The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-02-07

the CnlcasO ana 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, are lighted with Pintsch gas,
but there are very nearly as many
passenger cars in other and less i'm
portant trains which are only operated
for portion of the evening or the
night, when artificial light is needed
and which are lighted with oil.
1.-THE vestibule feature of a car is an
improvement and a safety appliance;
protection for passengers In passing
from car to car; a protection in the
case of accidents, and it costs over one
thousand dollars per car to put vesti-
buleS on train.
did you ever figure that when you
heat passenger car, as most passen-
ger cars are heated, by improved hot
water heaters, that it costs twice as
much for hard coal fuel consumed in
one of these cars a year as it costs to
heat the houses of the better class of
our citizens?
did you ever look over the interior
finish of a first-class passenger car,
anu diu yOu iiClICC llltL llle UGSL anu
most select woods are used and are
brought to high state Of polished
| perfection? Did you ever compare the
| interior finish of the wood work in
passenger car with the interior finish
| of the wood work In the magnificent
residences of some of Chicago's mil
| lionaires? Why did George M. Pull
man, when he built his magnificent
residence. insist that all the finished
woodwork on the inside should be
handled ana put in by his own car
builders? Simply because he could get
a better article-to be sure, more ex-
pensive article-but more durable ar
ticle, better class of wood, and a
higher grade of workmanship than
could be had from the builder of even
the best of our Chicago residences.
| Il can remember some years back
when we thought our passenger cars
cost great deal If we paid four or five
thousand dollars apiece for them. We
generally carried sixty people very
comfortably in one of these cars The
total weight of one of these so-called
cheap cars of bygone days was about
fifty thousand pounds, or a very good
1
senger in the car when the car was
full. There was no such thing in those
old cars of by-gone days as your sepa-
rate smoking compartment with loss
of five or six seats, or seating capacity
for twelve or fifteen people, given up
to smoking room. There was a small
chubby hole set aside for ladies. anoth-
er for gentlemen. These were called
toilet rooms II you were to give the
| travelling public OF to-day the class OF
toilet room which we gave them TWEEN
ty-five years ago there would be pc
titon to the United States government
flor the governmental control of rail-
ways.
4 t'As we increase the expense Of
building a car-making it more solid
and heavier, better able to stand the
wear and tear Of everyday travel and
the result of accidents, which will occa
sionally happen on the best regulated
lrailroads-we decrease, by granting
additional facilities, such as smoking
Irooms, buffets, elaborate toilet rooms,
the seating capacity Of the car. In
stead Of fifty thousand pounds, the
modern passenger car weighs sixty to
ICi6Hty SAOhSoiio PoAioos IL Ce1ll iS'
lonly an average Of forty persons-for
the modern traveller must have more
Iroom-and the railroad companies are
transporting an average of one ton to
the passenger instead of a half a ton in
weight to each passenger, as on the
old cars Of bygone days. This in
creased weight makes increased opera
ting expense. We must have a larger
and better engine-an engine that will
consrme more coal-and all this means
additional expense. AS you increase
the facilities for comfort of the passen-
ger and endurance and durability in
the makeup of a passenger car, you
decrease its carrying capacity and
necessarily you earn considerably less
in revenue in the modern up-to-date
passenger car, which costs from six to
seven thousand dollars, and the re-
Ginning chair car, which costs from
$4,000 to $12,500, than was earned some
twenty-five years ago in the so-called
cheap cars with a carrying capacity
of fifty to sixty passengers, and which
ears only cost from four to five thou
sand dollars, and twenty-five years
ago we used to get something like pas
senger rates. To-day we are carrying
passengers at one-ha1f the rates we
got twenty-five years ago, and we are
giving them passenger cars which cost
| us at least twice the amount we PAID
twenty-five years ago.
Eyes, I know you will ask why dc
: railroad companies continue to make
these improvements in passenger trair
service and expend this additional
money, when they might get along
| without doing so, and perhaps yor
may think the railway companies fool.
! ish. ! agree with you; they are fool.
ish. I have worked in the passenger
: department of railway companies cen.
, tering In Chicago for over twenty-five
| years, and know they are foolish, ant
they know they are foolish to incul
: these expenses, but they continue t.
, incur them. They might cut down the
: expenses of building a passenger cal
! considerably and preserve all the safe
: ty appliances of the car and give the
| people a kind of accommodation which
! would be comfortable, thoroughly sat
: isfactory, but certainly not as elabo
rate as the passenger cars of to-day
: 1t would accomplish the same results
and cost less to keep in in repair thar
, the cars we are using at present.
| is hn 6t1tU Of hn