Chapter III: Use and Abuse of Cars (1)

A package of merchandise can be transported from New York to Chicago in two days and three nights. This is repeated day after day with all the regularity of passenger service. So uniform is this movement, that shippers and consignees depend upon it and arrange their sales and stocks of goods in accordance therewith. Any deviation or irregularity brings forth instant complaint and a threatened withdrawal of patronage. This is true of hundreds of other places and lines of freight service. To accomplish it, there is necessary, first, a highly complicated and intricate organization, and, next, incessant watchfulness.

The shipper delivers the goods at the receiving freight-house of the railway company. His cartman gets a receipt from the tallyman. This receipt may be sent direct to the consignee, or more frequently is exchanged for a bill of lading. There the responsibility of the shipper ends. His goods are in the hands of the railway company, which to all intents and purposes guarantees their safe and prompt delivery to the consignee.

The tallyman's receipt is taken in duplicate. The latter is kept in the freight-house until the freight is loaded in a car, and is then marked with the initials and number of the car into which the freight has been loaded. After that it is taken to the bill clerk in the office, and from it and others is made the waybill or bills for that particular car.

Where the volume of freight received at a given station is large, it is customary to put all packages for a common destination, as far as possible, in a car by themselves, thus making what are termed "straight" cars. This is not always possible, however, or if attempted would lead to loading a very large number of cars with but light loads. So that it becomes necessary to group freight for contiguous stations in one car, and again often to put freight for widely distant cities in the same car. These latter are known as "mixed" cars.

We will assume the day's receipt of freight finished, and most of the cars loaded. About 6 P.M. the house will be "pulled," that is, those cars already loaded will be taken away, and an empty "string" of cars put in their place. An hour later, this "string" will in turn be loaded and taken out, and the operation repeated, until all the day's receipt of freight is loaded. Meanwhile other freight will have been loaded direct from the shippers' carts on to cars on the receiving tracks. For all cars, there is made out in the freight-office a running slip or memorandum bill, which gives simply the car number, initials, and destination. These are given to the yardmaster or despatcher, and from them he "makes up" the trains.

To a very great degree, the good movement of freight depends upon the vigilance of the yardmasters and the care with which they execute their duties. In an important terminal yard, the yardmaster may have at all times from one to two thousand cars, loaded and empty. He must know what each car contains, what is its destination, and on what track it is. To enable him to do this, he has one or more assistants, day and night. They, in turn, will have foremen in charge of yard crews, each of the latter having immediate charge of one engine. The number of engines employed will vary constantly with the volume of the freight handled, but it is safe to assume that there will be at all times nearly as many engines employed in shifting in the various yards and important stations on a line as there are road engines used in the movement of the freight traffic.

The work of the yard goes on without intermission day and night, Sundays as well as week-days. The men there employed know no holidays, get no vacations. The loaded cars are coming from the freight-houses all day long, in greater numbers perhaps in the afternoon and evening, but the work of loading and moving cars goes on somewhere or other, at nearly all times. As often as the yardmaster gets together a sufficient number of cars for a common destination to make up a train, he gathers them together, orders a road engine and crew to be ready, and despatches them. In the make up of "through" trains, care has to be exercised to put together cars going to the same point, and to "group" the trains so that as little shifting as possible may be required at any succeeding yard or terminal, where the trains may pass. To accomplish this, a thorough knowledge of all the various routes is necessary, and minute acquaintance with the various intermediate junction yards and stations.

The train once "made up" and in charge of the road crew, its progress for the next few hours is comparatively simple. It will go the length of the "run" at a rate of probably twenty miles per hour, subject only to the ordinary vicissitudes of the road. At the end of the division, if a through train, it will be promptly transferred to another road crew with another engine, and so on. Each conductor takes the running slip for each car in his train. He also makes a report, giving the cars in his train by numbers and initials, whether loaded or empty, how secured; and detailed information in regard to any car out of order, or any slight mishap or delay to his train. These reports go to the Car Accountant. The running slips stay with the cars, being transferred from hand to hand until the cars reach their destination. At junction yards where one road terminates and connects with one or more foreign roads, a complete record is kept, in a book prepared especially for the purpose, of every car received from and delivered to each connecting road. A copy of this information is sent daily to the Car Accountant.

A road is expected to receive back from a connecting line any car that it has previously delivered loaded. It becomes very necessary to know just what cars have been so delivered. Without such a record a road is at the mercy of its connections, and may be forced to receive and move over its length empty foreign cars that it never had in its possession before, thus paying mileage and being at the expense of moving cars that brought it no revenue whatever. The junction records put a complete check on such errors, and by their use thousands of dollars are saved annually.

