Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Caption: Marker detail: Manly Portable Convict Car Illustration
Additional Description: Grating on one side left off to show inside arrangement of bunks, heater, toilet and vent flue.

Any one familiar with the old style convict car with the cumbersome heating arrangement underneath will recognize the decided improvement of the "utility corridor" construction, as shown above, in which the heat and toilet is conveniently placed in a cross corridor inside the car. There are no exposed pipes, flues or heater boxes to be rusting out and blowing down and the inside heater is 50% more efficient on less fuel than with the under-heat type in which much of the heat was lost by outside radiation and never got inside the car at all. The partitions around the heater are lined with double thickness asbestos cloth between corrugated metal plates so that they get no warmer than any other part of car. Hooks are provided around this cross corridor for hanging up and drying out clothes at night. The ventilating flue in front end comes down to within 4” of the floor and serves the purpose of drawing the cooler air near the floor out through the roof creating a free circulation of fresh warm air in the coldest weather.
Submitted: May 29, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Database Locator Identification Number: p476999
File Size: 2.208 Megabytes

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