The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-30
AMONG RAILROAD men.
Wonderful Improvement Made
In Freight Cars.
Special Cars Now Provided For
Many Things.
Items of Interest About Kansas Rail
road Matters Personals and
miscellaneous

There is little in the exteriors of a line
OF freight cars to suggest that any great
amount of care has been taken in their
construction. The long trains of huge,
ungainly boxes wind their way around
curves, under bridges and through the
cuts Of the city without exciting even a
speculative interest in the beholder. Yet
the hundreds of cars of this sort that
construction as remarkable are the
luxurious palace cars of today compared
fury ago
In these days every large shipper must
have his own private freight cars. In
every tialh Almost one viii Ilnd halI q
dozen or more special freight cars and
the purposes they serve are as varied as
thelr ownership Ihey provide special ae-
commodation for every conceivable kind
of freight
The refrigerator cars. used for the
transported of dressed meat and SINH
lar perlshabie products We're among the
llIsl specially constructed Irelghl ears
They are now so well known as to eX-
cite no interest, unless it be in vain spec
sI-tAtl1n as 70 now many Ilililons OF dol
lars are represented by them, for their
number is legion
Directly the opposite of refrigerator
are the heater cars, cleverly contriVed to
keep the contents at a fixed degree OF
temperature throughout the trip. and
therefore invaluable for shipping fruit in
cold weather The heating is done bV oil
stoves. There are quite a number of spe-
cial fruit car companies which own cars
fruit and produce iii bulk. ana these cars
orange cars melon cars and 50 on almost
indefinitely.
There IS a pickle line, 4 coffee line.
numDerless beer lines and the strangesr
of all, 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, bug
gy cars, chair stock cars. ice cars. plate
glass cars. crOc1ery cars. and indeed,
cars for almost every known commodity
manufactured in sufficient quantities to
make it worth while for the producers to
Dulld their own cOnVeyances
As 10 live stock cars, there are all
kinds, from the palace or stable cars
down to the plain, every day. Slated af-
fairs and unlike most of the other spe-
cial vehicles the stock cars can be used
by any shipper willing to pay the owner
over and above the usual freight charge
imposed by the railroads, the advantage
gained being the much better accOmmO~
datiOns afforded by these special cars
than given in the regular equipment or
the railway.
The owners of these private cars get no
tents must pay Just the same freight
charges as if carried in railroad cOmpa-
MES cars but the one great advantage
hes Ia the Iact that supply OF cars
ready to load can always be depended
upon for the special ears when empty.
are promptly sent home or to their point
of origin. and are not used in any other
trade without the owners permission.
The railroad allows owners a trifiing sum
IN repair but hardly yields any great rev
enue to them
Of course, many Of these private cars
are built because of the special trade fiji
which they are used and which would
not repay a railroad company to tie uD
money in furnishing the equipment neces-
rules of the master car builder the pri-
vate cars are as safe to run as those own
ed by the railroad companies, and. in
deed, many are superior TO the average
cars IN general use.