HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



Tile steel car received its first severe test in a derailment of the Penn- 

 sylvania Special, during- the middle of August and proved all that has 

 been claimed for it. Due to a defective switch, the train left the track 

 while running at a ver.v high rate of speed and struck a freight train 

 standing on a siding, ditching the first five coaches of the passenger train. 

 The first two coaches wore badly battered up, and in them a small blaze 

 started, which was quickly controlled. The special was running double- 

 headed, and, as was almost inevitable, there were casualties at the operat-, 

 ing end, but nearly all the passengers escaped with more or less serious 

 cuts or bruises, the shock throwing those in the dining and smoking cars 

 on the floors. Had the train been composed of the old wooden cars, it is 

 almost certain that scores would have been crushed and killed and that 

 the fire would quickly have spread throughout the train, causing an added 

 loss of life. Since 190(5 the Pennsylvania has been specifying steel con- 

 struction for all new coaches, and at present it has more steel cars in 

 Operation than any other railroad in the country. The lives probably 

 saved in this one wrecl^ more than compensate for the entire cost. 



THE OPINION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE SANTA FE 



E. P. Eipley, i:iresident of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- 

 way System is recognized as not only one of the most progressive 

 railroad men in the United States, but a man who keeps himself 

 thoroughly informed on every important railway stiljject. His opinion 

 on the matter of steel vs. wooden cars should bear no little weight 

 with legislative bodies, railroad oiEcials, and the general publie. 

 Reproduced herewith is a letter from him on this subject to the 

 editor of H.\EDWOOD Eecobd. 



The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway System. 

 President's OfBce. 



Chicago, October 18. Hill. 

 Editor Hardwood Uecokd, Chicago. 111. 



Dear Sir : This company was one of the pioneers in the matter of 

 steel under-trames for passenger, mail and express cars, but has never 

 acquired any of all-steel construction, believing the latter to be as yet 

 Inferior to the former, and that while later on an all-steel car may be 

 designed which will equal in safety the steel under-frame, the present all- 

 steel car does not. 



In our experiences of some years with the steel under-frames we have 

 had no serious loss of life or injur.v to passengers in any of these cars, 

 while in contrast we have seen all-steel construction cars on other roads 

 so badly dilapidated by overturuiug and derailment as to confirm our 

 opinion of the essential weakness of the use of the steel angle and other 

 forms of construction in the steel car. 



Believing that the relative safety of passengers in the event of accident 

 is the chief consideration, and that if the steel car could be shown to 

 offer greater safety in cases of accident, it should be used even with 

 strong objections against it on other grounds, and having found the pre- 

 ponderance of evidence against it on this, the most important couut, other 

 minor features may still be of some interest. We have found that the 

 steel under-frame car affords greater comfort to the occupauts, that it is 

 lighter and hence more economical to haul, and, finally and least import- 

 ant, that the cost of construction is less. In the matter of comfort, as 

 our road passes through a country with extremes of temperature — por- 

 tions of it in the summer-time being probably hotter than any other por- 

 tions of the United States — non-conductivity of heat by our car is essen- 

 tial. With modern, artificial heat in cars cold has little or no effect, but 

 hot weather cannot be so successfully offset, and the steel car is found 

 to be very uncomfortable in a hot climate because it absorbs and retains 

 the rays of the sun. Furthermore (even in the cold weather) there has 

 been much complaint of discomfort on roads where the all-steel car is in 

 use, resulting from inequality of the distribution of the artificial heat. 

 In regard to the weight of the cars, we find that with sixty-foot mail 

 cars there is an increase in the lightest car yet brought to our attention 

 of over seven per cent, while on some roads the increase has been as high 

 as twenty per cent. It is fair to assume that the same difference in 

 weight is true of other kinds of equipment. Finally, the cost of all-steel 

 construction is found to run anywhere from eighteen to thirty-six per 

 cent above that of the steel under-frame, depending on the class of equip- 

 ment. Very truly, E. P. Kiplev. 



To-da.y public sentiment is pretty clearly outlined on railroad pend- 

 ing legislation, and so is the attitude of certain trade journals whose 

 prosperity largely lies in currying favor with the producers of steel. 

 This sentiment is reflected to a considerable extent in many daily 

 papers, as is exampled in the associated press reports covering the 

 Fort Wayne and other wrecks in which scareheads and text have been 

 employed stating that the lives of the passengers were saved by the 

 steel cars. 



