A All-Steel Railway Coaches LL-STEEL By J. Mayne Baltimore passenger coaches are soon to be installed on all the lines included in the vast Harriman system, and the old wooden cars are soon to become things of the past. The tests that have been made have proved eminently satisfactory; and orders have been officially issued by President Harriman, that all-steel cars shall be introduced on the lines of the Southern Pacific. A large order for steel coaches has already been placed in the East, and the first cars are expected to arrive before long in San Francisco. Others are to follow as rapidly as they can be turned out. All-steel coaches will be a radical innovation in the history of Western railroading. Now that President Harriman has determined upon the change, the subject is being discussed and commented upon by the press, railroad officials, and all ranks of railway employees. END VIEW OF ALL-STEEL PASSENGER COACH. The practicability of using steel cars has passed the experimental stage, and definite tests have demonstrated that allsteel cars can be made as easily, and, considering the benefits afforded, as cheaply, as wooden cars. Electricity, generated by the swiftly revolving axle of the car, and stored in the baggage car, will be substituted for gas for heating or lighting purposes. This, with the introduction of metal equipment, is expected to minimize the liability to wrecks and their disastrous results. All-steel construction, it is assumed, will prevent the danger of cars telescoping; and the use of electricity will eliminate the danger of fire. This change was not decided upon until exhaustive tests had been made with two all-steel cars built upon a special order in the East, according to company plans. All-steel passenger equipment for universal use has been the dream of master car-builders for years; but the chief objection to the plan has been the excessive weight of a car made entirely of metal. The 60-foot day coach weighs 90,000 pounds, and a Pullman sleeper from 115,000 to 160,000 pounds. The increase in weight in the steel cars, using the special steel plates at first considered, would be about 15 per cent, so that a train made up of metal equipment, and weighing in excess of 100,000 pounds per car, could not be easily handled over the steep mountain grades of Western roads. Experiments made by the Southern Pacific have recently developed the possibility of producing a steel car weighing not more than 10 per cent over wooden coaches. This is done by using lighter plates of greater strength, which are made especially for this class of construction. The general equipment of the Harriman lines will follow as soon as the cars can be completed. It is expected, after the idea has been somewhat improved and more fully worked out, that steel cars can be built which will be even lighter than the wooden ones now in use. The Pullman Company will follow Harriman's lead, and will soon place allsteel sleepers in commission. All the present equipment of the Pullman Company now turned out embodies recent improvements in the way of all-steel and heavily reinforced platforms and vestibules. It is the boast of the Pullman Company that none of its cars have ever telescoped, no matter how serious the wreck; and the new all-steel construction will render their coaches all the more impervious to shocks. In the wreck of the Twentieth Century Limited near Mentor, Ohio, last year, the Pullman cars were so little damaged, although the train was moving at a high rate of speed, that they were placed in service soon afterward. The progress of the movement toward all-steel construction, is further shown in the recently reported decision of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to contract for a large number of steel passenger cars, that company desiring to have only steel cars run through the system of tunnels under the North and East Rivers in connection with the great new terminal station in New York City. The entire practicability of steel cars has been well shown by those in service in the New York subway; and no railway officer hereafter will be willing to operate wooden passenger cars in a tunnel system, particularly with electric motive power, if it can be avoided. But for general railway service, too, the steel-frame passenger car promises so greatly to reduce the casualties in wrecks that the railways cannot too soon undertake its rapid introduction. It will be economy to do so. The Southern Pacific very recently had an all-metal passenger coach built at its great car shops at Sacramento, Cal. This new car is now being thoroughly "tried out" on the "Owl Limited," running between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is giving complete satisfaction. The underframe consists of two heavy steel beams extending the entire length of the car, and running to the ends of the platforms. The floor construction is composed of steel beams, asbestos, and concrete, the whole being covered with thick, heavy linoleum. The vestibules are of the strongest possible kind to resist telescoping. The car is 60 feet long, and has a seating capacity for 72 passengers. There are excellent arrangements for ventilation, and it is lighted and heated with combination gas and electric lamps by the Moskowitz axle equipment. This steel car weighs 103,200 pounds, which is about 10,000 pounds heavier than the ordinary wooden coach of the same dimensions; but it is regarded as quite possible that this weight may be materially lessened as a result of study and practical experiments. It is understood that the Pullman Company will follow the lead of the Harriman lines, and soon have in use all-metal coaches and sleepers. In view of the demand likely to arise in the near future, many car-building firms are extending their plants to include facilities for the new kind of construction. JO the young man who likes to breathe deeply of pure outdoor air, to tramp afield, and to be with the trees and the brooks and the rocks, and who is least afraid of heat or cold or hard outdoor work, the profession of American forestry appears to be one of the most inviting of fields today. It is a new profession, a new field in this country, and has developed-to even what it is to-day-almost entirely within the past eight or ten years. No longer than that ago, the people at large in the United States, if they ever thought anything at all about the matter, dis Gen cerned in the few people who talked on forestry, a small body of scientific enthusiasts, not to say cranks. Trees? Why, they were things to be cut downgotten out of the way. Ever since our fathers first landed, there had been unceasing war between the ax and the tree. Mostly, trees interfered with agriculture; therefore they must go. erally there was a polite smile at best for the mossbacks who talked about "conserving forests." And so things were, not longer ago than the youngest voter can remember. Now, this year, Congress appropriated $1,000,000 in cash for the year's expenses of the Bureau of Forestry, while another three-quarters of a million is received from the administra |