* * * * *

To still more expedite the movement of through freight, very many so-called fast freight lines exist in this country, as, for example, the Traders' Despatch, the Star Union, the Merchants' Despatch Transportation Company, the Red, the White, the Blue, the National Despatch, etc. Some of these lines are simply co-operative lines, owned by the various railway companies whose roads are operated in connection with one another. Their organization is simple. A number of companies organize a line, which they put in charge of a general manager. Each company will assign to the line a number of cars, the quota of each being in proportion to its miles of road. The general manager has control of the line cars. He has agents who solicit business and employees who watch the movement of his line cars, and report the same to him. He keeps close record of his business, and reports promptly to the transportation officer of any road in his line any neglect or delinquency he may discover. The earnings of the line and its expenses are all divided _pro rata_ among the roads interested. Such a line is simply an organization to insure prompt service and secure competitive business, and the entire benefit goes to the railway companies.

Other lines are in the nature of corporations, being owned by stockholders and operating on a system of roads in accordance with some agreement or contract. Others, again, are organized for some special freight, and are owned wholly by firms or individuals, such as the various dressed-beef lines and some lines of live-stock cars. These are put in service simply for the mileage received for their use, and in many cases the railway companies have no interest in them whatever.

The movement of "straight" cars and "solid" trains is comparatively simple. But there is a very large amount of through freight, particularly of merchandise, that cannot be put into a "straight" car. A shipper in New York can depend on his goods going in a straight car to St. Louis, Denver, St. Paul, etc., but he can hardly expect a straight car to any one of hundreds of intermediate cities and towns. Still less is it possible for a road at a small country-town, where there are perhaps but one or two factories, to load straight cars to any but a very few places. To overcome this difficulty, transfer freight-houses have to be provided. These are usually located at important terminal stations.

To them are billed all mixed cars containing through freight. These cars are unloaded and reloaded, and out of a hundred "mixed" cars will be made probably eighty straight and the balance local. This necessarily causes some delay, but it is practically a gain in time in the end, as otherwise every car would have to be reloaded, and held at every station for which it contained freight.

The variety of articles that is offered to a railway company for transportation is endless. Articles of all sizes and weights are carried, from shoe-pegs by the carload to a single casting that weighs thirty tons. The values also vary as widely. Some cars will carry kindling wood or refuse stone that is worth barely the cost of loading and carrying a few miles, while others will be loaded with teas, silks, or merchandise, where perhaps the value of a single carload will exceed twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. The great bulk of all freight is carried in the ordinary box-cars, coal in cars especially planned for it, and coarse lumber and stone on flat or platform cars. But very many cases arise that require especial provision to be made for each. Chicago dressed beef has made the use of the refrigerator cars well known. These cars are also used for carrying fruit and provisions. They are of many kinds, built under various patents, but all with a common purpose; that is, to produce a car wherein the temperature can be maintained uniformly at about 40 degrees. On the other hand, potatoes in bulk are brought in great quantities to the Eastern seaboard in box-cars, fitted with an additional or false lining of boards, and in the centre an ordinary stove in which fire is kept up during the time the potatoes are in transit.

An improvement on this plan is afforded by the use of cars known as the Eastman Heater Cars. They are provided with an automatic self-feeding oil-stove, so arranged that fire can be kept up under the car for about a fortnight without attention. These are largely used in the fruit trade.

For carrying milk, special cars have to be provided, as particular attention has to be given to the matter of ventilation in connection with a small amount of cooling for the proper carrying of the milk. Not only the cars but the train service has to be especially arranged for in particular cases.

As an instance, the Long Island Railroad Company makes a specialty of transporting farmers' truck-wagons to market. For this purpose they have provided long, low, flat cars, each capable of carrying four truck-wagons. The horses are carried in box-cars, and one farmer or driver is carried with each team, a coach being provided for their use. During the fall of the year, they frequently carry from 45 to 50 wagons on one train, charging a small sum for each wagon, and nothing for the horses or men. These trains run three times weekly, and are arranged so as to arrive in the city about midnight, returning the next day at noon. The trains by themselves are not very remunerative, but by furnishing this accommodation, farmers who are thirty or forty miles out on Long Island can have just as good an opportunity for market-gardening as those who live within driving distance of the city. This builds up the country farther out on the island, which in turn gives the road other business.

