Railroading Moves Ahead

YEAR after year since the World War when the annual reports of railways have come out, people have read (if they ever do read annual reports) that the passenger revenue had declined to a new low and that some reduction had been made in the passenger-train mileage. It is notable that these declines were well under way before the depression days of 1930, and a singular thing is that the loss of a hundred million dollars a year in passenger revenue did not then appear to cause much concern. I suppose the main reason was that freight traffic was showing substantial increase, and widespread realization of the seriousness of the loss in passenger business came rather suddenly when freight traffic also collapsed. At any rate, since then the doctors have been prescribing drastically. Lower fares, more frequent schedules, faster and better trains, free meals, free taxicabs, more and better porter service without tips, better depots, all have been recommended, mostly, of course, by people without experience in railroading or any responsibility for results. Occasionally the comforting word has been passed out that ‘passenger business did not pay anyway, so it is just as well for the railways that they lost it.’

Then lightweight, high-speed, streamlined Diesel-powered trains came along, and the lust for the spectacle of combat on a grand scale has been gratified by conjuring up a fierce and clamorous battle between this ultramodern type train and the good old steam engine, which, it is said, ‘can after all run faster than any of them.’ Indeed, the steam locomotive can — it can make almost any speed desired. I am reminded that in 1893 the famous ‘999’ pulled the Empire State Express at 1121/2 miles per hour. There also comes to mind a curious pamphlet brought out in 1899 by the passenger department of the Burlington Railroad entitled Two Monsters and describing two passenger locomotives which were ‘the largest ever built for passenger service.’ Their driving wheels were 841/4 inches in diameter. In reality they were quite attractive and deserved a better name than monsters. There are records of their attaining speeds of about one hundred miles per hour. They were our first Atlantic-type locomotives, and after them has come a long line of Atlantics, which, with various changes in details and accessories, still are popular for small highspeed passenger trains. But I believe it is not the serious idea of anyone, and certainly it is not my idea, that the main point of the present-day railway passenger development is a contest between the speed capabilities of steam and Diesel trains.

I. THE BACKGROUND

Everyone who can remember things that happened more than twenty years ago knows that all long land journeys were thought of then in terms of railway travel if it was practicable to reach a railroad. Still earlier, in the so-called backwoods sections, life was confined pretty generally to the communities and the families were isolated. When a new railroad line was opened, people — many of them grown men and women — drove in to town from all the country around to see their first train. I remember that thirty years ago in Missouri on such an occasion the locomotive engineer, who was quite a wag, looked down at the curious crowd that was pressing close up alongside the track and cried, ‘Look out! I’m gonna turn her around!’ — then guffawed as the people fell back tumbling over one another.

In 1932, when the line from Childress to Pampa, Texas, was opened, two excursion trains made the trip and they carried scores of smartly dressed boys and girls up to fifteen or sixteen years of age who never before had ridden on a railroad. These children were not seeing their first train, however. They probably had passed plenty of trains while motoring on the pavements alongside the right of way. Trains were too slow for them except on some such special occasion as this celebration. In all parts of the country, no doubt, there are countless thousands of young people who, like these, never have ridden on a train. When they think of going anywhere they think of an automobile, and this is often true even for a journey across the continent.

In the short space of ten years almost our entire population has ceased to be railroad-minded about traveling. It does n’t take a generation for such a change; all the time needed is enough to build good highways and to produce fast automobiles. Expressed in figures, the high point was reached in 1920, and since then the decline has been exceedingly rapid. From an average of 440 miles of travel in a railway train by each person in the United States in 1920, the average fell as follows: —

Billion-Dollar Loss

What this has meant in dollars of railway earnings is that the revenue from passenger business on the Class I roads dropped from $1,289,000,000 in 1920 to $329,000,000 in 1933. A loss of nearly a billion dollars of business per year is startling even in these days of dizzy reckoning. This loss of revenue is particularly serious because passenger service could not readily be reduced in a measure comparable to the decline in railway travel. The reasons are sufficient and well known. There are many cases where enough patronage may remain to make a train necessary, although the number of cars on it may be reduced greatly and the number of passengers may be only a small fraction of the former number. In other cases the business remaining would not justify running a train except for what railway men call the ‘head-end’ business (forward of the passengers): that is to say, the mail and express must be handled as a convenience and necessity for the communities along the line whether or not anyone rides the trains. Passenger train miles — hence the cost of passenger service — have continued at a much higher level relatively than the number of passengers or the revenue therefrom.

