Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-07-10


companies are mean enough to do It.
but they knew perfectly well that II
they did they would have an accident
and the jury would look to them for
damages, SO that it might cost them
the price of 20 or 30 locomotives over
again.
These mean companies generally
work hard in the repair shop and after
locomotive is not good for regular
work they put it on the branch lines or
In the car yard to push around freights
and make up trains.
What becomes of the locomotive when
it is no longer of any use? 1t goes to the
junk shop. fguratively speaking. A To-
connective that Is no longer good has still
some value as a matter Of metal. The
outside sheathing Is the best quality Of
Russia sheet iron. which is of different
character and much more valuable than
the sheet iron we use for stovepipes 1t
is wrought iron, with some qualities lika
steel and with a very curious fiber,
which keeps the strength of the metal
and takes that beautiful blush black
polish which you may have noticed when
you were standing near an engine at rest
I'm many cases this sheathing can be
used for other locomotives. and when 1t
cannot be utilized in that manner II can
be in other branches of the metal trade.
There is some brass on the locomotive,
not so much as there used to be. TIL.
fashion nowadays Is to have the locomo j.
tive as plain as can be, while In the old
days they used to put on lots Of brass
and red paint. Some of the very latest
engines are as plain as the big station
aries in car houses. The tubes of the
crown sheet get pretty well burned out
by the fire.
Formerly they were broken up and
thrown away. but now they are taken in
to foundries and melted into sash weights
and other cheap castings. The cylinder
piston rod, connecting rod. drivers and
axles and the machinery in the cab are
made Of the best steel and are bought up
by dealers in that metal. Every com
pany that amounts to anything has one
or more repair shops and storage yards,
where the old cars are sent when their
usefulness Is over.
Smaller companies don't have these
things but depend upon the great manu-
featuring corporations for their rolling
stock. This Is one Of the Queerest things
In railrOading We call the institution
the car trust. l believe there are two or
three dozen concerns work business alon;
these lines. You see. here Is a poor rail-
road which has been built from 4 main
line into some country district
1.-The builders have used up all their
money and either have no cars at all or
else only one-quarter as many as they
need. So they go to one of the car
trusts and they get three or four en-
gines and eight or ten passenger cars
and twenty or forty freight and fiat cars,
They pay a round sum down and so
much a month. or they may pay half the
cost down and the rest in installments,
but in any case the rolling stock belongs
to the trust, who cover it with bonds or
sell them to capitalists and investors.
They make money and the investor gets
a good return upon his investment, and
the little company does not pay much
more in installments than 1t would have
paid in a lump sum if it had bought them
outright.
There are hundreds of rolling stock
which are run upon these principles.
Now, when these things get injured or
worn down pretty we'll. they are taken up
by the car trusts and not by the COM
panies, and these trusts have the biggest
Yards and storages in the entire railway
husineSs