FAILURE OF STEEL SILL FREIGHT CAR 



This Car Had not Been in a Wreck, but Failed in Actual Service. 



Typical of Many Cases 



FAILURE OF STEEL UNDER-FRAME 

 This Car Had Been in a Wreck and Fire, and Illustrates the Tend- 

 ency of Steel Channel Sills to Buckle 



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FAILXIKE OF THE STEEL PASSENGER CAK 



At Odessa, Jliun., ;i little town iu tlie extreme western part of lliat 

 state, on the morning of December 18, the second section of the 

 Columbian flyer of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, ran into the 

 first section of this train standing at the station, which was bound 

 for Chicago from the Pacific coast. In the rear of the first section 

 was a new all-steel sleeper, and the next car forward was a steel 

 diner. The second section carried a consignment of silks. The 

 collision resulted in the killing of twelve passengers, and the injitring 

 of a score more. 



The Chicago Tribune's account of the accident says: 

 An important feature of the accident was the demonstration that 

 steel cars are not wreck-proof. The engine of the second section tore its 

 way almost to the middle of the steel sleeper on the rear of the first 

 section. The sleeper, hurled forward by the impact, was stripped from the 

 front end by the steel diner, to the next coach ahead, almost to the point 

 where the engine had stopped its destructive ploughing. The diner's floor 

 became clevahd slightly above that of the sleeper, and with the force of 

 section No. 2's engine behind, the sleeper was jammed along for 

 twenty-five ftet. while the diner as a gigantic knife cut away the upper 

 siruclure. 



The Chicago Eecord-Herald 's record of the wreck states: 



The greatest loss of life was in the front end of the coach, which was 

 telescoped by the dining car ahead. Although both the diner and sleeper 

 were of steel, the former shirred the upper portion, of the sleeper from 

 the flcor as if it had been cardboard. 



Steel railroad passenger cars, urged as safer than the old type of 

 wooden cars, were dealt a severe blow by the wreck. They were proven 

 vulnerable for the first time, and the fact may work imporlant changes 

 In car construction. 



"It is now a demonstrated fact," said a St. Paul road ofiicial, "that 

 n steel car can be telescoped. This Is the first instance we are aware of 

 in which such a thing has happened. Contrary to dispatches, the sleeper 

 that was telescoped was not running locally between St. Paul and 

 Aberdeen, but was a new car and part of a through train." 



The result of this wreck thoroughly confirms the contenlidu tlint has 

 been made for months in Hardwood Record that all-steel passenger 

 car equipment does not afford increased safety to the traveler in the 

 event of derailment or collision. 



The Ft. Wayne wreck of last August proved the manifest weakness 

 of steel car construction in a marked degree in a side-swiping col- 

 lision. In this accident the lives of passengers were undeniably 

 saved by reason of their being housed in a wooden diner, with non- 

 collapsible ends, interspersed in the steel train. 



The WTeck last month at Monmouth Junction, N. J., in which no 

 fatalities among the passengers occurred in the steel cars, seems 

 to have been a happy accident. 



The Odessa wreck simply adds to the evidence that steel 'passenger 

 cars arc by no means immune from telescoping in collisions, and that 



the loss of lite in such instances is just as great as «ould have been 

 the case with cars of wooden construction. 



Without any prejudice in the matter, and without any desire to 

 further wood utilization in car construction if it be not the best 

 material for the purpose. Hardwood Record contends that the evi- 

 dence it has presented on the subject of steel passenger cars during 

 the past few months, demonstrates be.vond peradventuro tlie follow- 

 ing facts: 



First: That iu collisions, steel cars are not iiiinuiiie from tele- 

 scoping, and consequent loss of life of their occupants. 



Second: That in derailment, steel cars are just as prone to col- 

 lapse as wooden cars on steel under-frames. 



Third: That the cost of steel car equipment is largely in excess 

 i)f wooden car equipment, without any compensating value. 



Fourth: That the hauling of solid-steel passenger trains is very 

 expensive and extravagant, constituting an absolute waste of money. 



Fifth : That solid-steel passenger trains of even a moderate 

 number of cars are so heavy as to require the employment of two 

 locomotives, one of which could haul a wooden train of the same 

 number of cars, which adds in no inconsiderable degree to the dangers 

 iiicurred. 



Sixth: That .steel passenger coaches have demonstrated their 

 inability to take cross-overs and switches with safety when running 

 at even a moderate speed. 



Seventh : That the steel type of passenger ears is a very ex- 

 travagant user of steam for heating purposes in cold weather; that 

 it is rarely comfortable to the occupants in winter; and that it is a 

 veritable hot-box of iliseomfort in warm weather; and that by reason 

 of its reverberation of metal, loose bolts and joints, it is a nerve- 

 racking vehicle in which to ride. 



Eighth: That in cold weather they are unhealthful, by reason of 

 the colds by which the larger proportion of the passengers are at- 

 tacked. 



Xotnit]isl:iiiding tlio fact that tins series of articles criticizing steel 

 passenger car construction has been carried in II.^rdwood Record 

 since last September, and that more than twenty-five thousand re 

 prints of these articles have been distributed to prominent railroad 

 men and to leading newspapers and magazines throughout the United 

 States; and further, notwithstanding that many of these articles 

 have been reprinted in whole or part in hundreds of American news- 

 papers and magazines, coming to the knowledge of Hardwood Rkcord, 

 80 far but one attempt has been made in defense of steel cars, and 

 this from a manufacturer of steel doors, whose product has no more 

 merit than stool cars, and which will receive due attention in these 

 colunuis. 



