The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-29

'I'tIbi'u lbl Il lpi VI lilt tNfulHE
or the. night. when artihcial light is
needed. and which are lighted with
oil.
The vestibue feature of a car is an
Improvement and safety appliance:
"A protection for passengers in pass
ing from car 20 car: protection i'm
the case Of accidents. and it coses over
$1,000 per car to put vcstibules on a
train.
OTHER EXPENSES.
"Did you over 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 year as il costs to
| heat the houses of the better class of
our citizens?
! Did you ever look over the interior
| finish of 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 per-
! lection? Did you ever compare the in
! terror 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
lionairos? Why did George NJ. Pull
| man. when he built his magnificent
| residence. insist that all the finished
WOODWORK on the inside should be han.
died and put in by his own car build
crsn Simply because he could get a
better article-to be sure, a more eX-
pensive article-but more durable ar
ticle. a better class of wood. and
| higher grade of workmanship than
could I've had from the builder of even
the uest of our Chicago residences.
II can remember some years back
when we thought our passenger cars
cost a great deal if We paid $4,000 or
$1,000 apiece for them. We generally
carried sixty people very comfortably
in one of these cars. The total weight
OF one of these so-cllled cheap ears
! OF bygone days was about 50,0G0
pounds, or a very good average of
| half a ton 10 each passenger in the
car when the car was full. There was
no such thing in those old cars of by
gone days as your separate smoking
compartment with q loss of five or six
seats. or seating capacity for twelve or
| fifteen people, given up to a smoking
room. There was a small cubby hole
set aside for ladies, another for gem
tlemen. These were called toilet
rooms Ii you Were to give the trav-
| cling public of today the class of
toilet room which we gave them twen-
ty-fiVe years ago there would be pc
tition to the United states government
for the government control Of rail-
ways.
MORE FOR LESS.
"As we increase the expense of build
ing car-making it more solid and
4 hp1N-i4r hattnI Dll1A n stand ha
and tear of everyday travel and the re-
suit pt accidents, " hich viii! OCCASION
ally happen on the best regulated rail-
rOads-we decrease, by granting addi-
tional facilities such as smoking rooms,
outlets, elaborate toilet rooms, the seat
ing capacity of the car. Instead of
$1,000 pounds. the modern passenger
| car weighs 60000 to $4,000 pounds. 1t
carries only an average of forty per-
sOns--for the modern traveller must
have more rOom-and the railroad COM
panies are transporting an average of
one ton to the passenger instead of
Il hall a ton in weight to each passen-
ger. as on the old cars of bygone days.
This increased weight makes increased
operating expense. We must have a
larger and better engine-an engine
that will consume more coal-and all
;his means additional expense. AS you
increase the facilities for comfort of
the passenger and endurance and dur
ability in the makeup of a passenger
car. you decrease its carrying capac-
ity, and necessarily you earn cOnsid-
erahly less in revenue in the modern
up. to-date passenger car, which costs
from $4,000 to $1,000, and the reclining
cnair car. which costs from $4,000 to
ILtD tN.rA tNF
FIVE years ago i'm the su-called cheap
cars with a carrying capacity of fifty
TO sixty passengers, and which cars
only cost from $4,000 to $4,000, and
twenty-five years ago We used TO get
something like passenger rates. Today
we are carrying passengers at one
half 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.
Where will it end? | canno, tell
YOU and sometimes ! dislike to think
about II. If the cost OF material, the
cost Cr labor, and increased facilities
for manufacturers passenger cars DO
not decrease the expense of continued
improvements in the construction OF
passenger cars (and this eXepnse con-
. tinues to double every twenty-five
years. and passenger revenue does NOT
Increase propOrtionately, you can, OF
course guess the end as well as /
can.
III we go into the question of spec
ial limited trains, there can be no ques-
ton in the world but what the limited
trains run on the Pennsylvania Lake
I Shore. and Michigan Central lines,
and the Sunset limited train on the
Chicago and Alton, consisting of some
/ five on six cars in all, represent an
actual investment, Independent Of mo-
. tive power, Of at least $l25,OOO TO each
train. and probably more, Tie trains
, which | nave mentioned represent the
+ finest trains run on any railroad in the
world. They are the par-eNcellence ot
the car-builders' art, and they prob
ably average all around i'm passenger
revenue very much less per mile than
the ordinary everyday local train oi
; four passenger coaches and baggage
car. which represent an investment OF
about $50, 900,
L