THE STEEL CAI! THAT FIKST LEFT THE RAILS. 



ANOTHER STEEL CAR IN THE DITCH. 



' '^;)5^ ^;^»5t<^;>^5M\;>5^l;.^;awi^^i^vs^i^tM^ 



The Wood Substitute Game 



STEEL TRAIN WKECES 



If Hakdwood Eecord were to maintain a complete and circum- 

 stantial recitation of steel car frailty as evidenced by the numerous 

 accidents occurring to trains of this type of construction, it would 

 of necessitj' have to resort to the publication of daily editions. 

 It is certain that the public is thoroughly aroused to the dangers 

 encompassing it in taking passage in trains of steel cars. This 

 type of car is surely fast popularizing the aeroplane as a means 

 of comparatively safe transportation. 



There have been no less than a half dozen steel car wrecks within 

 the last fortnight, and during the entire winter there have been but 

 very few railroad wrecks of trains of exclusively wooden cars, and 

 these have been of minor importance in point of injury or disas- 

 trous results to life. 



THE MILWAUKEE WRECK 



A fast train on the Chicago. Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad was 

 wrecked on March 12, ten miles south of Milwaukee. This train 

 was a composite one made up of wooden and steel coaches. The 

 locomotive did not go off the rails, but the first steel car of the 

 train did, and in its plunge into the ditch took with it the other 

 steel and wooden cars of the train. The pictures accompanying 

 this article show that the wooden cars escaped the impact with 

 comparatively little damage. Particular attention is called to the 

 old type of wooden car — the smoker — an interior picture of which 

 is shown, lying on its side. Even the gas fixtures were not broken. 



This accident goes to prove the statement often repeated in 

 Hardwood Eecord that the basic failure of steel cars lies in their 

 inability to stay on the rails on curves or crossovers, at anything 

 like a satisfactory passenger train speed, and furthermore, empha- 

 sizes the fact that wooden cars are just as safe from collapse and 

 telescoping in accidents as any type of steel car that has yet been 

 l)roduced. 



THE NEW YORK CENTRAL WRECK 



On March i:i an accidont Ijclell the eastl.uund eighteen-hour train 



of the New York Central, near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., which in many 

 essentials was quite similar to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 

 wreck. This was a solid steel train. The locomotive did not go 

 off the track, but the larger number of steel cars did. The train 

 landed on the ice in the Hudson river, and several of the cars were 

 partially submerged. 



Here is another case where one of the largest types of locomo- 

 tives took the curve in safety, while a steel car jumped the track 

 and ditched the train. A large number of persons were more or less 

 seriously injured in both wrecks, but no one was killed outright, 

 although the monetary loss in the two wrecks probably aggregated 

 a hunilrcd thousand dollars. 



ACCIDENTS LAID TO DEFECTIVE RAILS 



In the recent disastrous steel train wreck at Warrior's Ridge, 

 on the Pennsylvania railroad, and in the two steel train wrecks 

 recounted in this article, an attempt was made to attribute the 

 accident to defects in the steel rails. The original newspaper 

 accounts of the Warrior's Ridge wreck stated the accident was 

 caused by a part of the locomotive dropping on the track, which the 

 wooden car immediately behind the engine, passed over in safety. 



The original newspaper accounts of the New York Central wreck 

 announced that it was caused by the steel water trough placed in 

 the center of the track, by means of which locomotives of fast 

 trains take water. However, these stories were promptly aban- 

 doned, and the railroad authorities took recourse to the usual 

 hacknej-ed statement that the accidents were caused by broken 

 rails. Hence it has come about that there is a first-class argument 

 on between the steel rail makers and the railroads on the subject 

 of the character and quality of rails now being furnished the 

 railroads. The steel people contend they are supplying the rail- 

 roads with a particular type of rails that are manufactured under 

 their specific directions so far as methods of manufacture, ductility, 

 hardness, etc., go. 



P. H. Dudley, consulting engineer of the New York Central lines, 



now THE WOODE.V CARS I.N TIM ST. PAUL WRECK STOOD THE 



TEST. 



nT.n WOODEN SMOKER ON ITS SIDK IN THE Dircn. 

 Tl'IiES NOT BROKEN. 



(!AS I'lX- 



-L'6— 



