The San Francisco call., 1907-02-03
Gossip Of the Doings
of Railroad Men

The hop dealers of the Pacific
Coast" said railroad man, "are not
at all satisfied with the present ar
rangement, which makes the carload
minimum 10000 pounds, $3.50 per hun
dred, and less than a carload So per 100
pounds. They allege that the bulk of
the cars furnished will not hold 10000
pounds. and although they are per-
mitted by special ruling to load the
rest of any lot in another car at the
carload rate, the usual result is the
separation of the two loads and conse-
quent dissatisfaction at the other end
of the line. Now that they have tried
the experiment of carload rate they
seem to feel that they would be bet
-ter satisfied with an open rate of s1.75
per hundred weight for any quantity
thus eliminating an unreasonable mini
mum. 1t will be remembered that up to
August last the rate was 81 per hun
dredweight in any quantity
II. A. Buck, who attends to the pas
senger business of the Pennsylvania
lines. has returned from San Diego and
says there is a big boom in that town
The report that the line which is go
Ing TO be built out of San Diego will
be transcontinental one has helped
out that place wonderfully, he OBJ
served. Property which you could
buy two or three years ago for $4,000
to $4,000 is now worth $4,000. There
are lots of people going into San Diego
and the train I was on was crowded
The town has good water system and
there are several fine buildings going
up, which gives it quite a busy aspect~
There will be fully 5000 carloads
of vegetables shipped out of the south
ern part of the State to Eastern points
this season. remarked a railroad man
who has recently returned from Los
Angeles. These vegetables consist of
celery and caulihowers, and Chicago
is their destination. and from there
they are distributed all over the Mid
die West. The growth of this indus
try is one of the most surprising in
the State. Some ten years ago it was
in its infancy, and this season it was
expected that 1000 cars would have
been sent East, but the heavy rains
have spoiled about 1000 carloads
These vegetables are grown in the
rich peat land near Santa Ana. In
Orange County. The soil there Is as
black as a mans hat and is soft and
damp. The horses, when doing the
plowing, are shod with big wooden
boots. which prevent them from get
ting mired. When this industry was
first started the growers thought they
were doing well when they sent out
100 cars Now it looks as il there
was no limit TO the number of cars
that will be sent out from there as
more land is being cultivated each
year."
w. w. Richardson, assistant gem
eral passenger agent of the Pennsyl-
vania lines with headquarters in In
dianapolis, is in the city. 81 have
been railroading for thirty years" he
observed yesterday, "and I regret to
say that this is the first time I have
been in your city Well / have this
excuse to offer, and that is, Mrs. Rich
ardson has been here before, and she
admired this city more than any other
IN the United States. You are really
a wonderful people. You are blessed
not alone with courage, but with the
spirit of work, and 1 do not think
there is city in the world which
shows so much activity. Business is
prosperous all over the country There
is not a railroad which is not ham
pered by the want of more facili-
ties. They are all making money but
they need all they can make Immense
sums will have to be spent by ali
the railroads to increase their track
age by double tracking and to buy
more terminal facilities We have
done considerable double tracking
lately. We have a double track line
into Plttsburg. the Fort Wayne route.
and "a single track line. the Panhandle.
which Is now also being double
tracked. 1t has already two tracks
from Chicago to Logansport and two
tracks from Columbus to Pittsburs.
leaving It's miles to be double
tracked. We expect to open our new
terminal, which will cover four blocks.
in New York in 1908. which. When COM
pleted, will have cost s125 000, 900. 1t
will be in the heart of the city and
about two blocks from the Waldorf
Astoria. You will then be able to go
from San Francisco to Boston without
change of cars. In other words. New
York will be made side station"
w. S. Palmer. general superintendent
of the northern division: r. NJ Drake
district engineer. and ]. c. Wilder, divf-
sion superintendent of the coast divi-
sion of the Southern Pacific are in
specting the work done recently on the
southern end of the coast line.
J. ". Adams of the Nickel Plate has
returned from trip through the
Northwest and reports that business
is more than good in that section OF the
country.