Chapter V (7)

The railroad company entered into an agreement to have this car, and a number of others which were immediately built, operated upon its lines. They were marvels of beauty, and their construction embraced patents of such ingenuity and originality that they attracted marked attention in the railroad world and created a new departure in the method of travel.

In 1867 Mr. Pullman formed the Pullman Car Company and devoted it to carrying out an idea which he had conceived, of organizing a system by which passengers could be carried in luxurious cars of uniform pattern, adequate to the wants of both night and day travel, which would run through without change between far-distant points and over a number of distinct lines of railway, in charge of responsible through agents, to whom ladies, children, and invalids could be safely intrusted. This system was especially adapted to a country of such geographical extent as America. It supplied an important want, and the travelling public and the railways were prompt to avail themselves of its advantages.

Parlor or drawing-room cars were next introduced for day runs, which added greatly to the luxury of travel, enabling passengers to secure seats in advance, and enjoy many comforts which were not found in ordinary cars. Sleeping and parlor cars were soon recognized as an essential part of a railway's equipment and became known as "palace cars."

The Wagner Car Company was organized in the State of New York, and was early in the field in furnishing this class of vehicles. It has supplied all the cars of this kind used upon the Vanderbilt system of railways and a number of its connecting roads. Several smaller palace-car companies have also engaged in the business at different times. A few roads have operated their own cars of this class, but the business is generally regarded as a specialty, and the railway companies recognize the advantages and conveniences resulting from the ability of a large car-company to meet the irregularities of travel, which require a large equipment at one season and a small one at another, to furnish an additional supply of cars for a sudden demand, and to perform satisfactorily the business of operating through cars in lines composed of many different railways.

Next came a demand for cars in which meals could be served. Why, it was said, should a train stop at a station for meals any more than a steam-boat tie up to a wharf for the same purpose? The Pullman Company now introduced the hotel-car, which was practically a sleeping-car with a kitchen and pantries in one end and portable tables which could be placed between the seats of each section and upon which meals could be conveniently served. The first hotel-car was named the "President," and was put into service on the Great Western Railway of Canada, in 1867, and soon after several popular lines were equipped with this new addition to the luxuries of travel.

After this came the dining-car, which was still another step beyond the hotel-car. It was a complete restaurant, having a large kitchen and pantries in one end, with the main body of the car fitted up as a commodious dining-room, in which all the passengers in the train could enter and take their meals comfortably. The first dining-car was named the "Delmonico," and began running on the Chicago & Alton Railroad in the year 1868.

The comforts and conveniences of travel by rail on the main lines now seemed to have reached their culmination in America. The heavy T-rails had replaced the various forms previously used; the improved fastenings, the reductions in curvature, and the greater care exercised in construction had made the trip delightfully smooth, while the improvements in rolling-stock had obviated the jerking, jolting, and oscillation of the cars. The roadbeds had been properly ditched, drained, and ballasted with broken stone or gravel, the dust overcome, the sparks arrested, and cleanliness, that attribute which stands next to godliness, had at last been made possible, even on a railway train.

The heating of cars was not successfully accomplished till a method was devised for circulating hot water through pipes running near the floor. The suffering from that bane of the traveller--cold feet--was then obviated and many a doctor's bill saved. The loss of human life from the destruction of trains by fires originating from stoves aroused such a feeling throughout the country that the legislatures of many States have passed laws within the last three years prohibiting the use of stoves, and the railway managers have been devising plans for heating the trains with steam furnished from the boiler of the locomotive. The inventive genius of the people was at once brought into requisition, and several ingenious devices are now in use which successfully accomplish the purpose in solid trains with the locomotive attached, but the problem of heating a detached car without some form of furnace connected with it is still unsolved.

But notwithstanding the high standard of excellence which had been reached in the construction and operation of passenger trains, there was one want not yet supplied, the importance of which did not become fully recognized until dining-cars were introduced, and men, women, and children had to pass across the platforms of several cars in order to reach the one in which the meals were served. An act which passengers had always been cautioned against, and forbidden to undertake--the crossing of platforms while the train is in motion--now became necessary, and was invited by the railway companies.