Going into the matter a little more, we find that it is in trips of one hundred miles or less that the decline has been most severe. This may be illustrated by the fact that the average length of trips made by all except commutation passengers on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1920 was 69 miles, while in 1933 it was 156 miles. The railways lost about three fourths of all their travel, but they lost about five sixths of their short-haul local travel.

It has been quite a prevalent idea that the railways never made much out of their passenger business, and therefore it was not a serious thing for them to lose it. Paradoxical as it may sound, the first part of this statement is measurably true, but the second part is wholly erroneous. It should be possible to explain this seeming contradiction and the point is very important.

When the railways were handling a volume of freight and passenger business which approximated their capacity, it is true that the cost of running the passenger trains, including the cost of maintaining the motive power and equipment and a fair proportion of track upkeep, taxes, and overhead expenses, did absorb about all of the passenger revenues. The profit on most railroads was made in handling freight. If, therefore, a railroad could be used to its capacity for handling freight trains only, without any interference from passenger trains, it would be more profitable than handling both freight and passenger trains. But on almost all railroads passenger trains are necessary and must be operated. It has cost almost as much to operate the trains with only a few passengers as it did with many — that is, when we include the fair proportion of overhead expenses and cost of maintaining roadbed, tracks, and other facilities. These expenses are necessary for the lesser number of trains carrying a lesser number of people to almost as great an extent as they were for the larger passenger travel. Dining cars, for example, are operated at a loss, but it does not follow that there would be less loss if fewer people would eat in the dining cars so long as the patronage necessitates the operation of the dining cars at all.

The loss of passengers, where the roads have been left with the necessity of still running passenger trains, has reduced the net income by almost the whole amount that it has reduced the revenue. So it is true that, while the passenger business was never very profitable on most roads, losing the passenger business was disastrous, because expenses could not be reduced correspondingly.

Travel Attractions

Nothing is more thoughtless or unjust than to say that railway officers have not been disturbed by the loss of their passenger business or have not given attention to the question of what to do about it. Among other things, they have: —

Reduced fares to the point where they now average less per mile than in 1916.

Provided de luxe equipment having appointments comparable with those of the best hotels and clubs.

Inaugurated air conditioning on practically all of the principal trains.

Shortened the time schedules between many important points.

Consolidated trains, thus reducing train miles by stopping through trains at more stations and eliminating some local trains.

Taken off trains where the patronage no longer justified running them, although in doing so they have realized that reducing service accelerates the decline in patronage.

Substituted gas-electric units for steam trains where it has been practicable to do so.

Provided bus service on the highways where the business could be handled by that means.

These things obviously were for the purpose of holding traffic, or retrieving some that was lost, or reducing expenses. In spite of these measures, people have continued to desert the railroad trains and travel on the highways, especially for the shorter journeys. Of course there have been good reasons for doing so and this is no complaint. The reason has been principally the very great advantages which automobiles, unhampered by fixed schedules, running on splendid highways, have offered in comparison with conventional trains, and we may as well admit that to a considerable extent present-day travel by automobile is so alluring that, for the most part, people will continue to go that way. With the overcrowding of main highways and the appalling increase in motor-car accidents, however, the factor of safety plus new rail-travel conveniences may bring back to the rails a percentage of those who have been riding on rubber.

