Part of a description published circa 1900:-
"The summit of Mt. Tom was not easily accessible until the construction of the Mt. Tom Railroad in the year 1897. Now, the street-cars of Holyoke (which connect with the Springfield, Northampton, Westfield and Amherst systems of street-cars, and with the Boston & Maine and N. Y., N. H. & Hartford railroads) run to the lower station of the Mt. Tom Railroad, and in less than ten minutes afterwards the mountain cars deliver their passengers on the summit. The Mt. Tom Railroad is a cable-trolley-electric, modern mountain railway. The cars are models of taste and finish, excelling in size, proportions, and beauty of all the mountain cars in this country. The electric power is furnished from a power-house five miles away. Each car is equipped with electric brakes, also with a powerful automatic grip-brake (which is governed by a regulator) which causes heavy, strong jaws to grip a safety third rail of the track whenever the wheels exceed a certain speed. Besides these brakes, there is a brake upon the cable at the top of the incline, also the usual electric-car hand-brakes on each car. The "turn-out," half-way up the mountain, is an ingenious arrangement for allowing cable-connected cars to be used on a single-track, standard-gauge railroad. The roadbed is of trap-rock, and the construction is strong and substantial in every way. The cars move up the rocky slope by a grade so easy as not to suggest even the fear of giddiness to the most timid. The maximum grade is but 21 per cent."
Much more on this webpage
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