The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-14
ACTIVITY IN SHOPS
sBoILERMAExEns or COAST LINE
 HAVE RETURNED TO WORK,
Force in Every Department Has Been Doubled and MT. Shoemaker
 fs Now . Busy

From the comparative quiet of week ago the AtlaAtic Coast Line shops now present . busy scene of life and activity.
 The contrast Is striking one and | the transformation has been brought | about the settlement of the boiler | makers strike, mentioned in The Ad- | vertiser a few days ago. Every one of | the five boilermakers who went out nearly two months ago are back at work, with the addition of five more, the boilermakers department being doubled.
 Boss BoiIermaker Shoemaker of the shops has been having a pretty stren- uous time. With all of the union boil ermakers gone he has had an exciting time of it trying to keep things nov ing in his department. With the union ! men all out. 1t was virtually impossi- ble for him to secure even men com potent to do a halfway job on the boilers that were in need of attention. Engines had to be kept running, and without the proper attention to the boilers, of course, they could not make steam or get over the road on time. Mir. Shoemaker was in quandary and his jolly face became more and more solemn every day. By the hardest kind of work, however. he managed to keep the boilers of the engines in something as near condition as possible. Just how much he has saved the Coast Line will probably never be known. The following joke" on him will be appre- ciated by the Coast Line officials. In it's account of the settlement of the strike, The Advertiser enormously used the expression Boss Boilermaker Mo- Ghee of the union." His fellow em- ployes at the shops have been having a bit of good-natured "guying" at Mir. Shoemaker's expense. Just who the joke is on, the boss boilermaker or The Advertiser, is a matter of conjecture.
 The settlement of the boilermakers' strike has put new life into everything at the shops. the force in every depart ment being doubled. making the Coast Line shops in Montgomery among the extensive ones of this section. There are now 225 men on the payroll. among which are thirty machinists, ten boilermakers, seven blacksmiths and twenty carpenters. It Is thought that the carpenter department will be increased within the new few weeks, as the already large force is inadequate to handle the rapidly increasing busi- ness.
 The scarcity of cars all over the country is beginning to make itself felt along the Coast Line, and it re- | quires all the labor and time possible at the shops to keep the freight cars along the line in good order. No pas senger car work Is done at the local shops. all of that branch of work being done at the main shops in Whining | ton.
 Here is one of the troubles we have to contend with." said Master Mechanic W. J. McGhee. pointing to box car with the drawhead pulled out and l yawning hole of splinters left. That | car," he continued. was built some years ago when nothing but the small | est locomotives were used. Now. when one of thes modern combination mon sters gives 1t few jerks, there is not much left of the bumpers and wooden perts holding them."
 | ed, but are built entirely over and turned out of the shops looking entirely | new. The machine room is to be equip 1 ped with the most modern appliances | known. An electric plant will be in- stalled and most of the modern ma chimes will use MT. Morse's invention 1 as the motive power. One of the big 1 gest Improvements for time and labor saving Is the Sitting up of a big room | in the shops that has been used mainly 1 as a storeroom, as repair shop Tor locomotives. Several big pits have been built in the floor with tracks run ming from the yard. When an engine comes in to be overhauled 1t is run into this room and over one of these pits. | The immense fire box of an engine Is | taken out in the shops and virtually | made over, instead of being scraped and repaired as Is generally the case in 1 smaller shops. The fire-box is origin ally sent to the shops from the loco
 motive works, but at the shops 1t has to be put into shape. and holes and rivets | drilled into it.
 The territory covered by Mir. McGhee extends to Thomasville, Ga, and the entire work of the division comes to the shops here. Besides that, his shops | have to do a great part of the work from as far down as Waycross. while on the Sanford and other divisions he does most of the work.
 The shops here turn out three loco
 motives every month. Not only do they repair them. but they really make new ones out of them. The last of the
 locomotives whose boilers were not worked on during the strike was turn
 ed out yesterday. and from now on
 everything at the shops Is running
 smoothly.
 Another change at the shops was the
 resignation of General Foreman W; D.
 Orr and the appointment of C. T. Su-
 ther to succeed him. MT. orr has peen
 general foreman at the Coast Line
 unusuaiiy eficient and popular. He
 resigned to go into business for him.
 self. MT. Suther IS from Iuscaio9Psshh ,'Psh
 the Coast Line people.
 More Oyster shuckers.
 Last night was the heaviest night TOT | oyster shuckers that the railroads nave
 had vet The Western Railway train
 due at 9:20 o'clock. came in in two sec,
 lions. the first section being sond train of twelve cars of oyster shuckers, inc second being the regular train.
 The Louisville and Nashville traln
 from the north. due at 7:25 p m, was 1 V trn hours lAIO. AnQ