И. А. Курбасова Е. И. Силантьева

TEXT В. REFRIGERATOR CARS

(1) All of us are familiar with a refrigerator car which is known to be a special type of covered car. Before the refrigerator car was invented, some 100 years ago, it was impossible to convey fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and other food products for long distances.

(2)-In old days, the refrigerator car used ice or a mix­ture of ice and salt (соль) to keep the goods cold. Then dry (искусственный) ice was made use of. Modern cars are furnished.with refrigerator&mjts which are very mu.ch like the-electric refrigerators used in our home .
(3) The refrigerator unit is driven by a diesel engine and is provided with, automatic controls which maintain the proper temperature in the freight compartments.
(4) Thanks to the heat insulation (изоляция) the refrig­erator cars may be used to carry fruit and vegetables in the winter time. The insulated body of the car reliably protects the goods from the outside cold. But in countries where winters happen to be very cold the refrigerator car may be provided with electric heating.
(5) In the USSR, there are special five-car refrigerator sets (секция) equipped with refrigerating and heating units. The train is composed of one diesel car and four refrigera­tor wagons, the former is arranged in the middle of the train and is used for the centralized supply of power to all the wagons of the train.
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TEXT С. SLEEPING CARS

(1) One of the most important railroad inventions is sure to be a sleeping car. The earliest trains had no sleep­ing cars. There was really no need for them for the early railroads were short, no journey lasted more than a few hours. As railroads increased in number and better cars were built, the passengers could make longer journeys, and night travel became possible.

f (2) We know of the modern sleeping car having been invented by George M. Pullman. G. Pullman built his first car in 1859 remodelling a stage-coach body for this purpose. This car did not look like the cars we are familiar with and was much simpler in design. However, it proved to be so much more suitable for long-distance travel that passengers gladly paid the extra money for travelling in it.
(3) Encouraged by his success, G. M. Pullman built a far longer sleeping car which he named the "Pioneer". When the "Pioneer" was first taken from the shop, it appeared to be too wide and too high for many of the bridges and station platforms. But the officials were so greatly pleased (довольный) with this car, that they decid­ed to rebuild the bridges and platforms.
(4) After having solved the problem of sleeping cars, Pullman turned his attention to providing passengers with food. He was the first to design and build the so-called "hotel" car, which was followed by a "restaurant" car. The hotel car contained at one end a small kitchen from which passengers could be served meals (еда) in their seats. Pullman's restaurant car may be regarded the forerunner of the modern dining car which is found practically in all of today's long-distance trains.