* * * * *

The movement of freight is not always successfully accomplished. In spite of good organization, every facility, incessant watchfulness, accidents will occur, freight will be delayed, cars will break down, trains will meet with disaster. The consequences sometimes fall heavily on the railway companies. The loss is frequently out of all proportion to the revenue. The following instance is from the writers own experience:

Some carpenters repairing a small low trestle left chips and shavings near one of the bents. A passing train dropped some ashes. The shavings caught fire and burnt one or two posts in one bent. The section-men failed to notice the fire. Toward evening a freight train came to the trestle, the burnt bent gave way, and the train was derailed. Two men were killed, one severely injured, and eighteen freight cars were burned. The resulting loss to the railroad company was $56,113. Of this amount, the loss paid on freight was $39,613.12. As a matter of interest, and to show the disparity between the value of the commodities and the earnings from freight charges received by the railway company, the amount of each is given here in detail, taken from the actual records of the case:

------------------------------+-----------------+------------------
Property destroyed. | Amount paid by |Freight charges on
|railroad company.| the same.
------------------------------+-----------------+------------------
Butter, 200 pounds at 35 cents| $70.00 | $0.50
Ore, 75.9 tons at $3.50 | 265.80 | 56.91
Paper, 4,600 pounds | 269.10 | 8.74
Pulp, 10,400 pounds | 160.00 | 12.65
Shingles, 85 M | 192.50 | 11.00
Horsenails | 2,986.06 | 37.44
Lumber | 252.00 | 18.40
Apples, 159 barrels | 508.80 | 15.26
Hops, 209 bales, 37,014 pounds| 34,908.86 | 59.22
------------------------------+-----------------+------------------
| $39,613.12 | $220.12
------------------------------+-----------------+------------------

This was during the fall of 1882, when hops sold in New York for over $1 per pound.

The plan of payment for car service by the mile run, without reference to time, has the merit of simplicity and long-established usage. It is, however, in reality, crude and unscientific, and has brought with it, in its train, numerous disadvantages.

The owner of a car is entitled, first, to the proper interest in his investment, that is, on the value of the car; second, to a proper amount for wear and tear or for repairs. The life of a freight car may be reasonably estimated at ten years, so that ten per cent. on its value would be a fair interest-charge. The average amount for repairs varies directly as to the distance the car moves, and may be put at one-half cent per mile run.

It will be seen that by the ordinary method of payment the car-owner is compensated for interest at the rate of ¼ of a cent for the time that the car is in motion, but receives nothing for all the time the car is at rest. If cars could be kept in motion for any considerable portion of each twenty-four hours, this would prove ample. But in practice it is found that few roads succeed in getting an average movement of all cars for more than one hour and a half in each twenty-four. This gives about five per cent. interest on the value of the car, only one-half of what is generally conceded to be a fair return. Still further, there is no inducement to the road on which a foreign car is standing to hasten its return home. On the contrary, there is a direct advantage in holding the car idle until a proper load can be found for it, rather than return it home empty. The most serious abuses of the freight business of the country have grown from this state of affairs. It costs nothing but the use of the track to hold freight in cars; consequently freight is held in cars instead of being put in storehouses, frequently for weeks and months at a time.

There is but little earnest attempt made to urge consignees to remove freight; on the contrary, the consignees consider that they can leave their freight as long as they choose, and that the railroad companies are bound to hold it indefinitely.

One special practice has grown up as a result of this condition, that of shippers sending freight to distant points to their own order. This practice is most prolific of detention to cars, and yet is so strongly rooted in the traffic arrangements of the country that it is most difficult to put an end to it. Cars "to order" will frequently stand for weeks before the contents are sold and the consignee is discovered, during which time the cars accumulate, stand in the way, occupy valuable space, and have to be handled repeatedly by the transportation department of the road, all at the direct cost of handling to the road itself, and loss of interest to the owner of the car.

Only two methods have so far been suggested to abate or put an end to the evils which have been but slightly indicated above. The first is a change in the method of payment for car service to a compensation based upon time as well as mileage, which is commonly known as the "per diem plan."

This plan consists in paying for the use of all foreign cars a fixed sum per mile run, based on the supposed cost of repairs of the car, and a price per day based upon what is estimated to be a fair return for the interest on its value. This plan was originally suggested by a convention of car accountants, and was brought up and advocated by Mr. Fink, the Chairman of the Trunk Line Commission, in New York, in the fall of 1887. At his suggestion, and largely through his influence, it was tried by a few of the roads (the Trunk Lines and some of their immediate connections) during the early part of the year 1888; the amounts as then fixed being one-half cent per mile run, and fifteen cents per day. The results of this experiment, while they were quite satisfactory to the friends of the proposed change, yet were not sufficiently conclusive to demonstrate the value of the plan to those who were indifferent or hostile to it.

