In 1856 Capt. (later Sir) Douglas Galton, of the Royal Engineers, was sent to America to investigate our railways. His report to the lords of the Privy Council for Trade gives a straightforward and unbiased account of his investigations. Perhaps there is extant no other report which so comprehensively discusses the railway situation in the United States about that date.
*The practice of constructing railways fin America] in a hasty and imperfect manner,* says Captain Galton, *has led to the adoption of a form of rolling stock capable of adapting itself to the inequalities of the road; it is also constructed on the principle of diminishing the useless weight carried in a train. The principle is that the body of the car is carried on two trucks, to which the body is at tached by means of a pintle in the centre, the weight resting on small rollers at each side. The framing of the truck is supported on springs resting on the axles, and the pintle and rollers are fixed to a cross-beam which is at tached by springs to the main framing; so that between the body of the car and the axles are a double set of springs. India-rubber springs are in general use, but they often become hard; consequently sometimes steel springs are used, with great advantage. Any side movement which might result from the slight play allowed to the cross-beam is counteracted by springs placed between its ends and the framing. An iron hoop attached to the framing passes under the axle on each side, so as to support the axle in case it should break? The bearings Captain Galton found not un like those used in England, but the use of oil as a lubricator was novel. He was told that under favorable circumstances the oil in an axle-box needed to be renewed but once a month; but that it was difficult to obtain good oil. The wheels were of cast-iron, with chilled tires; they were from 30 to 36 inches in diameter, weighed rather more than 500 pounds and were without spokes. When made by the best makers they would run from 60,000 to 80,000 miles before the tires were worn, and they cost from $14.50 to $17.00 each. The iron used in making wheels was of very superior quality; and so great was the practical skill required that but three firms in the United States could be relied on to furnish wheels of the first grade.
The most approved form of draw-bar was continuous under the car, and was attached to the elliptic springs, acting in both directions. The iron shackle was in general use, but some railways preferred an oak shackle 18 inches long, 2 inches thick and 6 inches broad. This block was bound with an iron band di vided on each side at the centre, so that a car on leaving the rails would break the shackle transversely.
Already the automatic coupler for freight cars was prefigured in a device by which the pin in the bumper of one of the cars was sup ported by means of a ball, so that the shackle of the on-coming car pushed back this ball and let the pin fall into its place. All passenger cars and most freight-cars were supplied with brakes; and the Philadelphia & Reading Rail road was endeavoring to anticipate the day of train-brakes by an invention whereby a sudden check in the speed of the engine applied the brakes to the wheels of all the cars. The toilet, the car-stove and the ice-water tank all had established themselves in the best cars.
On the Illinois Central, between Cairo and Dubuque, some of the cars were filled with compartments in which the backs of seats turned up and so formed two tiers of berths or sofas, for the accommodation of persons who might wish to lie down and were willing to pay for the privilege. The passenger-car had attained a length of 60 feet, though the 30- and 45-foot cars were more common; the baggage-cars, with their compartments for mail and express, were 30 feet long, and the freight cars from 28 to 30 feet. In those days the freight-cars were constructed more strongly than were the passenger-coaches; a Baltimore & Ohio freight-car 28 feet long, and with a capacity of nine tons, itself weighed six tons.
Of necessity progress in car-building had to wait for the development of the railroads. The original roads were not constructed as through lines between the larger cities, but as the connecting-links between natural water ways, answering to the portages or carrying places of the old days when commerce was conducted in canoes. Often built as the result of local or State enterprise, a short line was sufficient to use up the scanty capital available, or to exhaust the willingness of the people to be taxed for public improvements. The great systems of to-day represent survivals of the fittest early ventures, and development accord ing to environment. Thus the various, small roads which traversed the present main line of the New York Central were not consoli dated until 1853, and the same year the roads between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh came un der. one control. So late as 1862 there were five separate companies operating the lines between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan; and as each road had a gauge of its own, it was regarded as a triumph in car construction when freight-cars of compromise gauge were built to run over all five roads. In 1869, how ever, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern lines came under a single head.