The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-21
The Coming of the steel Car.
From the Railroad Gazet+e


AS we take up the annual reports of the
railroads, especially within the last two or
three years we are struck by the increase
of the freight train load 1t is a common
place now that engine weights and car
capacity have been steadily crowded IN:
result IS seen in theg reater average
train-load. 1t is quite obvious that rail-
road managers understand the necessity
or reducing cost of carrying and that thew
are FULLY aware that on most roads the
quickest and most easily available way
of reducing cost is by increasing the av-
eraSe load. This of course implies hav-
ing traffic that can be passed in heavy
trains and that does not need to be dis
patched at frequent intervals and for
many different destinations In the TTni
ted states most railroads have a consider
able proportion of that kind of freight
The maximum benefit of heavy trains will
De mad where the greatest percentage of
the traffic is of that sort as for instance
IN carrying coal and ore between Pitts
burg and the lake ports and 1t is natural
that the most important advance in size
or rolling stock should be made in that
region. So we find the Schoen Companv
building for the Pittsburg, Bessemer and
Lake Erie six hundred steel cars of 100 OOO
pounds capacity and the Pittsburg and
Lake Erie ordering fifty such cars. and
the Pennsylvania railroad preparing plans
for cars to carry 10000 pounds of coal
or ore and for locomotives to haul them.
Naturally too, the present DEVELOPMENT
OF very capacious cars is In steel because
Tor several reasons, steel cars can be made
lighter than wooden cars of the same ca
pacity, particularly when that capacitv is
great More paying load can be hauled in
a train of the sameg ross weight Very
capacious steel cars can be built for an
proXimately the same cost per ton of car
rying capacity as wooden cars. To han
die given amount of traffic fewe cars
would be required, and for a given load.
the train would be shorter In these two
facts are practical advantages which All
railroad men will recognize. Less track
and yard room would be required. fewer
men to handle and care for the rolling
stock and other advantages of short as
compared with long mains on the road
are sufficiently obvious Furthermore.
the metal cars would be safer from de-
struction by fire. Beyond this, it is proba-
bly, true that steel cars can be so built
as to reduce very greatly the mainten-
ance account and increase in equal degree
the life of the rolling stock This state
ment, however, we are not yet quite ready
to make without qualification. In general
1t is probably true; but for some reason
we are cautious about committing our
selves unquafiedly about this This side
OF the question we submit to the design
ers builders and users of steel cars for
more complete discussion.
little analysis of comparative train
weights shows some sihnihcant facts If
we assume train of thirty steel cars with
a capacity of 100000 pounds EACH 1t will
carry 1.5OO tons of paying freight and the
dead weight of the cars viii be 510 tons,
or a total of 200 tons. A train of the
same gross weight, of the best standard
G0,OW-pound capacity cars (wooden, pres