It was soon seen that a safe covered passageway between the cars must be provided, particularly for limited express trains. Crude attempts had been made in this direction at different times. As early as the years 1852 and 1855 patents were taken out for devices which provided for diaphragms of canvas to connect adjoining cars and form a passageway between them. These were applied to cars on the Naugatuck Railroad, in Connecticut, in 1857, but they were used mainly for purposes of ventilation, to provide for taking in air at the head of the train, so as to permit the car windows to be kept shut, to avoid the dust that entered through them when they were open. These appliances were very imperfect, did not seem to be of any practical advantage, even for the limited uses for which they were intended, and they were abandoned after a trial of about four years.

In the year 1886 Mr. Pullman went practically to work to devise a perfect system for constructing continuous trains, and at the same time to provide for sufficient flexibility in connecting the passageways to allow for the motion consequent upon the rounding of curves. His efforts resulted in what is now known as the "vestibuled" train.

This invention, which was patented in 1887, succeeded not only in supplying the means of constructing a perfectly enclosed vestibule of handsome architectural appearance between the cars, but it accomplished what is even still more important, the introduction of a safety appliance more valuable than any yet devised for the protection of human life in case of collisions. The elastic diaphragms which are attached to the ends of the cars have steel frames, the faces or bearing surfaces of which are pressed firmly against each other by powerful spiral springs, which create a friction upon the faces of the frames, hold them firmly in position, prevent the oscillation of the cars, and furnish a buffer extending from the platform to the roof which precludes the possibility of one platform "riding" the other and producing telescoping in case of collision. The first of the vestibuled trains went into service on the Pennsylvania Railroad in June, 1886, and they are rapidly being adopted by railway companies. The vestibuled limited trains contain several sleeping-cars, a dining-car, and a car fitted up with a smoking saloon, a library with books, desks, and writing materials, a bath-room, and a barber-shop. With a free circulation of air throughout the train, the cars opening into each other, the electric light, the many other increased comforts and conveniences introduced, the steam-heating apparatus avoiding the necessity of using fires, the great speed, and absence of stops at meal-stations, this train is the acme of safe and luxurious travel. An ordinary passenger travels in as princely a style in these cars as any crowned head in Europe in a royal special train.

The speed of passenger trains has shown steady improvement from year to year. In the month of June in our Centennial year, 1876, a train ran from New York to San Francisco, a distance of 3,317 miles, in 83 hours and 27 minutes actual time, thus averaging about 40 miles an hour, but during the trip it crossed four mountain-summits, one of them over 8,000 feet high. This train ran from Jersey City to Pittsburg over the Pennsylvania Railroad, a distance of 444 miles, without making a stop. In 1882 locomotives were introduced which made a speed of 70 miles per hour.

In July, 1885, an engine with a train of three cars made a trip over the West Shore road which is the most extraordinary one on record. It started from East Buffalo, N. Y., at 10.04 A.M., and reached Weehawken, N. J., at 7.27 P.M. Deducting the time consumed in stops, the actual running time was 7 hours and 23 minutes, or an average of 56 miles per hour. Between Churchville and Genesee Junction this train attained the unparalleled speed of 87 miles per hour, and at several other parts of the line a speed of from 70 to 80 miles an hour. The superior physical characteristics of this road were particularly favorable for the attainment of the speed mentioned.

The trains referred to were special or experimental trains, and while American railways have shown their ability to record the highest speed yet known, they do not run their trains in regular service as fast as those on the English railways. The meteor-like names given to our fast trains are somewhat misleading. When one reads of such trains as the "Lightning," the "Cannonball," the "Thunderbolt," and the "G--whiz-z," the suggestiveness of the titles is enough to make one's head swim, but, after all, the names are not as significant of speed as the British "Flying Scotchman" and the "Wild Irishman;" for the former do not attain an average rate of 40 miles an hour, while the latter exceed 45 miles. A few American trains, however, those between Jersey City and Philadelphia, for instance, make an average speed of over 50 miles per hour.