If anyone thinks that it has not taken courage for the railroads in their present financial straits to raise nearly $40,000,000 for the air conditioning of equipment — this being the sum that the railways and the Pullman Company will have expended for that class of improvement to passenger cars by July 1 of this year — and a good many millions more for the purchase of de luxe cars and modern passenger locomotives, in the face of such a decline in passenger traffic as they have been experiencing, I wonder if that person has been confronted with the necessity of making decisions involving matters of such magnitude or under such circumstances. Or if anyone thinks that it was an easy conclusion to experiment in the West by reducing fares from 3.6 cents to as low as 1.8 cents a mile, and doing away with the surcharge on Pullman tickets, let him reckon the consequences if the traveling public should not respond favorably and the Western railroads should lose a substantial part of their passenger revenue, which still amounts to $95,000,000 a year.

As a matter of fact, the wisdom of these fare reductions from the standpoint of net income still is in doubt, particularly after paying the cost of handling the increased business which resulted from the lower fares when contrasted with the showing in the Eastern district where fares were reduced but little. Many, many factors enter into this problem, such as the different character of the country served, the relative effectiveness of highway competition, the practicability of attracting sufficiently more travel by lower rates, the necessity of adding trains, and so forth. This whole question is now the subject of an investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Glorifying the Gas-Electric Car

We know by experience that gaselectric cars which have been put in service to replace steam trains have been the most economical units that could be operated. There are about six hundred of them in service on the railways, and on some roads they account for a very substantial part of the total passenger-train miles. The cost of operating one of them is well established and is known to be less than half the cost of operating a small steam train.

The earlier examples were not very comfortable, and because of their bouncing ways some of the first gaselectric cars have been dubbed variously ‘the puddle jumper,’ ‘the wooden shoe,’ ‘the galloping goose,’ ‘the merry widow,’ ‘the doodlebug,’ and so forth. They have been much improved and often handle one or more regular coaches as trailers. While serving an exceedingly useful function for some main-line local service and on secondary and branch lines, even in their present form they do not possess the public appeal which is so necessary. These trains, however, stimulated the idea which in 1934 brought about some startling developments. The simultaneous availability of Diesel engines instead of gasoline engines for power and of very strong and very lightweight structural material inspired the thought of transforming the essential features of the gas-electric car into a full-sized train by equipping the forward end with a Diesel electric power plant and expanding the trailing-car capacity by the use of lightweight construction. At the same time the concept was to build into such a train every conceivable comfort and luxury. Also, since speed was to be a feature of the new trains, the streamline idea was embodied in the design.

From this background there have emerged some streamlined trains which are complete innovations in railway transportation. They have a twofold purpose. First, to attract an increased traffic through achieving as nearly as possible the public’s ideals of speed, safety, convenience, and comfort; and, second, to operate at low cost. To-day at least a dozen streamline trains have been built or are under construction. I believe the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad will have the distinction of being the first to motorize its passenger service completely when this month it places in service two semi-lightweight trains between Jackson, Tennessee, and New Orleans.

II. THE PRESENT

The only streamline train in regular service in 1934 and the only Diesel streamline for which data of actual performance are available is that known as the Burlington Zephyr. It was especially planned for a day run through the Missouri River Valley between Kansas City, St. Joseph, Omaha, and Lincoln. Since November 11, 1934, it has made the round trip of 500 miles daily. That is long-settled country for the West, and the counties traversed have a total population of 1,200,000. Until the last decade the Burlington carried throngs of people on the several trains it operated there. The loss of traffic to the highways probably is as typical on that route as any that could be found, but even now a daylight local must be operated to accommodate the communities with express, baggage, and passenger service, although prior to last November the passenger travel had dwindled toward the vanishing point. The ‘ head-end ’ business on each of the local steam trains which were in operation there in recent years required 76 lineal feet of inside car space, and the average number of passengers was about 25.

The Zephyr is a three-unit articulated train of stainless steel, having 76 lineal feet of car space for mail, express, and baggage, seats for 72 passengers, and an electric grill for preparing and serving food at tables which are set up at the regular seats. Three types of accommodations are provided. First, a smoking compartment with leather seats, tan floor covering and walls blending into warm gray ceiling; second, regular passenger compartment with green carpet, upholstery, and walls; and third, an observation lounge with movable chairs, in a blue color scheme. All passenger sections are air conditioned and equipped with radio. The interior of the train is modern in treatment, relying on utility and simplicity — a straightforward use of the most suitable materials. Stainlesssteel window frames, door frames, and other exposed structural members are features of the inside finish. The effect is not unlike that achieved in some of the latest automobiles, and as styles change it will be the plan to keep the interior freshly decorated and furnished according to the latest mode.

