The Washington times., 1907-07-28
THE HARDSHIPS
OF WRECKING
What a Crew Has to Do on
a Railroad When Tracks
Must Be Clear.


Ice, snow, or sunshine, with safety valve
snOrting, every pound Of steam crammed
on. and the firemen heaping coal, the
locomotive fairly bounds across the rib
bons OF steel, taking crossings, tunnels
and cuts just as fast as her gigantic
drivers can whirI her. taking tall bridges
and skyscraplng trestles Ike a scared
cat along a fence. and never slackening
until the gliTnmer Of red light or the
fiutter of a scarlet flag ahead gives
warning. says a writer In AppletOn's
Magazine. The trouble may be slight.
like a switch engine loafng on an open
switch, in which case a couple of jacks
or the crane lifts the engine, and withir.
fifteen minutes sets 1t back upon the
rails. An axle may have broken under
a ffty-ton coal car so that it has to be
lacked up while the crane revolves. lifts
a ponderous four-wheel truck from the
fatcar behind and deposits u on the
rails In front OF the car. neatly as you
might help yourself to an olive. Or.
freight. like steel girders or an entire
bridge truss. may have toppled from
passing freight car and landed across
the tracks.
On the other hand. the wreck may be
cars knocked to flinders, and thirty cars
behind telescoped or climbed all over ono
another or stood upside down or on end,
and scattered about the scenery az a
boy might scatter a tin toy train by
kicking II across his playroOm.
Whatever the condition, Ike so many
terriers sailing into a pit OF rats. the
wreckers dive into the work. There ap-
pears to be neither head nor tail TO the
attack, and yet every man knows his
place; the one man who Is supreme. the
one who decides at single glance what
10 do. and the one upon whose Official
shoulders rests this mountain OF Junk
and wreckage. is called wreckmaster.
The wreck may be an appalling sight
which. IL might seem, would REQUIRE a
week 10 clear. But within FIVE minutes
after the wrecker arrives things begin TO
move-not piece by piece or singly, but
by heaps and mounds and dozens. II
conditions warrant. the wreclmaster
sends for the repair gang and within an
hour or two from 100 TO 200 Italians or
japanese swarm like flies over the land
| scape laying and tamping ties, spikIne
rails so quickly that you can fairly
see the tracks creep over the ground
around the obstruction. And while this
temporary switch is going down, the
wreckers are performing miracles IN the
line or clearing things. While the crane
crew burrows and tunnels and crawls
beneath the locomotive 70 pass chains
/ ABOUT the big machine 10 remove this
most formidable OF all distractions the
rest OF the men have cut or the wreck
train locomotive 20 put her TO work.
Aawser's are passed about heaps OF
wreckage piled high as a barn. A warn
/ ing 'toot' 70 stand clear and amid a
crunching and splintering az II a house
we're falling in. the mountain of tangled.
split oak IL dragged over rails ana ties
until II topples OF Itself snto an adioin-
ing field.
what the locomotive cannot pull out
! OF the way the crane lifts. Within twen-
| " minutes after arrival its donkey en-
I Eine tugs and puIs and sno-ts AZ The
/ bent, battered Ieviathan weighing a hun
! dred or more tons and lying on its back
wheels in air and nose pointing In the
Uo,sS',,oll. olreSoion u came from Up comes the
ponderouS heap Of junk. almost inper-
| ceptib!y at FIRST but steadily as n an
unseen hand were lifting Il Into space
/ Wheels Of its car clamped 10 the rails
10 prevent capsizing. the crane groans
ana trembles under the enormous strain
but IN something ike an hour the sorry
/ looking victim, boiler stove in. cow
/ catcher, cab. smokestack, and pilot
truck stripped. and crusted with mud
/ ana clay and ashes, is turned right side
/ up and set upon its wobbly legs. where
Il stands Ike mortally wounded giant
/ ready 10 hobble on to a siding
, Ciear the tracks at any cost" This
! Is the unqualified order to the wreck
master. and under the touch of his Won
/ dertul engines confusion vanfshes Hka
magic Anything that can be thrown
INTO dltch quicker than II can he
hauled out Of the way is sent f1ying
! Ihere is no time to investigate what Is
I inside Of partly damaged cars. Freight
cars and coal cars worth 5000 each
| with pianos. glassware, or art pieces,
/ are sent crashing over and over down
/ forty-foot embankments.
Neither property nor men The
] take place while the world sleeps. after
( the wrecker has spent tweuty-fOur hours
I oil continuous duty elsewhere and fifty
/ or hundred miles from the nearest
town. and while the night is so dark
/ that you cannot see your hand in front
/ OF your eyes. For eight or ten hours
at stretch the wrecSer may crawl be-
/ meath shattered cars. planting his Jacks
| passing chains or hawsers throughout
torrential transforms. when bridges are
/ threatened and he must grope and floun-
der through knee-deep mud and icy
water. soaked through to the skin,
chilled to the marrow and chattering
| with cold. Or he may work in a hliz-
zard amid binding snow dust whipped
by seventy--nile gale of Arctic cold
/ that heaps drifts while he lugs frost
/ nipped chains and bars and staggers up
! TO his knees in snow. sticking to mis-
post for the sheer love Of the fight and
for the sake OF the snOwplow stalled
on one side of the wreck. praying to
/ get through. And II this train piles It
self up within a cut where throwing
! overheard is impossIble and from where
| every stick of timber and every pound
of coal must be hauled. sometimes for
| the distance of a mile. then the limit or
/ the MreclEnr-s nrnfnnifN Is raached