The Goldsboro star. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1881-18??, 1881-11-12
FINDING LOST CARS. i

How the Many-Lettered Freight Cars Are
Traced.
| Travellers up and down any line of
railway having q terminus in this city
are in the habit of seeing daily hun
dreds of fugitive freight cars extending
in broken lines along the side of tracks
and reaching many miles out of the
city. They belong to hundred diff
ferent railway companies, each car
bearing the initials Of the proprietary
road, and in the general Office Of that
company, whether ii be in New York,
Pittsburg or San Francisco, there are
records which show just where that car
is standing and why it is there. For
instance, If the car is detained nm un-
warranted length of time at German
town junction the Pennsylvania railroad
receives ''searcher either by telegraph
or train service, asking why the car is
not sent home" In this way great
railroad stretching half way across the
continent, and with it's rolling stock
scattered over every STATEN the Union,
keeps an account of it's stock, number
ing in the case of the PennsyIvania
railroad more than $4,000 freight cars
of all kinds. Occasionally one of the
number is lost altogether, and then the
complicated railway detective serviceis
set at work. The la clews to It's where
abouts are traced o. t, and IL alne the
lost car is found somewhere between
Texas and Montreal. Yesterday aftar-
noon Superintendent Reilly Of the
transportation department was notified
of the recovery at Worcester, Massa-
chusetts, Of Pennsylvania railroad
freight car that has been missing since
November z. 1880, and had in the mean
time travelled thousand Of miles over
New England railroads. Speaking
the matter, Chief Clerk McCully said (:
"The New England railroads seem to
entertain the idea that our cars are sent
up there for. their convenience. As
soon as q car is unloaded it should be
started back to the road from which it
came, but in New England they turn il
over as the common property of the
road, and it is run back and forth, car
rying local freight 1t is not EN- uns-
common thing when car is loaded
here and sent to an Eastern point that
it is not again heard from for three or
four months. In the meantime there
are more than 100 clerks in this Office
on the car accounts, and
week after week searchers are sent out
from here for the missing car" Yes
terday letters Of inquiry were dispatch
cd to all parts of the country aggregat-
ing 2, 992 cars that had gone astray be-
tween the LIST and 10Th Of this month.
Every freight conductor on the road
sends in daily report of the cars that
have been in his charge, and fair idea
Of the magnitude Of these accounts
may be had from the fact that the
entire movement over the Pennsylvania
railroad exceeds 10000 per day. The
accounts are entered in different
colored inks to distinguish loaded from
empty cars. TIL are are received ct the
Fourth street Office $500 conductor'sre-
ports every day, and one hundred and
twenty clerks are employed in the
freight department alone. When o
railroad train is sent out
over another line the conductor reports
The number Of each car and it's .desti-
nation. The absent cars are in this
way traced from road to road, as, for
instance, by the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne
and Chicago railway to Chicago, thence
by the Chicago, Rock Island and
Pacific to Council Bluffs, and BY
The Union and Central Pacific roads to
San Francisco. In the course Of two
months the car returns by the same
route, and if any accident on the way
destroys the car it is charged against
The road on which the accident hap
pened, Lost freight cars which were
formerly kE. sed up travelling agents
are now tracea by ''sesrchers,' official
which contain the, number
and description Of the lost car, and the
date at which it was last seen on the
Pennsylvania road. These documents
are forwarded in the wake Of the car,
many official signatures on
the way, and finally overtake an agent
who has the car in charge. ge.-Philadel-
pbiG Press. saS sia9n