The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-01
USE OF PRIVATE FREIGHT CARS.
A Great Victory of Them on the
Railroads of the Country.

ha1irOadS of the Country.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Every large shipper in these days must
have his own private freight cars, and the
wonderful growth of the special car idea
can be demonstrated any day by watching
through freight train. It is dollars to
cents there will be anywhere from one to
dozen special cars in the string. and the
purposes they serve are as varied as their
ownership. The dressed meat refrigerators
are now so well known as to excite no in
terest unless it be in the vague conjecture
as to how many millions of dollars are tied
up therein, for the number of these travel
ing ice-boXes is legion. Directly the oppo-
sites of the refrgerators are the heater
cars, cieverly contrived to keep the con-
tents al fixed degree of temperature
throughout the trip, and therefore inval-
liable for shipping fruit in cold weather.
The heating is done by oil stoves. There
are quite number of special fruit car
companies which own cars especially
equipped for the carriage of fruit and pro-
duce in bulk, and these cars are divided
into many classes, such as orange cars,
cabbage cars, melon cars, and so on almost
indefinitely.
There is pickle line, a coffee line, num-
berless beer lines, and, strangest of all. a
chicken or poultry line, these latter cars
being filled with permanent coops and
feeding and watering facilities, intended
for the safe handling Of fowls of all kinds.
There are furniture cars, buggy cars
chair stock cars, ice cars, plate-glass cars,
crockery cars and indeed cars for almost
every known commodity manufactured in
sufficient quantities to make it worth
while for the producers to build their own
conveyap ces. AS to live stock cars. there
are all kinds, from the palace or stable
cars down to the plain everyday Slated
affairs, and, unlike most of the other spe-
cial vehicles, the stock cars can be used
by any shipper willing to pay the owner
nominal sum for the rent of the car
over and above the usual freight charge
imposed by the railroads the ADVANTAGES
gained being the much better accommoda-
lions afforded by these special cars than
given in the regular equipment of the rail-
ways. In tank cars there are varieties for
nearly everything liquid. Petroleum. lard
cotton oil, MASSES. acid tar, cider. water
ana even whisky are few of the commo-
dlues carried IN tanks NOWADAYS.
The owners of these private cars get no
direct benefit from Their use. The con-
tents must pay just the same freight
charges as if carried in railroad conDa-
MES cars, but the one great adyanta ge
lies In the fact that a supply of cars
ready to load can always be depended nm
on, for the special cars, when ep1ptv are
PlohptS sent nome or TO their point Of
origin and are not used in any other
trade without the owners permission. The
railroads allow owners a trifing sum for
mileage which serves to keep the cars IN
repair but hardly yields any great reve-
nue. to them.
or course, many of these private cars
are built because of the special trade in
which they are used, and which would not
pay railroad company to tie up money
IN furnishing the equipment necessary.
As pullucrs must conform to the rules OF
the master car builders. the private cars
are as safe to run as those owned by the
railroad companies, and indeed many are
superior to the average cars in general
use.