The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1897-08-14
RAILROAD BURDENS.
Not the Stocks Nor the Bonds, but tho
Car Weights.

Not the Stocks Nor the Bonds, but tho
Car Weights.
An ordinary passenger car on
steam railroad costs from $4,000 to
IS, 900 and weighs $1,000 pounds, or
10 tons. A mail car, which costs
from 81, 900 to &2,5 and is shorter
by about one-quarter than the ordi-
nary passenger coach, weighs 80, 900
pounds, or Is tons. A baggage car
without the baggage in it weighs
%, 900 pounds, or IA tons, and costs
about as much as mail car. A
sleeping car is more expensive than
any of the oii:e1s. and it weighs
good deal mole too A plain, simple
but durable sleel;i 2 car costs any
where from $50 to 80, 600, and
an ornate, elaborate, luxurious sleep
ing car with observation attach
ments, literary annex and culinary
department costs anywhere from
$4,000 to $40, 900. The average
weight of a sleeping car is from 49,
600 to A, 900 pounds, or from 20 to
% tons.
A full train in motion, as little
figuring will show, is no light affair.
The ordinary weight of the railroad
locomotive for passenger service,
inclusive of tender, but not of fuel
in the tender, is 40 tons. One bag
gage car weighs IA tons, and one
mail car 16 tons, bringing up the
weight of the locomotive and the
baggage and mail cars to 70 tons.
Six passenger cars at an average of
10 tons each weigh ia tons, so that
the total weight of train made up
of locomotive and eight cars would
be 1874 tons, or 36S,0OO pounds, ex
elusive of the weight of baggage, OF
the fuel carried, passengers and mail
matter.
Pulling 1874 tons along rails at the
rate of so miles an hour or more is
an achievement which has not been
easily brought about, and the more
the problem is studied the more
clearly it is understood how far the
mechanical work on railroads has
been pushed. There were, by the
last figures reported, SO, 900 locomo-
tives in use on American railroads,
26, 900 passenger cars and 5000 mail
and baggage cars. These figures
seem large until compared with the
number of freight cars on American
railroads, and then they seem insig-
niticant, for the number of freight
cars in use is /, 250,000.
Freight cars, among railroad men,
are divided into four classes-fat
cars, such as are used for the trans
portation of stone, machinery and
lumber; box cars, such as are used
for the transportation of grain, fruit
and ordinary merchandise; stock
cars, such as are used for cattle, and
coal cars, such as are used for the
transportation Of coal and oil-those
used for oil being supplied with
tanks. The average weight of a
fiat or gondola car is seven tons.
The car costs from $500 to &400.
Box cars weigh a ton more and cost
e1OO more each. Stock cars weigh
eight tons each on the average.
Coal cars weigh three tons each. It
costs about 5000 to build coal or oil
cars, and they are designed to carry
five tons apiece The weight of so
coal cars is $50 tons, and of their
contents, if all filled, $50 tons,
which, with locomotive and caboose
added, make APO tons as the weight
Of a train. It may be said roughly
that the weight of loaded trains,
passenger, coal or freight, ranges
from 200 to $50 TONS The lighter
the train the greater the speed.
That's the railroad rule. New Y ork
Sun.