The Opelousas courier., 1897-03-27
FREIGHT CARS
improvements in Construction Of
These numbering Vehicles,
special Cars for Chickens with
Permanent Coops.

liner Is little in the exterior O,
'fe'gntc cars to suggest that any grea.
amount of care has been taken in thei,
construction. The long trains O.
huge, ungainly boxes wind their wa,
around curves, under bridges and
through the cuts Of the city without
exciting even a speculative interest in
tho behaller. Yet the hundreds OF
cars of this sort that pass daily
through New Haven illustrate a de.
7elopment IN construction as remark
able as arc the luxurious palace cars
OF today compared to the passenger
coaches Of half a century ago..
In these days every large shipper
must have his own private freight
cars, says the New Haven Register. In
every train, almost, one will find q
half a dozen or more special cars, and
the purposes they serve are as varied
as their ownership. They provide spe.
clsl accommodation for every cou.
ceivable kind Of freight.
The refrigerator cars, used for the
transportation OF dressed meat and
similar p~erishable products, were
among the first specially constructed
freight cars. They uro now go we'll
known as to excite no interest, unless
/. be in vain speculation as to how
many millions OF dollars are represent
ed by. them, for thoir number is
legion.
Directly the opposite of the refrig-
orators are the heater cars, cleverly
contrived to keep the contents at a
fixed degree of temperature through
out the trip, and therefore invaluable
for shipping fruit in cold weather.
The heating is done by oil stoves.
There are quite a number Of special
fruit car companies which own cars
specially equipped for the carriage of
fruit and produce in bulk, and these
cars are divided into many classes,
such as orange cars, cabbage cars,
melon cars and 80 on almost indef-
nitely.
There is q pickle line, coffee line, num-
berless beer lines, and, strangest of all,
a chicken Or poultry line, these latter
ears being filed with permanent coops
and feeding and watering facilities, in
tended for the safe handling Of fowls
of all kinds. There are furniture cars,
buggy cars, chair stock cars, ice cars,
plate glsss 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 con-
veyances.
As to live stock cars, there are all
kinds, from the palace or stable cars,
down to IL plain, everyday Slated
~affairs, aud, unlike most Of the other
special vehicles, the stock cars can be
used by any shipper willing to pay the
a nominal sum for the rent
of the car, over aud above the usual
freight charge imposed by the rail-
the advantage gained being the
much better Accommodations afforded
by these special cars than given in the
equipment Of the railway.
The owners of these private cars got
direct benefit from their use. The
contents must pay just the an
charges as it carried in rail-
road companies cars, but the one
great advantage lies iu the fact that a
of cars ready to load can
be depended upou, for the
cars, when empty, are promptly
sent home or to their point OF origin,
and are not used in any other trade
the owners permission. The
allows owners o trifiing sum
or mileage, which serves to keep the
Jars in repair, but hardly yields any
yreat revenue to them.
OF course, many of these private
,ars are built because of the special
rade in which they are used, and
which would not repay a railroad
company to tie up money in furnish
ng the equipment necessary. AS
,uilders must conform to tho rules of
be master car builder, the private
,ars are as safe to run as those owned
" the railroad companies, and, in
~ {h1 rnw-