The Steel Railroad Car
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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