The Billings gazette., 1899-03-31
Railroad Briefs

| Denver capitalists and al eastern
syndicate are incubating a scheme to
Connect Denver and Deadwood by rail
the present season. It only requires
sixty miles of road between Deadwood
and New Castle and 175 between New
Castle and Orin Junction to close the
gap and give Deadwood practically all
air line of 45O miles in length to the
Colorado capital. Denver capital will
construct the road from Deadwood to
New Castle and an eastern syndicate
will build the other strip. Captain 7.
H. Russell of Deadwood is engineering
the deal, and claims he has positive
assurances of it's success.
X 4
That the tourist sleeper has come to
stay is evidenced by the fact that there
are at present no less than twenty diff
ferent tourist Car lines in operation over
western railroads. And the list is con-
stantly lengthening. Only a week or
two the Burlington and Northern Pa
cifc railroads established tourist car
service twice week between Seattle
and Kansas City, distance Of 2,100
miles. The tourist car serves its pur-
pose admirably. 1t provides accom-
modations which, while not as lux
urious as those of the palace sleeper,
are yet good enough to satisfy travellers
who care little for style but a great
deal for comfort
An indication of the better times en-
joyed by the railroads is seen in an an
nouncement of the Chicago, Burlington
& Quincy that Oh and after April it
will increase the hours in all of the
large shops operated by it by two hours
a day. During the dull times Of the
last few years many of the railroads
were forced to close some of their shops
and to reduce the working hours in
those which We're kept in operation.
AS employees were paid by the hour this
worked for economy. Traffic was light,
too, and there was no great necessity
for keeping all equipment in the best Of
condition. Nowadays every car is
needed by practically every large road
in the country, and the shop work
therefore is much heavier. The meas
ure to he adopted by the Burlington
already has become effective on many
American railroads and thousands of
who have been working short
hours now put in full time.
An Omaha paper has just discovered
that the Burlington has surveyors at
work running line of proposed rail.
road between Alliance, Neb., and
Brush, Col. Burlington officials in
Omaha stated that the building Of this
line would depend much on the report |
made by the engineers who are at work
locating route.
Chicago dispatches announce a new
departure in railroading that several of
the roads running into that city have
decided upon. Locomotive engineers
and their engines are to be divorced.
All the engines of the roads in question
are to be pooled and run continuously,
regardless Of the engineer in charge
In deciding upon this move those roads
ire only going to do what the Northern
Pacific has been doing for long time
For months past the locomotives of the
company have been run on this plan.
The rule as applied to passenger en-
yines is to run them over two divisions,
hat is, two engineers use the same
engine. While one engine runs be-
;ween Glendive and Billings, two
crews are engaged on the run the
changing point being at Forsyth. Pre-
the same method is pursued
with the engines used in the freight
service