For various reasons, chiefly local to the roads in question, the plan was discontinued after a few months' trial. The experiment resulted, however, in the collection of a large mass of statistics and other data, the study of which has led many to believe that the plan is the proper solution of the difficulties experienced, and, if adjusted so as not to add too much to the burden of those railway companies who are borrowers of cars, that it would meet with the approval of the railway companies throughout the country. It certainly provided a strong inducement to all roads to promptly handle foreign cars, and in that particular it proved a great advance over the existing methods of car service. The charge per day of fifteen cents was found too high in practice. Ten cents per day and a half-cent per mile would produce a net sum to the car-owner very slightly in excess of three-fourths of a cent per mile run. While this appears but small, yet it would be quite sufficient to amount in the aggregate to a considerable sum, and would serve to urge all railway companies to promptly unload and send home foreign cars. This plan would result, if generally adopted, in largely increasing the daily movement or mileage of all cars, or, what would be equivalent, would practically amount to a very considerable increase in the equipment of the country.

The plan has recently been approved by the General Time Convention, and there is strong probability that it will be very extensively adopted and given a trial by all the railways during the year 1890.

The second method of remedying the existing evils of car service is in a uniform and regular charge for demurrage, or car rental, to be collected by all railroad companies with the same regularity and uniformity that they now collect freight charges. This car rental, or demurrage charge, would not be in any sense a revenue to the car-owner; the idea of it being that it is a rental to the delivering company, not only for the use of the car but for the track on which it stands, and the inconvenience and actual cost that the company is put to in repeated handling a car that is held awaiting the pleasure of the consignee to unload. The difficulty in the way of making such a charge has been the unwillingness of any railroad company to put any obstacle in the way of the free movement of freight to its line, and the fear that an equivalent charge would not be made by some one of its competitors. Of late, however, the serious disadvantages resulting from the privileges given to consignees at competing points, by allowing them to hold cars indefinitely, have led the different railway companies to come together and agree upon a uniform system of demurrage charges at certain competing points.

If these two plans could be put into operation simultaneously, a fair and uniform method of charging demurrage, coupled with the per diem and mileage plan for car service, the results would be most satisfactory not only to the railway companies and car-owners, but also to the community.

* * * * *

The matter of freight transportation is a vast one, and whole chapters might be written on any one of the various topics that have been but slightly mentioned in this sketch.

The subject is fraught with difficulties; new complications arise daily which, each in its turn, have to be met and mastered. The publicity recently given to the various phases of the railway problem has done much to enlighten the public mind in regard to these difficulties.

The result has already been evident in the growing spirit of mutual forbearance and good-will between the railway companies and the public. Let us hope that this will continue, and that as time goes on their relations will steadily improve, so that the public, while yielding nothing of their legitimate demand for safe, prompt, and convenient service, will at the same time see that this can only be secured by allowing the railways a fair return for the services rendered; while the railways will learn that their true interest lies in the best service possible at moderate, uniform rates.

FOOTNOTE:

[27] EXPLANATION. Each connecting road at each junction station is assigned a number, and when a car is received from a connection the record is shown by entering the road number in the upper space of the block under the proper date, followed by the character × if loaded; or, if empty, together with the time, as for example: Car 29421 is shown as received, Dec. 2d, from the Amherst & Lincoln Ry. at Port Chester (10), loaded (×), at 21 o'clock, or 9 P.M. A similar entry in the lower space of the block indicates a _delivery_ to connecting line. The middle space of the block is used for the car movement, the first number or letter showing the station from which the car moved. The character × as a prefix to a station number indicates that the car is being loaded at that station. The --, when used as a prefix, shows that the car is being unloaded; as an _affix_ it indicates a movement empty, or on hand empty. When the -- is used _under_ a station number it indicates a change date record, that is, leaving a station on one date and arriving at another on the following date. Station numbers or letters without other characters show that the car is loaded.

The sign (B) is used when a car is left at a station for repairs, while in transit. The sign (T) denotes that the lading was transferred to another car, a transfer record being kept showing to what car transferred; the sign (R), when a car is on hand at a station or yard for repairs. Shops are assigned numbers with an O prefix; the upper and lower spaces being used to show delivery to, or receipt from the shop, similar to the interchange record.

For convenience the twenty-four hour system is used for recording time, and is shown in quarter-hours; thus, 10, 12^1, 18^2, 21^3, representing 10 A.M., 12.15 P.M., 6.30 P.M., and 9.45 P.M. This, used in the movement record, shows the running time on each division, or detention at train terminals.

The "transfer" column shows the station at which the car was reported on the last day of the previous month, and the _arriving date_; also from what road received, with date.

HOW TO FEED A RAILWAY.

