The Dickinson press., 1906-10-13

leave Mandan 1t midnight, September
10th. Four hours consumed at Mandan
waiting for orders; Sunnyside blocked
with cars; Almont siding being recon-
structed by track men; at Hebron 6 hours
80 minutes by indecision as t what to
do and who was to do It, complicated by
one OF the frrmenI giving out-account
OF too much work and not enough to- eat;
then 22 cars were loaded in three and
one.half hours, after which the crew took
an hour for supper, which they were en-
titled to, and departed. The second
train Of 20 cars loaded from $3.50 to IL p
m. Should have been 90 cars. but
owing to darkness could not get all the
cattle into yards) This train. was all
ready at II:I5 p. m. and it waited two
hours for orders. After getting to New
Salem it switched out a dead engine
from among a lot of congested cars-one
hour and five minutes. Tw~enty-four
miles further along at Mandan, three
hours lost waiting for an engine. There
were engines enough | understand, but
crews needed rest, and the one we got
had to have hues calked. Thus II hours
were gone from the limit of 36 and only
70 miles on our journey. At jamestown
we had prompt service and got ahead of
a stock train that had been there three
hours, but which had to unload at Fargo.
At Becker, Mimi, on the double track, a
Great Northern freight covered both
main tracks and a couple of side tracks.
When stopping to sidetrack with about
20 loads for the North Coast Limited, the
engineer was careless in handling his
brake valve, resulting in three draw bars
pulling out and one knuckle breaking, or
something like that.
Further along at Big Lake another
Great Northern drag was pulling into
sidetrack with half a hundred or more
loads and the rear platform and pro-
jecting roof of the caboose broken down;
tlrther along was a light hog-engine
from the &c" with another battered ca
boose. At Elk River, the next station,
was another drag and another light
engine following.
There is some kind of a fiction in un-
scientific railroading which does o class
a light engine as a train. Hence, one
engine with two cabooses will drag 1000
tons of freight, more or less, with the
light engine dallying behind, or hitting
the caboose suddenly when the drag
stops on a curve or at a water tank. If
one engine drags zoe tons alone or as a
double header, or with the light engine
following, it enhances the tonnage
record. If the o tons were divided
into two trains of 1oo tons each much
better service is insured, but the tonnage
record, on paper, is impaired. Am
right? Puzzle: Find anything like a
common-sense basis for this practice.
Last spring, at Manhattan, Montana,
with a stock train, l was blocked for
| covop ho,,rc hxy , x,,y fro;o1% %r,;, ,y;<h
an ordinary engine, anchored down with
patchers ~persevered in their efforts and
devices for getting this train out of the
hole, but dead weight and a primitive
sidetrack were against the engine and
the force.
The circumscribed area of the earth
will never support Mr.. Hills prospec-
tive population if methods of farming in
any way resemble such practices in rail.
reading.
10 small dealers in lumber or other
lines, who cannot buy stocks months in
advance of requirements, the dilatory
methods OF recent years mean ruination.
Similar methods have ruined stockmen.
No matter how we may have our
affairs organized, when we come to the
rdllrOaos u keeps US guessing 10 arrange
continuous shipments. Were w to
count time on the ranch as of as little
value as time seems to be considered in
getting freight over Mr.. Hills railroads,
the grass covered region would have to
be turned back to the bu%faloes.
Railroad officials have neatly pre-
pared statements of the volume of bust
ness done as compared with previous
years, and there is frequent mention Of
having reached the limit of a single