The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-15
TRACK INSPECTION.
How Railroads are Inspected and In
proved Every Autumn.
lingo MO Is Contrlvarces for Recording
the Condition of the Rails and
Roadbed, Etc.

Roadbed, Etc.
One of the most interesting and en-
! joyable duties that the officials of the diff
ferent railroads have to perform is that
of inspecting their lines every fall. To
the uninitiated the task seems a prosaic
one, but to the officials and subordinates
1t is quite an event. To the former it is
like looking over personally conducted
farm or city premises to ascertain il
everything is in shipshape, and TO the
latter 1t is like submitting work for in.
spectlon and receive prizes or censure, as
the critical eye of the overseer dictates.
1t has become almost universal rule
among the large railroads to offer prizes
for the best kept and smoothest piece of
track on certain divisions, and also for
the finest stretch OF the entire road. 1t is
needless to say that the honor of being the
foreman of such section equally
balances the monetary consideration,
which is about SlC0. Besides these
prizes there are honors and riches
Tor the most successful supervisor
whose section of the road will comprise
from eight to fifteen gangs of laborers
under competent foremen and cover a
distance OF from twenty-five to fifty
miles, according to circumstances. The
supervisors are men of considerable
education, have the blood of old railroad
stock coursing through their veins, and
as they grow older invariably drift into
positions of trust and prominence in the
railroad world.
During the hot summer months the
roads are kept in as fair condition as pos
slble, but when the leaves begin to turn
in the early fall an unprofessional eye,
looking out of the car window, can easily
discern the neat appearance of every
thing along the track. In railroad par
lance it is "house-cleanin' time. aud,
while the def and dainty hands of the
gentler sex are missing, the rough work.
calling for sterner hands and results
equally as pleasing invariably follow.
Dying weeds, young sprouting trees,
leaflesS branches and bushes are ruth
lessly cut down, and, with worn-out ties,
are collected together, and soon disappear
IN smoke, the ashes being quickly gotten
out OF sight so as not to mar the pleasant
effect on the eye. Gravel and broken
stone alongside and between the ties and
rails are scraped together, hols filled in
and the slightest indenture in the rails
removed. By the time this has been ac-
complished over a stretch of three miles
of track the annual inspection cars, with
their dozens of occupants, are not far
away, and the foreman indicates his I'M
easiness and anticipation by quick pulls
at his short pipe, and hopes the cars will
pass by before anything occurs to disturb
the harmony of his work.
Among the division Superintendents
expectation runs high, although in more
dignitied way, as BETTING their position,
as they too receive complimentary no.
tice from the higher officials of the road,
and to possess the sprize stretch of road
is one of their fondest desires. For weeks
previous to the annual inspection the
uperintendents' car can be seen making
frequent trips over their divisions, and
the knowing smiles of the supervisors
and foremen indicates that they are in
perfect accord with their chief and under
stand his movements.
One of these division inspection cars
came into one OF the local depots re-
Gently. and a reporter took advantage of
the opportunity thus presented to inspect
it.
In these cars are contrivances known
as the dynograph, an instrument that
can tell to a nicely the condition of the
rails and roadbed trayersed. The car is
about forty feet long, and represents in
its perfect state OF efficiency the study
and development of twenty years. The
dynograph is an ingenious electrical in
strument, which. by system of little
glass tubes filled with ink and tapering to
fine, pen-like points, will trace on paper,
as the car moves along at any rate of
speed, everything that is desirable to
know. The paper used is about twenty
four inches wide, and it passes from one
roller to another, both the rollers NOV
ing in connection with the wheels of the
car. a strip of this paper, eight feet
long, is used to each mile traversed, and
the points of the little glass tubes mark
on the paper the alignment of each rail.
the degree of curvature as well as the
elevation of each curve, the speed at
which the car Is moving and the condi-
ton of the surface of the rail. Every
variation of one-sixteenth of an inch and
over is recorded.
Connected with the registering and
tracing instruments in the car is a con-
trivance which automatically elects
drop OF blue paint upon each point in the
track where the end of the TAIL is one
sixteenth of an inch or more out of gear
At the end of the trip the exact number of
such faulty spots is found recorded on a
slip of paper. These slips are Immediately
forwarded to the supervisors and fore
men and the defects speedily remedied.
These trips are repeated until few DAYS
before the general inspection, and the
road reaches a state that is almost perfect.
AS the general inspection cars carry
dynographs it can be readily seen that
such personal inspection is almost
necessity to receive the marks OF merit
The Jersey meadows are an obstacle
that can not be successfully combated
against in the try for prizes by foremen
in other sections of the country. There
the tracks for miles run in straight lines
and without the smallest indication of a
hill or curve. The foremen that have
sections there to look after have compare
lively little to do outside of the cleaning
up period, and one of these stretches in
variably gets the prize each year. This
fall the usual result followed, and JERSEY
meadow foreman came out on top. The
second prize went to man up in the
Alleghenies, and when the circumstances
surrounding that section are considered
the work must have been of an excep-
tional high order of road building. One
OF the prizes drifted down near Washing
ton, and when the sandy soil traversed
by the road is considered the lucky SUI
pervisor's works must have been excep-
tionally good,
The general inspection is usually made
with three special trains over the main
lines, and over branches but one is used.
The inspection takes in roads from New
York City to st. Louis. Three of the in
specton cars are generally pushed ahead
OF the locomotives and contain seats ar
ranged in pyramid style that require a
big open front. These seats, while the
train is running at high rate of speed,
are anything but comfortable, as the
wind makes veritable sieve out of ones
body. But the clerks who do the figur-
ing and occupy the seats enjoy the trip,
as it means elaborate meals at the end of
each run and enables them TO exchange
views pertaining to railroading with each
other Washington Star.