Ill the light of more recent evidence showing that full steel car 

 coustruction does not insure additional safety to passengers; that the 

 cost of these cars is very much in excess of the wooden cars on steel 

 under frames; that the cost of hauling these cars and of heating them 

 is very mucli aliove that of the wooden ears; and from the further 



fact that even the promoters of steel car equipment recognize that 

 railroads are severely hampered in securing additional capital for 

 betterments; and that their earning powers have been materially re- 

 duced during the last few years, it is doubtful if lawmakers will enter 

 upon any campaign of legislation that will still further be inimical to 

 railroad interests. However, as before noted, a thorough campaign 

 of education on the relative merits of the two t.ypes of cars should 

 be placed before Congress, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and 

 the various state railroad commissions, that fadism and extravagance 

 in passenger car construction should end, and sanity and common sense 

 should prevail. 



SITUATION OF PULLMAN COMPANY IN STEEL CAR 

 BUILDING 



The Chicago Examiner has devoted much space recently in an at- 

 tempt to prove "millions of Pullman graft" in connection with the 

 Pullman Company. The publication in question alleges that there 

 has been much favoritism shown in making purchases and that large 

 quantities of materials for the building and repair of Pidhnan cars 

 have been paid for at much above value. Particularly pertinent to 

 this series of articles on "Steel vs. Wooden Passenger Oars" are 

 the following excerpts: 



Several years ago the Pullman Company began building steel cars, and 

 up to the time of the investigation it had about 1,000 of them in use. 

 About this time complaint was made by the railroad companies hauling 

 Pullman cars that the Pullman cars were so much heavier than ordinary 

 steel cars that it required extra motive power to handle trains carrying 

 a number of these new coaches. This resulted in an investigation which 

 showed several engineers were of the opinion that eight tons too much 

 of steel was being put into each Pullman car. 



To the average reader, perhaps this does not seem of much conse- 

 quence, but when it is figured that steel castings are worth three cents 

 a pound, or $00 a ton, and there is an excess of eight tons to a car, the 

 loss per car figures .1480, and on a thousand cars $480,000. 



By another general order it was ordained that all the new steel Pull- 

 man cars were to be incased in steel sheeting. Perhaps the fact that 

 this material is entirely unnecessary is best illustrated by the fact that 

 railroad companies building their own steel cars on economic lines do 

 not use it. Under orders, however, two tons of this material was placed 

 on the outside of every new steel car. An employe of the General Hail- 

 way Supply Company, which concern furnished this material, alleged it 

 to have cost the Pullman Company sixty cents a pound, or .f2,400 a car, 

 and on 1,000 steel cars $2,400,000. 



This shows in these three items the loss of over $3,000,000 referred to 

 as unnecessary. When this needless exijense was discovered it became 

 necessary to learn why the Pullman Company, a corporation with unlim- 

 ited credit and ability to buy in any market, as well as able to secure 

 the finest engineering ability to be had, should be so badly deceived in 

 such minor matters. 



To begin with, the steel castings, of which there was an excess of 

 eight tons to a car. came from the Commonwealth Steel Company of 

 St. Louis. The selling agent for the Commonwealth company was Harry 

 W. Pblagnr. who was formerly mechanical engineer for the Pullman Com- 

 pany, and left that concern to become a member of the Commonwealth 

 company. It was said at that time that stock in the Commonwealth 

 was given to various officials in the steel purchasing department of the 

 Pullman Company gratis. C. W. Phlager. a brother of the Commonwealth's 

 sales agent, was assistant manager of the mechanical department of the 

 Pullman Company during the time in which his brother sold steel cast- 

 ings to excess. 



In support of these facts comes the statement of William Wright, a 

 consulting engineer, room 613 Fisher building. He was employed by 

 the Pullman Company as consulting engineer in the construction of its 

 new steel car plant. He said ; 



"I was called in b.v Thomas Duubar. the mechanical superintendent, 

 and Richmond Dean, the superintendent of the Pullman Company, to draw 

 up plans for what I deemed would be a correct steel Pullman car. This 

 was before the Pullman Company began building these cars. Accordingly 

 I did so, leaving out about eight tons of unnecessary steel castings, which 

 had been provided in other plans made by other persons, and also the 

 steel sheeting on tiie outside of the cars, whidi is supplied by the General 

 Railway Supply Company and which, I am told, was invented and pat- 

 ented by L. J. Berg, the present engineer of construction at Pullman. 



"Although patented by Mr. Berg as a Pullman employe, the sheeting is 

 not made by the Pullman Company, but is made and supplied by the Gen- 

 eral Railway Supply Company. I do not think Mr. Berg has any stock 

 in the supply concern, but after he had secured his patents his title was 

 changed to that of engineer of construction and his salary was increased. 

 I believe the Pullman Company could make this sheeting for twenty cents 

 y pound, whereas I am told it is now paying the General Railway Supply 

 Company sixty cents a pound. 



"When Mr. Dean and yiv. Dunbar noticed that I Inul omitted the in- 