BY BENJAMIN NORTON.

The Many Necessities of a Modern Railway--The Purchasing and
Supply Departments--Comparison with the Commissary Department of
an Army--Financial Importance--Immense Expenditures--The General
Storehouse--Duties of the Purchasing Agent--The Best Material the
Cheapest--Profits from the Scrap-heap--Old Rails Worked over into
New Implements--Yearly Contracts for Staple Articles--Economy
in Fuel--Tests by the Best Engineers and Firemen--The
Stationery Supply--Aggregate Annual Cost of Envelopes, Tickets,
and Time-tables--The Average Life of Rails--Durability of
Cross-ties--What it Costs per Mile to Run an Engine--The
Paymaster's Duties--Scenes during the Trip of a Pay-car.

The commissary or supply department of a railroad is not unlike that of a large army. Like a vast army, its necessities are many, and the various departments which make up the whole system must be provided with their necessary requirements in order to accomplish the end for which it is operated.

If, again, we regard a railroad as a huge animal, the quantity of supplies needed to fill its capacious maw is something overwhelming. It is always hungry, and the daily bill of fare (which includes pretty much everything known to trade) is gone through with an appetite as vigorous and healthy at the end as it exhibits in the beginning. Yet how few there are who realize the important part this one feature plays in the operation of the thousands of miles of railroad throughout the world! Upon the proper conduct of this department depends very largely the success of any road, so far as its relation to the stockholders is concerned; for while, as has been the case in the past, combinations and pools have aided in maintaining rates, and have served to increase the income, and attention has been paid to securing additional business in every possible way, the "out-goes" have often been overlooked, to the detriment of dividends and the general welfare of the property.

The supplies must be furnished in any event, in order that the various departments may perform their allotted duties--coal for the engines, stationery for the clerks, ties and rails for the tracks, oils for the lubrication of the thousands of axles daily turning, passage-tickets for the travellers, and a thousand and one things which are absolutely necessary for the safe and efficient conduct of every railroad in active operation. Each item serves its purpose, and, properly assimilated, keeps alive all the functions of one vast and complicated system. It is easy to see, then, the importance, first, of proper economy in buying, and then a correct and systematic distribution of all supplies. On the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, for instance, the annual supply bills aggregate more than $3,000,000, covering such supplies as those just mentioned, and, in fact, everything which is purchased and used in the operation of the road; so that on a large system like that, the commissary department requires no end of detail, both in the purchase and the distribution of all material.

The expenditure for lubricating oils, waste, and greases alone amounts to more than $150,000 per annum, while the outlay for fuel represents about $1,200,000, and this is comparatively a small sum, since that road is a coal road, so called, and the cost for fuel, as a matter of course, is reduced to a minimum. There the store-room system, which has now been pretty generally adopted by many of the larger roads, is fully exemplified. With a General Store-keeper in charge, all supplies purchased are accounted for through him, and distributions are made daily among the sub-store rooms, which are located at convenient points; and they in turn distribute among the various departments, for consumption, all accounting daily to the General Store-keeper at Reading.

To give an idea as to the quantity of material required in the service on such a road, it may be stated that from twelve to fifteen car-loads of supplies per day are shipped to various points. When we consider that an ordinary car will carry from fifteen to twenty tons of freight, we find that the annual requirements will average about four thousand car-loads, or, say, about fifty thousand tons, and if all the cars were made up into one solid train they would occupy fully twenty-five miles of track, and consume an hour and a half passing a given point running at the ordinary speed of freight-trains.

To account carefully for all this requires necessarily a large army of clerks and other assistants, though, with the fundamental principles correct, it is no more difficult to account for large quantities than for small. The supplies are purchased in the first instance, delivered at the General Storehouse, are there weighed or measured and receipted for, are then distributed on requisition, and finally delivered to the several departments when needed; are charged out to the various accounts, after consumption, and all returns and records are finally kept on the books of the General Store-keeper.

It would be a large army indeed which would require so much for its maintenance; and, remembering the hundreds of roads, small and large, throughout the country, the measure of one's comprehension is nearly reached in estimating the amount of money and the thousands of tons of material represented.

If the buyer of railroad stocks for investment, besides looking into the returns of freight and passenger business for his decision, would investigate carefully the method adopted for the purchase and distribution of supplies on any road in which he may be interested, he might get information enough to satisfy himself that a large portion of the earnings were dribbling out through this department, and that, as a result, his stock might eventually cease to be a dividend payer.