The exterior is permanent, since it is made of stainless steel. It is left unpainted because its silvery surface not only is more beautiful so, but also expresses the motif of speed, and is consistent with the desire for economical maintenance. Whatever changes may come in the exterior appearance of trains, the Zephyr always will be pleasing to the eye because it conforms with sound principles in design, and its low smooth body, with rounded front, tapered tail, and shielded trucks, proclaims its suitability for effortless speed. It is clean as a polished knife blade of the same material. As Charles Francis Adams said of the George Washington Bridge, it is strictly modern in every particular, yet no one would think of applying to it the slippery epithet ‘modernistic.’

The architect, Paul P. Cret, of Philadelphia, is chiefly responsible for the exterior and interior treatment, although the outlines of the contour were determined from wand-tunnel tests made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At ordinary speeds and up to about fifty miles an hour, streamlining a railway train accomplishes comparatively little in the way of economy in fuel or gain in speed, but for higher speeds the benefits increase very rapidly, and at one hundred miles an hour the gain in speed due to streamlining is more than 30 per cent. The principal advantage, however, comes from the light weight, since on a railway train the full advantage of streamlining is obtained only when heading directly into the wind.

Experience always is the most dependable guide, especially when that experience extends over a considerable period and is of typical character. Experience with the Burlington Zephyr necessarily is short, but it has taken the place of conventional trains which are quite like those that perform a substantial part of the total passenger-train mileage of the country, and since this is all the actual service experience of a Diesel-powered streamline train there is available, it is very important. The numerous tests and actual records have verified the calculations to a remarkable extent, but show greater fuel economy than was promised. The keynote of the Zephyr idea is not that it will be operated at excessive speed, but quite the contrary. Its acceleration and deceleration are so rapid that a high average speed may be maintained with a maximum speed not greatly above that average. In other words, the Zephyr is designed to go places quickly with uniform but not excessively fast running between stops.

The Zephyr at Work

The regular schedule was inaugurated on November 11, 1934. The run from Lincoln to Omaha, 55 miles, is made in 55 minutes, and from Omaha to Kansas City, 195 miles, in 3 hours and 55 minutes, or at 50 miles an hour, including ten station stops.

The on-time performance has been almost perfect, notwithstanding the increased traffic, which has required longer stops. The two sets of steamtrain equipment which the Zephyr replaced between Kansas C ity and Omaha had a weight of 809,000 pounds each; the one which it replaced between Omaha and Lincoln weighed 627,800 pounds. The total weight of the Zephyr ready for service is 218,847.

The cost of operating the steam trains averaged approximately 65 cents per mile and the cost of operating the Zephyr has been about 30 cents per mile. Over a long period it is estimated that the cost of operating the Zephyr may run as high as 34 cents per mile. In the above comparison the steamtrain schedule was much the slower, and its cost would be increased if the faster schedule were undertaken. The maximum speed of the Zephyr in service is 85 miles an hour. At that speed it rides very comfortably and quietly, and is free from jerks and jolts in starting and stopping, although the acceleration and deceleration are accomplished very quickly, a speed of 60 miles an hour being reached in one minute and twentyfour seconds from a standing start.

The patronage has been so favorable that the accommodations have been taxed beyond their capacity on parts of the trip practically every day, and a fourth car, which has a capacity of 40 passengers, is being added, bringing the total up to 112. An attempt has been made by oral inquiry and by use of a questionnaire to ascertain the reasons why people have been riding the Zephyr. The information indicates that curiosity riders have accounted for about 12 per cent of the increase in travel, while about 32 per cent of the increase is accounted for by those who would have used the highway or airway except for the fast rail service. Passenger revenue has more than doubled.

