The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-23
PITTSBURG'S JAM OF FREIGHT.
40 MILES OF CARS IN THE BLOCH
AIDE At ONE TINE.
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Tons Of Freight
InGeii, ercd-Pittstrirg industries Al.
fected-EnO rts 10 Move the cars

InGpii, ered--Pittsbtirg industries Al.
fected-EnOrts TO Move the cars
PIrTsBuRG, Nov. 22.-On Wednesday
of this week 20 900 freight cars stood on the
sidings and yards Of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Nearly all of them were loaded
! with freight, and those which were empty
were 70 inextricably mingled with the
loaded ones that il was difficult to cut them
out and transfer them to tracks that they
might be taken back West where they were
needed.
The average length Of each freight car
is 45 feet and 20.0OO freight cars in a line
would measure 100000 feet, or 10 miles,
which means that 10 miles Of tracks OF
the PENNSYLVANIA Railroad and the Penn
| sylvania lines west Of Pittsburg are block.
AIDED with freight cars and that hundreds
] of thousand : of tons of freight Of all kinds
/ cannot be delivered TO consignees.
Ordinarily it took "a car Of freight from
! n week to ten DAYS to come to Piitsburg
from Chicago; for two months past the
average time occupied by car of flour
| in travelling from Chicago TO the yard In
| Pittsburg in which it could be unloaded
by the consgnee has been from five TO
seven weeks.
During that time cars have. been lost.
Traced AS far as the Conway yards on the
Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago rail-
roads cars have disappeared at that Point
and weeks have elaI sed before they have
finally b zen found, sandwiched in the book
ade
Even when found they were not avail
able for the consignee's use, for where they
stood 1t was impossible to unload them,
and to cut them out and transfer them
TO an unloading yard would have required
the services of a shifting engine for day
or more.
As a result of the scarcity Of cars, lack
of motive power. scantiness OF yards and
sidings large mills and blast furnaces
are threatened with a shut down, and al
though within the last three days thou
san Is Of freig ht cars have been moved the
danger is still urgent. Important depart
1 ments Of the great Duquesne and Home
stead plants of the Carnegie Steel Company
may b. compelled 10 close down, and with
these mills crippled great loss 10 Pittaburg
would ensue.
They consume much Of the stock of pie
iron produced by the independent blast
furnace operators, and the furna cemer
have closed down so per cent Of their fun
naces. because Of the inability Of the rail
roads 10 bring the coke from Councils
Vile to the furnaces in eastern Pennsyl
yania and western Ohio and 70 take back
the pig iron to Homestead and Duquesne.
An officer of the United States Steel 60
poration said:
The freight congest ion il the worst II
the history of the Pittsburg district. The
railroad people know and We know. al
though the public has lii tie conception, o
the danger now confronting us of tying vi
the wheels of industry here
The open weather has caused great de
mand for building material, but hundred
OF cars Of lumber, terra Gotta, brick an'
stone are tied up IN the yards and cahho
be unloaded.
Early in the week President A J. Ca-sat
of the Pennsylvania Railroad came to Pitts
burg, spent a couple Of days in confercnc
with other officers Of the road and ordered
that the congestion be li9htened at an.
cost In conSe qucnce, locomotives wer'
hurried here from Eastern and Western
, points and a concerted effort to relieve thu
blockade was begun.
Throughefreght from the East and Wes
= had accumulated i'll the yards and on
, Wedne sday the movement to get this freigh
, out of the way was begun. In the Pitts
burg district, on the Baltimore and Ohio
the Pittsburg and Lake Erie and the =, nm
I sylvania lines 2OUn cars were moved, tina
2 is, arranged in the order of their shlppln
III |
r the yards was made, for the cars are sti
p there.
, In parts Of the yards where the freigh
cars have not been assembled one ma
walk between the tracks for several mile
counting on each side hundreds Of cars In
o tended for various destinations, all mike
"A together. Those cars will all have 10 b
a drilled to their respective through track
before they can be sent out
The Pennsylvania hailI DAD produce yard
3 in Pittsburg supply al illustration OF tn
i extent TO which the cor geetion has grown
: These yards extend from Eighteelth I
Twenty-ilrst street and have a capacity 9
, go cars. The railroad company keeps IN
: yards full, CoisigIees are constantly IN
. loading and the empty cars are remove
: az fast as they are emptied
y Yet all the time more than 800 cars a
v fruits and vegetables are lying on sid
r tracks in Allegheny waiting an oppo.tuLit
10 be moved across the river 10 the produc
t yards. All the ood-storase houses are fu
: and all produce must he sold to save los
g through decay but until the cars reac
= the produce yards no sale can be made
The blockade If costing the Penrsylvani
@ Railroad thousands OF dollars each day
g Shippers and corsigI ees contemplate film
p claims for more than $500, 900 damages
T. locomotive en- gineers are earning from $40
n to 1915 month and other railroad trainine
are making overtime.
$ The West Penn Railroad. a branch of III
d Pennsylvania has a freight transfer sta
o ton at Ross, eight miles from Allegheny
= with a capacity ef fifteen cars A Wcs
5 Penn employee. in speaking of the cor
: gestion at this point said
o Il can 60 into the transfer Office and sho'
o you the wavbill of a car that arrived ther
Aug. 0. II contains freight for local point
on the West Penn. That car is on No
y track al Ross and will stay there for seve
o more weeks before II can be reached in il
: regular turn.
9 1t is not difficult to comprehend the ma
/, nitude of the freight congestion when
is stated that in one case it required thrs
DAYS for train to go twenty miles. nor
: realize the cost 20 the railroad compan
i whom ore remembers that the crew of III
h train remain at their posts all that tin
snatching few hours sleep now and tho
: In the engine or the cahoose.