* * * * *

The transportation of immigrants has recently received increased facilities for its accommodation upon the principal through lines. Until late years economically constructed day-cars were alone used, but in these the immigrants suffered great discomfort in long journeys. An immigrant sleeper is now used, which is constructed with sections on each side of the aisle, each section containing two double berths. The berths are made with slats of hard wood running longitudinally; there is no upholstery in the car, and no bedding supplied, and after the car is vacated the hose can be turned in upon it, and all the wood-work thoroughly cleansed. The immigrants usually carry with them enough blankets and wraps to make them tolerably comfortable in their berths; a cooking stove is provided in one end of the car, on which the occupants can cook their food, and even the long transcontinental journeys of the immigrants are now made without hardship.

The manufacture of railway passenger cars is a large item of industry in the country. The tendency had been for many years to confine the building of ordinary passenger coaches to the shops owned by the railway companies, and they made extensive provision for such work; but recently they have given large orders for that class of equipment to outside manufacturers. This has resulted partly from the large demand for cars, and partly on account of the excellence of the work supplied by some of the manufacturing companies. In 1880 the Pullman Company erected the most extensive car-works in the world at Pullman, fourteen miles south of Chicago; and, besides its extensive output of Pullman cars and freight equipment, it has built for railway companies large numbers of passenger coaches. The employees now number about 5,000, and an idea of the capacity and resources of the shops may be obtained from the fact that one hundred freight cars, of the kind known as flat cars, have been built in eight hours. The business of car-building has therefore given rise to the first model manufacturing town in America, and it is an industry evidently destined to increase as rapidly as any in the country.

The transportation of baggage has always been a most important item to the traveller, and the amount carried seems to increase in proportion to the advance in civilization. The original allowance of fourteen pounds is found to be increased to four hundred when ladies start for fashionable summer-resorts.

America has been much more liberal than other countries to the traveller in this particular, as in all others. Here few of the roads charge for excess of baggage unless the amount be so large that patience with regard to it ceases to be a virtue.

The earlier method, of allowing each passenger to pick out his own baggage at his point of destination and carry it off, resulted in a lack of accountability which led to much confusion, frequent losses, and heavy claims upon the companies in consequence. Necessity, as usual, gave birth to invention, and the difficulty was at last solved by the introduction of the system known as "checking." A metal disk bearing a number and designating on its face the destination of the baggage was attached to each article and a duplicate given to the owner, which answered as a receipt, and upon the presentation and surrender of which the baggage could be claimed. Railways soon united in arranging for through checks which, when attached to baggage, would insure its being sent safely to distant points over lines composed of many connecting roads. The check system led to the introduction of another marked convenience in the handling of baggage--the baggage express or transfer company. One of its agents will now check trunks at the passenger's own house and haul them to the train. Another agent will take up the checks aboard the train as it is nearing its destination, and see that the baggage is delivered at any given address.

The cases in which pieces go astray are astonishingly rare, and some roads found the claims for lost articles reduced by five thousand dollars the first year after adopting the check system, not to mention the amount saved in the reduced force of employees engaged in assorting and handling the baggage. Its workings are so perfect and its conveniences so great that an American cannot easily understand why it is not adopted in all countries; but he is forced to recognize the fact that it seems destined to be confined to his own land. The London railway managers, for instance, give many reasons for turning their faces against its adoption. They say that there are few losses arising from passengers taking baggage that does not belong to them; that most of the passengers take a cab at the end of their railway journey to reach their homes, and it costs but little more to carry their trunk with them; that in this way it gets home as soon as they, while the transfer company, or baggage express, would not deliver it for an hour or two later; that the cab system is a great convenience, and any change which would diminish its patronage would gradually reduce the number of cabs, and these "gondolas of London" would have to increase their charges or go out of business. It is very easy to find a stick when one wants to hit a dog, and the European railway officials seem never to be at a loss for reasons in rejecting the check system.

Coupon tickets covering trips over several different railways have saved the traveller all the annoyance once experienced in purchasing separate tickets from the several companies representing the roads over which he had to pass. Their introduction necessitated an agreement among the principal railways of the country and the adoption of an extensive system of accountability for the purpose of making settlements of the amounts represented by the coupons.

