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It is difficult to understand why that universal material of construction -
steel - should have made so late an entrance into the important field of
American railroad car construction. For a given weight, the steel car is far
stronger than one of wood; its period of useful life is much longer; it lends
itself more readily to a concentration of strength in those parts of the car
where it is most needed; it is incombustible; costs less for up-keep and, most
important of all, removes forever from railroad operation those two frightful
causes of death and injury in railroad wrecks - fire and telescoping of the
cars.
But when the age of the steel passenger car finally arrived, it was ushered
in on a scale which reflects the greatest credit upon the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, to whose enterprise some tribute is certainly due in any article
dealing with this most important subject. At the same time it should be
recorded that while this company was the first to make extensive use of steel
cars in trunk line express and local service, credit is also due to the
Interborough Company which operates the system of subways through New
York city for being, we believe, the first to use all-steel cars in passenger service. Limitations of space prevent any detailed description of the fine equipment
which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company has placed in service; but in the
current issue of the SUPPLEMENT will be found an illustrated article
dealing with this subject at some length.
Briefly stated, the principal advantages of the new construction are - first
the provision of a massive, longitudinal, box-girder running entirely beneath
the center of the car from buffer to buffer, to which are attached the
couplings and through which are transmitted the heavy shocks incidental to
railroad service. Second, the provision of means for locking the abutting
platforms of cars very firmly together so as to prevent one platform from
mounting the other and acting as a knife to cut its way through the adjoining
car in the process of telescoping. Third, the provision in this last connection
of massive, vertical steel framing at the vestibule and the car entrances, of
sufficient strength to resist telescoping in case the platforms should overlap
in collision; and, lastly, the complete elimination of wood and other
combustible material so as to shut out the possibility of fire in case of a bad
wreck.
The unqualified success of steel car equipment in active service has led to
its adoption by several leading roads, including the New York Central, the New
Haven, the Lackawanna, and the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific,
all of which are placing steel cars in service as soon as they are available.
But in this connection we wish to utter a word of warning. In a long, heavy,
and fast train made up of mixed steel and wooden cars, the very elements of
strength and resistance to telescoping which render the car a protection
to those who use it, make it a menace to the weaker wooden cars which
may be sandwiched in between. In case of a head-on collision the
momentum of the train is expended in crushing up or splitting open the
weakest element in the train. Hence it would be advisable, if a train is to be
made up of both wooden and steel cars, that care to be taken always to
place the latter immediately behind the locomotive.
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