In the matter of buying, the result depends entirely upon the purchasing agent, and this position must necessarily be occupied by a man of honor and integrity, coupled with a reasonable amount of shrewdness and aptitude for such business. As this department covers to a greater or less degree pretty much all the known branches of trade, the buyer cannot, under ordinary circumstances, thoroughly master the whole field as an expert; but he can nevertheless inform himself in the most important articles of manufacture to the extent of preventing deception or fraud. The field is extensive, and the sooner railroad companies realize that the purchasing agent is not a mere order clerk, the sooner they will discover that their disbursements for supplies are very much less, and that the chief part of the leakage has found its source in this very department.

Exactly the same principles are involved in this matter as in the case of a thrifty proprietor of a country-store, whose profits each year depend materially upon the closeness and care with which his stock in trade is purchased from the wholesale dealers in a large city. A purchasing agent's experience is varied in the extreme, dealing as he does with all classes of salesmen and business houses. There is no end to the operations which skilful salesmen go through in offering their stock; but after some experience a sharp buyer will be able to fortify himself against the best of them--even against the clever vender of varnishes who disposed of one hundred barrels of his wares in small lots to different buyers, on a sample of maple-sirup. On the other hand, a salesman who, when a buyer asked him if his oil gummed, replied that "it gummed beautifully," lost the chance of ever selling any goods in that quarter.

As has been said, the ordinary or general supplies consumed in the operation of the average railroad include almost everything known to trade. Tobacco, for the gratification of the taste of a gang of men out on the road with the snow-plough, is not outside the list; and even pianos, for some trains (since the days of absolute comfort and possible extravagance have begun) for the benefit of passengers setting out on long journeys; nor do we lose sight of books, bath-tubs, and barbers. The practical feature involved, however, calls for an endless variety of expensive as well as inexpensive materials.

It is a safe rule to follow that anything which goes into the construction either of track, equipment, or buildings, should be the best. Care should always be exercised against the use of any material the failure of which might be the cause of loss of life, and consequently result in heavy damages to the company. Iron alone enters so extensively into railroad construction and operation that it is safe to say three-fourths of all manufactured in this country is consumed directly or indirectly in this way; and besides its use in rails and fastenings (the latter including spikes, fish-plates, and bolts and nuts), and in the many thousand tons of car-wheels and axles annually required, there must be reckoned the almost unlimited number of castings daily required in the way of brake-shoes, pedestals, draw-heads, grate-bars, etc. The lumber and timber for buildings, bridges, platforms, and crossings, and the large quantity of glass which is necessary, are among other large items of expenditure.

Lubricating and illuminating oils, paints and varnishes, soaps, chalk, bunting, hardware, lamps, cotton and woollen waste, clocks, brooms, and such metals as copper, pig tin, and antimony are only a few of the many articles of diet which a railroad requires to keep body and soul together, and give it strength to perform the great duty it owes to commerce and the public. After they have all served their purposes, such as cannot be worked over again in the shops, and are not entirely consumed, are consigned to the scrap-heap under the head of "old material"--an all-important consideration in the economical management of any road. On many roads very little attention is paid to the sale of scrap. As a general rule, the purchasing agent has charge of it, and if he shows any shrewdness in buying, he will exercise more or less ingenuity in selling. Most railroad scrap has a fixed value in the market. Quotations for old rails, car-wheels, and wrought iron are found in all the trade journals; but as in buying one can usually buy of someone at prices less than market price, so in selling he can often find a buyer who is willing to pay more than the regular quotation. As it is found not wise in the long run to purchase ahead on some prospective rise, so in selling it is equally true that holding scrap over upon the possibility of a rise in prices is not always for the best advantage.

There has always been a demand for old iron rails, and recently use for old steel rails has been found. They are worked over at the rolling mills into crowbars and shovels, spikes, fish-plates, bolts, and other necessary things to be employed in construction and maintenance. Not long since an experiment with old steel rails was successfully performed, whereby they were melted and poured into moulds for use as brake-shoes. The result showed a casting of unusual hardness which would outwear three ordinary cast-iron shoes. This opens up an entirely new field in railroad economy, for with ordinary foundry appliances accumulations of old steel rails can be worked over and cast into all sorts of shapes and patterns to better advantage than selling them at a nominal price to outside buyers. While worn-out car-wheels will generally bring more money from wheel manufacturers than they command in the open market, it has not always been found the best policy to compel the mill from which the new wheels are purchased to take too many of them. It is apt to encourage the use of too much old material in the manufacture of the new; and while the company may consider that it is realizing much more money on sales of the old wheels than the market price, it does not take into account the inferior stock it is getting back, or the fact that possibly when the mileage is reckoned the wheels have signally failed to run as long as they ought. In the aggregate about ten per cent. of the original cost of all supplies purchased is realized out of the sales of old material. From cast-iron wheels and old rails, however, the percentage is much larger, for while at present new passenger car-wheels of this class, weighing about five hundred and fifty pounds, are worth about ten dollars each, they will bring in the market, when worn out after running say fifty thousand miles, about twenty dollars per ton. Four wheels go to the ton, which represents five dollars per wheel, or fifty per cent. of the original cost. With old rails the percentage is even higher, in the present condition of the rail market. Old iron rails are worth within four or five dollars of the price of new steel, and the old steel about seventy per cent. of the price of the new. These high percentages assist in making up for the materials which are entirely consumed in the service, and which never form a part of the ordinary scrap-heap, such as oils, waste, and paints.