Like every other novelty the coupon ticket, when first introduced, did not hit the mark when aimed at the understanding of certain travellers. A United States Senator-elect had come on by sea from the Pacific Coast who had never seen a railroad till he reached the Atlantic seaboard. With a curiosity to test the workings of the new means of transportation, of which he had heard so much, he bought a coupon ticket and set out for a railway journey. He entered a car, took a seat next to the door, and was just beginning to get the "hang of the school-house" when the conductor, who was then not uniformed, came in, cried "Tickets!" and reached out his hand toward the Senator. "What do you want of me?" said the latter. "I want your ticket," answered the conductor. Now it occurred to the Senator that this might be a very neat job on the part of an Eastern ticket-sharp, but it was just a little too thin to fool a Pacific Coaster, and he said: "Don't you think I've got sense enough to know that if I parted with my ticket right at the start I wouldn't have anything to show for my money during the rest of the way? No, sir, I'm going to hold on to this till I get to the end of the trip."

"Oh!" said the conductor, whose impatience was now rising to fever heat, "I don't want to take up your ticket, I only want to look at it."

The Senator thought, after some reflection, that he would risk letting the man have a peep at it, anyhow, and held it up before him, keeping it, however, at a safe distance. The conductor, with the customary abruptness, jerked it out of his hand, tore off the first coupon, and was about to return the ticket, when the Pacific Coaster sprang up, threw himself upon his muscle, and delivered a well-directed blow of his fist upon the conductor's right eye, which landed him sprawling on one of the opposite seats. The other passengers were at once on their feet, and rushed up to know the cause of the disturbance. The Senator, still standing with his arms in a pugnacious attitude, said:

"Maybe I've never ridden on a railroad before, but I'm not going to let any sharper get away with me like that."

"What's he done?" cried the passengers.

"Why," said the Senator, "I paid seventeen dollars and a half for a ticket to take me through to Cincinnati, and before we're five miles out that fellow slips up and says he wants to see it, and when I get it out, he grabs hold of it and goes to tearing it up right before my eyes." Ample explanations were soon made, and the new passenger was duly initiated into the mysteries of the coupon system.

The uniforming of railway employees was a movement of no little importance. It designated the various positions held by them, added much to the neatness of their appearance, enabled passengers to recognize them at a glance, and made them so conspicuous that it impressed them with a greater sense of responsibility and aided much in effecting a more courteous demeanor to passengers.

* * * * *

Many conveniences have been introduced which greatly assist the passenger when travelling upon unfamiliar roads. Conspicuous clock-faces stand in the stations with their hands set to the hour at which the next train is to start, sign-boards are displayed with horizontal slats on which the stations are named at which departing way-trains stop, and employees are stationed to call out necessary information and direct passengers to the proper entrances, exits, and trains. A "bureau of information" is now to be seen in large passenger-stations, in which an official sits and with a Job-like patience repeats to the curiously inclined passengers the whole railway catechism, and successfully answers conundrums that would stump an Oriental pundit.

The energetic passenger-agent spares no pains to thrust information directly under the nose of the public. He uses every means known to Yankee ingenuity to advertise his regular trains and his excursion business, including large newspaper head-lines, corner-posters, curb-stone dodgers, and placards on the breast and back of the itinerant human sandwich who perambulates the streets.

Railway accidents have always been a great source of anxiety to the managers, and the shocks received by the public when great loss of life occurs from such causes deepen the interest which the general community feels in the means taken to avoid these distressing occurrences.

American railway officials have made encouraging progress in reducing the number and the severity of accidents, and while the record is not so good on many of our cheaply constructed roads, our first-class roads now show by their statistics that they compare favorably in this respect with the European companies.

The statistics regarding accidents[26] are necessarily unreliable, as railway companies are not eager to publish their calamities from the house-tops, and only in those States in which prompt reports are required to be made by law are the figures given at all accurately. Even in these instances the yearly reports lead to wrong conclusions, for the State Railroad Commissioners become more exacting each year as to the thoroughness of the reports called for, and the results sometimes show an increase compared with previous years, whereas there may have been an actual decrease.

