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achefivement that it's three westward-aspiring electric rivals failed to do th-
roughout their existence; to link the university city with Kansas City,

The ouilding of an electric line posed several problems for it's builders
that a steam road such as the Union Pacfic kailroad did not have to contend
with. [he Kaw Valley line was made no land grants by the United States gover-
ment and had to acquire all of it's right of way for a price that it had to
pay. [his was an obvious financial strain that put the electric line and lines
at a severe disadvantage. However, the Kaw Valley was able to finance such ex-
pansion easier than most and continued to lay rail westward. She average rail
that was laid was of the weight of seventy pounds every three feet, although
other weights were used. Regular railroad ties were used, later being replaced
by ties that had been dipped in creosote which lengthened the service life of

PAQUIN Feoahee,

the tie and lowered maintaince costs of the railroad, vhree sub-stations were
set up along the line at huncie, Mahon, and Kent. Flectric power was purchased
from the Kansas City Power & Light Company and from the Board of Fublic Ut‘lities
of Kansas City, Kansas. At the three sub-stations, which were elaborately built
of native stone with large paneled glass windows, were ticket offices, waiting ~
rooms, and Westinghouse rotary converter outfits made up of hich voltage trans-
formers, switchboards, and converters. Here the 33,000 volt alternating current
was transformed and stepped down to the €00 diect current as it was fed into
the trolley cables.

While the Kaw Valley line maintained it's route on the north bank of the

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Kaw and geceeded in bridging the many creaks and small streams by means of steel
bridges, it faced a more complicated problem in getting across the double-track
Union Pacific line shared by Rock Island trains in the area immediately north-
east of Lawrence, Engineers, faced with bridging Mud Creek in the same area,
decided to erect a viaduct three miles northeast of Lawrence, crossing Mud Creek

and the railroad tracks at the same point. An even greater problem faced the

Kaw Valley on entering Lawrence from the northeast. The principle part of the