Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1885-10-23
About Railroads.

Explosions Of locomotives are now
rare.
Railway accidents of all kinds are
yearly decreasing.
The best English railway securities
pay but four per cent.
Almost all the railroads did good
business in summer travel.
The so-called "fast freight lines" are
fast going out OF existence.
Few free passes have been issued this
year on any of the railroads.
No two engine bells on the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad ring in the same tone.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran
"refreshment cars" thirty years ago.
The average pay of railway brake
man in Pennsylvania is $40 per month.
Engines are being made more power
ful and freight trains longer every year.
Ticket scalping has been quite thor
oughly broken up all over the country.
Most of the successful railroad men
of the country started out as poor boys.
Several of tie Southern railroads en-
ploy coloreG men as brakemen and FIRE.
men.
Collisions on railroads were more fire.
quent thirty years ago, it is said, than
they are now.
The Chinese Government is making
arrangements in London to float large
railway loan.
JAY Gould's favorite occupation in the
evening is reading the railway items In
the newspapers.
The experiment of lighting cars by
electricity is being tried by the Penn
sylvania Railroad on q limited scale.
Automatic couplers are about TO be
generally introduced, so that brakemen
will no longer be caught between the
bumpers.
Some of the smartest locomotive en-
gineers in the country are employed on
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Bal
timore Railroad.
Some Of the employees on New Jersey
roads have grown rich by carrying
packages for people along the line aud
making purchases for them in the city
on commission.
In the new private car being built for
Austin Corbin, the New York banker,
there is a sofa that raises up, disclosing
n bath provided with hot and cold water
and "a shower.
During the summer of 1853 the earn
ings of the Pennsylvania Railroad were
$2l6, 900 month. During the past sum
mer the monthly earnings of the road
averaged about 81 ,226 900.
The new Fairmount, Morgantown and
Pittsburg Railroad, which Is TO be
short cut from Pittsburg 10 the ore and
coal beds of Western Virginia, will be
completed and open to travel as far as
Morgantown on the 22d OF October.
Three great railways are pushing still
further West-thc Chicago and North
western to the Black Hills the Chicago,
Milwaukee and st. Paul into Dakota,
ard the Chicago, Burlington and Quin-
cy, by the absorption Of other roaGs, in
TO Manitoba.
During the present year the leading
Southern lines that still cling TO the old
broad gauge-the Louisville and Nash
vile, the Chattanooga, st. Louis and
East Tennessee and the Virginia and
Georgia-will change their lines to the
standard gauge. All the other Southern
roads will ultimately follow suit, 1t Is
thought.
Mr.. Abercrombie, chief engineer Of
the West Jersey Railroad, has invented
an interlocking switch and signal con-
nection which is likely to bring him a
fortune. In order to open the switch
the danger signal has to be set before
the switch can be moved from its safety
position. This makes 1t impossible for
an engineer TO run into an open switch
unless he disregards the danger signal.