St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-10-18
FREIGHT HANDLING.


4 d LSals 1aileoaA Maa Explains HeW
the work u systemstizsd.
A stranger might think that the bust
mess OF freight handler 1T . railway
freight depot WAS Of slight eonse.
quence. But the recent strike OF the
freight handlers in East St Louis
made manifest the importance Of hav-
Ing men who were experieaeed In
working ON tho platforms The large
majority Of the strikers had been with
their respective roads long time. some
- long - eight and ten years. The
work Of handling freight is thoroughly
syste'oatised. like every other b:anch
Of railroad work. For instance. take
the handling Of in-freight which 10 un-
loaded from the cars here. AHsn calls
Oh tho name Of the firm to which the
box is directed, and marks on It the
number Of the car with chalk.
Tho box IS placed on .
! truck, and tho .truckman, IS he
passes the tallymsn. il told where tc
put 1t, whether in the East St Louis
pile Of freight the Missouri Pacific, the
Transfer Company'a and 50 on, wher-
ever it belongA The unloading gang Of
men work ono car after another in this
manner. There are separate gangs Of
mon for each delivery clerk, called tho
''loading gang" They receive dray
tickets from the delivery clerk, and
pick out the freight according to the
tickets and load 1t on the wagons Tho
dray tickets tell the firm name to which
the box is shipped. and the number Of
tho car that carried it The car mum.
beP Is given 20 that II one flrm, say. has
twenty-five boxes Of freight distributed
through several cars. the boxes will not
BE- mixed up in loading . wagon. All
the boxes from one car are to be loaded
on tho same wagon. As to the out
bound freight it. is brought to the
freight houses by wagons and unloaded
BY tho drivers 1t different stations The
dray tickets are handed to The receiv.
ing clerks. who tally the freight and re-
oeipt 70 the driverA tits tten taken BY
. gang Of men to the pile Of freight
whore 1t belonga The duplicate dray
tickets are passed into the platform OF.
dce and arranged in order by the plat.
form foreman. When he has sufficient.
quantity to start . car he hands the
tickets over to the loading clerk, who
takes . gang Of men and loads tho
freight Some skin Is required in load
Ing = freight car for various sstations
along the line. The freight for the
nearest station IL loaded last - IL h
taken out first The skill is displayed
In arranging the boxes Of freight 80 |
that . car will hold as much as
possible. and 20 that when Ono
part Of the freight is taken out tho
other portion will not tumble down.
This is called station order loading"
Tho man who picks up the freight
here and there and puts it on the trucks
md calls it OF while the truckman
wheels 1t away, and thu loading clerk
checks 1t on, is called ''picker." He
b moro valuable man than the truck-
man, and the. railroads, in tho strike
Just ended, consented tO pay the pick
IN" $L5o day. It is easy to imagine
he inconvenience caused by . gang of
truckmen wheeling
reight just after . strike. Il was :
oftunste thing for the railroads that
he old men consented to come back,
new men could be trained in
70 great length Of timc.-St Louis
obe-Democrat