The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-01-25
WASTE OF RAILWAYS
HOW OLD LOCOMOTIVES, CARS, RAILS,
ETC, ARE DISPOSED OF.

Az S"hS oA
Discarded or Wornout MnterinI.
Some Thugs Which Are Not Worth
the Trouble of Saving.
Inventors of all classes most truly illus
trate the truth OF the old saw that men
rise on the stepping stones of their dead
selves to higher things. These nell are
at once the delight and The dread Of great
railroad systems. No sooner does one
magnificent locomotive place railroad
at the front of Civilizations line of adj
vance than a better engine comes along
and proudly plows it into the waste pile.
Admired and advertised today, the new
locomotive is sold tomorrow to logging
road and thereafter GroanS out its time
on steep grades under loads that make
its round feet slip on the rusty rails.
What is true of the engine is true of the
rails, of tine ties under the rails and of
the fastenings that hold them together.
The statement of the purchasing agent
for the New York Central makes this
fact of railroad wastage most graphic.
He said, 1--WE receive over S1,O00,OO0
year for the waste material of our 5000
miles Of track" He got out his book and
after going over ii carefully added, Yes,
We get an average of 100000 month"
On this basis all the railroads of the
United States would dispose of about
100000. 900 of wastage every year. The
theory and practice of economy therefore
are TN important part of a railroad mans
education.
1--WE could save more than we do" con-
tinued the agent, ''but often it would cost
more than a dollar to save a dollars
worth Of material. To one not familiar
with railroading it might look like pure
waste to let the dollars worth of mate
rial be lost, but nothing is worth saving
unless 1t will sell for more than it costs
to save 1t. 1t is on this theory that we pay
no attention 20 stubs of pencils and to
empty Ink bottles, short lamp wicks and
trifles of that class, although l have
heard that some systems do save them.
AS we get most of our ink from one
concern, we could perhaps get some re-
bate by returning the bottles, but the
saving would not justify itself. Broken
lamp chimncys, on the other hand, are
another proposition. Many Of these are
of flint glass, and we save the pieces. 1t
is surprising how many glass globes and
articles of good glass are broken among
our thousands of employees. Every
month we gather up the fragments and
sell the mass to the glass men for one
fourth of cent pound.
EVERY scrap of iron that falls by the
waySide, every bit of iron bored out in
drilling holes, every broken bolt. old rail
and old hinge is saved and sold when
there is bulk enough. This material
amounts to hundreds of thousands Of
pounds mont lily. The iron waste is
gathered easily and practically without
cost. The borings are swept up in the
repair houses and factories in the mere
operation of keeping the places i'll order.
as for iron that drops from trains on the
road, the section hands pick that UP as
they chance to see it, toss it on their
handcars and let it accumulate at their
section house. When there is enough to
make it worth while, a train takes it to
market.
: Empty barrels. carboys. pieces of
rope, scraps of gold leaf used for letter
ing. sections of rubber hose, rubber cloth
and such things have a market value that
makes them worth saving. The chief
items of saving are in the heavy articles.
We get about $1,000 year for discard
ed ties. These ties are of yellow pine,
and when cut into short blocks make n
splendid fire. Some of the best people of
this city use them in their old fashioned
frepIayes. We sell the ties for a dime
each, and they are cheap fuel at that.
We cannot afford to haul them to market
from the distant places on the line, and
what the farmers and section men th2re
do not want to take free we burn UP TO
get them out of the way. TheftS of ma
terial from the roadside are so tritling
as to be not worth considering.
rails come next to ties in value. The
best and heaviest rails must he used on
the main lines all the time. Many rails
are retired from the main line while still
good for lighter service. These are often
placed on side tracks. Often Il rail that
is of no value to US at all is good enough
for some road using lighter locomotives,
or on some harkwoods logging road, and
so 1t gogs 10 another master, serving until
finally worn out, when it finds its way to
the melting pot, TO begin life again, per-
hapS as n rail, but more likely in some
other form.
1.-The greatest loss in oneration is in the
locomotives and cars. There as so many
new types of engines and cars that it is
impossible to tell fairly what they cost.
But for the purpose of showing waste We
will strike an average. A new engine
costs from $4,000 to $4,000. and will
last about - years by being shifted from
the main line to side lines and switches.
In the end it is sold for about $4,000 or
$4,000 according TO condition. 1t may he
utterly unfit for our work and yet be of
value to some smaller road, or to some
factory for shunting cars among ware
houses. Often, however. an engine ac-
tually wears ont in our service, and then
It goes directly into the melting pot. On
every engine there will be certain parts
that are not worn. and the old machine is
carefully dismantled of all valuable ma
terial before it is sold as scrap.
odd cars are passed along the line in
much the same way. A new passenger
coach costs about $1,000 and after %
years of service win bring about $500.
A new freight car will cost from $500 to
500 and will sell after Il or 90 years
service for about $50. New cars are al
ways of the latest pattern. They are
used at first on the best trains and as
they become antiquated are retired TO
humber service until their final use with
us is in construction trains. Many we
sell to smaller roads in out of the way
places. and many are bought by theat-
rical compaLies and circuses. When we
decide to put n car into the scrap pile,
we sell to one man the privilege of rip
ping out the wood, to another the pipes,
and so on. until each class of material is
distributed to the trode from which it
came originally. New York Mail and
E'ynrpcs