Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-15
THE RAILROAD WORLD
REDUCTION IN WORKING FORCE
OF LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
Automobile Baggage Trucks Being Ex
perimented With BY Pennsylvania
Railroad Company.

Coincident with the reduction of the num-
Der of employees on, many Of the larger
eastern railroads. comes the announcement
that the Baldwin locomotive works. Phil
adelphia, will, Within a short while. dis
charge nearly 1000 men, thereby reducing
the total working force of the various shops
20 about 5000. This may be taken as an
indication of the retrenchment the rail-
ways are making In the matter of new con-
struction OF motive power. At the time OF
the heaviest business few months ago
the Baldwin shops employed over 1900
men in all their departments. and turned
out from their plant fifteen complete loco
motives every two days
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company has
placed an order with the American Bridge
Company and the Pennsylvania Steel Com
pany for the new bridge over the Susque-
hanna river at Havre de Grace, Md. The
new bridge Is to be double track steel
structure, and will be considerably longer
than the one 1t replaces The bridge will
be located about 300 feet north of the pres
ent span and will have a higher elevation
That the end of prosperity can hardly be
said to be in sight throughout the south
Is evidenced by the fact that for the first
six months Of this year the Southern rail-
way contracted for 100 locomotives and
fortysix new passenger cars. OF the loco
motives which are now rapidly being re-
ceived from the Baldwin locomotive works
and from the Richmond works Of the Amer
lean Locomotive Company twenty are of
the latest high speed Pacific" type, sixty
are consolidation locomotives for heavy
freight service, and the remainder are for
switching purposes.
The Norfolk and Western railway has or
dered seven simple consolidation locomo-
tives to be built at the Richmond branch of
the American Locomotive Company. These
engines are of the most powerful type and
will be put In service to handle the coal
ira ff1c from the POCa hOpf3a district to the
seaboard. This road Is also contempla ting
the purchase of the following new equip
ment: Six baggage and express cars, 600
box cars of $4,000 pounds capacity and
200 hopper-bottom coal cars of 100000
pounds capacity.
One of the interesting exhibits in the
transportation building at the ST. Louis
exposition is the turntable which has been
erected by the Chicago bridge works. This
stands on cement pier four feet above
the floor and carries Atlantic type loco
motive Of the Big Four road. weighing.
with it's tender $4,000 pounds The turn
table Is built up on steel Orders seventy
feet long, and designed to carry 200 tons.
1t is revolved on its support, and the engine
Is lacked up so that the drivers can be run
by compressed air In the cylinders At
night the electric headlight is operated.
and sweeps the entire building with it's
glare as the engine revolves.
Auto Baggage Trucks.
The Pennsylvania railroad is experiment.
ing with an automobile baggage truck at
it's Jersey City terminal. 1t is understood
that If this method Of handling incoming
and outgoing baggage proves successful
these trucks will be put into operation at
the new union station in Washington. The
station at Jersey City Is double-decked
with the train floor upstairs The truck is
loaded down below, runs onto an elevator,
rises to the train floor and starts up the
platform at a good pace until the baggage
car is reached Here it runs close along
side the door, and the trunks are handed in
the door with very little effort and an alb
sence of smashing" that is so prevalent
when they must be lifted from the plat
form or low trucks. The work of unload
ing a car is perhaps more noticeable. as
there is need or reason for dropping
them out of the car 6oorsto the platform.
The floor of the truck being of the same
height as the car makes hauling of bag
gage easy matter. They are rapid NOV
baggage is late. They are capable of turn
ing in their own length, are noiseless and
odorless, being driven by storage batteries.
Mr.. Frank N. Hibbits, consulting me-
chanical engineer of the Southern railway,
has resigned that position to accept the
duties of mechanical superintendent of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford, sue
ceeding Mr.. John Henney, who has resign
ed on account of ill-health.
Employed on Railways.
Inc total NUMBER OF employees IN the pay
of the railroads of the United States on
June 80, 1903, was about 1,250,0O0 men. 1t
is expected that the figures compiled by
the Department of Commerce and Labor
for the end of the fiscal year 1904 will show
but slight increase over this number. The
opening Of new lines and the addition in
mileage of old roads would doubtless have
brought the number of all classes of en-
ployes up to a much greater figure had it
not been for the reduction in the forces of
many lines on account of retrenchments
during the past three months
The board of directors of the Southern
railway have created a new executive po-
sition in the auditing department, that of
controller, and have appointed Mr. A H.
Plant to fill the Office effective July I,
1904 Mr.. Plant was formerly auditor for
the road, having been promoted to that po-
sition in 1893, succeeding Mr.. F. H. Crump.
The Pullman company has laid off near
ly 1.5OO men in their manufacturing plant
at Pullman. Ill Lack of orders and a de-