San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-21
Provide for New Cars and
Locomotives and Add {
tional Trackage.
NEED. FREIGHT CARS
Built Up Motive Power IN
Expectation Of Spring 1
Rush of Business. !
By HARDEN COLFAX.

Copyright, 1928, by The San Antonio LlsbtSJ
Washington, ID. c., Jan. Colby
ing plans of the railroads for 1923 re-
vealed in the applications to the In
terstate Commerce Commission and
budget announcements by the roads
themselves, indicate that the carriers
will spend approximately S1,000,000,-
600 during the year for new cars and
locomotives and for additions to teri
minal and trackage facilities. Some OF
the leading carriers already have launch-|
ed their programs, which look toward
the following developments:
i. A material increase in the vol
ume Of freight transported over 1922,
the second highest year on record. Dur-|
ing last November, for instance, tariff
increased, in ten miles, the unit OIL
measurement, approximately 81 per cent?
over November, 1921. A further in-|
crease is anticipated.
.. Elimination, so far as possible,
of the distressing shortage of freight
cars and motive power which periodical-I
ly have hampered the growth OF busi-I
ness and curtailed the earning power|
Of the roads themselves.
8. The addition Of 1000 miles or
more of main line to existing systems.I
virtually ceased to grow. The chief
carriers now believe that the time hasI
come to extend their lines and add to|
their trackage. The movement will bel
cautious at first and somewhat in the|
nature Of an experiment. If the ext
pertinent pays, further extensions mayI
be expected.
Look for Big Business.
a Tnh 81 !
BILE of the rundown motive power equip
ment of the roads, at present slowly
emerging from its lower condition, andI
intensive repair work on disabled cars Il
placing a maximum number of freightI
cars in service to meet the rush of bus
mess expected with the reopening Of
the building boom and other activities
in the spring.
In line with the foregoing program
nine of the leading railroads of the
country have either ordered this year
or expressed their intention of of.lsA
| ing shortly 34,470 freight ears. These
roads operate about 10000 miles OF
main line, or one-seventh of all in the
country. The same roads and two oth1
ers, operating $4,000 or little more
than one-fourth of the country's raj
| systems, have either ordered or con-
template ordering, S04 locomotives
These roads and their equipment or
ders are:
Pennsylvania, 300 locomotives; Bal
timore and Ohio, 5000 cars and % 10
comotives; Mobile and Ohio, $50 cart
and nine locomotives; Minneapolis, st
Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, go cars
and six locomotives; Western Pacific
POO cars Norfolk and Western, 5000
cars and 40 locomotives; Illinois Cen
trail, ZOO cars and 100 locomotives
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, 1000
cars and 40 locomotives; Unian Pacific
5000 cars and SO locomotives Atlantic
| Coast Line, 1000 cars and 46 lOcOmo
tives, and Central of New Jersey, 81
locomotives.
Build Second Track.
The current year leads all its prede
cessors in the past decade in the vol
ume of new and prospective orders fO
railroad equipment at this period. TIL
| budgets of some of the chief roads TO
| 1923 include the following sums TO
railroad equipment and improvements
Pennsylvania. $55,000,000; New Yor
Central, about $30,000000 Carried owe
| from 1929; Illinois Central. $40, 000
600; Norfolk and Western, $50 900, 900
Union Pacific, S20,000,000; Louisyill
and Nashville, $20,000,O00. The Atch
son, Topeka and Santa Fe expects
construct 1877 miles of second trac
during the year; the Great Norther
about 80 miles of new lines; the At
lantic Coast Line. 40 miles; the Unto
Pacific, 63 miles; the Illinois Contra
4S miles; Pere Marquette, sixteen mile
and the New York Central, in a cut
off near Albany about twenty miles
Including the foregoing, new trades
to the extent of more than 400 ha
been announced thus far in January a
part of the 1923 construction program
The volume of traffic continues ur
usually heavy, the association ar
nounces. Figures just made public plad
the number of loaded cars handled b
the roads during the first week Of Jar
uary at TT0y303, an increase of 170.SO
or IS per cent over the correspondent
week last year.
Final figures for 1922 earnings, no
in the making, are expected to show
return of little more than per Ger
on railroad investment, taking the ca
riers as 4 whole.
|