| 12 | PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD | June, 1928 |
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The lighting system of the PennsylvaniaRailroad coach is designed to provide a generous flood of light thoughoutthe entire car. Current is obtained from an axle generator or storagebattery installed in each car.
The interior appearance of the cars is beingconstantly improved by the use of pleasing decorations and contrasts inthe color schemes. light and cheerful ceilings are among the mostwidely appreciated features.
The latest innovation in Pennsylvania railroadpassenger car equipment is the roller bearing. As early as 1915,the pennsylvania Railroad began experiments to determine whether anti-frictionbearings could be used to advantage in passenger car trucks. Severalhundred Pennsylvania Railroad passenger coaches are now equipped with rollerbearings and they have been made standard for passenger carrying equipment. The Pennsylvania was the first railroad thus to standardize roller bearingson its passenger cars.
The great advantage of roller bearings liesin the ease with which trains so equipped can be started from a standingposition. To start a train equipped with the old bearings an excessof power is required over that which will easily handle an even heaviertrain once the cars are in | motion. It has been necessary to have a great reservoirof power to get the trains under way this power very seldom being usedto capacity after the cars are started. With roller bearings a largepart of this difficulty is eliminated.
A roller bearing train requires 80% less powerto start on a straight level track than is necessary for a train equippedwith the old bearings. The locomotive gets the cars under way smoothlyand easily with an absence of all jar and jerk. After a speed oftwo miles an hour is reached the roller bearing train is no easier to haulthan a train equipped with the old type bearing. The roller bearings, however,have eliminated the need for excessive power used only in starting trainsand have made the start much more gentle and easy.
And the work goes on. Studies are constantlybeing made by the railroad to improve types of couplings, air brake systems,trucks, running gear, interior equipment; in fact every feature of carconstruction. nothing escapes the unceasing scrutiny of the expertsin the research departments. The Pennsylvania Railroad is not satisfiedunless it operated the safest, the most comfortable and the most efficientpassenger cars which it is possible to design and build.
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 One of America's primitive railroad trains, reproduced froma wood cut of 1832. The passenger cars were practically stage coachesfitted for rail operation, as illustrated by the second car of this train. The word "coach," still used to signify a railroad passenger car, is arelic of those pioneer days of American railroading. This picturealso suggests the idea that early railroad passengers sometimes carriedalong their private means of transportation while making railjourneys. Apparently, the family coach was loaded intact on a flat car while thehorses were carried comfortably in a specially designed car of their own. At the conclusion of the railroad trip the party probably continued toits destination in the coach. The custom of carrying the privateconveyances of rail passengers along with them on their trains in practicedtoday in England and on the Continent though only to a very limited extent. Automobiles, of course, are the vehicles thus transported in these twentiethcentury days..
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