Evening star., 1933-09-09
RAILROADS DELAY
EQU|PMENT0 ORDERS
Junk Old Rolling Stock, but
Are Cautious on Re-
placements.
|pecial Dispatch to The Star,

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, September 9.-When
Joseph B. Eastman, railroad -co-ordina-
tor. ordered . survey Of rail equipment
and the junking Of old rolling stock, he
stirred In equipment manufacturers the
hope Of early purchasing by the car
riers.
The railroads, however, true to the
conservativeness that has hampered
them from competing on better terms
with trucks and other transport agen-
cieS, did not read into the order q Sug-
gestion to buy new equipment. They
merely viewed 1t as advice to scrap old
cars and use only the most modern
types Oh their lines.
Rail officials said that surplus equip
ment was still large and that any at
tempts at comparisons today between
the recovery periods Of 1914 and 1921,
after which traffic increased sharply,
were unwarranted because the percent
age of annual gain in rail traffic began
to taper off prior to 1929.
The carriers really cannot be blamed
for their cautiousness in the purchase
of new supplies and materials, in view
Of the financial setbacks they received
from shippers, the Interstate Commerce
Commission and other quarters. after
their whole-hearted support IN 1880 OF
President Hoover's make work" cam
paign.
Purchases Expected.
The weight of evidence regarding
purchases of equipment in PERIODS OF
increasing trafic, however, seems to
favor the equipment trade. Before
traffic turned strongly upward, or dur
ing the first two weeks of last April,
the roads reported q freight car sur
plus of 651 900 cars. Damaged cars
then approximated 274000.
Trafic crossed the line in the week
ended May 13, when loadings exceeded
those of the corresponding week OF the
previous year for the first time since
october, 1929. In that May week Amer
ican railroads had on hand about $780,
600 surplus freight cars. Those IN neeo
of repairs totaled 286000.
The carriers as of July 81 reported
392, ,9O5 surplus freight cars. On that
same day 3l6,437 freight cars needed
repairs, or 1874 per cent Of the number
on line. These statistics, II precedents
be Of value, probably are understated
rather than overstated. Freight cars
classed as being in repair, yet minus
q wheel used on another car or with a
bit of leak in the roof, are just as nu-
merous as are locomotives that are
lacked up though classed as service
able by mechanics too busy repairing
to do lot of statistic changing"
Back in April. 1922. according to sta
tistics of the Railway Age. the carriers
reported q surplus Of $4,000 freight
cars Only six months later, in October,
1922, they reported shortage OF more
than $4,000 cars. This car shortage
employees, but it resulted partly from
the fact that 50 much equipment, both
locomotives and cars, was in bad order.
Repair Costs Increase.
Annual repair costs increase as a
freight car ages. SO that there comes
a time when it is cheaper for a railroad
with credit to scrap cars than to meet
the constantly mounting cost Of repairs.
Obsolete freight cars become un-
economical which explains why some
OF the railroads junked lot of cars
late last Fall and Winter. Subse-
quently much of this scrap iron and
steel was shipped to Japan, where 1t
in the campaigns in Manchuria.
American railways averaged capital
expenditures Of s807 900 900 a year for
the five-year period ended sin 1929.
Their maintenance expenditures aver
aged s2,095 zoe, 900, or a total Of ST.
902, 200 ,O00 The decline in average
annual capital and maintenance ex-
penditures in the last three years. again
using Railway Age statistics, has been
$1.4l0, 100000.
These figures rather clearly indicate
the need for expenditures today.
Whether the expenditures will be
financed by equipment makers, by
the Government, or through public
financing. depends on future traf11c
trends and on the policies Of Com
missioner Eastman. who is regarded by
the carriers here as the hardest work.
ing and most able railway expert in
the country.
-I-I.A