The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1907-09-10
Railroad "White Wings"
HURRY" is THE WATCHWORD In CLEARING AWAY WRECKS
Emergency Crews Are Ordered 10 Get the Debris
Out oil Sight In Record TlmG--Inlured Cars Lifted
OH Tracks by Great Derrick and Sometimes
Burned--Yltallty Of Victims ...;.,..........

All railroad wrecks are not report-
ed in the newspapers. With so many
big events, smaller fatalities fade in
10 insignificance; many are not even
mentioned at all, and freight wrecks.
where there is no injury save to roll
Ing stock and goods in transit, occur
every day and the news never gets
beyond official reports.
Even where there is freight
wreck in q thickly settled community
the muss is cleaned up so quickly
that the public is unaware of what
has happened. Very often the sta
ton agent will tell you "a wreck I'D
the line" Is responsible for train
being late. That may mean one car
off the track or seventeen piled into
kindling wood. but the details seldom
become known. 1t is the policy of
the management to keep these sights
from the passengers eyes.
Every section of a railroad line
has its wrecking crew constantly on
duty, whose work it is to answer
emergency calls whenever an acct
dent occurs and clear the track with
all possible haste and obliterate all
trace of disaster.
This crew has a special train at its
disposal with a giant steam derrick,
powerful locomotive, and fires con-
stantly under it's boiler. The crew
is divided into reliefs, so that the
wrecking train is never without men
TO handle 1t. The engineers know
every foot of the track like a book,
and when they pull out of the yard
the right OF way" is theirs. Every
other train gives way before them.
They speed up and down the line
like the red patrol carts OF the city
railway hurrying to the relief of O.
stalled trolley car; only the train
wrecking crew never stops to tinker
or patch up car on the tracks. The
giant derrick hooks on to 1t, picks 1t
up bodily, and losses it to one side
and out of the way, where 1t is eth
er repaired or torn to bits and its
pieces carted away until not q splin-
ter remains. If there isn't any other
way to dispose of the wreck It is
soaked in oil and burned.
Usually, the railroad company does
not want for means of getting rid of
1t. The riffraff of humanity that al
ways hangs around the yards have
the faculty of seeming a wreck about
as quickly as telegraphic commune
cation reports it, and the scavengers
are on the spot almost as soon as the
wreckers, ready to pounce on the
leavings the moment the word is
passed. What they cannot use them
selves, they sell for Junk. A big
freight wreck is q treat for them.
Tramps, too, add their presence to
the party, and revel in the spoils OBJ
tanned. The foreman of a wrecking
gang on one of the roads coming in
to Jersey City is authority for the
statement that one years freight
wrecks on his roads kept a commu-
nifty of tramps in food for the open
season.
Meat, both on the hoof and
dressed, groceries and canned goods
were carried away and cached" the
hoboes drawing on their improvised
larder as they needed refreshment.
Italian track workmen also profit by
these waste portions of food. Every
particle of wood disappears as If by
magic. 1t is carted away and used
for fuel. If it is a string of Condo
liers' that comes to grief, the story
Is different. The railroad company
usually sees that very little is left for
salvage. Coal is too expensive to be
left lying around loose Some way is
found by which it is all picked up
and pushed forward to its destina-
ton.
Orders to Chief Track Clearer.
A young engineer from the South
in charge of one wrecklng crew near
New York told the writer that the
order constantly being impressed
upon him by headquarters was to
clear the track first and then "cover
the muss!" His Interpretation Of
that was to obliterate every sign of
wreck, and even I'm first clearing
the track he kept the problem of dis
posal constantly i'm his mind.
There is satisfaction In driving
one of these crews" he said, enthu-
siastically. "You have all the excite
ment Of the flre-fghter and life-saver
together, with every facility for going
at It hard. My steam derrick would
jerk a loaded freight car into the air
as easily as though It were n bag of
corn. Jiminey. how that old hook
used to tear things! with the engine
going and the chains pulling, and
chopping, it didn't take long to rip
clear track through mass Of wreck
age train high! While our gang was
lifting off and throwing clear, anoth-
or would DO sorting out pieces thrown
to one side, and burning what they
could not carry away.
I've worked many times two and
three days on a stretch, with no more
sleep than I could snatch I'm a bunk
I'm the caboose. The men didn't get
as much. In all weather, from cold
bleak days I'm February to hot. suItry
August, It is exposure of tho hardest
kind. quite often the surgeon put
In most Of his time on our own men.
Did we need surgeon on the Job?
Sure; he was part of the crew, Just
the same as the cook.
After the ordeals I've seen men go
through and live. I've got n good deal
more confidence than I ever had I'm
human vitality. IF they only knew f..
ordinary men could stand so much
more puaishment. The surgeon told