The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-03
First Time in History of Rail-
roading in the West.
ALLTHROUGH Topeka
These Indestructible Trains
Will Be on New Card.
Everything Steel From Engine
to Observation Car.

Commencing with their new summer
time card Sunday the Rock Island will
introduce in Kansas and in the west a
feature in modern railroading that has
never before been attempted on such
a large scale by any railway system
that is. to run twelve solid all-steel
passenger trains.
During the last few months the
Rock Island has been steadily equip
ping their through trains with the new
all-steel equipment-cars that are con-
structed of steel from the underframe
to the top of the roof. With their re-
cent orders for more cars and the
Initiation of their new summer time
card the Rock Island will equip all of
their through trains through Topeka
with the all-steel cars.
Imagine a train pulling into a sta
tion with a massive Pacific type trailer
locomotive (not a piece of wood in the
entire construction) followed with a
mail car, a baggage car, library
buffet car, a smoker, two chair cars
and two Pullmans-al thesecars look
ing like miniature battleships on
wheels.
Big Order Is Placed.
This is just what you will see on the
Rock Island after Sunday. The road
has placed orders with the steel car
companies for hundreds of these cars
and it is but a question of short time
until all of the Rock Island equipment
on all of the trains with the exception
of a. few branch line plugs will be made
up entirely of steel cars.
To the passenger who has never
taken a trip in one of these steel cars
it is hard to imagine their construc-
tion and their safety. However, the
Rock Island has been using a number
of these cars in their Topeka service
and several people have had occasion
to use them in their trips to the west
and to the east.
These new all-steeI cars are called
"indestructibe'' and it has been proven
in two wrecks of the Rock Island that
it is almost impossible to smash and
destroy one of these new passenger
coaches. In one wreck the wreckage
took fire and every car on both sides
of an all-steel coach was burned to the
trucks. In another wreck three cars
fell down a fifty foot embankment and
all were smashed into kindling wood
with the exception of a steel chair car
filled with pasSengers-and feW
broken windows constituted the entire
damage to this car. No one was hurt.
The new steel coaches are nonwreck-
able and nonbreakable. They are built
of solid steel. The cars are first made
in a heavy steel frame-a massive un-
derframe with steel girders running
the entire length of the car for protec-
steel frame for the superstructure.
On the floor of the steel underframe
is spread solid concrete. This is COW
cred with rubberoid and makes the car
floors. The sides and the roof of the
car are all steel-the only wood in the
coach is around the window frames and
a small veneer between the windows
on the inside.
Look Like Cruisers.
There is no wood on the outside of
the cars When they are pulled into the
station they look like huge armored
cruisers-the steel plates run from the
underframe up and over the roof secure
" riveted on the outside. This gives
the cars a massive appearance. With
solid steel construction cement floors
With electric lights, electric fans, new
Eatent ventilators airing out the car
every few minutes, there is on the road
an equipment that cannot be improved
upon in the United States.
Some of the eastern roads have adopt
ed this steel equipment. The Pennsyl-
vania has started out an all-steel train
between Chicago and eastern points. In
the west the Union Pacific has placed
a number of the cars on their lines but
not to such a great extent as the Rock
road in the world has taken such a big
move along this line as the Rock Island
and they are giving the people of the
west the benefit of 1t all.
To witness a heavy solid au-Steel pas
senger train travel over the Kansas
PARTIES and out into the deserts and up
into the mountains is a feat that sig
nifies a new era in the railroading of
this country.