We confidently expected that the performance of the train would be about as experience thus far has indicated. Our uncertainty was as to the attitude of the traveling public; we frankly regarded the undertaking as an experiment with the travel habits of people to ascertain whether it would be practicable to attract any large number if we afforded all the desirable features possible on a day train. The public response has far exceeded expectations.

There is a question in the minds of some as to the hazards at grade crossings. The power plant is carried over the front truck of a lightweight train, and in the case of the Zephyr there is more weight on its front truck than on the forward truck of our largest passenger locomotive. Any collision with even the smallest automobile may result in derailment of the heaviest train because some small broken part may raise the wheels off the rails. Instances of such accidents are only too numerous. The front of the Zephyr is shaped in such a way as to lift and deflect obstructions from the track rather than to roll them under the train. On several occasions it has struck animals on the track and it has had four encounters with highway vehicles at grade crossings, two with trucks and two with automobiles. In each case it cleared the track without derailment or damage — to the Zephyr. In this respect its batting average is 1000.

Comfortable riding at high speeds depends, of course, upon good track. On a curve the outer rail must be superelevated according to the radius of the curve and the speed of the train. The centre of gravity of the Zephyr is nineteen inches lower than that of the ordinary train, but equally important or more so is the fact that there is no overhang except at the rear end, since a single truck carries the ends of two adjacent cars, there being only four trucks (sixteen wheels) under the threecar train. The cars are joined by a hinge or swivel connection exactly over the centre of the truck. This ‘articulated ’ construction accounts for the entire absence of independent motion of the cars. It also ensures smooth starting and stopping, for the entire train moves as a unit.

One Thousand Miles without Stopping

On the morning of May 26, 1934, the Zephyr left Denver at four minutes after five o’clock, Mountain Time, and arrived at Chicago that evening at nine minutes after seven, Central Standard Time, having covered the 1015 miles in 13 hours and 5 minutes, at an average speed of 77.6 miles an hour without making a single stop. It proceeded through the centre of Chicago to the Lake Front, a total of 1018 miles without stopping. This is twice the non-stop distance ever covered by train before or since, and was undertaken as a demonstration of ability to sustain continuous high speed over a long period. The importance of this performance has been minimized by reports that all grade crossings were guarded and all switches were spiked. The latter statement is wholly in error; as for the former, the public interest in the run was so intense that, in order to avoid accidents to spectators and delays to the train, arrangements were made with local authorities to keep the crowds back from road crossings. That was a wise precaution, as it is estimated that more than half a million people saw the train at points along the route or at the terminals. They press very close to the track unless someone in authority explains the danger, as well as the better vantage point some distance back.

Because Denver is a mile above the sea, the trip has been compared with one down a toboggan slide. The grade descends to the Missouri River crossing at Plattsmouth, and is undulating across Iowa and Illinois. The 537 miles from Denver to Plattsmouth have a descent of 4164 feet. The slope is approximately that which a level board ten feet long would have if one end of it were raised one sixth of an inch. The grade actually accounts for a saving of about fifteen minutes compared with the time required westward, from Chicago to Denver. But in fairness it should be stated that all of the very high speed records of streamline trains have been downhill and the fastest runs have been on the steepest grades.

Minor Troubles

Since this is a statement of record it may be well to mention a delay of an hour in leaving Denver, and the other incidents which constitute our trouble list. A broken bearing in one of the motors was discovered only a few hours before the scheduled departure from Denver and was replaced by one which was borrowed from the Union Pacific. There was an unimportant repercussion from this failure on June 13, when it was found that a gear had been insecurely attached. Neither this nor the bearing failure had any relation to the new type of power plant. On July 3 a minor defect in the method of plugging the core holes in the cylinders was found, and that detail was changed both on the Zephyr engine and on those of later construction. On January 15, 1935, a cylinder liner cracked, owing to a defect in casting, and allowed water to enter, causing the engine to stop. The train had nearly completed its day’s run and was towed to Lincoln by a steam engine. A new cylinder liner was placed and the regular run was made the following day and every day since. Widespread publicity was given to this incident because it was news for the Zephyr, which had displaced two steam-train schedules, to be assisted by a steam locomotive. The break was no more significant than failures which happen to parts of steam locomotives.

