,600 de a little hotter than you need to make good burnt toast these boilers are operated automatically from a control board that maintains the steam at 400 lb pressure and at a temperature of 700° and their performance is continuously recorded on various meters that also are automatically operated four massive turbines with a capacity of 20,000 horsepower convert the energy in Steam into electrical energy at 13,000 volts then this electrical energy is distributed to substations over an intricate network of 136 mil of cable operating at 24,000 volts the DSR maintains 18 substations scattered about the city at strategic points with a total capacity of 45,000 KW and the switches automatically open and close so closely are the various operations coordinated certainly takes a lot of men a lot of Mach maery and large quantities of coal so there'll be action when the motorman turns on the power now here's something else again now and then a trolley Tire breaks time was when the city first took over the obsolete equipment of the lines that these repair trucks were dashing out at all hours of the day and night now the brakes occur on an average of only twice a month which isn't bad at all don't worry if that repair man takes a hold of the trolley wire he's in no danger unless when he grasps the wire he also places his foot on the track and there hasn't been anybody big enough have to do that since Paul bunan moved out of Detroit up into the Northwoods well you've seen how the cars are kept In First Class condition how the power is generated to run them how the wires are maintained to carry the power and now we come to the next step which is providing tracks for the cars to run on since the city took over the lines 75 Mi of new track have been built to provide extensions still another problem is to keep rails and Road bed in good condition no more our rails simply bolted together with plates on each side that's the old method and it meant a more or less rough ride because inevitably the plates worked loose and also there was always a space between the rail ends now the DSR uses the most modern method a mold containing a sand core is fitted tightly about the joint over the mold swings a pot in which magnesium and iron are mixed in a fusible combination the Magnesium is ignited terrific heat is generated and the molten iron runs into the mold fusing the rails together when the mold has foled it is broken and the joint has completely disappeared instead there are two pieces of Steel transformed into one piece of Steel now all that needs to be done is to grind off the surplus metal it's much the same operation as in welding two parts of a steel automobile body steel is joined inseparably to Steel for your comfort and safety remember another thing not only is this the best way to lay tracks but also the DSR does it without interrupting service on the line under construction the new rails are laid beside the old ones on which the cars keep right on running all that now remains is to secure the rails firmly in a concrete bed the result is no makeshift repair job but a reconstructed line practically the entire system has new rails and New Road bed and the whole operation has been done thoroughly perhaps the most function of this this essential Department of our city government is to carry Detroit to and from work business is good right now thousands of workers twice a day must be transported about the city to their jobs and back home again here in one plant are 30,000 men who daily ride the street cars to the factory the DSR must be prepared every working day to deliver them on time at the peak periods of the day as many as a thousand street cars are operating in all parts of the city carrying Detroit's industrial Army those boys don't seem to be any hurry to get to work do they on the other hand you'll observe that the shift coming off doesn't appear to be particularly eager to get away with the cooperation of the DSR an admirable Arrangement has been perfected for loading the cars the men go through a gate where they pay their fairs a gate that leads to one of eight car lines thus thousands are carried directly to their homes without paying another penny for a transfer saving them many dollars such an arrangement as this can be possible only with a city-owned system that has the interests of the whole community at heart and is willing to sacrifice considerable income for the good of the greater number similarly in other plants the DSR follows shifts and schedules so the workers can be moved efficiently so too when there is a field day at Bell is when the horses are running at the fairgrounds when Garwood is churning up the river in fact when detroiters assemble anywhere not forgetting of course the outpouring of fervid f at naven field the DSR somehow finds out about it and wheels out a special Detachment of street cars to carry the citizenry now suppose we look backward for a moment to that distant day when Detroit was only a sleepy Village long before we had electric cars to say nothing of automobiles sound pictures prohibition New Deals radio and all the other blessings of civilization in this Century Detroit calmly laid the foundation of its street car system in 18 63 running horse cars on Jefferson Avenue the next year the company built an extension on Woodward Avenue that ran way out to Adams Avenue 30 years later in 1892 Detroit saw its first electric car a bobbing tunerville trolley finally in 1896 the last horse car disappeared off the streets but although the electrics were faster still there didn't seem to be any more seats for the car riders folks getting about the city something had to be done and the CSR stepped up and did it it was prohibitively expensive to build car lines into the more distant districts so bus lines were established to make the system more flexible placing hundreds of buses on the streets meant establishing shops to service them 325 employees spend their days hking around in the insides of all sorts of buses old and new in six garages and here in the heavy repair shop at second Boulevard and Lael Avenue a building of 66,000 Square ft that big fellow over there weighs approximately 10 tons but the lads juggle it around as though it were a kitty car they're Mighty watchful of BL boys nearly 700 men on its buses these Speedy vehicles that provide Splendid transportation for thousands of detroiters over 500 miles of city streets it was 10 years ago that the street Railways Department first began bus service to its patrons in the beginning the buses were intended to provide feeders in the outlying sections to the carlines as the city grew in area and in popul and as the buses grew in popularity the necessity for greater bus facilities increased until many of the routes developed from small feeder lines to main trunk lines there are several sizes and shapes of buses the track trolley bus for example operates on Plymouth Road extending the privilege of transportation to a district that might otherwise have to hoof it downtown in 5 years the population of our city decreased 23% within the 3 Mile Circle but at the same time increased 73% in the outlying districts something had to be done for those people even though it meant to the department much longer Halls at a greater cost per passenger and something was done because this is your business remember that when you motorists stop on the car tracks to make a left turn holding up a street car or illegally parking at a bus stop to delay a bus means that you are selfish holding up dozens of your fellow citizens for your own convenience those who drive automobiles can do a lot to help the DSR maintain schedule over more than 450 m a modern track Glide fast moving street cars and Detroit has the cheapest car Fair anywhere in the United States with the single exception of New York City but in New York the taxpayers must make up a deficit of around $15 million a year in Detroit the DSR does not cost the taxpayers a cent if the fair had been raised to the same rate paid by car riders in other cities Transportation would have cost detroiters an additional $60 million since 1922 not only has the department saved you 60 million but it has also paid paid Millions into the city treasury to help reduce your taxes that's something to be proud of stockholders you citizens do own the DSR every time a bus or a trolley car rolls down the street there's a stockholders meeting in motion yes sir it was certainly a smart decision that the electric made in 1921 when the city was authorized by an overwhelming vote to purchase the railway system and run it for all the people instead of for a handful of stockholders now let me show you graphically one thing that has been accomplished for a 6-cent fair you can ride from Redford to the city hall and then a penny transfer will carry you to the city limits out Jefferson Avenue 22 M for 7 C to travel the same distance would cost 76 Cents by Railroad train and if you went by taxi cab the meter would click off $430 by the time you had reached your destination this is the economical way of getting about and also remember that Detroit is getting about the cheapest and best service in the country [Music] a