The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-04
AFFAIRS OF THE RAILWAYS.


Personal and Local.
The c., Fl. & d. people put in service to-day
their new and elegant parlorcars on the day runs
between Cincinnati and Detroit
BY the transfer of John Ferguson from the
ticket Office at the Union Depot TO the position
of general baggage-master, the several clerks in
get an increase in salary.
Chief Engineer Zook, of the Union Railway
Company, has just completed map of the
Union tracks and the Belt road, also showing
the property owned by the Union Railway Com
pany, which is very creditable work.
The locomotives on the l., d. & s., which are
20 haul the fast express trains which are to be
put on between Columbus, o., and Peoria, Ill,
are being equipped with Westinghouse auto
matte air brakes in place of the Eames air brake
The first shipment on a contract for ], 900 tons
of steel rails for the Indianapolis, Decatur 81
Springfield road will be received to-day. Re-
ceiver Hammond purposes to put the road as
early practicable, into the best possible condi-
ton.
In the week ending May g 1903 cars were
transferred over the Belt road. In the week
ending April 4, there were Ii 684 transferred
over the Belt road. Still there are freight mep
who seem anxious to carry what little business
there is at rates which will not pay the actual
cost of hauling
The Railway Age says: "The electric headlight
for locomotives seems to have come to stay. 1t
Is III use on several roads running into Clncn-
natl and Indianapolis, and is being used expert
mentally on suburban train of the Illinois
Central at Chicago The light is wonderfully
far-reaching and vivid
The FIVE Western roads, last week, brought
into this station 1850 loaded cars, as follows: l.,
ID. & s., 122; l., B. & W., AL; c., l., St L. &
C., 574; /. e. ST. IT, Ola; Vandaia, 778. In the
week ending April % the roads brought in
3,OO7 loaded cars, and in the corresponding week
of 1884 they brought in 3, 1874 loaded cars.
The seven Eastern lines forwarded from Indi-
annapolis last week. 2 1874 loaded cars, as follows:
Airline, ITO; Wabash, 100; c., II. 81 l., 24O; l.,
b. e W., 1863: c., St l.. d p, 522; Bee-line 645;
G., l., St L. & c., 854. This is the lightest
movement east bound in any week for many
months except when there were troubles with
snow blockades last winter.
The Wabash people. May /, dropped the Cham
paign, Havana 81 Western road from their sys-
tenn 1t is stated that before doing so they
gathered up every scrap of iron, every cross-tie,
every piece of bridge timber the road,
stripped the passenger engines of their auto
matte air brakes, and in some cases went so far
as to take off nearly new engine tank and re-
p.ace with an old tank.
TIE Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland rail
ross has declared semiannual dividend of
per cent on the preferred stock. This is one of
the benefits the stockholders derive from their
road being leased to the l., B. & w. people.
Were the C., s. & c. company operating the road
IL Is questionable if there would havesbeen any
money above operating expenses to apply to div
idends, so light has been the traffic for months
past
Isaac FL. Russell one Of the oldest of the Bos-
ton & Albany conductors between Springfield
and Boston, retired from the service of the road
on May l. Mr.. Russell has been in the employ
of tie road for twenty years. and his only SEN
Tors on the Boston & Albany road are Herman
Fay, on the eastern division, and Horace Rus
sell, on the western division The next conduc-
tor in seniority to l. H. Russell on the eastern
division is r. B. Hyde.
The mania for testing locomotive engineers
on defective vision and imperfect hearing seems
to be spreading and there is danger of OVERRIDING
what might be of benefit to train service. The
object that the tests applied are too strict;
that only an expert in color could DISTINGUISH
the shades submitted to them. The officials,
on the other hand claim their tests are approved
and not oppressive, and that their action is for
the safety of the public.
vice-president Sykes of the Chicago & North
western, telegraphs East that he looks for bet
ter feeling among the roads in his section, and
better times generally He says New York has
nothing to do with the troubles so frequently re-
ported-that they all originate in the West, and,
MS O rule, the first he knows Of them is what he
reads in the papers, Of course there is consid-
cradle rivalry among the roads. but he believes
that business is steadily growing up and that the
time is coming when there will be enough for all
at good paying rates.
Such theorists as James McHenry, who have
always insisted that if the railways would only
reduce their rates there would be an increase in
passenger traffic more than sufficient to keep up
their net earnings to what they have been here
tofore, should now be silenced For several
months rate of one cent mile has prevailed
on all the lines competing between New York
and Buffalo, and on at least two roads the local
rates have been the same, bat the great increase
of travel which was to make the rate profitable
has not yet become visible.
The present is the fourth time the Lake Erie
& Western road has been placed in the hands of
receiver. The first time was in 1855, when it
was known as the Fremont 81 Indiana road.
It was then reorganized under the name of the
Fremont, Lima 81 St Louis road In 1872 it
was reorganized as the Louisville & Lake Erie
road. In 1875 it again went into the hands of a
receiver, and was reorganized as the Lake Erie
Louisville road, the reverse OF its former
name. In 1877 it was again reorganized and
consolidated with the Lafayette, Muncie Bloom
ington & Western road. Now it again drops
into the hands of receiver. What its next
move will be is problem.
It just now begins to be visible to the naked
eye, says the Lafayette Journal that by throw
ing the Lake Erie & Western railway into the
bands of a receiver, the frst-mortgage bond
holders achieved a brilliant coup de main by
which not only were the holders of bonds paya-
Die out of the earnings of the road left hors du
combat, but the proceedings OF Il. III. Goldman
against the corporation null and void. That
a Judgment lien. if obtained against the COM
pany would be valueless, as no one ever expects
anything to be left for creditors and stockhold-
ers of any concern once it passes into the hands
of 8 receiver. So visions of untold wealth re-
covered from the company must have faded
from the mind of the plaintiff in the celebrated
case filed not many moons ago.
'sFor four months" says the Cleveland Leader,
''the Pennsylvania has not maintained freight
rates a single hour on st. Louis and Chicago
east-bound business. No wonder its financial
exhibit for the first quarter shows such marked
decrease This will be news in this section
The sharpest competitors of the Pennsylvania
aaa the Vandalia lines admit readily that the
Pennsylvania and Vandalia people have acted
more honorably in living up to agreements and
In adhering to tariff rates than have any roads