Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/754

RAILWAYS. freight traffic. Freight houses are of two kinds, commonly defined as terminal freight houses and local freight houses. The former are large separate buildings at important terminals, and the latter are usually small structures at intermediate stations along the line. Local freight houses are usually single-story frame structures having high platforms on one or all sides. If the tracks are only on one side of the building it is designated a side freight house, but if there are tracks on both sides it is designated as an island freight house. Terminal freight houses differ from local freight houses in their greater size, in their more substantial construction of brick and steel, and in their arrangement for handling incoming freight, outgoing freight, different classes of freight, etc., in separate departments, and in having the storage space separate from the spaces devoted to the handling of transient freight. Terminal stations located on the water front must also have provisions for transshipping freight to and from vessels. Railway shops are located at one or more places on a railway at which locomotives and cars are repaired and built, and where all the manufacturing work of the railway is done. Such shops resemble large manufacturing establishments elsewhere in their construction, arrangement, equipment with wood and metal working machines, etc., suitable for the work to be performed. Among the various other railway buildings are: Roundhouses for the shelter, cleaning, and minor repairing of locomotives between trips; car sheds and car-cleaning yards, for the shelter and cleaning of cars between trips; ice houses, for storing the ice used in passenger and dining cars and for refrigerator cars; sand houses, for drying, cleaning, and storing the sand supplied to locomotives; oil-storage houses, for storing the lubricating and lamp oil; coaling stations, for storing and delivering coal to locomotives; watchmen's shanties; section-houses; snow sheds and protection sheds for landslides; dwelling houses for employees, and sleeping quarters, reading rooms and club houses for employees. Some notion of the enormous expenditure in buildings required by railways is furnished by the statement of the Interstate Commerce Commission that for the year ending June 30, 1900, the cost of repairs and renewals of buildings on the railways of the United States was $22,770,906, or about 2½ per cent. of the total operating expenses.

Railway cars of so many varieties are now in use that a description of the different kinds would be beyond the scope of this article. The list would include upward of 40 distinct patterns of cars, each of which is adapted to a special use. The early passenger cars differed but little from stage coaches, and the first step in the evolution of the modern car was made by joining several of these coach bodies into a single car. In the United States bogie trucks were next placed under each end of the cars, permitting them to be made of much greater length, after which the compartments were discarded for the present continuous car bodies, although in England and in most of the countries of Continental Europe the compartment system has been retained, each car being divided into three or four independent sections. Most of the improvements following these changes have been in the direction of additional safety devices and luxuries. The first attempt to furnish sleeping cars was on the Cumberland Valley Railroad in 1836. A compartment car of four sections was used, each section containing a lower, middle, and upper berth, but this, as well as a few other experiments in providing sleeping accommodations, was too crude to prove attractive. In 1864 the first Pullman sleeping car was introduced, and some time afterwards was put into service on the Chicago and Alton road. This car, called the Pioneer, was a foot wider and two and a half feet higher than any in use at that time, and before it could run over the line several bridges and all the station platforms had to be altered. Parlor cars and dining cars soon followed, and in 1886 the vestibuled cars completed the list of luxuries in railway travel. The car-building industry in this country is a vast one, as is well indicated by the fact that in 1900 a total of 124,106 cars were built, not including those built by the railway companies at their own shops. The total number of cars in service in the United States on June 30, 1900, was 1,450,838, of which 1,365,531 were freight cars.

A notable increase in the size and capacity of cars has signalized recent car construction. In 1875 the normal capacity of freight cars in the United States was from 20,000 pounds to 25,000 pounds. In 1885 this normal capacity had grown to 40,000 pounds and 50,000 pounds, and in that year cars of 60,000 pounds capacity had begun to be built. Few cars of less than 60,000 pounds capacity are now used for general freight service, and there is a decided tendency to increase the capacity to 70,000 pounds and 80,000 pounds. For special coal and ore traffic steel cars of 100,000 pounds and 110,000 pounds capacity are quite generally used. The steel car is a decidedly modern innovation and one which has been received in America with much favor. The principal advantages argued in favor of steel cars of 50 to 60 tons capacity are their great capacity in proportion to their weight and their superior strength and durability over wooden cars. In addition to all-steel cars, cars with steel under frames and wooden superstructure are considerably used.

In Europe the passenger cars used are generally smaller and of lighter construction than those in America, but during recent years the tendency has been to employ cars of larger size than formerly, although such great dimensions as are common in America have not yet been attained. The smaller cars are from 26 to 34 feet long and are usually mounted on six wheels; the larger cars reach a length of nearly 60 feet and are mounted on trucks after the American fashion. The smaller American passenger cars are usually 50 feet long, while the large sleeping and dining cars frequently have a length of 80 feet or even 90 feet. European freight cars are veritable pygmies as compared with those used for the same service in America, they being from 12 feet to 18 feet long, mounted on four wheels and having a capacity of from 5½ to 9 tons.

Safety appliances for railways have been of growing importance in proportion to the increase of the weight and speed of trains; at the same time, very few of these appliances are used solely with a view to safety, most of them having some