Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-07
ABOUT RAILROAD CARS.
What The mysterious Initials am
 Hieroglyphics Mean.


 The amazing multiplicity of initials on freight cars. and the varied styles and me- thods of naming and classifying them, af- lords diversion to large part of the travel ling public, who find relief to the tedium of long ride by studying the hieroglyphics on the slow, plodding freight train. as their express overtakes and passes it. After little experience, the habitual traveller gets the initials of the different lines down pat, and the cars belonging to road over which he passes frequently become like old friends to be especially singled out whenever mo- ticed.
 In the present day of uniform gauges and fast-freight lines, where any number of short connecting lines unite to form a through system for the purpose of moving long-dis- tance freight without the delay incidental to handling and transferring at each junction point from one car to another, it is the rule rather the exception for the more important railroads to have over 50 per cent. of their equipment away from home, the deficit be- ing supplied with the cars of other compan- ies, which have come to them with ship ments consigned to points on their road. A person who dwells even casually on the mat ter of interchange of equipment very soon
 
 lowing up the wanderings Of their derelict | cars by some method, in order that they | may be brought home.
 This would probably be the end of the meditations of the uninitisted, but to those better versed in the details of railrosding, 1 who know that the owner of a foreign" car | Gall lines and all cars belonging to other l roads are uniformly dubbed s'foreign" by 1 railway employees) receives compensation | for the use of that car at so much per mile run, who appreciate not only the importance of keeping an accurate record of cars movement, for the reason above, but are also impressed with the necessity of guarding l against claims for loss or damage caused by | alleged delay to shipments by keeping 8 permanent and accessible account of each 1'run" made by every car, with the exact | date and hours of arrival at and departure | from stations, and who lastly understand the great saving in quantity of equipment l required for traffic, when the location of empty cars is known to the official whose l duty it is to provide rolling stock for all the I freight offering along his line readily grasp | the value of that branch of every railroad, l known as the Scar record"
 l With more than 60,0 900 cars, the Pennsyl- 1 vania Railroad has at all times from 25, ,0O0 l to 30, 900 foreign cars on it's track, while 8 | oorrespondingly large number of it's own are 1 away from home. To look after the move l ment of this vast number of vehicles, and to ! see GQaG CATS dTc uOb uuuuly u0lay6O 6lGQ6E | in transit or at stations, constitutes the du- ties of large department of that company l in this city. The chief of this branch of service is MT. s. M. Provost, general super 1 intendent of transportation, whose office is in the big granite building on Fourth Street, but the car record office proper is los l cated on the top floor of Broad Street Sta tion, on account of the convenience to the passenger trains, which bring in the car reports made out by the station agents and train conductors along the line, upon which the office depends for data.
 Some conception of the vastness of the work doEe here may be gleaned from the fact that nearly 90, 900 movements of cars are recorded daily, this being the groundwork of an immense amount of other labor. The
 great underlying principle of the record is te show continuous account of the movement of each car with the least possible expense
 and work. To accomplish this end, the side
 tracks in the system are known by numbers l or letters, the series beginning with siding
 number one at Jersey City, and ending witt