The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1903-04-16
MUCH COAL is STOLEN
HALF A tom TO THE CAR TAKEN
IN TRANSIT THIS WINTER.
How the Black Diamonds Are Confic-
Gated fro--l the Cars by Trainmen
and Others in Need of Them.

cars Of coal, averaging thirty-four tons
10 the car, have come into the city
weighing one ton short Of the mine
consignment One thousand pounds of
this shortage has been accomplished
outside of the citv limits; the rest has
happened here. Thus~o of the total Or
5150000 tons Of coal started for the
Chicago markets to date, loss by
freighting and by petty thefts has
stopped $4,000 tons short Of the Belt
Line roads, and petty thefts have de-
pleted the same cars of $4,000 tons
more, to the profit of the man, and boy,
and woman, and girl with the basket,
and the bag, and the coal scuttle,
sneaking by day or night through the
yards of the railroads and the coal
companies.
Nothing else in the line Of freight
consigned to the steam railroads of the
country compares with coal in the
sense OF it's exposure to thefts. No one
ever breaks into a Standard Oil COM
pany's tank cars; telegraph poles are
seldom stolen; iron ore is worthless to
~ 99-100 per cent of the population;
railroad rails and steel bridge Orders
IN transit are inviOlable. But coal
Even hard coal is a soft mark!
Autobiography OF a Car of Coal.
The autobiography of a car Of coal
in transit would involve the criminal
codes Of states and the machinerias of
state governments, Of counties, and Of
cities in confusion which might scat
ter the interstate commerce commits
sion in confusion and CONSERVATION to
the four winds.
In the beginning, switch engine,
probably by means Of the flying
switch, shunts the empty coal car on
to the siding at the mine. When the
man at the mine dump needs this
car it is run on to the great scale plat
form under the coal chutes. where
down an incline Of heavy boards the
contents Of the first Of the small mine
cars are tipped. Ordinarily three of
those mine cars OF soft coal arc tipped
into the railroad car at one end before
the cor is shifted few feet to receive
the next three cars in order.
AT the first shift of the railroad car
tho two ''trin,mers" move uron the
heap OF coal deposited, roll the Jumps
toward the sideboards Of the car, and
pile them as high as possible in order
70 increase the capacity of the car in
fine coal. Cars. whether of 10000 Co.
600, 10000 or 100000 pounds capacity,
must be piled in this manner in order
TO reach the marked capacity of each
car. Mine operators are allowed even
to load one of these cars up to 10 per
cent above its capacity as marked in
figures, but as rule this is not done.
Bul~ped t, the Ground
The train comes. The engineer NAV
not be in a good humOr, or he may not
be especially regardful of drawheads
and couplings. He may cut his train
in two, run up the track past the
switch, and come down the siding rails
with the business end Of his train in a
manner to jar the earth. At the first
convulsive bump of the couplings the
car loses $50 pounds of coal. perhaps
$50 pounds. When the engineer has
reversed the lever. pulled up and come
back again with the car into the bro
ken end of his train, the coupling
there may cost the consignee of the
coal another 100 pounds.
This is the beginning Ten miles
down the main line there may be a
bad stretch of track on a down grade,
and when the freight strikes it in the
effort for momentum for the up grade
beyond a lu ,p of coal as big as mans
roll down into the ditch from the
heaped-up car.
Forty miles away there is rail
way crossing with man in a switch
tower. The train comes to a stop for
signals. The towerman has been cold
all day; his coal stock is low, and the
coal train cannot move till he sets the
lights for it. An idle friend is lounging
in the office.
"Say, Bill says the towerman.
"chase down there and tip off a lump
or two of coal from one of those cars;
I'll freeze to death if you DON'T
Another two bushels or three are
gone; more might have gone only there
are lots Of trains of the kind, and the
next one may run up closer than the
first
Another siding is just ahead. The
coal train has to take it while another
train Of the same class pulls up at the
little depot to unload some way freight,
blocking the main line with the ca
boose while it waits.
BILL" remarks the engineer of the
way freight, glancing back at the coal
pile in the tender of his locomotive;
Bill, that last grade made a hole in
that pile, didn't it?"
Bill takes the tip. He has been
hauled over the Goals recently for using
more coal than he should have done
on that run. The coal car is only six
feet over from his yawning tender, and
he has husky arms. One hundred
pounds a minute in the five minute
stop is dead easy AS for the con-
science part of the work?
"Oh, HI" says Bill, cts company
stuff, anyhow"
With Bag and Basket.
All this in the professional of tower
men, crossing men, station agents
and locomotive firemen, to say nothing
of the small pilferer with the bag and
basket in the small towns. With them
tipping" coal is an art. ''Tip your
COAL is the motto; ''tip your coal
you can pick it up any time
Is it any wonder that before coal
car has come to the outer belt line of
Chicago it has been depleted in weight
at least a thousand pounds?
And as for Chicago?
ga car of soft coal in our yards will
lose as much weight there as 1t will
lose in all the other experiences of it's