The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-07-04
RAILROAD MATHEMATICS.
Increase of Cars to Train Load the
Key to Profits.

Carl Hoyey in Anslees.
Railroading. in it's beginning and
throughout its eXuberant youth, was
a business which made use of nerve
big head for planning and plotting,
and constant slap-dash application
after which the returns were pretty
sure. Nowadays it is all as sophisti-
Gated ds a cash register A successful
year indicates that some one has
taken enormous pains to study the
figures and that the result of his dill
gence has been pretty accurate
knowledge of the class of business that
would ray.
A railroad carries freight and pas
sengers for living. The managing
head, in order to direct the business
proiitably, must know what it costs
him to provide the service for which
the public pays. Comon sense and the
instinct of self-preservation demand
this course al once, but they are not
so forward in suggesting what is to
be done first How can one come at
such a knowledge? 1t costs so much
annually to maintain the track and
| the terminals so much to pay the
| salaries of the train crews, yardmen,
| ment too. How much, then, will it
| cost to carry six carloads of potatoes
| one hundred and fifty miles out on the
main line to Berryville? The problem
| looks like one by which cunning ped
agogues advise little boys that ii is
| impractical BILE to add hens and geese
| together in the same rum, or useless
to seek TO know the cost of seven and
seven -eighths pounds of butter in a
catch question where you are told only
the price per pound of lard The dit
| ference is that the railroad figures do
show a glimmer of sense. But this
| proves to be a villa the wisp leading
nowhere. Nothing can be done with
them until you have slaughtered most
of the items wholesale, and have ar
| bitraarily selected a few promising
ones with which to do business.
Let us say the line carried, in the
year 1899, 50,OO0O0 tons of freight d
distance of one mile; the work has
been measured, with this result which
stands on the books as 5Oc0O,000 ton
miles" The pay for doing the work
| measured also, averaged four mills to
a ton mile, so that the total revenue
from the freight business for that year
amounted TO 100000 The expense is
J to he measured by a unit which is
called the train mile" In this in
stance it is the freight train mile. The
! immediate cost of running a freight
train a mile can be computed readily,
and ii Includes Cost of fuel for the
locomotive, and wages of an engineer,
a fireman, a conductor, couple OF
brakemen, and flagman. The number
of cars may be anything you pleplse so
far as these expenses are concerned,
for IL will not affect them much. In
the present case. say that the average
trainoad was 400 tons, large, but a
round figure. Therefore the number
of train miles that had to be run "a
earn the 100000 was $4,000. Train
mile cost was reckoned at 75 cents.
Therefore, we have: Expenses, $93, $40
profit, Sl06, ,25O. Not the actual profit,
TO BE- sure, but we get on better by
keeping the geese separate from the
hens, and the figures have their use.
Take the companies report for the
following year, 1900. The same work
was done, let US say, in 500oo,OOo ton
miles. The average trainload, how
ever, was 500 tons. No wonder the
road found itself with more money
to divide than il had in the year 1893
For, by increasing the trainload the
number OF train miles was lessened
and train expenses were inevitably
reduced to the tune of nearly $4,000
The gross revenue remained, of course
the same,
The figures are disGracefully rough
but they tell the truth. They shout il
/ through a megaphone The way tC
make money is 10 increase in train
load. A well-known technical writer
in Wall street calls this "the touch
stone of successful or economical rail
roadng" To save train miles is 4
save money drop by drop, to save /
with a sure promise of drops enough