The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-05-30

them missed connections which they hoped
to make with other railroads.
ssOn top of all this surface annoyance Is
the danger of further wrecks by disor-
ganized system; the trouble Of getting the
schedules, freight and passenger, set up
in shape as they were before the smash,
and the added notoriety gained with every
hour that the road is blocked. For the
time, while at work, the wreckmaster Is a
man of more Importance than the supern-
tendent himself.
"What happens when wrecking train
reaches the scene of the disaster depends
entirely on circumstances. just as no two
wrecks are alike, so no two methods OF
clearing the debris are alike. As a rule,
if the wreck includes passenger train and
if persons were killed or injured, the grue-
some work of saving the survivors and of
rescuine what remains of the dead has
been finished Only the actual work of
getting the road back into shape is what
confronts the wrecker At times he must
exercise ingenuity and invention on the
spot. About the limit in this direction, |
always thought, was shown by Western
wrecking master who, on finding he could
not clear the track of pair of hopelessly
smashed engines, ordered them hoisted
clear of the tracks, took the rails from
under them and with some spare rails
which are on every Western long distance
wrecking train, built i curve of track
around the obstruction until, in time, it
was removed.
SAVING THE REMNANTS.
"A good wrecking master and good
crew can do much in the way of saving a
company considerable money-picked out
of the wreck, as it were. You might look
at smash-up and think it perfectly gor
geous because to you every car on the
train seems as if Knocked to smithereens.
After all. judgments of this kind all de-
pend upon a point of view. But TO a
trained wrecker and his men, all from the
repair shops and used TO putting together
and taking apart every sort of railway
contrivance. much that is valuable will APP
pear. Here a ear roof, intact and even
| unscratched. sticks invitiugly out of the
wreckase. This can be hauled back to
the shops and used as if 1t were brand
new one. There whole side of box car
awaits only transportation to be used over
again. Even bent and broken aud twisted
trucks, scrap iron YOU likely would call
them, are valuable. when scanned by the
eye Of an expert aud 50 On. Many thou
sands of dollars worth Of things are saved
in this way every year by a well ex-
perienced crew.
Wrecks scarce We fellows wish they
we're II ism only every wreck You hear
about that happens on a railroad. 10 the
first place. a wreck without loss Of human
life. attracts mighty little attention nova
DAYS. and also il depends what sort ot lives
are wiped out whether a newspaper thinks
il worth the interest Of its readers to prlnt
an account Of the trouble Smash a
couple Of tranps on a coal train, and they
don count.
No work on a railroad Is harder than
that of the wrecker Aud aside irum
everything. man = constantly on duty
If he wants day of or wants to be ex-
eused from duty for a Sunday or Tor an
evening he must give notice aud another
man must be appointed in his place To
fail to respond when the wreck siren
blows means discharge from the crew nn-
less previously excused. The wages paid
men while on wreckiag duty vary With the
different roads. One railroad pays a.
much as fifty cents an hour from the time
the train pulls ont to the time It : back
on its siding. This l. tremendous pay for
the wreckers, and il stimulates them 70 do
good work and creates competition %
the par, of all hands to hold their appoint
meuts aud to keep new men out q them.
Frequently the run 20 a wreck = a long
one. and for some hours there l. h,'le to
do but to lounge laEiiy and enjoy lite, ou
the way back there Is another breathing
spell for th0se who are in condition to en-
JOY it. But why not come out with Us
some time when you hear the siren snort,
and YOU can see for once in your life what
work l.