Excerpt from Prospectus: Geneva Lake, Sycamore and Southern Electric Railway Company, Incorporated January 13, 1898, General Offices Sycamore, Illinois It will be seen that 10 lines of road are crossed by the proposed line, nine of which lead to Chicago and one connecting with Milwaukee.
The length of this road is about 110 miles, passing through flourishing cities and villages herein more particularly described. The country from one end of the line to the other is made up of the best farms in the State. It would be impossible to lay out a road of this length in any part of the country, other than this, where it could be said that it did not pass a single acre of poor or unproductive land. The strength and character of the soil is fully illustrated by the kind of farm buildings and improve ments one sees along the line. The surface of the ground is gently undulating, no steep or abrupt grades being encountered, the surveys showing that the greatest grade will not exceed 3% per cent, and that no heavy work will be required anywhere along the line.
When the great Drainage Canal, from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, is completed it is expected that additional work will be done to make navigation possible from Chicago to the gulf. The southern terminus of this road will connect with this great waterway.
T is proposed to construct and equip this road in the most thorough manner. For a large portion of the way it will be built along the highway where the right of way has already been obtained; where distance can be saved private right of way has been secured; through the country it is expected to use the east side of the country road and through cities and villages the middle of the streets. The road will be thoroughly and carefully graded, a good quality of ties selected, a heavy rail of an approved pattern laid, the whole line ballasted, and the work as completely done as if it were to be used by a steam road running heavy freight trains. Convenient sidings, switches and spurs will be put in as the nature of the work will require. It has not been definitely settled what particular system of electric motive power will be adopted; it can be said that it will be approved by competent engineers of experience in such matters, and everything will be done to make the system complete and substantial and at the same time economical to operate. We propose to adopt cars suitable to the service required of them, having all the convenience of a day coach on a steam line, lighted and heated by the same current of electricity that operates their motors, which will be built to run the cars at a speed of at least 30 miles per hour, as this speed can be safely maintained over every mile of the road. While ordinary freight cars will be handled and trans ferred from one steam road to another and delivered from factories to steam roads, a special design will probably be adopted for local freight. It is intended to operate the running of the trains by long-distance telephone, and to construct the line so that a portable telephone set can be connected and used on any half mile on the line.
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