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Referring to the McKeen gasoline-driven car and one of the gasoline-electric type that were introduced in the early part of the present century and were the pioneers among self-propelled cars for railroad use, the author ascribes their limited success to their excessive weight and to engine and transmission troubles. Both these types, he thinks, might have been developed successfully had the gasoline engine been in its present state of efficiency and reliability. The early attempts having been more or less unsuccessful, the construction of all types was discontinued during the war. More recently the progress in the design and construction of highway motor-trucks has caused them to be adapted to railroad service by applying flanged tires to the rear wheels, pivotal pony-trucks forward and a motorbus body for the carrying of passengers and a limited amount of baggage.