The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-03
TRAINS THAT COST MONEY.
THE CARS OF A ''IAMTTED" ON ANY
GOOD ROAD WORTH SI25,OOO.
Ninety-Five Per Cent, of Passengers
DO Not Live in IA House That Cost
as Much as the Car They Ride in.
Items of the Outlay.


DO Not Live in IA House That Cost
as Much the Car They Ride in.
Items of the Outlay.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
"Ninety-five per cent of the travelling
public do not own in their own right, or
occupy through rental, a dwelling house
which. including all its contents, costs as
much as one of the ordinary modern PCS
senger cars run on any first-class rail
road entering Chicago"
The foregoing statement, which is cal
culated to arouse the incredulity of the
average individual. was made yesterday by
George j. Charlton, assistant general pas
senger and ticket agent of the Chicago
and Alton Railroad.
Just let me give you a few facts TO
prove that assertion" continued Mr..
Charlton. THE cost of the average pas
senger car is to-day from 5000 to $1,000
reclining-chair car costs from $4,000 to
$12, 000 These figures represent the bare
cost of the car. When you add to that
from year to year the expense of main
tenance, instead of figuring, as the ordi-
nary business mortal will figure a return
in interest for the capital invested, you
simply aggrayate the situation. l once
heard prominent master car builder say
that it cost $500 to simply look over
car after it had served five or six months
on the road and had been sent to the car
shops to be examined and put into pre-
sentable shape for another SIX mohths
run. He meant that the ordinary dress
ing down and cleaning of car would
aN FOL
vestigation to general shop repairs--per-
haps adding upholstering here and there
YOU could easily get away with another
$500.
did YOU ever stop to consider the
amount of money which may be EXPENDED
on three or four of the important parts
of a car? Take the paper wheels used III
passenger cars. Until within very recent
date single wheel cost from $50 to $loo.
| Most first-clasS cars are run on SIX
| wheel trucks. This would mean twelVe
wheels to the car, or 500 TO $I'zV LOT 'he
wheels alone, without the aXles ana
! springs 1t is true that to-day you can
! ,-e+ these Messenger car wheels for very
much less, and they will average some
where in the vicinity of $50 wheel OUT
most of the railroads entering ChlcaSo are
today running cars the wheels on wnlch
cost them from $50 to 500 apiece ne
trucks or running gear of tiTst-class pas
ent OF the car at all, Will cost from @-'o0V
to So 900. e-o,+.
cor seats are made in the latest improved
STYLE magnificently upholstered TO sun
H. taste of the ordinary traveller, ana TO
enable the passenger departments Oh the
different railroads to advertise themselves.
a. the .onlv trst-class railroad IN the
West or the East as the case may De-
cosr from $50 to $40 apiece. This IS the
hare cost Of putting them into the car a
car seat will accommodate TWO passeh>
gers. and there are from twenty-five I"
thirty seats to the car
can the Messenger cars are not equipped
win so CHEAP an article as a car seat at
s90 ia S45 each There is the recilnlnS-
chair car. built a little larger perhaps,
little heavier, certainly, than the ordlh-
ary modern passenger car; larger WIN
dows more elaborate upholstering ana
furnishing. In this car the railroad conf
many nuts forty or fifty reclining chairs,
aIahorately and durably upholstered. These
chairs cost all the way from $50 20 $40
each
sTake the glass used in the construction
of a car. the window glazing, the mirror
decoration the deck lights, etc. There
are thirty-six to forty window openings IN
each passenger car but you must remem-
her that all first-class passenger cars are
fitted with double windows, so that each
passenger car will have from seventy 10
eighty window sash frames. The WIN
dow Of the up-to-date passenger car must
he large to give the passengers a COM
plete and satisfactory view of the so-called
and thoroughly advertised scenic route
of the world for every railroad Is
scenic route and spends thousands OF
dollars advertising that fact. The lower
sash of car window contains a large,
heavy durable plate glass The upper
sash contains a highly embossed plate
glass about three-quarters as large as the
lower sash. At very conservative estl-
mate it costs IS 10 glaze each car window.
Including the doors of the car, at least
eighty lights of glass are used, without
taking into consideration the mirror deco-
rations in a car or the deck lights, when
are usually highly embossed with some
fancy figure. The expense of the glass
used in the construction Of a car will not
fall short of 800, and will very often run
over $500.
$500 a year, to light passenger car with
gas. To equip car for gas costs at least
$500. How many of Chicago's millionaire's
spend $25 a month for lighting their homes?
/ actually believe that if you were to take
an average monthly expenditure of all the
better class Of hopseholders in Chicago for
lighting their houses, 1t would be less than
$40 per month for each house, while the
railroad company spends $25 a month for
lighting one passenger car. Gas is an inn
provement and a safety appliance, and
railroad companies are always looking for
improvements and safety appliances, re-
CARELESS of expense. 1t costs more money
each year to light the passenger cars with
Pintsch gas on the Chicago and Alton
Railroad than the entire expense for all
other Illuminating purposes over the en-
tire line of the road and this means all
ell other electric light, gas, and oil ex
penses az stations. on the rights Of way.
switch lamp. lanterns. etc, and bear in
mind, too, that all passenger cars on the
Chicago end Alton road are not lighted
with gas The sleeping cars, the reclining
chair cars. the regular passenger cars. the
mail cars run in the more important local
and through trains arc lighted with
Pintsch gas, but there are very nearly, az
many passenger cars in other and less i'm
portant trains which are only operated for