Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-11-29
TELEPHONES ON THE TRAINS
Service Installed BY Union Pacific as an
Experiment First,
MAY SOON MAKE SERVICE PERMANENT
Several Phones Are Placed in Trains
60 Establish Communication
Between Enginemen and
the Trainmcn.

Telephones on trains for the use OF the
train crews is the latest attempt at i'm
provenent in train service by the Union
Pacific. Superintendent Korty had the Ne
braska Telephone company wire up one OF
the through trains and an experiment was
made Monday, which was very satisfactory
Mr.. Korty. superintendent OF telephones
and telegraphs Of the Union Pacific. said:
I'VE were very much pleased with the
experiments. although we see where we
can make several improvements and will
continue the experiments. The object Is to
fix a scheme whereby the conductor OF
trainman can converse with the engineer
and thus facilitate the handling of trains.
Often considerable time could be saved II
the conductor was able to talk to the
engineer. and this is an age when we are
looking for all devices which will add to
the safety OF passengers in the operations
Of the trains as well as to increase the
| speed"
The scheme is TO connect the train by wire
! with the engineer, having several phones
through the train.
For some time the Union Pacific has been
| operating a telephone in connection with
! the operation of trains. A complex system
| has been evolved whereby telephones and
| telegraphs are run on the same wire at the
! same time. The trouble with this service
is it is similar to a party line and too many
/ stations cannot be put on the same wire,
I for only two people can talk at the same
! time The Union Pacific has the system
working between Omaha and Columbus.
| Experiments are being made with a new
style of instrument for this service.
Railroads Fear Corn Tramc.
Fred Montmorency, assistant general
.a.-N.a ~ . ~
railroads are fearful OF the time when
corn will start to move in any large guam
titles this fall He said:
"Time was when the farmer who had
corn rushed Il to the markets as soon as
husked but this has changed and most
farmers are now abundantly supplied with
cribs for their corn and hold 1t for feed
| or for better price. The bumper crop
of this season in Nebraska soon will put
considerable corn on the move toward the
| seaboards. The railroads are doing a bust
ness now about to their limit and when the
corn begins to move il Will keep US moving
to handle IT, The Burlington as we'll as other
! western roads are short of cars and motive
power to move them. Bushes has increased
in the west most wonderfully in the past
three years and all roads are having TO
hustle to keep pace with this growth"
| ~ pIOHlubHN blllCldt VI stuOlntE
road said: THE railroads own enough cars
for ordinary business but the real trouble
is there is no one to see the load is off the
cars in a reasonable time. No one sees to
how often these loads are turned. The
operating officials look to the length OF
trains and see that a full load is placed on
the car, but there is no one to see that the
| car is not sixty days with the load on its
trucks When a car is thirty days making
a trip to the coal fields and back or when
another is sixty days coming from Arkan-
sas with a load OF lumber 1t takes II just
that long out of service. No regard is
given to the length of time a load is on the
! car. There is no system for checking up a
load to hustle 1t along. Owners of roads
make inquiries as to the load carried by a
car but none is made as 10 the length of
time that load is allowed to remain on the
car"
Cbal shortage Cry a Farce.
w W. johnson, assistant general freight
agent OF the Burlington. who looks after
the coal service for the system west of the
river. made a few remarks on the coal
situation Tuesday morning. He said:
This cry Of coal shortage in Omaha
makes me laugh. The reports this morning
show that the Burlington road alone has
over 400 cars of coal in this city which il
is impossible to have unloaded. Does this
look like a coal shortage? The trouble is
with the dealers. They are not able to get
teams to haul the coal. All OF the utility
corporations have all the coal they need
II is the private consumers who are short
and the fault is the shortage of teams "a
haul the coal. We tried to get the dealers
to lay in large supply OF coal during the
summer and put in greatly reduced rates
to have them do it, but many were not