While the majority of general supplies just mentioned briefly may be arranged for as required and purchased from month to month upon regular requisitions, there are certain staple articles which are provided for in advance by contract. Among them principally are the engine-coal, rails and ties, stationery, passage-tickets, and time-tables. More money is expended for such supplies than for any others, and contracts with responsible business houses, for their delivery at fixed prices for the limit of at least a year, are generally made to insure, in the first place, the lowest market rates and, again, to make the delivery certain.

Locomotive fuel is the largest single item of expense in the operation of any road, the consumption of it running up as high as a million tons per annum on some large roads; and while there are a few exceptional cases where wood is used as fuel, coal is the necessary element in nearly every case in America to-day.

Of the two general varieties--bituminous or soft, and anthracite or hard--it is safe to say that bituminous coal is the more economical, assuming that the grade employed is the best, this economy lying both in the original cost and the fact that the bulk of it goes to serve its purpose, there being comparatively little waste in the way of ashes; while the anthracite produces many ashes and clinkers, requires much more care and attention on the part of the stoker or fireman, and costs, as a general rule, about thirty per cent. more. Economy, however, should not be carried too far in any branch of the service, and if the passenger traffic be heavy the use of soft coal may be a great detriment. To a traveller there can be nothing more disagreeable than the smoke and cinders emanating from it; and if, besides this, the road be an especially dusty one, the combination of dust, smoke, and cinders will be quite sufficient to turn the tide of travel in some other direction and over another route.

For freight service bituminous coal is decidedly the best, and perhaps might not be out of place on short local passenger trains; but the company that provides hard-coal-burning engines for passenger trains, and soft-coal burners for freight, does about the right thing, and economizes as far as practicable in this particular. In making contracts for this important commodity the necessity of careful tests in advance is very apparent, and such trials are generally left with the best engineers and firemen; otherwise it might be difficult to get at all the qualifications. On some roads inducements offered to firemen have brought the consumption of fuel down to the most economical point, and it is surprising how much depends upon their good judgment in this matter.

Now that heating cars direct from the engines is coming into general use, and State legislatures have given the subject their consideration, the consumption of the domestic sizes of coal as fuel in cars is growing less; but this, too, is still a very important matter.

Stationery is not only a very significant item, but also an expensive one. This includes all the forms and blanks used in the conduct of the freight and passenger business, and there is an endless variety of them--the inks, pens, pencils, mucilage, sealing-wax, and envelopes, besides many other odds and ends. Perhaps the envelopes represent one of the largest single items of expense in this line. The hundreds of thousands of them used in the course of a year, even at low prices, mean an outlay of many thousands of dollars. Agents must send in daily reports, there must be covers for all the correspondence passing between the different departments, while the daily average amount of outside correspondence is very considerable. It is surprising how many dollars might be saved in this direction, not only by a judicious contract, but by a careful use of the supply.

When a railroad company takes up the question of time-tables, it has a matter of importance to handle which on many roads receives very little consideration. When the passenger traffic is heavy, the number of travellers during the year running into the millions, the demand for time-tables is very large. This refers directly to the time-table sheets or folders, which every company must keep on hand at its stations, and in other public places and hotels, for the convenience of the traveller, in addition to the printed schedules which are framed and hung up conspicuously on the walls of its waiting-rooms. A neat and attractive folder for general circulation is very desirable, particularly if competition is very strong. There is more virtue in a neatly made up schedule of trains than one would suppose. One in doubt is apt to reason that the road is kept up in a corresponding condition, and that the trains are made up on the same plan, and consequently would prefer to go by that route rather than by one whose trains were advertised on cheap leaflets.

Fifteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars per annum for envelopes alone is spent on some roads, and twice as much more perhaps for time-tables.

