The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-17
INSPECTION TOUR OF RAILROAD MEN Queen & Crescent Track In spection Being Made MR. GARRETT IS HERE Southern Is Receiving Large Number of New Coal cars-car Serv-
 Ice Report for
 October.
MR. GARRETT IS HERE

W. A. Garrett, general manager, and twenty-five others connected with the Queen and Crescent route, arrived in Bir- mingham yesterday morning on a special train on the annual track inspection. They spent yesterday in Birmingham and will leave this morning.
 For four days every year a special train is run over the Queen and Crescent from Cincinnati to Meridian for the purpose of making a thorough inspection of the tracks, and every foot of the roadway is carefully gone over. Not in frequently the entire party gets off the train and travels for some distance on foot in order that the inspection may be more perfect.
 The special came to Birmingham yes terday from Meridian and the entire party walked through the Birmingham yards of the Alabama Great Southern.
 The train consists of MT. Garrett's pri- vate car, dining car, Pullman sleeper and an inspection car The inspection car resembles a freight car when first seen. The car is run on the rear of the the train. Inside are plush seats ar ranged In tiers and flight of steps runs up between the seats The officials can sit in these seats and inspect the track without trouble while the train is run ming. All modern appliances for testing the track and the speed are to be found on the car.
 One the side the car resembles a freight car except that there are number of small windows. The end of the is very low and steps lead to the inside. Freight Cars.
 As result of these annual inspections the Queen and Crescent has what is considered one of the finest road beds in the United States. Any flaw found in the track or the ballast on one of these inspections is immediately repaired. and any suggestions for Improvements are put into effect as soon as possible. In the party are the superintendents, the supervisors of various departments. train masters and men connected with 1 the mechanical department of the road. Mir Garrett entertained the entire party at the Jefferson theatre last night.
 What Improvements is the Queen and Crescent making?" said MT. Garrett yes l terday Well, we are always making 1 improvements and keeping abreast of the l times. Right now we are getting ready I to double track from Flat Rock to Pine Knot on the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, a distance of eleven miles This is the beginning of about thirty miles of double tracking which we will do If times continue prosperous we will continue to double track. We let the cotract for the eleven miles to W. J. Oliver yesterday.
 "As usual Birmingham Is creating It's wonderful supply of business. We have no complai{it to make about our busi- ness out of Birmingham, either passenger or freight. In fact in the freight business we have about as much as we can han dle
 Tn and around Birmingham we are not doing very much work. We have been grading and laying tracks on the old Mary Pratt property near Avondale
 which will increase our yard capacity i'll Birmingham to some extent"
 Result of lnvesti oations. | The Southern is receiving new freigh, cars at rate of about fourteen day l from Detroit. The cars were ordered l some time ago for the western district l to handle the largely increasing coal
 business. There are 1000 cars in this or
 der and each of them has a capacity of 100 900 pounds They are the largest coal
 cars manufactured, and their arrival has
 prevented the Southern from suffering very much from shortage of cars
 The sFrisco will run two special trains
 out of Birmingham Tuesday night for l Hobart, Oklahoma, with about 600 home
 seekers and colonists. The trains will
 consist of baggage cars and tourists sleepers. and will be among the best that the Frisco has ever run out of Birming- | ham for it's western business.
 l C. P. Adams, superintendent of tele-
 graph of the Southern railway, with head quarters in Washington, is in Birmingham
 making an inspection of the wires of the l road.
 It is probable that a number of improve
 ments will be made in the telegraph lines
 of the Southern in and around Birming- | ham to insure better service this win
 ter. Several times last winter traffic was l materially delayed on account of the in jury done the telegraph wires by storms I and freezes.
 The report of the Alabama Car Service | association for the month of October shows an increase of 6s53 over the mum I Der of cars handled in October, 1904. This
 is an increase of over 10 per cent. Follow | ing Is the report:
 1 Roads. Cars | handled Alabama Great Southern R. R...... S49: | Alabama and Vicksburg R'y.......... 23 | Atlanta and B'ham Air Line R'y...... %. Atlantic Coast Line R. R.......-...... 104t | Birmingham and Atlantic R. R....... B | Birmingham Belt R. R................. 10l. | Central of Georgia R'y................. 153 l Chattanooga Southern R. R........... 5 l Illinois Central R. R................... 21 | Louisville and Nashville R. R.........s s2697l | Mobile and Ohio R. R.................. 6l4' | Mobile and Bay Shore R. R........... 16l Mobile, Jackson and K. c. R. R-.-... 5sl Nash, Chat. and St. Louis R'y....... 73. N Orleans and N. Eastern R. R...... 3St | lo bar 1&7