In 1880, the last census year, an effort was made to collect statistics of this kind covering all the railways in the United States, with the following result:

------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+-------
| Through causes | Through | |
To whom | beyond their | their own | Aggregate. | Total
happened. | control. | carelessness. | | acci-
+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+ dents.
|Killed.|Injured.|Killed.|Injured.|Killed.|Injured.|
------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------
Passengers | 61 | 331 | 82 | 213 | 143 | 544 | 687
Employees | 261 | 1,004 | 663 | 2,613 | 924 | 3,617 | 4,541
All others | 43 | 103 | 1,429 | 1,348 | 1,472 | 1,451 | 2,923
Unspecified | | | | | 3 | 62 | 65
+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------
Total | 365 | 1,438 | 2,174 | 4,174 | 2,542 | 5,674 | 8,216
------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------

(Passenger Station, Philadelphia.)]

Mulhall, in his "Dictionary of Statistics," an English work, uses substantially these same figures and makes the following comparison between European and American railways:

_Accidents to Passengers, Employees, and Others._

---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------
| | | | Per million
| Killed. | Wounded. | Total. | passengers.
---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------
United States | 2,349 | 5,867 | 8,216 | 41.1
United Kingdom | 1,135 | 3,959 | 5,094 | 8.1
Europe | 3,213 | 10,859 | 14,072 | 10.8
---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------

That the figures given above are much too high as regards the United States, there can be no doubt. For the fiscal year 1880-81 the data compiled by the Railroad Commissioners of Massachusetts and published in their reports give as the total number of persons killed and injured in the United States 2,126, as against 8,216 upon which the comparisons in the above table are based. If we substitute in this table the former number for the latter, it would reduce the number of injured per million passengers in the United States to 10.6, about the same as on the European railways.

Edward Bates Dorsey gives the following interesting table of comparisons in his valuable work, "English and American Railroads Compared:"

_Passengers Killed and Injured from Causes beyond their own Control on all the Railroads of the United Kingdom and those of the States of New York and Massachusetts in 1884._

-----------------+---------+---------------------------+-------+------
| Total | | |
| length | Total mileage. | | In-
| of line +-------------+-------------+Killed.|jured.
|operated.| Train. | Passengers. | |
-----------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-------+------
United Kingdom | 18,864 | 272,803,220 |6,042,659,990| 31 | 864
New York | 7,298 | 85,918,677 |1,729,653,620| 10 | 124
Massachusetts | 2,852 | 32,304,333 |1,007,136,376| 2 | 42
-----------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-------+------
In | | | | |
1,000,000,000 | | | | |
passengers | | | | |
transported | | | | |
1 mile. | | | | |
| | | | |
United Kingdom | | | | 5.15 | 143
New York | | | | 5.78 | 70
Massachusetts | | | | 2.00 | 42
-----------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-------+------

--------------------------------------------------+------------
| Miles.
+------------
The average number of miles { United Kingdom | 194,892,255
a passenger can travel without { New York | 172,965,362
being killed. { Massachusetts | 503,568,188
|
The average number of miles { United Kingdom | 6,992,662
a passenger can travel without { New York | 13,940,754
being injured. { Massachusetts | 23,955,630
--------------------------------------------------+------------

From this it will be seen that in the United Kingdom the average distance a passenger may travel before being killed is about equal to twice the distance of the Earth from the Sun. In New York he may travel a distance greater than that of Mars from the Sun; and in Massachusetts he can comfort himself with the thought that he may travel twenty-seven millions of miles farther than the distance of Jupiter to the Sun before suffering death on the rail.

The most encouraging feature of these statistics is the fact that the number of railway accidents per mile in the United States has shown a marked decrease each year. Taking the figures adopted by the Massachusetts commissions, the number of persons injured in the year 1880-81 was 2,126, and in 1886-87, 2,483, while in the same time the number of miles in operation increased from 93,349 to 137,986.

The amounts paid annually by railways in satisfaction of claims for damages to passengers are serious items of expenditure, and in the United States have reached in some years nearly two millions of dollars. About half of the States limit the amount of damages in case of death to $5,000, the States of Virginia, Ohio, and Kansas to $10,000, and the remainder have no statutory limit.

In the year 1840 the number of miles of railway per 100,000 inhabitants in the different countries named was as follows: United States, 20; United Kingdom, 3; Europe, 1; in the year 1882, United States, 210; United Kingdom, 52; Europe, 34.

