Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 156, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1916 — WOODEN CARS ARE PASSING [ARTICLE]

WOODEN CARS ARE PASSING

Will Have Been Replaced by Steel Coaches on All Principal Railroads In Ten Years, It Is Believed. -

Disappearance of wooden cars from the principal railroads of the country within a period of ten years is considered probable. This prediction Is based upon the figures embodied in a report prepared for the information of congress, in which It is stated that nearly one-fourth of the 61,728 passenger cars at present in use are of all-steel construction. ’

At the beginning of the year there were 14,286 all-steel coaches in service, and of the 1,094 new cars under construction only three were of wood, while in 1909 in the United States there were only 629 cars of steel. The gain in steel has thus been very rapid, and the encouraging feature of the situation is the voluntary acceptance of fireproof material by the transportation managers.

The cost of replacing the wooden equipment in use with steel is heavy —not less than $529,000,000, according to estimates presented to the inter--state commerce commission—and as so large an amount cannot be expended in one year, the -assumption that the expenditure will be distributed over a period of ten years seems to be within the bounds of probability. Perhaps the time may be shortened by intelligent co-operation between the federal and state authorities and the railroads. —Providence Journal.