Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-10
END OF A FREIGHT CAR.
Brings Up in a Boneyard and I
Cremated or Made Into Junk.

Cremated or Made Into Junk.
From the Kansas City Star
A Big Four live stock car was showed
on repair track in the Cypress yards Of
the Missouri Pacific railroad one day last
week. One end was battered in. the sides
were bulged out. and the heavy timbers
supporting the floor were broken and
splintered. 1t was out of service. as any
one could plainly see. although the big
capital letters. &C. c. c. c. looked bold
ly-even defiantly-at the cars standing
on the numerous storage tracks nearby.
| as II to say:
They will fix me up and will be good
for many more runs before quit this
business"
But as the car rolled ON down the re-
pair track it creaked and groaned as II
from many aches and pains. At last 1t
bumped hard against a heavy steel coal
car which was waiting for new draw
bar. Then it seemed to sigh and say pa
thetically:
Il am all in
Hello old 1856: back again. I see." ex-
claimed the repair foreman. He stopped
and looked at the car critically He shook
his head and chuckled: We'll, it's you for
the boneyard this time. sure" He gave q
sign to his gang OF workmen.
The boneyard. as 1t is called, 10 the
place where all freight cars must go soon
OT idte, IL they 90 not happen 10 De caught
In q wreck and smashed to pieces or
burned along the right of way. They
may cross and recross the continent. jour-
| ney from the lakes to the gulf. take many
side trips on branch lines, tie up IN rail-
road. yards of private switches for years
and years. But at last. when they are
| old and worn out, or battered and splin-
| tered beyond repair. they all bring up in
the boneyard and there they are burned.
Five freight cars were ablaze in the
1 hnr ri x1,hA h.
| dumped there that afternoon. Workmen
| first stripped it of everything of any value
that could be used in car repairing-the
| side doors. the better part of the lumber,
and some of the iron. Then they rolled
the body of the trucks. and it crashed
down the embankment and landed near a
pile of scrap iron, where another car had
been burned. Four or five boys and two
women, with axes made a rush for it. and
began hammering off the splntered
boards and carrying them away to their
homes for kind'ing and fuel BY and by
man built fire under each end of the
car, and then the flames cracked about 1t
until nothing was left of 1t but pile Of
bent and twisted iron rods. bolts. nuts
and nails.
when a car is out OF service, or fs
wrecked so 1t will cost more to repair It
than it is worth we send it to the bone
vard.' the foreman explained THAT is
the easiest and quickest way to dispose of
It. OF course we make use of the trucks
the drawbars. springs. brake couplings
and some Of the woodwork but we al
WAYS burn what is left"
do all the railroad companies burn
their wornout cars?" the foreman was
asked by a bystander
"Some of them do: some Of them don't"
he replied. "Some OF the roads strip the
cars of everything Of value. then tear
them to pieces and sell the wood at SO
much for load. But we burn them. We
send an average of a dozen cars to the
boneyard every month from these yards
do not know just how many they send
to the boneyard at other places on the
system. Ask me something easy"