Evening star., 1933-09-04
FREIGHT HANDLING
! CHANGES GREATLY
Varied Use of Tank Cars
Cited-NeW Methods
Reduce Costs.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

special DlSpatch 10 Inc star.
NEW YORK, September 4. - The
revolutionary changes being wrought in
passenger railway equipment, after ser
eral years OF relative inactivity, are
being dramatized so effectively in the
new aluminium and alloy steel trains
that some sections of the business world
are overlooking the equally great strides
being made in freight equipment in
novatiOns. BY reducing traffic costs,
the latter are vitality affecting every
ones pocketbook
The stream lined flyer" of the Union
Pacific, which Is being developed by the
Pullman Car & Manufacturing Corpora
ton and the New York Air Brake Co.,
is scheduled to GO into service Decem-
Der /.
Meanwhile all sorts of special tank
cars are being developed which spell
cheapneSs in transportation and COM
fort for consumers. Milk and hydrogen
peroxide, Strawberries and beef. vege-
table oils and helium. grapefruit and
chickens. chlorine and acetic acid. gas
ol1ne and glycerin, alcohol. i. lard and
potatoes are just few of the products
new being transported in tank cars.
The steel trade understands a tank
car is being designed that will be able
to haul molten metal of 1000 degrees
from place to place as steel-making
requirements may neceSSitate Equally
interesting is the latest tank car put
into commercial Use. the "dry-f1o" car
a Selt-unloading carrier which hauIs
granular materials in much the same
fashion that the ordinary tank car
handles liquids.
Helps Build Industries.
A few years ago General American
TranSTorf a fiO,,
General American Tank Carr manufac-
tured the first aluminium tank car,
which, by providing an economical car
r1er for certain chemicals, has been an
important contribution to the textile
industry. Later an improved aluminium
car was brought out for shipping con-
centrated hydrogen peroxide. contrib
utlng in large measure to the quick
growth of that industry.
About 10 years ago the company built
the first glaSs-lined car for transporta-
ton OF milk. 1t consists of two glass
lined tanks with a total capacity of
5000 gallons. This city receives so
per cent OF its daily milk requirements
by tank cars. Much of the milk de-
hvered to Newark, Philadelphia, Boston
and New Orleans comes by tank car,
some 900 such cars now being in use
by leading dairying companies. BY
erecting economies in transportation
the tank car has reduced milk prices
to the consumer
One OF the important industries de-
veloped in this country during the last
six years. the production and distribu-
ton Of lquifled hydocarbon gases, re-
suited from the manufacture of a car
suitable for economic TRANSFORMATION
OF the gases in bulk.
Uses Vary Widely.
They are used both industrially and.
In suburban areas beyond city gas
mains, dOmestically In 1926 only
465O68 gallons of these liquified fuel
gases were sold. Five years. later ap-
proXimately 100000 gallons were
marketed -.-.-.
Other cars are made for a wide va
riety of liquids. Asphalt and tar, for
instance, are loaded at temperatures
tof 300 to 500 degrees and kept in that
liquid state as result of insulation
around the tanks. Less than a decade
1ago petroleum was the chief item
thauled in tank cars. Today foods and
chemicals account for most tank car
shipments
Naturally these tank cars require
huge bulk liquid storage plants and
terminal facilities. General Transpor-
tation, for instance, estimates that
1.000,000,000 gallons of various COM
moditieS will flow this year through its |
four terminals at Goodhope, La; Car
teret, N. j.; Avondale, La, and West |
wego, La.