New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-23

one car do the work Of two Inc
Western streetcar subdivision su-
perintendent who was discharged
because he permitted the operation
of a streetcar that was not crowded"
could grasp the present application
of scientific methods to the use OF
the railroad rolling stock.
The "Jim" Hill gospel of the "full
freight car and the longer train
had already been applied. Frank H..
Fayant, Of the railway executive
advisory committee, who furnishes
the trainload figures, says the ma
ton would have been confronted
with a calamity had the war &C.
CURED in 1906, when the average
freight train load was 1854 tons,
compared with the trainload or
674.9 tons of 1916" But in 1917 the
load has been further increased.
New equipment has been hard to
obtain. Deliveries Of cars ordered
have been slow. Freight cars to
the number Of 44,063 and 9S9 engines
have been added to the rolling stock
of the nation. Of the additional
1O4,917 freight cars and the add
tional 2,2O9 engines ordered for fu-
ture delivery the bulk is not ex-
pected to be in service before the
end Of the year.
In 1918 there were 2,273,564
freight cars in commission. In 1915
the number had grown to only q
326,987. The Railroads War Board
has suggested that the government
furnish the capital to build $4,000
more cars. The new cars have a
larger capacity than the old and the
new locomotives are much more pew
erful. But cars that could be built
for 1904 two years ago now cost
S1,825, and locomotives which in
1915 were built for S2l,170 cannot
be purchased to-day for less than
$47,696.
John F. Stevens, the American
railroad commissioner to Russia, has
suggested operative Improvements
in the transsiberian railroad which
he estimates twill increase the
freight carrying capacity of that
road 80 per cent" The Railroads
War Board had discovered an al
most similar possibility in the ex-
isting American railroad plant. Dur
ing the past four months it has in
creased the service by 90 per cent,
according to its recent bulletin,
though the equipment has been in
creased only 3 per cent.
Speeding up the freight car has
been a large factor. 1t has been
notorious that the average American
freight car moved only twenty-eight
miles a day, speed that is less than
the German and the Holland canal
boat tonnage speed. In addition to
fast terminal and siding movement,
the locomotives have been speeded
up from 65.6 miles to 71.3 miles
day. Freight cars have been
speeded from % to 1915 miles a day.
Shippers Forego
Many 'Luxuries'
Idle plant has been avoided in
large part by increased demurrage
charges. In this respect the rail
roads ARE now being helped where
before they were hindered," as re-
cent bulletin puts it. Free storage,
free lighterage and other luxuries
were enjoyed by the shippers. Per-
mission to apply adequate demur-
rage penalties for the use of cars
"a storage warehouses has put hum
dreds of thousands of cars into use
and has increased the turnover.
The pooling of commodities like
coal, ore and wheat and the reduc,
ton of the number of commodity
grades have released an enormous
number Of cars. Formerly shippers
held cars Of coal and ore at tide
water or lake port until a ship cargo
was accumulated. Now the Rail-
roads War Board arbitrarily orders
the loading from whatever coal ship
ments are in the yards, irrespective
of intended destination. The car is
then put back into immediate use.
Formerly binning processes at coal
terminals called for separate storage
of 1,156 kinds Of coal. These have
been arbitrarily reduced to forty
one classes.
The use Of $4,000 cars has been
saved by pooling of coal shipments
alone. As result the roads hauled
142 carloads of coal per month more
than in former years. In three
months 31,752,000 more tons of coal
we're hauled than during the same
man The Of 1919 Iptane;,,o o,r loal