The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-03
MISSING FREIGHT CAR FOUND
IN AN ABANDONED MINING SHAFT
AND ANOTHER IN A
DESERT,
Base RaIIists Steal Car and Con-
struct n Rackstop of POr-
tons of 1t.

tricacies of car accounting 1t might
seem easy to keep track of the roll
ing stock; but when it is considered
that, no matter how small the road
owning it, a car may be sent from the
Atlantic to the Pacific and be handled
by fifteen or twenty different train
crews and perhaps as many switching
crews, at all hours of the day and
night it will be seen that there Is
plenty of room for mistakes. Passen-
ger, express, and baggage cars are
rarely lost track Of, but the freight car
department is less fortunate, and ev-
cry road of any Importance has It's
lost-car agent, who is always on the
wing hunting up astray cars. His
trips often cover thousands of miles
and take him into all sections of the
country, from the busy yards in the
large cities to some out-of- the-way
switch in a desolate region, where the
railroad station stands alone. says the
New York Sun.
while l was Iost-car agent for the
Alabama Great Southern" said a rail-
road man, 81 had some queer eXper-
fences. While out on hunt for box
car No. 873 once, a telegram reached
me at Aberdeen, Miss, that, as soon
as my report was turned in regarding
Its whereabouts. I was to go to Terre
Haute, Ind, in search of a gondola, or
coal car. of our line. No. 1871. The
latter had been sent to Indianapolis
with load of machinery for the Nor
dyke Marmon Machine company from
Tuscaloosa, Ala, and, having arrived
and been unloaded, instead Of being
sent home, it had been loaded with car
trucks and sent to Terre Haute via
Vandalia, they being short of cars,
and it being the Unwritten rule to use
anything in sight when car must be
had.
From Terre Haute it was sent to
Brazil for a load of coal. 1t was the
plan to load it there and send 1t on
the way home as far as Indianapolis
with black coal, for which the Brazil
mines are famous the world over. Upon
its arrival at Brazil the mines were
closed, owing to a strike, and the car
was side-tracked on a Chicago & East
ern Illinois spur track, owned jointly
by the latter road and the Vandalia.
Here the car dropped out of existence.
no further trace of it being obtaina-
BILE. A car is a pretty big piece Of
property to lose, yet it seemed lost,
at least officially. The books of the
agents and switching crews showed
Its arrival, but no trace of its depar-
ture. Upon my arrival at Brazil 1
carefully inspected every side track
and coal switch in the town. but no
sign of No. 1871 was visible.
Many other cars Of other roads, built
at the same shops, the Birmingham
(Ala.) car works, ard Of the same de-
scription as the lost car, were there,
but no A. G. S., 1871. 1 was about to
give up the hunt there and try some
other nearby town to see if it might
not have been showed out there for
want of room at Brazil, when CHANGED
to go down the c. & E. 1. tracks to-
ward the station north of the round
house, and a game Of ball on the COM
mon near by attracted my attention.
Being lover of the sport found, upon
consulting my watch that had nearly
an hour till the first train. Going over
to where the two clubs were deeply
engaged in hammering the little in
offensive ball, 1 sat down on a con-
venient knoll and was Soon Obvious
to all but the game.
one club, and many mutfs of his allow
ed the tally of the other side to run
up, nothing but the backstop prevent
ing the ball from landing in a pool Of
water near by. The usefulness of the
backstop. which was both high and
heavy, drew my attention to 1t. 1t
looked strangely familiar, and 1 drew
closer and soon recognized 1t to be the
Bideboards of a gondola car nailed to
upright posts. This fact interested me
more, and going around to the rear
my astonished vision was greeted with
the sight of the letters "A. G. S. in
white. but nearly effaced, and on the
end of the boards 1871 In a very
few minutes 1 found that the boards
had been purloined by enthusiastic
lovers Of base ball from an old smash
edup car near by. Getting my in
formant to accompany me I went to
the spot, and found that from the spur
track another spur had been built at
one time to nearby coal shaft, now
abandoned and full of water.
"By questioning the track foreman
found that the old shaft had caved
IN one night, taking with it several
rods Of the switch. The hole was
filled with water some twenty feet
deep, and was perhaps 100 feet in di-
ameter. Close inquiry elected the fact
that the track had been filled with
cars, though none naQ gone down, so
1t was thought, when the end sank in
the cave-in. Thinking differently, I
got a pump from the nail and spike
mill near by, and connecting it with
their steam plant, put 1t to work at
emptying the cave-in, as such ponds
are called. After three days of steady
pumping, with q million-gallon Cor
don pump, the bottom began to show
and soon the drawbar and timbers
of q gondola car were visible When
the water had been sufficiently lowered
1t was soon seen that it was our lost
EAR No. 1871, though badly broken
up and In terrible plight from lying
in the mud and water for nearly two
years. A derrick was at once rugged
up, the wrecking car of the Chicago &
Eastern Illinois was called into requi-
sition, and, after much labor, the car
was brought to the solid ground again
and temporary rails soon got 1t back
on the track The backstop was re-
car was temporarily repaired and sent
solved, and my work was done.
"a few months after this I was sent
to ST. Louis to locate a car, No 3O02,
A G. S. 1t was box car that had
left Selma, Ala, for San Francisco
loaded with oakum for ship calking.
From San Francisco, where it had
been unloaded, it was sent over to Oak
land, and from there to San Diego, or
Coronado Beach, more properly, con-
signed to the big hotel there and load
ed with furniture. From there, after
unloading, 1t had gone empty to En-
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