The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-11
RAILROAD WORLD.

| NfAlLNOAD WOl\LDI
 T. E. Brooks. superintendent of the South and North and Birmingham Mineral divisions of the Louisville and Nashville. has been presented with very handsome chest of silver by the employees of the Nashville division of the Louisville and Nashville, of which MT. Brooks was su- perintendent until recently.
 The presentation was made in Nashville ] Tuesday. Effort after effort had been l made to get MT. Brooks to Nashville, and all had failed Finally Superintendent l J. R. Wheeler was asked to aid the com mittee, and he asked MT. Brooks to come l to Nashville to attend to some impor- I tant business, which MT. Brooks did. | When he arrived he was shown into the l office of Trainmaster Lamb and was presented with the chest of silver as a l token of esteem
 1 It had been arranged beforehand that MT. Lamb was to preside over the meet ing, and he took charge, calling upon w. N Billings to make speech of presenta- tion representing the conductors. In re- l spending MT. Billings first took the cover I from one of the most beautiful and hand some silver services ever brought to this l city. The chest contains 243 pieces of sil- yer of exquisite design, composing elgh- teen full dozens and twenty-seven silver pieces With the case was a letter pre- senting the gift and signed by the mem- bers of the presentation committee and l 364 employees of the division. On raising the cover MT. Billings said that it was only a token of the sterling friendship of MT. Brooks former associates, which was as genuine as the sterling of the silver. He said that although the employees re- gretted that he had left the position ot the head of this division, they were greatly pleased at his well-earned promo | tion to a more important position.
 MT. Brooks made a short response. ris- ing to the spirit of the occasion, though he was so taken by surprise that 1t was hard for him in thanking the men Of whom he has recently been the head for their expression of friendship. He said | that he could find few words at so sud den a notice but that there had been times while he was superintendent of this division that some of those present would have preferred that he had talked little less. He said that though he would not say much, all the men present knew that he received the gift in the spirit In which it was given. He had always had the lxindest feeling for the employees of this division, and he said that although he
 had gone to another division, he would
 not forget his former associates, but
 would remember them as his staunchest
 friends After warmly thanking the
 donors for their kind remembrance and
 extending them an invitation to his head
 quarters at Birmingham, MT. Brooks took
 his seat amid enthusiastic applause. Chicago, H., February 1O.-The Rock
 Island programme for 1905 includes provi-
 sion for new equipment for the Chicago,
 Rock Island and Pacific lines, as follows One thousand box cars, 300 furniture cars 800 coal cars 250 Ingoldsby cars, 250 liar. cars (ballasD, 1500 refrigerator cars, 1( chair cars, Il passenger cars, ' baggage and mail cars, postal cars-4033 in all The total car equipment of this part oi the Rock Island system at the date of the last annual report was $,31O
 The Frisco equipment embraced 35,29;
 cars of all kinds. The Frisco plan for
 new equipment is not yet formally adopt
 ed During the current year about 40t
 miles of track will be ballasted to the
 highest standard and 5000 tons of 85-
 pound new steel rails laid. The new steel
 equipment is for the most part to be laid
 on the main stem of the Rock Island, be-
 tween Chicago and Rock Island.
 I A meeting of the incorporators of the Nashville and Huntsville Interurban Elec- trie railway has been held in Nashville, and the following officers were elected;
 J. H. Connor, president; Charles L. Ridley, first vice-president; w. H. Flick ling, secretary, and L. c. Shorter, treas urer. John H. McMillin. one of the in- corporators, was also elected a member of the board of directors
 Capitalists interested in the road will reach Nashville next week and are ex-
 pected to take Up the work of arranging for the construction of the line.
 | The St. Paul has received the first passenger engine to be built in the com pany's new locomotive works at Milwau- kee. It weighs more than 150 tons. and was designed and constructed with view to hauling the Pioneer limited train of l6 cars, weighing 800 tons, between Chicago and Milwaukee in two hours. This feat, requiring an average speed of more than 60 miles an hour, has been accomplished easily by the new machine.
 The locomotive has several novel fea- lures. There is a special arrangement of it's drivers, and its elongated boiler tube has been designed to obviate the necessity of removing cinders from the smoke arch under 100-mile run.
 Il William Jennings Bryan had to charter train this week in St. Louis in order II to fill a lecture engagement at New Har- mony Ind, and although the weather T conditions were all against his reaching the objective point in time, he did SO. | He arrived in St. Louis Tuesday after noon and found that he could get to Mount Vernon, Ind, in time to make his connections there unless he had a spe- cial train. He chartered one immediately and made the 145 miles in three hours and forty-five minutes. an average of about forty-three miles an hour.
 According to the Street Summary. the I Atlantic Coast Line is said D be seeking entrance into the Birmingham field. It