Considering that this is the first Diesel engine of its kind ever installed in a passenger train in this country, its performance has been truly remarkable. The Zephyr having now covered approximately 100,000 miles, including 30,000 during its exhibition tour through 222 cities from coast to coast, it may be said with confidence that there are no inherent defects in the power plant. No trouble of any kind has been experienced with the car structure. It has proved to be sturdy and strong and promises the maximum of permanency with the minimum of maintenance.

III. THE FUTURE

At the beginning of the century there were isolated instances where gasoline engines were being tried for pumping water for railroad use, and there were small inspection cars which were propelled by gasoline engines — that is, they were so propelled when the engines ran. I can well remember pushing these early types of inspection cars over miles of railroad track, always hoping that the engine would start running, which in truth it did every now and then. Until about 1908, we were afraid to rely on gasoline engines for such important work as pumping water as a general proposition, and even later at important water stations a steam plant was kept in reserve.

It was about this time that I first saw a gasoline rail car. It was known as the McKeen car and was shown by the Union Pacific, having been sponsored by the late Edward H. Harriman. It had a very distinctive appearance because of its color, its rounded comers, bulging sides, and windows the shape of portholes. In railroad colloquy it was ‘the potato bug.’ This car embodied many of the ideas and features which are built into the present-day gas-electric cars, which have saved the railways enormous sums of money in recent years, to say nothing of the promise for the future. It seems singular that the development of these cars did not come along much more rapidly from that beginning. For several years no substantial progress was made towards introducing them. Of course the need was not so pressing as it became later, and the problem of applying the power was a difficult one because of the relatively great weight of a rail car compared with an automobile. Using electric motors for traction and the engines merely as portable power plants was the solution, and the gasoline car became the gas-electric.

The Diesel engine was perfected and for years has been probably the most efficient of all internal-combustion power units. It does not have either a carburetor or an electric ignition system, and its outstanding advantages are its dependability and its use of low-grade fuel instead of gasoline. The high compression which develops, by molecular friction, sufficient heat to ignite the fuel when injected into the combustion chamber has made necessary very heavy and bulky construction. For that reason its use has been confined almost exclusively to stationary plants, marine engines, and railroad switching locomotives. The weight per horsepower in such installations has ranged from 65 to 200 pounds or more. Consequently Diesel engines have been relatively expensive in first cost.

It was not until 1933 that manufacturers were able to offer the railroads Diesel engines which were suitable for lightweight passenger trains of the type we are considering. That was because up to then there were no metals sufficiently strong, reliable, and workable from which to produce power plants weighing only about twenty pounds per horsepower. Welded alloys — Cromansil (chromium-manganesesilicon), for example — solved this problem in the case of the Zephyr. The entire front-end car frame, which also is the engine bed, is made of one piece, giving unprecedented strength and sturdiness at the point where most needed.

Simultaneously it was found that stainless steel could be welded successfully by an electric process that would not destroy its two vital and outstanding qualities, resistance to corrosion and very great strength. ‘Shotweld’ is the name for this method of fabrication and it is not too much to say that it has broadened the use of stainless steel from the restricted limits of cutlery, dental and surgical tools, and so forth, to that of a superlative structural material. In order to build a truly lightweight structure without sacrifice of strength or safety it is necessary that the materials used shall be so placed in the design and so fabricated as to utilize their full capabilities, and to do this it is imperative that they shall remain permanently as they were when new — they must not rust or corrode.

Thus it was only recently that there were made available the right internal combustion engine for propulsion and also a material which would at once give strength, dependability, and the essential lightness of weight for the cars. All of this is an explanation of the alleged backwardness of railway managements.

Modern Alchemy

To the metallurgists should go a large part of the credit for making possible these new developments, although the fine properties of stainless steel had been known for several years. Now other alloys are being evolved, and in view of what has been done and the manufacturers’ awareness of the demand for still further means of reducing the weight of railway equipment and structures, it seems safe to predict that metallurgists will continue to perform what once would have been hailed as miracles. Indeed, the alchemists of old hardly were credited with products which excelled in quality or characteristics many of those metals in the group known as stainless steels. Until the recent past the weight of railway equipment and structures has been increasing steadily in accordance with the requirements of economical operation, which could be met only by mass production — that is, by increasing the car unit, locomotive unit, and consequently the train unit. This has been good railroading, and such success as the railways have had has been based on low-cost transportation, which in turn has been made possible by the ever-increasing size of units.