Passage-tickets, including all varieties of regular and special tickets, such as mileage books or coupons, family trip-books, and school-tickets are also an item of large expense, the annual consumption covering many tons, which once used are of no value save as waste paper; yet they are absolutely indispensable in the operation of the road. Yearly contracts for these are made, and while the actual cost of a single ticket may not exceed _one mill_, the aggregate on a road carrying fifteen millions to twenty millions or more passengers per annum is considerable.

To induce the public to travel, and encourage shippers to send their freight to market over any road, attention must first be paid to the condition of the track and rolling stock.

It is not economy to allow anything to be out of repair, on the supposition that it is less expensive than it would be to spend comparatively little from day to day to keep it up. The day of reckoning will come in the end, and the sacrifice will be considerable. As the track is the fundamental feature, the cross-ties or sleepers and rails should be the best. Iron rails are practically out of date, and it is fair to assume that the time is approaching when wooden ties will be things of the past. Where the traffic is light, heavy steel rails may not be necessary; but it has been generally found economical to put in use rails which do not weigh less than sixty-seven or seventy pounds to the yard; an even greater weight than this is not ill-advised--they require fewer cross-ties to the mile, and in consequence the force of men required to keep the track in condition is less. Light rails are soon worn and battered out on a road over which heavy engines are run and large trains are hauled. The powerful locomotives now built require a well-kept track and a solid and substantial road-bed. Heavier and faster trains have tended to reduce the average life of rails, even though the weight of the rails has also been steadily increasing. Circumstances vary on the different roads, but it is safe to say that eight to ten per cent. of all rails in the track must be renewed every year. This brings the average life of the steel rails down to about twelve years, under ordinary conditions. On some divisions, however, where the traffic is frequent, and in yards where a good deal of switching is done, and the rails are under pressure constantly, the average is, of course, very much less--even as low as two or three years.

Aside from the durability of the timber employed, plenty of face for the rail bearings, and uniform thickness and length, are very important requirements in contracts for ties. While white oak is generally considered the most durable for this purpose, the growth of this timber is limited except in certain sections of the country, so that cedar, cypress, chestnut, and yellow pine are more commonly used than any other class. The millions of them used for renewals and new roads each year are gradually reducing our forests; and, like some of the European roads, we shall some day fall back upon metal, which (while its life may not be measured) will make so rigid a track that the traveller over long distances will be worn out with his journey, and the rolling stock will require frequent repairs and overhauling. The practice of creosoting cross-ties is growing rapidly, and this tends to increase their durability three or four times. While the first cost of such ties may be double that for the unprepared timbers, the result in the end is economical, for the labor alone required to take out an old tie and put in a new one costs at least twelve cents.

The general store-room is properly the intermediate stage, so far as supplies are concerned, between the different departments of the road and the Auditor, who charges up all material used to the different accounts into which his system is divided. Properly, everything in the nature of material, however small, directly or indirectly passes through the Store-keeper's books. An account is kept with each locomotive, station agent, switchman, and flagman, so that to a penny everything consumed in the operation of a road is accurately known. To accomplish this the Store-keeper, of course, must be a good accountant, and at the same time be more or less of an expert in railroad material. Under an economical administration of his affairs he is able to save a great deal of money for his company. By his system, with the aid of data from the mechanical department, he can tell the average number of miles run during the year to a pint of oil or a ton of coal; the number of pounds of coal consumed per mile run, as well as the number of pints of oil for the same distance. He can give in detail the cost in cents per mile run for all the oil, tallow, and waste, fuel, and other supplies consumed, and can account to a nicety for all the lanterns, brooms, hardware, and other material which he has received and distributed.

The following statement of averages represents fairly what it costs to run a locomotive under ordinary conditions:

_Averages._

Number of miles run to pint of oil 15.32
Number of miles run to ton of coal 46.17
Number of pounds of coal per mile run 48.62
Number of pints of oil per mile run 0.06

_Cost in Cents per Mile Run._

Cents.
For oil, tallow, and waste 0.32
For fuel 7.42
For engineers 3.60
For firemen 1.79
For wipers and watchmen 1.25
For water supply 0.49
For supplies (miscellaneous) 0.10
For repairs 2.40
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Total 17.37

He will find that some engineers and firemen are more extravagant than others, and that some station agents and flagmen do not perform their respective duties with near so much regard for economy as others do under exactly similar circumstances. In such cases a report is made and a reminder from the Superintendent follows, calling attention to such carelessness. The result is apparent at the next monthly comparison.

Prompt payment of all supply bills helps to insure economy, and any company unable to make its payments promptly and regularly, suffers to a greater or less extent always; for a firm not able to know whether its accounts are to be settled in thirty or ninety days cannot afford to allow all the discounts which it otherwise might, and this may mean an extra expense every year of many thousands of dollars.

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