The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-08-10
RAILROAD BURDENS.
Not the Stocks Nor the Bonds, but the
Car Weights.


Car Weights.
An ordinary passenger car on a
steam railroad costs from $4,000 to
SIS, 900 and weighs $4,000 pounds, or
10 tons. A mail car, which costs
from 50, 900 to 50, 500 and is shorter
by about one-quarter than tho ordi
nary passenger coach, weighs $4,000
pounds, or is tons. A baggage car
without the baggage in it weighs
2S, 1000 pounds, or ID tons, and costs
about as much as mail car. A
sleeping car is more expensive than
any of the others, and it weighs
good deal more too. A plain, simple
but durable sleeping car costs any
where from $4,000 to 10000, and
an ornate, elaborate, luxurious sleep
ing car with observation attach
ments, literary annex and culinary
department costs anywhere from
$4,000 to $2O,oo The average
weight of a sleeping car is from 4O,-
600 to "A, 1000 pounds, or from 20 to
90 tons.
A full train in motion, as little
figuring will show, is no light affair.
The ordinary weight of the railroad
locomotive for passenger service,
inclusive of tender, but not of fuel
in the tender, is 40 tons. One bag
gage car weighs ID tons, and one
mail car 16 tons, bringing up tho
weight of the locomotive and the
baggage and mail cars to 70 tons.
Six passenger cars at an average of
19 tons each weigh ia tons, SO that
the total weight of train made up
of locomotive and eight cars would
be 1874 tons, or 3es,OoO pounds, ex-
elusive of the weight of baggage, of
the fuel carried, passengers and mail
matter.
Pulling 1874 tons along rails at the
rate of so miles an hour or more is
an achievement which has not been
easily brought about, and the more
the problem is studied the more
clearly it is understood how far the
mechanical work on railroads has
been pushed. There were, by the
last figures reported, $4,000 locomo-
tives in use on American railroads,
26, 900 passenger cars and 5000 mail
and baggage cars These figures
seem large until compared with the
number of freight cars on American
railroads, and then they seem insig-
nifcant, for the number of freight
cars in use is 1, $500
Freight cars, among railroad men,
are divided into four classes-fat
cars, such as are used for the trans
portation of stone, machinery and
lumber; box cars, such as are used
for the transportation of grain, fruit
and ordinary merchandise; stock
cars, such as are used for cattle, and
coal cars, such as are used for the
transportation of coal and oil-those
used for oil being supplied with
tanks. The average weight of a
fat or gondola car is seven tons.
The car costs from $500 to $40O.
Box cars weigh ton more and cost
s1OO more each. Stock cars weigh
eight tons each on the average.
Coal cars weigh three tons each. 1t
costs about 5000 to build coal or oil
cars, and they are designed to carry
FIVE tons apiece. The weight of 30
coal cars is $50 tons, and of their
contents, if all filed, $50 tons,
which, with locomotive and caboose
added, make 42O tons as the weight
of train. It may be said roughly
that the weight of loaded trains,
passenger, coal or freight, ranges
from 200 to $50 tons. The lighter
the train the greater the speed.
That's the railroad rule.-New York
Sun.