Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-05-16
FIRST EDITION.
CAR-BUILDIA0 IN WILMINGTON.


SOME 1srEaEsrrKs DETAILS OF THIS HaANcH OF
OUR INDusTRIEs.
The letter from Wilmington, published in the
New York Times of Wednesday, describing our
car works, presents a number Of interesting de-
tails from which we Gull the following -
Wilmington claims to turn ont more railroad
cars than any other city in the Union. This
statement requires some little explanation.
suppose that IL one OF tue great factories here
received sufficiently tempting offer to make
large number Of freight, baggage, or coal cars,
they would undertake to do so, for they hpve
plenty of room to enlarge their workshops. But
as matter OF fact, 1t is as much as they can do
to fulfil their orders for first class passenger and
palace cars and il must be remembered that
the cost of and labor in construction OF Pull
man car is fully equal TO three times that OF
passonger-car The fohr Wilmington shops en-
ploy nearly 900 operatives and they do doubt
less as they claim, turn out In the aggregate.
relatively more cars than any other city win
which they compete.
In 1871, the Jackson Il Sharp Company built
40 passenger cars, thirty-two Pullman, and
eight Woodruff palace-cars. and fifty baggage,
mail and express cars. took an account OF the
cars in various stages Of construction for which
they are fulflng orders. Itias pretty long
list and wetiid certainly warrant the Company's
assertion, that they expect this year to turn out
an average of one car day. They are building
twenty passenger-cars for the New York, Bos-
ton and Montreal Railroad, FIVE passenger-cars
for the Huntington and Broadtop Railroads, six
Woodruff sleeping coaches, twelve Pullman pal
ace-cars. FIVE passenger coaches for the Allan
tic Railroad, four narrow-gauBe passenger
coaches for the Denver and Rio Grande Rail-
roade, three for the East Broadtop, aud two for
the Jordan Valley Railroad i'll Utah.
The amount of work done in the construction
Of palaoe-car is something enormous. Apart
from all the ornamental woods, seven different
varieties OF wood are used. And then there is
all the upholstery, hardware. and metal work
To be dome Ia fact at least fifty different kinds
of mechanical trade are called into operation to
complete the elaborate structure. Few people
have any conception of the amount OF lumber
in a car alone. An ordinary tirst-class passen-
ger-car consumes II 900 feet. and Pullman car
20 900 feet of lumber. To meet these demands,
II il necessary to always keep on hand an inn
mense stock OF ali descriptions Of lumber, in Or
der that it may be thoroughly seasoned. on
taking stock OF their lumber on the lst or April
last, the Jackson Il Sharp company found that
they had no less than 100000 feet in their
yards. -.,-
weight and cost of different styles OF cars -.
Pullman. ........ $4,000 lbs $4,000 to $2O, ,O0e
Passenger ....... $4,000 " 900 to ,OOO
Pasg' r, second class $4,000 '' 5000 to 400C
| Freight box. ...... 10000 " 700 to e6 S0C
| Flat or platform. ..12, 900 " $50 to 65u
At the works of Bowers, Dure Il Co. saw
Pullman and passenger cars IN every stage OF
construction and the work in two hnlshed run
man cars was fully equal to- that of the firms
| longer established neighbors. Bowers, Dure a
/ 90. employ force of 800 men, at present a.
| work on six Pullman palace cars, eleven FIRST
| class passonger-cars, for the North Pennsylva-
/ MIA Railroad, aud several cars for the south
/ American Railroad The firm have also Just Ia
| ken contract for fifty freight-ears ~,
The car shops OF the Harlan " Hollingswortt
i Co. are also very extensive, one building being
400 feet by Is feet. and the other 200 feet by oo
| The company ID about constructing another large
building, tue same length and 10 feet wider thal
| the fist When completed this VIII ABOUT uou
BILE their capaciLy, and enable them to turn ou
at least 25O cars year The company empo.
800 men inths department OF their BUSINESS
and are at present al work on ten passenger cal
for the New York Boston and Montreal ltallroad
six Pullman palace cars, and Blk cars iof th
West Jersey Railroad. Al,
These large car-4hops,iu combination with tn d
smp-building yards. make Wilmington. ior II
size. an unusually prosperous place. had efte
| noticed while travelling on various railroads a
intimation that the car was built OF wilmington
but must confess that had no conception o
| the extent to which car-building is carried on
| this CITY, 49, 10 E ~