132 



CAR-BUILDING. 



they presently became public property. He 

 patented and used a buffer coupling arrange- 

 ment, with double-acting draw -springs. In 

 1838 he built the first eight-wheel passenger- 

 car, with seats for sixty persons, and to his 

 enterprise and ingenuity were largely due many 

 of the improvements in car-building that were 

 made prior to the civil war. 



The managers of the Delaware Car-Works, 

 of Wilmington, have kindly furnished from 

 their files the following account of the oldest 

 passenger-car now in use, " Morris Run, No. 

 1," constructed for the Tioga Railroad Com- 

 pany, and delivered complete, according to 

 contract, the 10th of September, 1840. This 

 may be taken as representing the best type of 

 passenger-car then constructed : 



This car has been in continuous service from that 

 date up to the present time. It was placed on exhi- 

 bition at the Chicago Exposition of Railway Appli- 

 ances, held in 1883, as an illustration of the durability 

 of passenger-coaches when constructed of the best 

 materialsj as well as to furnish an historically interest- 

 ing and instructive comparison between the earliest 

 and later types of railway-carriages. This car was con- 

 structed upon an order for " one first-class passenger- 

 car," to be finished in every respect in a "highly 

 modern " manner, with all the latest improvements. 

 It was styled in the contract "An eight-wheeled pas- 

 senger and ladies' accommodation car," and was in- 

 tended to excel any thins' of the kind then running in 

 tho country. Although at this late day we can 

 scarcely realize the actual state of things as they then 

 existed, owing to the vast improvement which has 

 taken place since, it is fair to assume that the car 

 " Morris Run, No. 1," when it left the shop did equal 

 and perhaps excel its kind in beauty of finish, in com- 

 fort of appointments, and in excellence of arrange- 

 ments. Its extreme age and the fact of its still re- 

 maining in service alter the lapse of almost half a 

 century, attest beyond question the thoroughness of 

 its construction and the quality of the materials used. 



The general dimensions of the car were as follow : 

 Thirty- two feet in length of frame ; 8 feet 6 inches in 

 width of frame ; 6 feet 4 inches in height from floor to 

 ceiling (no raised floor). For this " eight-wheeled 

 ladies* car," built with continuous framing, solid 

 bracing, double uprights, stationary sash, Venetian 

 blinds, and dead-light neatly trimmed, the price 

 charged was $2,000, delivered free on board of a ves- 

 sel at the wharf of the builders. It may be added 

 that for some heavy wrought-iron brace-rods, studs, 

 and bolts, thought necessary for extra strength in the 

 bodies, an additional sum of $40 was afterward al- 

 lowed, bringing up the price to $2,040. This figure, 

 however interesting it may be in the light of modern 

 comparisons, when the cost of a first-class passenger- 

 car ranges, depending upon the details of the finish 

 and fittings, anywhere from $4,200 to $5,500, must 

 not be considered as a wholly trustworthy basis of 

 relative costs in labor and materials in those early 

 days compared with the present costs for the same 

 structure. We must bear in mind the various im- 

 provements that have since entered into the con- 

 struction of a car as elements of increased expense, 

 such as the monitor roof with its glazed deck-sash ; 

 the decorated head-lining or ceiling ; the patent coup- 

 lers, buifers, etc., with wider and heavier platforms, 

 built as a part of the car-floor framing; the elaborate 

 chandeliers, bracket-fixtures, trimmings, basket-racks, 

 and hardware generally, as well as the compartment 

 conveniences, such as closets, wash-stands, water- 

 oolers, etc., that go toward completing a modern 

 coach. The single item of trucks alone has been de- 

 veloped in the direction of safety, elegance, and dura- 

 bility far beyond the dreams of. inventors in 1836. 



The patent lead-lined anti-friction journal-bearings, 

 the patent oil-boxes, springs, equalizing devices, im- 

 proved body-bolt bearings, with collateral safeguards 

 in the way of safety and check-chains, the air-brakes, 

 and iron truck-framing all these contribute nowa- 

 days not only to the superiority of the car, but to its 

 greater cost, to say nothing of the use of refined steel 

 lor the axles, springs, etc., and the complex and nu- 

 merous patented designs of the modern wheel itself. 

 The matter of upholstery and decoration inside and 

 out, the use of hard woods highly polished, the ornate 

 carving upon the paneling inside, the patented de- 

 signs of seat-frames, the expensive method of heating, 

 the improved style of glazing and ornamentation 

 these likewise form a part of the modern car, and 

 must be counted as elements in any comparison of the 

 old with the new. 



It will readily be seen, therefore, that at $2.040, 

 with the cheaper labor and material of those days, 

 and eliminating the many sources of expense incurred 

 at present in car-building, the "Morris Run No. 1 " 

 was a fair specimen of the best class of coach that it 

 was possible to turn out at that time. The windows 

 of this car had the peculiarity of being glazed in solid, 

 without any sash (presumably on account of the early 

 fear lest, if the windows were opened, accidents would 

 be sure to follow), and the wooden panels forming 

 the sides of the car were made to open bv sliding the 

 lower half up inside of the upper half. ^These panel- 

 openings were very narrow, and were intended for 

 ventilation rather than for sight. As may be imag- 

 ined, this gave the car a very odd appearance upon 

 the outside. Yet it was by no means a bad idea, 

 since, in the first days of railroading, before the pas- 

 sengers had become accustomed to the novelty of this 

 rapid form of locomotion, and equally familiar with 

 the dangers of sight-seeing through, the side-openings 

 while in motion, it proved a source of safety, which 

 should at least entitle it to our lenient criticism. 



The car had no raised roof, the upper boarding 

 being laid on flat from end to end, and extending 

 somewhat beyond the body for protection to passen- 

 gers while alighting. Just when this feature of hoods 

 was adopted it is difficult to say in fact, the whole 

 design of the " Morris Run No. ] " was a total depart- 

 ure from the then okl-1'ashioned standards of railway- 

 carriages in use abroad and copied in this country. 

 The latter were simply the ancient form of swinging 

 stage-coach bodies, placed on long frame-trucks in 

 sets of three, with side-openings in the shape of the 

 primitive coach-doors, a horizontal plank for the side- 

 step, and with a single pair of open- spoke iron wheels 

 tinder each coach-body. At the ends were great cog- 

 brakes extending to "the brakeman's seat upon the 

 top of the coach, from which position he could see the 

 signals of the driver, and be governed accordingly. 



Four-wheeled passenger cars were used at this time, 

 and the body was suspended upon leather thorough- 

 braces, similar to the old-fashioned Concord coaches. 

 The seats were placed around on the inside, so that 

 the passengers were lacing each other. A double 

 row of seats was placed upon the top of the cars also, 

 whe_re the passengers sat back to back. When col- 

 lecting fares, the conductor did not enter the cars for 

 that purpose, but passed around on the outside upon 

 a foot-board. There were no brakes, either on the 

 engine or on the cars; consequently the train had to 

 be~stopped by reversing the engine. Sometimes the 

 eccentrics would catch on the center, so as not to re- 

 volve, in which case the engine could only be started 

 by some application of mechanical force. 



'The wood-working tools consisted of but two or 

 three machines, the perfected machines of those days 

 consisting of a circular saw and Daniel's planer, which 

 could plane but half a car-sill at one motion, the piece 

 being taken out and reversed after each motion, and 

 a very limited assortment of other primitive appli- 

 ances of a like degree of adaptability. Now, the 

 labor-saving machines could be enumerated by the 

 score, and the Daniel's planer has been supplanted 



