The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-02-07
TRAINS THAT COST MONEY
THE cans or Il "LIMITED" ON ANY
coon ROAD TORTH S1s5 900.

Ninety-Five Per Cent. of Passengers Do
Not Live in a House That Costs as Much
as the Car They Ride In-Items of the
Outlay.
"Ninety-tive per cent. of the travel
ing public do not own in their own
right. or occupy through rental
dwelling house which, including all it's
contents, costs as much as one of the
ordinary modern passenger cars run
ON any first-class railroad entering
Chicago"
The foregoing statement, which is
calculated to arouse the incredulity of
the average individual, was made yes
terday by George ]. Charlton, assist
ant general passenger and ticket agent
of the Chicago and Alton railroad.
"Just let me give you few facts to
prove that assertion" continued Mr..
Charlton. 1.-THE cost of the average
passenger car is to-day from six to
seven thousand dollars. A reclining
chair car costs from ten to twelve
thousand dollars These figures rep
resent 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. I once heard a promi-
nent master car builder say that 1T
cost five hundred dollars to simply
look over a car after it had served hve
or six months on the road and had
been sent to the car shops to be exam
ined and put into presentable shape
for another six months run. lie
meant that the ordinary dressing
down and cleaning of q car would cost
over five hundred dollars, and if you
extend your investigation to general
shop neutrality-suspicious. adding uphol-
STEERING here and there-you could cas-
! lily get away with another five hun
bred dollars.
Ibid you ever stop to consider the
amount of money which may be ex-
pended on three or four of the imDor-
tant parts of car? Take the paper
wheels used in passenger cars. Until
within very recent date single wheel
cost from eighty to one hundred dol
lars. Most first-class cars are run on
six-wheel trucks. This would mean
twelve wheels to the car, or nine or
twelve hundred dollars 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 sixty dollars wheel,
but most of the railroads entering Chi
cago are to-day running cars the
wheels on which cost them from eighty
to one hundred dollars apiece. The
passenger car, in themselves and indie
pendent of the car at all, will cost
from $1,000 to $4,000.
"Then there is the question Of car
seats. Car seats are made in the
latest improved style. magnificently
upholstered, to suit the taste of the or
binary traveller, and to enable the pas
senger departments of the different
railroads to advertise themselves as
the only ffrst-class railroad in the
west or the east, as the case may be,
cost from thirty to forty-fve dollars
lapiece. 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 pas
sengers and there are from twenty
five to thirty seats in the car.
"All the passenger cars are not
equipped with so cheap an article as a
car seat at thirty to forty-f1ve dollars
each. There is the reclining chair car,
built a little larger, perhaps, a little
heavier certainly, than the ordinary
modern passenger car; larger win
dows, more elaborate upholstering and
furnishing In this car the railroad
company puts forty or fifty reclining
chairs, deliberately and durably uphol-
stored. These chairs cost all the way
from fifty to sixty-ive dollars each.
take the glass used in the con-
struction of car, the window glazing,
the mirror decoration, the deck lights
&c. There are thirty-six to forty
window openings each passenger car
but you must remember that all first
fclass passenger care are fitted with
double windows, so that each passen-
= ISeE car Will HAVE lIOIl ScNShly " elSu-
tty window sash frames. The window
of the up-to-date passenger car must
be large, to give the passengers a com
plete and satisfactory view of the So
called and thoroughly advertised
scenic route of the world for every
railroad is scenic route and spends
thousands of dollars advertising that
fact The lower sash of a car window
con tains large heavy, durable plate
glass. The upper sash contains a
highly embossed plate glass about
three-quarters as large as the lower
sash. At very conservative estimate
1t costs eight dollars to glaze each cal
window. Including the doors of the
car, at least eighty lights of glass are
used, without taking into consideration
the mirror decorations in a car or the
deck lights, which are usually highly
embossed with some fancy figures
The expense of the glass used in the
construction of car will not fall short
of four hundred dollars. and will very
often run over five hundred dollars
ut costs at the very least twenty
five dollars month, or three hundred
| dollars year, to light passenger cal
with gas. To equip a car for gas costs
at 1aast four hundred dolIarc uoy