The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-17
BIG FORTUNES IN TRAINS
FINE RESIDENCES NOW COST LESS
THAN PASSENGER COACHES.
Profits of the Railroads Decrease as
Benefits to Patrons Increase
why Some Roads Fail.
Chicago Inter Ocean.


occupy through rental, dwelling house
which, including all it's contents, costs as
much as one of the ordinary modern pas
senger cars run on any frst-class railroad
entering Chicago"
The foregoing statement. which is calcu-
lated to arouse the incredulity of the aver
age individual was made yesterday by
George ]. Charlton, assistant general pas
senger and ticket agent of the Chicago &
Alton Railroad.
Just let me give you few facts to prove
that assertion" continued Mr.. Charlton.
1.-The cost of the average passenger car to-
day is from $4,000 to s., 900. A reclining chair
car costs from $4,000 to $4,000. These fig
ureS represent the bare cost of the car.
When you add to that from year to year
the expense of maintenance, instead of fig
uring, as the ordinary business mortal will
figure, a return in interest for the capital
invested, you simply aggravate the situa-
ton. / once heard a prominent master car
builder say that it cost $500 to simply look
over a 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
preSentable shape for another six months
run. He meant that the ordinary dressing
down and cleaning Of car would cost over
$500, and if you extend your investigation
to general shop repairs-perhaps adding a
little 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 in passenger
cars. Until within very recent date a single
wheel cost from $50 to 500. Most frst-class
cars are run on six-wheel trucks. This
would mean twelve wheels to the car, or
$500 to $1,000 for the wheels alone, without
the axles and springs. 1t is true that to-
DAY you can get these paSsenger-car wheels
for very much less, and they will average
somewhere in the vicinity of $50 per wheel,
but most of the railroads entering Chicago
are to-day running cars the wheels on
which cost them from $50 to 500 apiece.
The trucks or running gear of a first-class
passenger car. complete in themselves and
independent Of the car at all, will cost from
81 800 to $1,000.
Then there is the question of car seats
Car seats are made in the latest improved
style, magnihcently upholstered, to suit the
taste OF the ordinary traveller, and to en-
able the passenger departments of the diff
ferent railroads to advertise themselves as
the only hrst-class railroad in the West,
or the East, as the case may be, cost from
$50 to $40 apiece. This is the bare cost of
the seats, complete, but does not cover the
expense of putting them into the car. A
car seat Will accommodate two passengers,
and there are from twenty-five to thirty
seats to the car.
"All passenger cars are not equipped with
so cheap an article as a car seat at $50 to
$45 each. There is the reclining chair car
built little larger. perhaps-a little heavier
certainly. than the ordinary modern pas
senger car; larger windows more elaborate
upholsterinE and furnishing. In this car the
railroad company puts from forty to fifty
reclining chairs, elaborately and durably
upholstered Each of these chairs cost all
the way from $50 to SOS.
GLASS AN IMPORTANT ITEM.
Take the glass used in the construction
of a car, the window glazing, the mirror
decoration the deck lights etc There are
thirty-six or forty window openings in each
passenger car, but you must remember that
all first-class passenger cars are fitted with
double windows, so that each passenger car
will have from seventy to eighty window
sash frames The window of the up-to-date
passenger car must be large, to give the
passenger a complete and satisfactory view
of the so-called and thoroughly advertised
scenic route of the world for every rail-
sands 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 large
as the lower sash. AT a very conservative
estimate it costs So to glaze each car win
dow. Including the doors of the car. at
least eighty lights of glass are used, with
out taking into consideration the mirror
decorations in car or the deck-lights,
which 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 $500 and will very often
run over $500.
1T costs at the very least $25 a month or
$500 a year. to light a passenger car with
gas. To equip a car for gas costs at least
$500. How many of Chicago's millionaires
spend $25 Il month for lighting their homes?
1 actually believe that if you were to take
an average monthly expenditure of all the
better class of househOlders in Chicago for
lighting their houses it would be less than
$40 q month for each house, while railroad
company spends $25 a month for lighting
che passenger car. Gas is an Improvement
MES are always looking for Improvements
and safety appliances, regardless of ex
pense. 1t costs more money each year to
lIgnt the passengers cars with Pintsch gas
on the Chicago d. Alton Railroad than the
entire expense for all other Illuminating
purposes over the entire line of the road,
and this means all other electric light gas
and Oil expenses at stations, ON the right
of way, switch lamps. lanterns, etc. and
bear in mind, too, that all passenger cars on
the Chicago & 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 pas
Senger cars in other and less important
trains which are only operated for portion
Of the evening or the night, when artificial
light is needed, and which are lighted with
oil.
SAFETY APPLIANCES.
1.-THE vestibule feature of car is an i'm
provement and a safety appliance; a protec-
ton for passengers in passing from car to
car; a protection in the case of accidents,
and it costs over $1,000 per car to put vesti-
bules on a passenger train.
Did you ever figure than when you heat
a passenger car, as most passenger cars are
heated by improved hot-water heaters that
it costs twice as much for hard-coal fuel con-
sumed in one of these cars q year than it
costs to heat the dwelling houses of the
better class of our citiZensE
Did you ever look over the interior fin
ish of a first-class passenger car, and did
you notice that the best and most select
woods are used and are brought to high
state of polished perfection? Did you ever
compare the interior finish of the wood
finish of the woodwork in the magnificent
residences of some of Chicago's million
aires? Why did George NJ. Pullman, when
he built his magnificent residence, insist
that all the finished woodwork on the In
side should be handled and put in by his
own car builders? Simply because he could
get better artcle-to be sure, a more eX-
pensive article-but a more durable article,
a 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.
we thought our passenger cars cost great
deal if W. paid $1,000 or 5000 apiece for
them We generally carried sixty people
very comfortably in one of these cars. The
total weight OF these so-called cheap cars
of bygone days was about fifty thousand
pounds, or a very good average of a half
ten to EACH pasSS,enger IN the car when the