The daily sentinel., 1905-10-27
WESTERN RAILROADS
ARE SWANIPED.

Never before in the history of the
western railroads have they been so
swamped with business and none of
them are able to take care cf more
than n fraction of the freight wait
ing for transportation says the Den
/ yer News. Gigantic crops and great
numbers of live stock are awaiting
transportation to market and all
lines out of Denver are short of cars
and engines with which to take care
of the business offered.
At Denver and Pueblo the stock
yards are crowded with livestock
waiting for cars to move to feed lots
and trains from the west are pouring
in more. Locomotives that should
be in the shops undergoing repairs
and struggling with trains that would
take the power of the heaviest mogul
and as a result II is taking stock
trains two or three days to reach the
Missouri river from Denver where
il formerly required only about eigh-
teen hours. All of the big trunk
lines report their tracks blocked with
freight and confusion reigns.
General manager Ballantine re-
turned yesterday from Omaha where
he went to consult officials OF the
Burlington to see what could be done
about getting cars He was promised
every possible assistance, but he was
told that the same conditions pre-
vailed everywhere. There is no rail
road in the country equipped to care
for the great volume of business that
must be moved and all are struggling
to do the best they can. At the Den
yer yards cattle are being taken care
of with tolerable degree of prompt
ness. but the great movement of
Oh 10 huI a Ity h,1I
of the scarcity of cars. There are
about $1,000 sheep here received the
first three days of the week and only
about half of that number have been
shipped out to feed lots while in fact
all were to be reshipped for reweigh-
ing and sale. Reports from up in
Montana are to the effect that thou
sands of sheep are waiting along the
railroad for cars and have been wait
ing, many of them. two and three
weeks. The same report comes from
New Mexico and all through the west
the situation is little better.
The truth of the matter is that the
railroads are not keeping pace with
the development of the coutry. said
Mr. Ballantine at the stockyards yes
terday. plenty of ears the next year,
but every fall we have the same
trouble. The railroads are constant
ly buying cars and engines. but they
cannot keep up with the increasing
demand.
Discussing the car famine continues
the Denver News a local railroad of
fetal familiar with the situation stat
ed that ali of the big railroads in the
country are contracting for cars, but
that the car manufacturers We're
totally unable to take care OF and
keep up with their contracts, and that
lines ordering thousands of cars were
compelled to take them hundred at
a time. The same thing is true re
garding locomotives. None of the
big lines has the amount of power
needed. and II is simply impossible
to get engines from the factories
rapidly enough to supply the de-
mands.
1T is not question of car and
mower shortage, but of men as well,
said the railroad official alluded to.
Not in years has there been such a
shortage of railroad men in every
branch of the service. No one Gems
to know what has become of them
all. Some have taken up land and
gone to farming and the increased
number required is also partly re
sponsible for the shortage but all
lines are working their men over
time, especially in the train service.
II is a remarkable situation, but one
which the railroads seem powerless to
remedy at this time"
The crowded condition of the rail
roads with freight trains is also af-
fecting passenger traffic. 1t is eN-
ceptional now for train to enter the
Union depot on time. on the east
ern lines trains are averaging from
one to six hours late. and there seems
to be little chance of Improvement
i'm the situation to come for some
time. Even the Burlington, which
for years prided itself with always
being on time, must now admit that
they are hardly ever on time. These
conditions are resulting in an I'M
usually large number of accidents,
and officials are frantic.