The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-01-22
WASTE OF RAILWAYS
HOW OLD LOCOMOTIVES, CARS, RAILS.
ETC, ARE DISPOSED OF.

ETC, ARE DISPOSED Dr.
Big Money L. Made by the Sale of
Discarded or Wornout Material.
some Things 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 men are
at once the delight and the dread of great
railroad systems. No sooner does one
magnificent locomotive place railroad
at the trout of Civilizations line of ad-
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
it's round feet slip on the rusty rails.
What is true of the engine is true of the
rails, of the 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 $1,OOO,OOO
year for the waste material of our 5000
miles of track" He got out his book and
after going over it carefully added, Yes,
we get an average of 100000 month"
On this basis all the railroads of the
United States would dispose of about
$50, 100000 of wastage every year. The
theory and practice of economy therefore
are an important part of railroad mans
| education.
fhor1 In
tinued the agent, "but often it would cost
more than a dollar to save 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 it will sell for more than it costs
| to save it. 1t is on this theory that we pay
no attention to stubs of pencils and to
empty ink bottles, short lamp wicks and
| trifes of that class, although | 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 chimneys, 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 a 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 monthly. The iron waste is
| gathered easily and practically without
| cost. The behring's are swept up in the
repair houses and factories in the mere
operation of keeping the places IN 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 500, 900 a year for discard,
| ed ties. These ties are of yellow pine,
and when cut into short blocks make a
| splendid fire. Some of the best people of
| this city use them in their old fashioned
| freplaces. We sell the ties for 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 there
| 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 trifiing
| as to be not worth considering.
trails come next to ties in value. The
| best and heaviest rails must be 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 OH side tracks. Often a rail that
| is of no value to us at all is good enough
| for some road using lighter locomotives,
or on some backwoods logging road, and
| so 1t goes to another master, serving unit
finally worn out, when it finds its way to
| the melting pot, to begin life again, per-
| haps as a rail, but more likely in some
| other form.
ssThe greatest loss in operation 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 IS years by being shifted from
| the main line to side lines and switches.
| In the end it is sold for about $1,000 or
| $4,000, according to condition. 1t may be
| utterly unfit for our work and yet be of
| value to some smaller road, or to some
J factory for shunting cars among ware
| houses. Often, however, an engine ac-
! tually wears out in our service, and then
1t 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.
/ eOld cars are passed along the line in
much the same way. A new passenger
coach costs about $1,000 and after 25
years Of service will bring about $500.
A new freight car will cost from $500 to
$500 and will sell after Is or 20 years
service for about $3.50. 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 companies and circuses. When we
decide to put 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 trade from which it
came originally. New York Mail and
Express.
THE MIDNIGHT SKY.