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1942 Quiz Book on Railroads and Railroading
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Page 5 of 1942 Quiz Book on Railroads and Railroading
FREIGHT TRAIN EQUIPMENT
131. How many freight cars are operated on the American railroads?
At the beginning of 1941, the railroads of United States owned 1,706,387 freight-train and private car companies, industrial firms others owned 281,214 freight-carrying cars, making 1,987,601 freight-train cars in all.
132. What is the length of a freight car?
Freight cars vary in length from about 34 feet to 75 feet, the average length being about 43 feet, outside over-all measurements.
133. What is the cubic capacity of a box car?
The capacity of 320,000 box cars owned by the leading railroad systems in the United States range; from 2,001 to 6,176 cubic feet, the average being 3,102 cubic feet.
134. How much has the capacity of freight cars increased in recent years?
The capacity of the average railway-owned freight car in service increased from 36.9 tons in 1911 to 42.5 tons in 1921, to 47.0 tons in 1931 an to 50.4 tons in 1941. The increase from 1911 to 1941 was 37 per cent.
135. How many refrigerator cars are there in the United States?
At the beginning of 1941 there were 144,706 refrigerator cars in this country. Of these, 122,934 were owned by private car companies, including railroad owned and controlled car lines, and industrial firms, and 21,772 were owned by individual railroads.
136. What is a car dumper, and how does it work?
A car dumper is a mechanical device installed in a railroad track or tipple which grips an open-top freight car, holding it firmly on the track, and
tips it upside down, dumping its contents, and then restoring the car to an upright position, kick it forward to make ready for the next. car. C
dumpers, arc used for transferring coal, oil sulphur and other bulk commodities from opentop cars into holds of vessels. It is also used No, this is not a "Man from Mars," but a "sand-blaster" man removing rust from old box car frame by the sand-blowing process. A diver's helmet equipped with a special filter protects eyes and lungs. terminals for transferring bulk materials from one car to another, and at industrial plants for un-
loading bulk materials.
137. What is meant by "work equipment" in railway service?
Work equipment is rolling stock designed especially for the construction and maintenance of the railroad, such as locomotive cranes, derrick cars, pile-drivers, steam-shovels, rail-unloaders, dump cars, ballast-spreaders, ditchers, weed-burners, inspection cars, instruction cars, dynamometer cars, clearance cars, scale-test cars, hand cars, track-sweepers, rail-defect detectors, scaffold cars, camp cars, supply cars and snow-plows.
138. How much labor goes into the construction of a railway box car?
The building of a box car provides approximately 2,200 man-hours of work, (equivalent to about one year's work for one man), including the labor employed in the production of the steel and other materials which go into its construction.
139. Do the railroads provide special equipment for special traffic?
There are many kinds of freight and express cars, each especially adapted to handling certain commodities. Among them are: flat cars, box cars, automobile cars, furniture cars, container cars, coal hopper cars, gondola cars, refrigerator cars, tank cars, livestock cars, horse cars, milk cars, poultry
cars and logging cars.
140. How much floating equipment do the railroads operate?
At the beginning of 1941, the railroads of the United States had in service 1,911 steamboats, tugboats, barges, car floats, ferries and other units of floating equipment.
141. How many manufacturing establishments are engaged in the construction of railway cars?
The United States Census of Manufactures reports 143 establishments engaged in the manufacture of railway cars in 1939. During that year these establishments employed an average of 28,792 persons; paid $44,108,727 in salaries and wages; spent $103,661,234 for materials and supplies, fuel and other purchased items, and produced equipment valued at $168,381,877.
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