Fig. 54.—Modern Passenger-car and Frame.

Some years ago the master car-builders of the different railroads experienced great difficulty in the transaction of their business from the fact that there were no common names to designate the parts of cars in different places in the country. What was known by one name in Chicago had quite a different name in Pittsburg or Boston. A committee was therefore appointed by the Master Car-Builders' Association to make a dictionary of terms used in car-construction and repairs. Such a dictionary has been prepared, and is a book of 560 pages, and has over two thousand illustrations. It has some peculiar features, one of which is described as follows in the preface: "To supply the want which demanded such a vocabulary, what might be called a double dictionary is needed. Thus, supposing that a car-builder in Chicago received an order for a 'journal-box'; by looking in an alphabetical list of words he could readily find that term and a description and definition of it. But suppose that he wanted to order such castings from the shop in Albany, and did not know their name; it would be impracticable for him to commence at A and look through to Z, or until he found the proper term to designate that part." To meet this difficulty the dictionary has very copious illustrations in which the different parts of cars are represented and numbered, and the names of the parts designated by the numbers are then given in a list accompanying the engraving. An alphabetical list of names and definitions is also given, as in an ordinary dictionary. The definition usually contains a reference to a number and a figure in which the object described is illustrated. In making the dictionary the compilers selected terms from those in use, where appropriate ones could be found. In other cases new names were devised. The book is a curious illustration of a more rapid growth of an art than of the language by which it is described.

The following table, compiled from "Poor's Manual of Railroads," gives the number of locomotives and of different kinds of cars in this country, beginning with 1876, and for each year thereafter. If the average length of locomotives and tenders is taken at 50 feet, those now owned by the railroads would make a continuous train 280 miles long; and the 1,033,368 cars, if they average 35 feet in length, would form a train which would be more than 6,800 miles long.

Statement of the Rolling Stock of Railroads in the United States; from "Poor's Manual" for 1889.

Year.Miles of railroad.Locomotives.Passenger-train cars.Freight cars.Total.
Passenger.Baggage, mail,
and Express.
1876 76,30514,562——358,101358,101
1877 79,20815,91112,0533,854392,175408,082
1878 80,83216,44511,6834,413423,013439,109
1879 84,39317,08412,0094,519480,190496,718
1880 92,14717,94912,7894,786539,255556,930
1881103,53020,11614,5484,976648,295667,819
1882114,46122,11415,5515,566730,451751,568
1883120,55223,62316,8895,848778,663801,400
1884125,15224,58717,3035,911798,399821,613
1885127,72925,93717,2906,044805,519828,853
1886133,60626,41519,2526,325845,914871,491
1887147,99927,64320,4576,554950,887977,898
1888154,27629,39821,4256,8271,005,1161,033,368

The number of cars, it will be seen, has more than doubled in ten years, so that if the same rate of increase continues for the next decade there will be over two millions of them on the railroads of this country alone. Beyond a certain point, numbers convey little idea of magnitude. Our railroad system and its equipment seem to be rapidly outgrowing the capacity of the human imagination to realize their extent. What it will be with another half-century of development it is impossible even to imagine.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] An engraving of a team and of a "Conestoga" wagon—which was used in this traffic—taken from a photograph of one which has survived to the present day, is given opposite (Fig. 1).

[10] It was not really the first train, as the Baltimore & Ohio and the South Carolina roads were in operation earlier.

[11] The truck was first applied by Mr. Jervis to an engine built by R. Stephenson & Co., of England.