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Show THE AMERICAN WAY RAILROADS ARE jgf' t HERE TO STAY By Geort Vc .1 (v 1 A few weeks ago it vas my great pleasure and privilege to visit the exhibition of the Railway Rail-way Supply Manufacturers Association As-sociation held at Atlantic City. Folks, if you have been entertaining enter-taining the idea that the railroads rail-roads are on their way out of the American scheme, let me tell you that the railroads are here to stay. The things these 290 railway supply manufacturers, represented represent-ed at the exhibition, haven't thought up for the greater comfort com-fort of the traveling public and expediting the movement of freight! And they had over ten million dollars' worth of concrete con-crete evidence at the exhibition to prove that they haven't the slightest doubt about the future of railroading. Undoubtedly, the most interesting inter-esting exhibit was General Motors' Mo-tors' Train of Tomorrow. This train includes a Diesel locomotive locomo-tive and four cars a diner, sleeper, coach and observation lounge car. Each car has an Astra-Dome observation space for 24 passengers and varied floor levels that make them different from anything previously operated oper-ated on rails. ! The train represents the cooperative coop-erative efforts of five General Motors Divisions as well as hundreds of outside companies that worked on the development of new equipment or the improvement im-provement of present equipment. For instance, G. M.'s Electro-Motive Electro-Motive Division, besides providing provid-ing the motive power for the train, cooperated with the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Manufactur-ing Company on the detailed engineering en-gineering and construction. This latter company built the cars. The Train of Tomorrow has a considerable number oyfirsts" among which are: Ah independent inde-pendent Diesel power "system for each car; a four-level floor space; an all-electric kitchen; the Astra-Dome-lower-level combination; combina-tion; train-to-home telephone; wire - recorded entertainment; new type of outside hangar springing system which minimizes mini-mizes bumpiness and side-sway. i AS to its decor, one must see the train to really appreciate what a thing of beauty it is. Dozens of new interior designs, materials and methods have been utilized to achieve comfort and beauty as well as utility in the train's interior. However, the most intriguing feature of the train is one not visible to the naked eye. General Gen-eral Motors has taken out no patents on any of its features and has offered them without restrictions re-strictions to the railroad industry. indus-try. Its purpose in building this train was to make some contribution contri-bution toward better rail travel, thus creating a greater interest in rail transportation by the public pub-lic and a greater acceptance of the products furnished by General Gen-eral Motors to railroads. For railroads to be able to purchase modern equipment such as the Train of Tomorrow, they must be allowed to earn a reasonable rea-sonable profit. On this score, Railway Age of June 23, 1947 makes the following comment: "Railroad men continue to complain about the - industry's earnings and they must do so until the condition is corrected, but let's not mistake constructive construc-tive complaints at railroad earnings earn-ings for the moans of pessimis-ism. pessimis-ism. Such objections are a part of the pattern for progress not a dirge chanted over an ir-remedial ir-remedial tragedy. Who can doubt that the ingenuity and energy en-ergy which have enabled the industry in-dustry to surmount the difficulties difficul-ties of violent traffic fluctuations will, at length, also find the formula for-mula which will convince the public of the need for adequate earnings?" Yes, the public must disabuse its mind of the fallacy that it is a crime to pay a dividend to a railroad stockholder, that is, if the public wants to ride on "trains of tomorrow." It is going go-ing to take plenty of money to purchase this modern equipment and that money will not be forth-coming forth-coming if investors do not see an opportunity for a reasonable return on their investments. |