The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1913-06-14
WRECK PROVES NEED
OF ALL-STEEL CARS
Ease With Which Engine Tore
Through "Skylark" shows
Danger Of Wood.

The ca Sc with which Doherty's ~ ton
engine telescoped the car Skylark,
sending passengers to their death and
manning others. CAUSED many thousands
Of railroad travellers TO hope for the day
when the wooden car would he a thing
| Of the past and the all steel car. or the
car with the steel underframe, which
will not buckle up under the force of IA
| collision would take it's place
II was conceded that had the Sky
lark bee II a steel car I he loss of life might
not have been 50 great n nd perhaps no.
body would have been killed
The New York and New Haven turned
| its sleeping car and parlor business over
! To the Pullman Company Oh January
and the latter compa ny has been fur
nlshinG steel cars To replace the old ones
as fast as they could be turned out
! The telescoped car Skyark was fur
nished by the Pullman Company,
Was Standard Pullman.
| The following statement concerning
the Skylark was made by the New York
and New Haven officials:
| We are Informed by II representative
OF the Pullman Company that the Sky
| lark was not one OF the New York. New
Haven and Hartford Railroad cars which
was converted into Pullman car. IL .s
"A standard heavy built Pullman car.
! II Is not a steel underfrane car. but
what they call modern built rarlor car,
and cars OF identical construction have
been and are operated in trains on other
roads
T. O. Sauer, an assistant super!nten-
dent of the Pullman Company. said
that since the beginning of the year
his company had furnished the New
York and New Haven railroad with
about seventy-fve steel cars, or cars
with steel frames He declared there
would be from $50 to 10 steel cars In
operation on the road when all had been
provided He said his company was
turning them out as rapidly as possible
steel Cara In Reserv~.
Mr.. Sauer, in response TO questions
admitted the Pullman Company kept
steel cars In reserve FOR the various
railroads on which Il was operating.
Testifying before Interstate Com
merce Commissioner Charles a. Prouty
in Boston on May President Mellcn
! said
The difficulty abou, company run
ming it's own parlor and sleeping cars is
! this For instance, the New Haven has
.52 cars Some Of those cars were old in
style and everybody complained whei
there was a new car in the train ana one
or two old ones. Those who 20, in the
} old ones we're always aGgrievcd, and II
was a continual source OF complaint tha'
We could not always keep, for road
like ours. the hest cars there were, INC
highest style of car work
The Pullman Company has agreed
: every time we call upon them 10 furnish
the best they know how 10 furnish. They
have already furnished one complete
train, and have the promise that II
shall he here In July, Just AS soon as
they ge. the second one here they vii
get the third one. and they Will go unit
every car is on our line except all
modern steel cars.
; Modern Trains Now Running.
Mr.. Sauer said yesterday that already
four or five all steel Pullman trains were
running on the New York and Ne"
Haven.
! An all steel car weighs in the neigh
borhood of lac. 900 pounds and costs or
. an average OF about SIS 900,
The Pennsylvania Railroad uses onl,
a, all steel cars in the tube under the Hudson
River.
. Many roads, realizing the grave danger
Of death and injury TO- passengers u
. wooden cars in case Of collisions or derail
ments are fast substituting steel cars fol
wooden ones. Nearly ali the through
exp resseR on many roads are made up o.
all steel cars
Even mail cars and baggage oars are
: being made of steel to lessen the liability
of destruction to their cargoes,
Thousands OF frame chair cars ant
,, sleeping cars are still in Use on railroad
throughout the country. exposing pas
sen gers to great danger,
! The liability for Thursdays wreck il
said to lay with the New York and New
. Haven, which operated the train over il
own tracks. and not with the Pullman
company.