In the year 1886 the total number of miles in the United States was 137,986; the number of passengers carried, 382,284,972; the number carried one mile, 9,659,698,294; the average distance travelled per passenger, 25.27 miles.

In Europe the first-class travel is exceedingly small and the third class constitutes the largest portion of the passenger business, while in America almost the whole of the travel is first class, as will be seen from the following table:

---------------+--------------------------------------------
| Percentage of passengers carried.
+--------------+---------------+-------------
| First Class. | Second Class. | Third Class.
---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
United Kingdom | 6 | 10 | 84
France | 8 | 32 | 60
Germany | 1 | 13 | 86
United States | 99 | ½ of 1 | ½ of 1
---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------

The third-class travel in this country is better known as immigrant travel. The percentages given in the above table for the United States are based upon an average of the numbers of passengers of each class carried on the principal through lines. If all the roads were included, the percentages of the second- and third-class travel would be still less.

That which is of more material interest to passengers than anything else is the rate of fare charged.

The following table gives an approximate comparison between the rates per mile in the leading countries in the world:

---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
| First Class. | Second Class. | Third Class.
---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
| Cents. | Cents. | Cents.
United Kingdom | 4.42 | 3.20 | 1.94
France | 3.86 | 2.88 | 2.08
Germany | 3.10 | 2.32 | 1.54
United States | 2.18 | -- | --
---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------

The rates above given for the United Kingdom, France, and Germany are the regular schedule-rates. An average of all the fares received, including the reduced fares at excursion rates, would make the figures somewhat less.

The rate named as the first-class fare for the railways in the United States is, strictly speaking, the average earnings per passenger per mile, and includes all classes; but as the first-class passengers constitute about ninety-nine per centum of the travel the amount does not differ materially from the actual first-class fare. In the State of New York the first-class fare does not exceed two cents, which is not much more than the third-class fare in some countries of Europe, and heat, good ventilation, ice-water, toilet arrangements, and free carriage of a liberal amount of baggage are supplied, while in Europe few of these comforts are furnished.

On the elevated railroads of New York a passenger can ride in a first-class car eleven miles for 5 cents, or about one-half cent a mile, and on surface-roads the commutation rates given to suburban passengers are in some cases still less.

The berth-fares in sleeping-cars in Europe largely exceed those in America, as will be seen from the following comparisons, stated in dollars:

--------------------+-------------------+------------
Route. | Distance in Miles.| Berth fare.
--------------------+-------------------+------------
Paris to Rome | 901 | $12.75
New York to Chicago | 912 | 5.00
Paris to Marseilles | 536 | 11.00
New York to Buffalo | 440 | 2.00
Calais to Brindisi | 1,373 | 22.25
Boston to St. Louis | 1,330 | 6.50
--------------------+-------------------+------------

While it would seem that the luxuries of railway travel in America have reached a maximum, and the charges a minimum, yet in this progressive age it is very probable that in the not far distant future we shall witness improvements over the present methods which will astonish us as much as the present methods surprise us when we compare them with those of the past.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 195.

[24] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 224; also, "American Locomotives and Cars," page 142.

[25] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 204.

[26] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 191.

THE FREIGHT-CAR SERVICE.

BY THEODORE VOORHEES.

Sixteen Months' Journey of a Car--Detentions by the
Way--Difficulties of the Car Accountant's Office--Necessities
of Through Freight--How a Company's Cars are Scattered--The
Question of Mileage--Reduction of the Balance in Favor of
Other Roads--Relation of the Car Accountant's Work to the
Transportation Department--Computation of Mileage--The Record
Branch--How Reports are Gathered and Compiled--Exchange of
"Junction Cards"--The Use of "Tracers"--Distribution of
Empty Cars--Control of the Movement of Freight--How Trains
are Made Up--Duties of the Yardmaster--The Handling of
Through Trains--Organization of Fast Lines--Transfer Freight
Houses--Special Cars for Specific Service--Disasters to Freight
Trains--How the Companies Suffer--Inequalities in Payment for Car
Service--The Per Diem Plan--A Uniform Charge for Car Rental--What
Reforms might be Accomplished.