Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-03-01
TRAINS THAT COST MONEY.
The Cars Of a Limited" on Any
Good Road Worth $l25,000.
hinety.iive Per Cent Of Passengers Do Not
Live in House That Cost as Much as the
Car They Ride In Items Of the Outlay.

rNinety-five per cent. of the travel
ling public do not own in their own
right, or occupy through rental,
dwelling house which. including all its
contents, costs as much as one of the
ordinary modern passenger cars run on
any first class railroad entering Chica-
go"
The foregoing statement, which is
calculated to arouse the incredulity of
the average individual, was made yes
terday by George j. Charlton. assistant
general passenger and ticket agent of
the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
Just let me give you a few iacts It
prove that assertion continued Mr..
Charlton. The cost of the average
passenger car is today from $4,000 to
$1,000. A reclining chair car costs from
$4,000 to $4,000. These figures repre-
sent 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 situation | once heard a prOmi
nent 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 pre-
Sentable shape for another six months
run He meant that the ordinary
dressing down and cleaning Of Il car
would cost over $500. and if you extend
your investigation to general shop re
nj, odd Al ,rir,,r
here and there--you could easily get
away with another $500.
Did you ever stop To consider the
amount of money which may be ex-
pended on three or four of the import
ant parts of a car? Take the paper
wheels used in passenger cars. Until
within very recent date a. single wheel
cost from $50 to $100 Most first class
cars are run on six-wheel trucks. This
would mean twelve wheels to the car,
or 5000 to $1,000 for the wheels alone.
without the aXles and springs. 1t is
true that today you can get these pas
senger car wheels for very much less.
and they will average somewhere in
the vicinity of $50 a wheel but most of
the railroads entering Chicago are to-
day running cars the wheels on which
cost them from $50 to 800 apiece The
trucks or running gear of first class
passenger car, in themselves and in
dependent of the car at ALL will cost
from s2500 to $4,000.
Then there is the question of car
seats. Car seats are made in the --latest
improved style magnificently uphol
stored. to suit the taste of the ordinary
traveller, and to enable the passenger
departments of the different railroads
to advertise themselves as the only
first class railroad in the West or the
East, as the case may be. cost from $50
to s45 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 twu
passengers. and there are from twenty
five 10 thirty seats to the car.
"All h passenger cars are not equip
ped with so cheap an article as a car
seat at $50 to $45 each. There is the re-
clning- chair car, built little laI ger
perhaps. little heavier. certainly than
the ordinary modern passenger car:
larger windows more elaborate uphol-
stering and furnishing. In this car the
railroad company puts forty or fl ty re
clininS chairs. elaborately and durably
upholstered. These chairs cost all the
way from $50 to $65 each
Take the glass used in the construc-
tior of a car the window glazing, the
mirror decoration. the deck lights &c
There are thirty six to forty window
openings in each passenger car. bu,
YOU must remember that all first class
passenger cars are fitted with dOuble
windows, so that each passenger car vii
have from seventy to eighty window
sash frames. The window of the up-to-
date passenger car must be large t.
give the passengers a complete and sat
lsfactorN view of the 50 called and
thoroughly advertised scenic route Of
the world, for every railroad is a
scenic route, and spends thousands Of
dollars advertising that fact. The low
er sash of a 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 a Verv CON
serNatlNe estimate ii costs IS to glaze
each car window. Including the doors
OF the CARAT least eighty lights of glass
are used. without taking into consid-
GRAFTON the mirror decorations in a. car