The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-11-18
Railway Commissioners Make
Interesting Reports.
WOODEN CARS DISAPPEARING
Safer and Better Steel Coaches
Are Supplanting Them.
Defective Rails Cause Many
Disastrous Wrecks.

deaths are caused by improper ven
tilation of train coaches and waiting
rooms than by train accidents. Ine
committee on railway service and rail-
way accommodations SO reported to
the annual convention of the national
association of railway commissioners
today.
especially sleeping cars, in connection
with the peculiar character of dust
therein, is most conducive to germ
breeding where proper ventilation IS
lacking" the committee added.
In regard to the lighting of railway
coaches, the committee says this
problem has been fairly satisfactorily
mastered on the trunk lines, but on
many branch lines, the dingy, dirty
oil lamp is still in evidence. A Wig
orous campaign against this condition
| is recommended.
| Carelessness in providing drinking
water at stations and on trains Is not
ed and it is recommended that rail-
road commissions abolish the station
airy water cooler, prescribe a cooler
with a portable container, unlform
methods of cleansing such containers,
sanitary methods of handling ice, san
itary drinking cups to be PROVIDED
free of charge for the public, and to
forbid the placing of ice in the recep-
tacle.
| Sunday Service.
| 1rregularity and failure of subur-
ban trains to arrive and depart on
| time is the cause of wide complaint
says the committee. Another source
of complaint is the lack of adequate
service on Sundays. The committee
| believes that at least one train should
operate in each direction as a mini
| mum Sunday service.
| The committee recommends the
elimination of the practice of paying
freight bills carrying manifest over
| charges. Delays in handling and set
| Ting claims are also condemned, and
the committee concludes that the best
, require the railroads to pay interest
| on the true claim amount from the
date the amount of the claim went
| into their hands.
The construction of wooden passen-
ger cars for the railways of the United
States practically has ceased. accord
ing to the report of the committee on
rails and equipment, of which c. c.
McChOrd of the interstate commerce
commission is chairman.
! The committee finds that 66 per cent
of the e65.291 derailments in the ten
Years from 1894 to 1913. tnclssixe,s wore
isdue to defective roadway AND equip
ment. These derailments were the
cause of 3.727 deaths. Not only defects
| in steel but heavy wheel loads and
Thigh speeds are blamed for some of
1.-THE breaking of rails or failure or rails
I in other respects.
Steel Cars Safer.
There can be no Doubt the COM
mittee reports, that steel cars are bet
ter and safer than those of wooden con-
Struction. A statement from the Pull
man company shows that in four years
seventy-three persons were killed in
wooden Pullman cars while only six
were killed in all steel cars.
There has been noticeable in
crease from year to year in the loads
to which rails and equipment have
been subjected and the increase is still
going on says the report. In no 9TH
er situation involving danger to life is
material used with SO slender a mar
gin in strength, judging from the an
nual statistics of accidents. In COM
parison with other engineering uses of
materials OF construction, knowledge of
the working stresses in railway MAJ
| terials Is in very backward state. No
other service is furnished SO extended
a list of annual failures which. in part.
is attributed TO this lack of information,
nor would such an exhibit Of failure be
tolerated in any other branch of en-
gineering. Many of these failures are
believed to be of a preventable nature
and, even in the light of present knowl-
edge, could be guarded against
The committee suggested considera-
ton whether there should be some
state Or federal supervision of this class
OF material which is exhibiting SO many
failures. 1t recommends that accurate
information OF the cause of the frac-
| Af v-1j1 oh