RAILWAY CARS. Passenger and Passenger cars on the earlist rail ways usually had small bodies of the stage coach type mounted on frames. In 1833, however, cars long enough to seat 60 pas sengers and having the body carried by a pair of four-wheeled swiveling trucks were designed and built by Ross Winans for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Cars approximating ent American type were to use as early as W. Distinctive features of this type are tht body mounted on or trucks and having a central aisle which, with aatilfint,6*.
forms, permits' of passage through the train. A' modified design has pairs fixed chairs in place of the usual double seats. As the chair backs may be lowered for reclining more space is required and a 70-foot car may have seats for 84 or chairs for 64 passengers. Vestibules en closing the car platforms anti connected by flexible diaphragms were introduced in 188.6, but similar connections between mail cars had been used since 1852. They add to the safety and convenience of passengers and decrease danger in collision since they make the train practically one long articulated car.
A long-distance train may have day cars (often called coaches), mail, express and bag gage cars, parlor or sleeping cars,, a dining car and perhaps an observation car with library and writing desks, while bathrooms and barber and stenographer service are sometimes included. American railwaYs are noted for going rather to extremes in providing comforts and conven iences for passengers, although this greatly in creases the weight of car in proportion to the passengers carried. The American type of ear is extensively used abroad, except in Europe where the existence of from two to four classes of passengers makes its application difficult.
European railways have always used cars of the compartment type, with transverse partitions and side doors. Each compartment has twa opposite seats, so that half the passengers must ride backward. The cars are in general smaller and lighter than those of American railways and many have only four to six wheels, but of late years the size and weight have been in creased. Trucks which are called ubogieso were introduced on English cars in 1872: Cor ridor cars, an innovation of about 1883; have a narrow passage along one side, with side doors to the compartments and end doors to vesti bules between the cars. A 43-foot 18-ton com
partment car will seat 70 third-class passengers in seven compartments, or a 50-foot car may seat 80, while a 54-foot 23-ton car may carry 18 first-class and 40 third-class passengers. A 50-foot corridor car, however, may seat only 36. Special suburban cars for workmen carry 120 passenger's in 10 compartments.
Car equipment of American railways amounted to 1,216,000 cars of all kinds in 1891 and 2,600,000 in 1916. Of the latter, 56,000 were for passenger trains, 2,400,000 for freight trains and 100,000 for railway service. Passen ger equipment included 40,0e0' day cars, 1,380 dining, 660 parlor, 750 sleeping, 1,600 mail and 10,000 baggage and express cars. These are exclusive of the Pullman Company's 7,750 sleep ing, parlor, tourist, dining and observation cars. Private cars, officer's cars and hospital cars are special'equipment. Cars having their own mo tive power — steam or gasoline— are used sometimes on lines of light traffiC. Freight cars included 1,050,000 box cars, 150,000' flat and gondola, 920,(00 coal, 53,000 refrigerator, 88,M stock and 10,000 tank cars, besides 95,000 caboose cars for the train crews.
Modern 'day cats 68 to 78 feet long over platforms seat from 60 to 90 passengers And weigh from 50 to 72 tons. A steel mail car was put in service in 1889 and a • few 'experi mental cars were built later, but in 1907 the Pennsylvania adopted construc tion for all its passenger cars. Other railroads f011bwed and in 1908 there were 1,228 steel ears, 75 per cent of which were for suburban or rapid-transit service. In 1916 about 22 per cent of 'the passenger' equipment was of steel, exclusive of cars having steel underfraines and wood bodies. Steel 80-foot day cars for 88 passengers weigh about 56 tons; 76-foot mail Car,. 64 tons; 72-foot dining car, 70 tons; foot sleeping car, 65 tons; and 64.4-foot sub urban car for 72 passengers, 37 tons. While heavier than wooden cars they have advantages in safety, durability, maintenance• and repair.