When in October 1865 a combination was formed among eight railroads to establish a fast freight line between New York and Boston and Chicago, the maximum difference in the gauges of the several lines was one inch; and this was compensated for by a broad tread wheel. Each company contributed a number of cars proportionate to its mileage, one car for every three (afterward increased to one for every two) miles. In 1865 the quota of the Lake Shore & Northern Indiana was 179 cars; while in 1894 that road's quota of Red Line cars was 2,200.
In 1862 the United States government con ducted the greatest railroad business known up to that time. With headquarters at Nashville, the government operated 1,500 miles of road with 18,000 men, whose monthly wages amounted to $2,200,000. The rolling stock consisted of 271 engines and 3,000 cars. No en tirely new locomotives were built, but the 3,000 men employed in the locomotive repair shops pieced out fully equipped engines founded on a serviceable boiler or a pair of sound driving wheels. Among the triumphs of the national car-shops were, first, a headquarters car for General Thomas, the car being 50 feet long, iron-plated, and provided with a kitchen, a dining-room, a sleeping apartment and an office; and, secondly, the hospital trains, in which the jars and jojts were reduced to a minimum. It was during the year 1864 that General McCallum and Colonel Wyman came to Detroit and summoned the managers of the Michigan Car Company to stop all building then in progress and to work solely for the government. They gave a contract for a number of box- and flat-cars to be operated on Southern roads; and inasmuch as the gauge differed from that of the Northern roads, the new cars were loaded on flat-cars and sent to Cincinnati. The government officials fixed the price of the cars and made payment in certifi cates, some of which the company exchanged for materials, and the remainder were held until money could be obtained for them.
The enormous transportation business de veloped by the war, together with the labor conditions and the paper-money issues, com bined to raise the price of cars; so that the standard freight-car of 1864, a car 28 feet long and with a capacity of 10 tons, cost $1,000 or more. About 30 years later a car 34 feet long, with a capacity of 30 tons, and provided with automatic couplers, air-brakes and other im provements, could be purchased for about $500.
When the war ended the managers of rail ways were called on to face a heavy decline in both freight and passenger traffic, due to the disbanding of the armies. Money was not plentiful, cars were very expensive and the mania for extending lines into new territory had begun. Under these conditions the roads began a system of borrowing cars from the builders or from car-trust companies. The Michigan Car Company was probably the first to make contracts on a car-loaning basis; be that as it may, this company had at one time loaned to railroads between 6,000 and 7,000 cars, payment being made according to the car's mileage. With better times and better credit the roads began to buy cars for cash or on long time, as was most convenient; and loaning freight-cars to railroads on a mileage basis was practically discontinued. A majority of the refrigerator-cars, however, continued to be owned by private parties and run on a mileage basis. The reduction in the mileage rate practically killed the business of private ownership, since the new rate did not much more than pay for the repairs.
In the winter of 1868-69 the first Westing house air-brake was used on the Steubenville accommodation train running on the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & Saint Louis Railroad. The Penn sylvania road adopted it, and since the auto matic feature was added, in 1873, it has come into almost universal use on passenger-trains, while by far the larger proportion of new freight-cars built are equipped with it. In 1887 a train of SO freight-cars made a triumphal tour of the great lines, and by repeated tests, under varying conditions, proved that the Westinghouse brake can stop a train in one tenth the space required by the hand-brake. In 1867 Colonel Miller placed his patent plat form, buffer, and coupler on three cars building in the shops at Adrian, Mich.; and with great rapidity the dangerous old platform, with its loose link coupling, disappeared. In 1860 the Post-Office Department began to demand more room from the railroad companies, and year by year the mail-cars were increased from 17 to 20 feet in length, then to 35, and finally to 60 feet.