The record-union., 1899-07-30
Hom Great Trains Are
Made Up Here.
Skilled Men Are Required
Loading, Refrigera-
ton, Etc.

The fruit shipping industry of Cali
fornia has grown to marvellous proper
tons, and Sacramento enjoys the dis
tinction of being it's center of opera
tions.
The picking, packing and delivering
aboard the cars of California fruit des-
tined for Eastern markets, is only hall
the story. 1t is a serial, and the char
acters who step on the stage in the
last act are far removed from the or
chardist and his avocation, and yet are
necessary adjuncts to his business.
The scene shifts from the orchard
from the pickers, packers and handlers
to the murk and gloom through which
dim lanterns glimmer and by signal
flashes tell the story of the night; shifts
to network of iron rails, tumble OF
moving cars, snorting locomotives and
careful, nirhble men who, by long prac-
tice and close application, have learned
just what to do and what not to do
and have learned Their lesson well.
In this second act are also reminders
of a winter in the Klondike. Through
the dark night skillful men juggle great
blocks of ice, placing them over. and
around the loaded fruit SO as to KEEP
it fresh and sweet until it's journey
across the continent, and sometimes
across the Atlantic Ocean, ends.
IN THE YARDS.
Charles A. Newton is Night Yard
Master for the Southern Pacific Com
pany in this city, and the position, car
rying as it does a great load of respon-
sibility, stamps him as an expert al
nf
in time of a glut. He knows his bust
ness, all down the line from A to II
is an observer, and something of phil
osopher.
Mr.. Newton has been in the employ
of the Southern Pacific Company fof
the past twenty-ene years, and easily
recalls the time when only two cars OF
fruit per week in the busy season, left
Sacramento for Eastern points
on which the freight rates alone
amounted to S1,6O0-SS00 per car.
Most people, said Mr.. Newton III
an interview with a Record Union
reporter. make their great mistake in
imagining that when the fruit is picked
hacked and loaded on the cars, tbs
work is over With them it is Sacra-
mente. and Presto. change! New York
"A
lust begun. Then the switchman steps
on the boards and plays his part
solves the problem of shifting and sift-
ing the cars; shunting each to the Ice
house to which it belongs, and subse-
quently Juggling it into train in sucf
position that in all it's subsequent stage:
the couplings need not be broken unit
it reaches it's destination"
Then Yard Master Newton went into
details concerning the work which falls
directly under his supervision. He ex
planned that the fruit, both in Sacra
mento the central distributing point
as we'll as that from outside districts
is loaded into the cars during the day
and that the work of the switching
crew which handles them, after load
ing, is all done at night. Thus it hap
pens that the car of fruit, before begin-
ming it's long journey to the East. Il
shifted and shunted and snatched from
among it's fellows, and after that prob
lem has been solved it is rolled IRON
the yards on the water front TO one
of the two ice-houses at Fourteentf
street, on the north levee, is there 1eec
sufficiently to protect the cargo unti
Truckee or Reno is reached, and Is
then again sorted, shot down to the
yards and finally sandwiched in with
nineteen others. iced again and made
ready for its trip over mountain anc
valley to the cities East of the CONT
mental divide.
And when Yard Master Newton and
his crews have handled the cars loaded
in this city their work has only fairly
started. While throughout all the day
a. host of men have been employed il
this city shifting fruit from boat and
truck into the cars, like work has beer
going forward all over the Sacramento
and San Joaquin Valleys, of which Sac.
ramento is the distributing center, and
when the evening shadows fall trains
from all points of the compass are
headed toward this city with their per-
ishable freight, verifying the boast OF
the old Latins that "all roads lead tt
Rome
The influx of the fruit begins early
and with it the work of the switchmen
The first train bearing fruit arrives
from the north at 6:30 o'clock, ane
about the same time one gets in from
the south. while half hour later comes
another from northern points, by the
way of Knights Landing and Wood
land, having picked up the daily contrl'
buttons of those points. At $50 comes
another from the north, by the way o.
Roseville Junction, and it clears up tht
cars loaded at Wheatland, Lincoln
Marysville and other points. Besides
these, several extra trains get in eacf
night, and there is little rest for tns
men who risk thir lives between tne
cars. or for those who manipulate the
switches.
Each incoming train is literally TORI
70 pieces. and it's several cars jolted anc
bumped from one track to another un-
Ri the average citizen, who knows
nothing of the complications which con
Front the switchmen, would imagine
that everything was going at random
Rut there is no guessWork about it. i