The general introduction of the steel car was not accomplished without serious opposi tion; first, from those who were directly in terested in the manufacture of wooden cars; and second, from those who were skeptical as to the advisability of adopting steel as a vehicle of transportation, exposed to the action of in jurious elements which might cause a rapid de teriorationof the metal and a consequent i reduction in strength. However, up to the present time no serious effects from this cause can be noticed in the cars now in service. If proper attention is given to the method of con struction and weight of metal used, and all parts are thoroughly painted at the time of manufacture to protect them from corrosion, and if after the cars are placed in service care is taken to repaint them when necessary, it is fair to presume, judging from the present con dition of the earlier steel cars built in this country, that we may reasonably expect an average length of service from the steel car of at least 30 years, or fully twice as long as the service obtained from cars of wood construction.
The steel car industry may be correctly said to date its origin in this country from the year 1896, although the records of the Patent Office show that patents were granted to citizens of this country, as well as of foreign countries, for cars made entirely of steel or other metal, as early as 1854, and it is also true that prior to this time cars of metal, or a combination of metal and wood, had been constructed and put in service in this country; but these early ef forts had little in common with the modern steel car, now standard on many of our leading railways. Previous to the year 1897 many cars had been constructed in this country of steel or iron, but were built for special service by the several railroads, mainly for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of heavy ma terials, where the load was more or less con centrated, such as wire tables, guns, bridge gird ers, etc. In the design of such special equip ment no particular attention was given to the consideration of a reduction of the weight of the component parts, with the result that most of these earlier metal cars were excessively heavy and not suitable for general service.
Iron-box cars were used as early as 1862, these having been built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and weighed 18,000 pounds, with a capacity of 30,000 pounds. Later, in 1869, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad placed in service flat cars with iron channel sills, and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad had several metal cars run ning on its road as early as 1873. In these cars the substitution of iron for wood was more particularly confined to the underframing of the car, the superstructure, if any, being of wood. In connection with these early types of metal underframes mention may also be made of steel underframes for carrying water tanks of locomotives, which were in use as early as 1881.
It was not until 1887, however, that metal underframe cars were placed in service in any considerable numbers, these being built under patents owned by the Southern Iron Car Com pany, who constructed several thousand steel underframe freight cars, including box cars, hopper bottom gondola cars, flat cars,' etc.
These underframes were of the iron tubular type, being formed by the assemblement of different sizes of wrought-iron pipe, tied to gether by means of threaded connections, so as to form a light and compact structure. How ever, in actual service it was found that the connections would rapidly loosen, thus destroy ing the strength of the whole, and after only a comparatively short time the construction of cars of this type was entirely abandoned. From this time on numerous experimental cars with steel underframing were built, but the unsatis factory results derived from the tubular under frame undoubtedly retarded the adoption of the modern type of steel underframe car. The Penn sylvania Railroad in 1887 built a number of cars having steel underframes which were de signed to carry a concentrated load of 120,000 pounds, and a steel fireproof car was built in 1889 at the shops of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, about the year 1890, placed in service a steel car of 60,000 pounds capacity, constructed from designs of the Harvey Steel Car Company.
In 1894 the Carnegie Steel Company ordered from the Fox Solid Pressed Steel Equipment Company, of Joliet, Ill., a number of steel-flat cars of 80,000 pounds capacity, to be used in service about its mills for the transportation of heavy billets. These were built entirely from pressed steel shapes and embodied in their de sign special features of pressed-steel work, be ing similar in this respect to cars then being built by the Leeds Forge Company of England, both the Fox Solid Pressed Steel Equipment Company and the Leeds Forge Company being controlled by Sampson Fox, who was the orig inator of pressed-steel shapes in car construc tion. Up to this time, 1894, the possibilities of the use of steel in car construction, it is fair to state, were not fully appreciated by those con trolling the design and operation of railroad equipment, and to the Carnegie Steel Company should be given the credit for properly placing before the railroad world the possible advan tages to be derived from the use of an all-steel car. The interest displayed by the Carnegie Company was no doubt largely the result of a desire to increase the demand for its product by providing additional avenues for the con sumption of steel plates and shapes. The argu ments at the time set forth in favor of the use of steel for freight-car construction, and all which claims experience has since verified, were lightness, durability, strength, greater propor tion of paying load to total weight of -car, re duced cost of maintenance, less liability to dam age and greater salvage value.