The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-21
SEC0ND-TRAC WORK
RAILWAYS OF SOUTH ARE SPEND
 ING LARGE SUMS,
Southern Has Let Contract CalIipE For &5yOO0, 600 and the Chesapeake and ohio Announces That It Will
 Spend &1 ,OO0, ,OOO.

Baltimore. April 20 Especial. )---In it's issue this week The Manufacturers Record. discussing railroad activities as indicative of the swiftness of Southern development, says:
 This rapid progress Is, perhaps, no more clearly indicated than by the work being done toward increasing the facilities of existing transportation lines. Only recently the Southern Rail- way let a contract for about $5,0oo,o0o worth of second track work. to relieve congestion on crowded divisions of its system. and. now President Stevens of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway has announced his intention to award con tracts for about s1.ooo.0o0 worth of second track in addition to the large amount previously awarded. Mean- while the Southern continues it's active efforts toward doubletracking the en- tire line from Washington to Atlanta and the Norfolk and Western is going ahead with second track work on its main line.
 There is scarcely a prominent rail- road in the South which Is not build ing some second track. aud on certain roads entire divisions have been made double lines. For instance, the Wash ington, Southern and Richmond, Fred ericksburg and Potomac route between Washington, D C., and Richmond. Va. | Is now double tracked and among oth- CT roads which are doing second track work are the Atlsnttc Coast Line. the Illinois Central and the Queen and Crescent. A comparatively short sec ton of the Baltimore and Ohio between Washington and Point of Rocks. Md. has been made double tracked recently and the Washington. Baltimore and An- napolis Electric Railway will be double tracked between Baltimore and Wash ington.
 "other evidence of the pressure of demands upon the railroads in the South is had in the plans for new un- ion stations at Birmingham, New Or leans, Memphis. Little Rock and other points, not to mention the great union station at Washington. D. C., now rap- idly approaching completion. While tthe pressure upon passenger facilities is very great the demand upon the freight capacity of the lines is even greater, and at all important points work Is either under way or planned for the enlargement of freight tsrmi- nals for increasing warehouse capacity and in other ways for expeditinR | freight traffic.
 The large railroad yard near Alex | andria, Va, will be the point for class ification and distribution of cars which go between the Northern and Eastern States and the States south of the Po- tomac. The large yards at Memphis, Tenn, are another great distributing point, the New Orleans freight situa-
 tion with respect to terminals on the water front is constantly demanding attention and plans for enlargement of | depots. warehouses. docks and wharves are in contemplation or preparation by l than WhnaA lines enter the city. A similar state of af- fairs is at Galveston. At Mobile the enlargement of Gulf terminals Is in
 prospect and at Pensacola and Jack sonville other work is proposed or has been completed to facilitate tide water
 shipments. Plans of the Atlantic and Birmingham Railway to make a great port at Brunswick. Ga. and the work
 being done around Norfolk, Portsmouth
 and Newport News must not be over-
 looked. At Baltimore the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad will build another
 large pier at it's Locust Point te:
 nal. and the Western Maryland is also increasing its seaport facilities
 l All the companies whose lines enter I Baltimore will also have accommoda-
 tion in the great docks that are to be
 built by the city government. Yet | these are not all of the tidewater i'm.
 provements which are either under
 way or proposed in the South. Port
 Arthur. Texas, Gulfport, Miss, savan-
 nah, Ga, Charleston, s. C., and in fact practically every port is demanding and securing cnlargements of its freight handling capacity.
 The growth of business on the rail | roads IS also shown by the revision
 of various lines for eliminating curves and grades so that their freight train capacity can be materially enlarged
 not only for purposes of economy. but
 for facilitating the handling of busi-
 ness. The introduction of block sig
 mailing systems and the use of tele- phone lines, in addition to telegrapnE | for the purpose of increasing the train
 capacity of divisions that have become
 overcrowded. constituts addition tes- l timony as 10 how railroad traffic is
 advancing even far beyond expecta- 1 tions throughout the South