El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-16
THE RAILROAD SIDE.


Vice President Kruttschnitt, OF the
sp.,Argues In Favor Of Double
Headers.
Mr.. J. Kruttschnitt, general man
ager of the Southern Pacific lines or
the Pacific slope, seems to voice the
sentiments of railroad officials in theil
opposition to the double-header bill
now pending in the legislature. In dis
GUESSING the matter of running dOu BILE
hea0ers on tae Southern Pacific, where
the system has been in use for some
time, he writes:
The trains called double.headers or
the lines of the Southern Pacific are
not rs long or as heavy as those hauled
with single engines On other paris OF
tae line, where NO claim has ever been
made that braking, firing and en-
ginee ing were thereby made more
dangerous. The double-header orains
in Texas never exceed twenty to
twenty-five freig hit cars. On divisions
east sOf Houston trains sOf forty-hve
aad fifty cars, nauled by one iocomo-
tive, are by DO meaDs uncommon, and
on hiily divisions west of Ell Paso on
the same system forty and forty-hve
cars with locomotives run double
header are hauled: and on the Califor-
mia valley lines trains of hfty-hve and
sixty cars are by no means unusual.
All of these t~aIns are run safely
without any unusual effort on the part
ostt men ami without 1ncrea ed risk
either to them or to the public.
"For, many years practically all OF the
freight cars on the Sunset route have
been equipped with the Westing house
automatic air brake, that line having
anticipated the requirements of the
federal law making the use OF this
safety appliance imperative. On trains
of cars so equipped the perilcus duty
of a brakeman consists in either riding
in the cupols of mis- caboose, in the en-
CINE cab or On the roof of a freight
car. The entire train is braked and con-
trolled by the engineer. Each car
carries its brakes and supply of air
TO apply it, and, whether there be
one car or 100 in the train q slight
movement of the wrist and a turn
of valve on the locomotive
sets the brakes On all. On oOu BILE
header there are double the number of
6remen ard engineers to do the same
work aS on tie same train hauled with
one engine: counting the entire crew
there would be five men on train
hauled by a single engine and seven On
the same train hauled by two;so that on
such q train The men actually perform
ing the work of handling mach inery
by one-hslf, or one-third, as Mr..
Wooten thinks.
'The ordinary ten wheeler freight
engines that are run double-header on
the Sunset route have q tractive power
of ABOUT 10000 pounds. One of the
new Mogul freight engines coming
into general use on that line has
tractive power of nearly rs, 600 pounds,
and, singly, pulls over many parts of
claim of increased risk, the same trains
whose length and weight are said to
constitute elements of enhanced danger
when pulled by a double-header.
There is an incidental and consider
able increase in safety in running
doGble-h eaders. as it reduces one-halt
the number of moving trains, and by
much more than one-half the risk of
coming together.
That the practice is not an innova-
ton in railroading is proven by the
fact that on the Southern Pacific lines
west of FL Paso trains have been run
dou BILE header for the past twelve or
fourteen years safely and successfully.
THE only way in which railroads
have been able to continue the mig h
wages they are paying their trainmen.
6remen and engiu GERS in face of con-
8 antly falling rates has been by cor
respondipgly reducing the cost of
transporting freight through the adop-
tion of n ore efficient methods. Stud
eDts of railroad statistics are aware
that the reductions of rates during th
past five or six years would have bank-
rupted every road in the country had
they not met them by devising more
economical methods whereby carloads
8 nd trainloads were Increased so that
earnings per train mile increased some
what faster than expenses.
1.-The great bulk of the business OIL
the South ern Pacific, or Sunset lines |
IN Texas, is transcontiuental traffic. |
Gertsinly the Galveston, Harrisburg
81 San Antonio caunos live without it. |
All Of it is carried in comp tition with |
the Canadian Pacific, the Northern
Pacific and other strong lines extend
ing across the continent north OF Tex
as. Those lines are free to use double
headers. and are unrestricted in the
of all facilities for cheap
" and expeditiously moving the traf-
fc.
Next to cbeapness of the rate,
prom ptness Of the service is ona of the
most important clements in the fierce
competition that prevails for this
business, and in order
for the southern route to get the bust
ness it must be able to give spaed and
reliability in the service as we'll cheap
rates"
Going To Paris.
W. 81. Mills, of the Southern Pacific
Company, went through Ell Paso on the
>. P. last evening on his way to Paris
20 assume charge of the exhibit the
company is to have at the exposition.
De has with him "a assistants J. A.