The dominant spirit of present-day railroading is speed. The changes from the old order have been wrought by various forces and circumstances, some economic, some competitive, and some perhaps misguided. Highway competition — that is, trucks — has compelled some of the high-speed movement of railroad freight, but not all of it. Competition among the railroads themselves, and some doubt as to the importance of handling very large trains, have brought about a reduction in the tonnage handled, especially where speed has controlled.

As this is being written the arbitrary limitation of train lengths by legislation is being urged in almost every state and in the Congress. This, and the companion measure to increase arbitrarily the number of trainmen, would increase the cost of transportation substantially. Whether the orthodox theory that heavy-tonnage trains are essential to railroad success or the idea that trains should be made smaller shall prevail, there is no doubt about the importance of having the cars as light as possible, because in any case the lighter the cars, the greater the percentage of the gross load behind the locomotive that will be ‘pay’ load.

Conclusions

Enough is known to warrant some suggestions as to the future. While perhaps only a small percentage of the total travel on the highways can be recaptured by the railways, some of it can be persuaded to go on fast, comfortable, modern trains, particularly for daylight trips up to four hundred or five hundred miles. For such trains the Diesel electric power plants and lightweight articulated cars provide unusually attractive service and show substantial economies. Just how much per pound it is worth to reduce weight of train has not yet been proved, but that is capable of approximate determination by tests. Building the exterior of these fast trains with streamline contours and smoothing the surface are worth while where speeds in excess of sixty miles an hour predominate, especially since the added cost is only about $6500 per train. Taking into account headwinds, virtual velocities of well above one hundred miles an hour often are encountered.

The construction of very light passenger trains propelled by Diesel electric power has been made practical only within the last two years. The success of the Burlington Zephyr and similar trains is significant in the possibilities they hold for increasing passenger revenue and reducing passenger-train cost, but more important is what they symbolize in the way of new methods and materials to be used in the construction of the future. New conceptions of the relationship of weight and bulk to strength of materials will affect the design of freight and passenger cars, as well as locomotives.

There is a niche in the passenger service into which the Zephyr-type train will fit, and in that place it will increase revenue and reduce cost of operation. At present the particular niche seems to be in relatively small trains on daylight runs.¹

A return of the railways to extensive purchases for improvement of their plants would mean much in the stimulation of the durable-goods industries. The advantages of lightweight construction in freight and passenger cars and of new motive power, both steam and Diesel, go far to justify undertaking such a programme. The better the new cars and locomotives are, the more quickly should they be procured and the more of them.

The outstanding factor in transportation to-day is that within the last fifteen years there has been created in this country a giant rival of the railways consisting of 920,000 miles of improved roads, upon which are being operated some 24,000,000 motor vehicles. This transportation system has cost probably thirty-five billions of dollars. It compares with a twenty-five-billiondollar railway system made up of 246,000 miles of road and about 2,400,000 cars and 54,000 locomotives. It is obvious that the aggregate transportation bill of the country, including interest on investment, has more than doubled, particularly since the average life of a highway vehicle is only about seven years, or about one third that of a railway car. The smaller units which use the highway also have much higher operating costs than the larger units on the railway, whether figured on the ton-mile or passenger-mile basis.

The great convenience and new opportunities for pleasure which the modern highway vehicle affords to the average family of course account for its universal use. It has completely changed the recreational habits of most of the people and has profoundly affected our civilization. The railways too have been affected, and it is but natural that so far as possible they should adopt the features which have been used by their rivals so successfully. This is changing the tempo of railway transportation, and that, perhaps, may be the most important influence of the new lightweight trains. Named for the west wind of springtime promise, the Zephyr may usher in a revival of business and an era of new progress in railroading.