Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 167, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1916 — Steel Passenger Car Facts. [ARTICLE]

Steel Passenger Car Facts.

The latest compilation of equipment statistics available shows that at the close of last year 61,728 passenger cars were in service on the railroads of the United States, of which 41,382 were of wood construction, 14,286 all-steel, while 6,000 had steel underframes and wooden bodies; that during the years 1913, 1914 and 1915, 6,774 wooden cars were retired from service, 2,130 having been scrapped last year. From which it appears that the process of substituting steel for wooden cars is being accelerated in geometrical ratio, so to speak, since the entire number of the former in use in 1909 was only 629, of which nearly all were in service on the Pennsylvania system, whereas, at the end of seven years, there were more than 14.000. Last year 1,250 all-steel cars were built, and only 96 wooden ones, while of the 1,904 cars under construction on January 1 last only three were of wood. To replace even the wooden cars yet remaining in use with all-steel, could it be done outright, would cost upward of $500,000,000.