Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-05-29
WHERE CARS GO TO.
At Times They Seem to Vanish
from the Earth.
Tracing Missing Railway Coaches, Some.
times with Queer Rcsults-some Are
Sidetracked In the Back Woods with
Families Living In Thorn.

hrsp Do they wear out, are they all
wrecked sooner or later, or do they
drop into cosmic holes along with the
pins and jackknives of very careless
world?
Evidently they do not wear out. The
passenger coaches in service on cross
country roads give that theory the lie.
Cars are In daily transit over some of
the railways In the interior of New
York which the urbane traveller is
ready to believe were contemporaneous
with the Declaration of Independence.
Their existence practically disposes
also of the second theory.
They are run every day over roads
which should be mentioned In the
Liturgy along with pestilence and
sudden death, and yet they are never
wrecked. If they can stand such treat.
ment for week, eternal dura bility is
the lot of rolling stock on well built
and equipped railways. Most cars that
disappear evidently tumble into cosmic
holes. Some of them are flshed out
again, and it is the business Of the ear
tracers of great railroads to find all of
them.
Cars are invariably traced with ease
almost to the brink of the hungry cos
mic hole. All of the great lines have
entered into mutual agreement by
which every company is responsible for
all the cars shipped over its tracks. If
the Pennsylvania sends iron over the
Jersey Central, the latter road becomes
responsible for car and freight as soon
rs 1t receives them, and unless both are
delivered the Jersey Central makes
good the loss.
The cars are either replaced, or paid
for ut the cost price, less supposed de-
probation of six per cent. in value for
every year that the car has been in use
With old cars the latter method gen.
orally Is adopted, as 1t is often cheaper
than repairing
!: ALI railroads try to use their own cars
as much rs possible, and, it might be
added, that they also endeavor to use
the cars of other roads as much as pos
sible also. A charge of three-fourths
of cent Is made for every mile covered
by freight car travelling over q road
that does not belong to the owner of
the car. These mileage charges amount
to large sums In the course of year.
The bills of the New York Central
4or this one item are from seventy-f1ve
thousand dollars to one hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars month.
Practically this method works like a
great clearing as the account
against the New York Central is more
than balanced by its own charges for
cars used by other lines. Other rail-
roads In fact pay the New York Central
for the use of Its cars about forty thou
sand dollars month more than the
Central pays them.
sour cars are seldom lost" said an
officer of the New York Central road
yesterday, ''since the present system OF
tracing cars went into operation, about
four years ago. In the old days we
sometimes thought we had lost passen-
ger coaches. We even lost sight for
several months of the car in which
President Lincoln's remains were taken
to Springfield for burial.
"We traced the car as far as Syracuse
and there lost 1t. Somebody thought
he remembered that 1t had been run
onto a sidetrack to gravel bed, but
he did not remember having seen II
afterwards Several months later an
Elmira newspaper said that the famous
carl in which President Lincoln's body
was taken to Illinois was running be-
tween that city and Corning. We i'm.
mediately wrote to the Fall Brook
people and recovered the car.
'They said the coach found It's way
to Geneva attached to a gravel train
and that they borrowed it from an of.
floer of the New York Central company
The officer confirmed the story, except
that the loan had been for day or two
only, and had been extended without
permission from the owners of the
carr
A well-known railroad man told an
other story of a lost car. No trace
could be found of 1t beyond junction
in the iron regions of Pennsylvania.
Finally this officer became so interest
ed that he determined to investigate the
case personally. He went to the town
where the car had been seen last and
followed disused ana grass-growr
track some distance in the country.
After prolonged search, he discov'
cred the car with stovepipe project
ing from the roof and other signs of in
habitation. He found family in pos
session, but evicted them without at
tempting to collect back rent, and says
that he believes the coach to be still in
use on a country road TO which it was
sold several years after its discovery in
the willis of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania road lost an entire