The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-15
RAILROAD PROGRESS.

RAILROAD PROGRESS.
 This will be wonderful year for the railroads. Already, says the Tech nical World, plans have been announc-. ed for the laying of 5000 miles of new track, which will cost $S00,0000 900.
 Just complete is the San Pedro, Los Angles & Salt Lake railroad running southwest from the Mormon capital through what was yesterdays desert. It is unique among the railroads of the world in having been built and paid for in cash by two men, Senator Clark of Montana and E. H. Hartman, with out the issue of a single bond.
 Everywhere East and West, the rail- roads are cutting down their steep grades, digging long tunnels and strengthening curves, all for the pur- pose of cutting down expenses. And, chiefly because of bumper crops and increased factory production, all the roads are ordering new equipment at a rate which will keep the mills busy for many months. a4
 During 1905 new locomotives to the number of $500 were ordered, together with 3300 passenger cars and S4O,0OO freight cars. These last figures give a good idea of the relative importance of passenger and freight traffic to a large railroad. The rail mills start ed the new year with orders for 2,000,- 900 tons on their books.
 Tn spite of these great orders and in spite of the best efforts of the rail- road managers pile after pile of thou sands of bushels of corn has been heaped up on the ground in Iowa, Kan sas and Nebraska for want of stor- age room or transportation facilities, while in North Dakota alone more than a million bushels of wheat has routed on the ground for want of freight cars to move 1t.
 It seems to be generally agreed that the passenger car of the future will be built entirely of steel. A large factory for constructing steel cars is now being built in Pennsylvania by one of the prominent car building companies, and when completed it will have a ca- pacity of 50 to hundred steel pas senger cars month.
 A number of these cars are also be- ing built in this country for some of the London underground roads, Cars of this type are expected largely to decrease the number of casualties in case of wrecks and collisions, as 1t is practically impossible to telescope them and they are not inflammable.
 Considerable impetus has recently been given to the subject 0 felectric propulsion of railroad trains by the action of the New York Central and the New York, New Haven & Hart ford in electricieally equipping their terminals.
 The earliest application of electric ity to main line railroad was on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad at Balti- more, where what is known as the Belt line was equipped with electric lty number of years ago. There are some heavy grades and very sharp curves on this line, and at present al- most all of it's freight and passenger service is drawn by electric locomo- tives.
 The New York Central was the next road to adopt electricity, this action being practically forced upon it by reason of serious accident which oc4 cured in the long tunnel leading to the Grand Central station.
 An entirely new enterprise in rail- way work is the establishment of special hospital car service by the Southern Pacific railway This car was built under the personal supervi- sion of the chief surgeon of the com pany's hospital department and is fitted up with the magnificance of a private car combined with the facilities of well-appointed hospital A number of these cars are to be located at vari- ous points along the road and will be ready for immediate service.
 There have been various attempts to replace the telegraph with the tele- phone for railroad dispatching and other requirements for communication The Long Island railroaw has installed a complete telephone system covering all it's lines, which is used by the dis patcher as well as by all the depart ments of the road.
 Another use of the telephone on rail- roads, which will appeal more to the general public, is the installation of telephone service on some of the lim- tied trains While the train is stand ing in the terminal station the tele- phone at the desk of the stenagrapher in the observation car is connected with the local exchange, and passen- gers may communicate with their fam flies or can transact business up to the moment when the train starts,