The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-02

partment cars. allowing seating space
for four persons and berths for two
The berths are both t'iowers.s and the
general appearance Of the compart-
nnent with the. beds made up IL moro
like that Of q roomy steamer stateroom
than q sleeping section on a train.
Argentine is the only country In
South America where the railroad. Al
in the United States. has assumed .
definite character. and whore. also. a.
here, the best brains OF the country
are employed In it's management Tbs
Argentine Railway In all it's appoint
ments, and the Argentine Railway man
In all his characteristics, stands about
midway between those Of England and
America.
Some American rails have been laid
In Argentina and q small amount Of
ancient American rolling stock Is oc-
casionaily to be seen. but nothing new
OF any description. This IL partly due
to the fact that the buyers are Brit
ish and that freights from England
are more. favorable than from the
United States. and partly to the fact
that the efforts to introduce our goods
have been very spasmodic at the best
The Argentine railway man 10 good
deal more American IN theory than
in practice. This II because every
thing he does has to be passed on
by ponderous. slow moving London
board, many Of whose members. to-
gether with their ideas on rafiroadins
are likely to date back pretty well
ino the first half Of the last century.
II there is one thing that 1t is not
permitted to mention to an Argentine
railway man out of business hours II
is the London board The later body,
however. answers admirably the pur-
pose OF balance wheel" and there
is little doubt that the existence of
similar institutions in America would
have done yoefnan service In check
ing the flights some of our own roads
have gone on.
Extremely Hard workers.
with one exception all OF the prom
inent railway men of Argentina.
though English born learned all of
their railroading in South America.
They are extremely hard workers as a
class. but readily accessible at ell
hours. There Is little of the 'Insu-
larity'' so characteristic of the English
railway man at home about them, and
they all evince particular interest In
all matters pertaining to American
railway progress, upon which they
keep remarkably well informed.
In addition to all the important ON
Gals in every department, most OF the
clerical STATS of theeArgentine roads
are also English; outside of these.
however practically all employees Of
all classes, station agents. tele-
graphers, machinists. conductors.
brak emen, firemen. engineers. and all
funslilled hands--are either natives
of the country or italian. There are
still few English hremen and driv-
ers employed, but no more are being
brought out, and eventually, when the
present British incumbents have been
promoted or discharged, all hands on
the locomotives will be Latins.
Few Train Wreck Fatalities.
Strange as It may seem. in spite of
the fact that there are more native
than British engineers employed, the
records show that there have been
fewer accidents to trains driven by the
former than the later. The fact that
the men brought out from England
have proved rather less sober and re-
liable than at home may have some-
thing to do with this showing, but the
principal reason advanced is the real
superiority Of the Argentines at this
class Of work. During six months
spent in Argentina, covering all OF a
harvest season in which every kind Of
q car and engine in tho land was in
commission to help handle record
breaking harvest, j do not recall hear
ing OF single train wreck that was
attended with fatalities.
. In track, the average Of Argentina
will class considerably ahead of that
OF the United States. Where we have
been using soft ties of pine, cedar and
received for many years, that country
has used colorado quebrachol and other
varieties Of practically indestructible
tropical hardwood. Much of the
track Of many lines. notably that of
the Buenos Ayres and Pacific, Is laid
on sleepers Of steel Stone baliasted
permanent construction" is also met
with much oftener there than is in
the United States no road running
through country Of less than ten
times the density of population Of the
province of sBuenos Ayres that has
buildings to compare with the hand
some stone structures to be- found
at towns along the 5000 miles of
lines Of the Great Southern"
Railway Has Some Rivals.
The sinuosity of the La Guayra-
Caracas Railroad in Venezuela is only
in keeping with that of the rest of
the croookedest railroads in the world
with that of the crookedest nation is
one that no visitor can fail to notice.
In this respect the railroad has some
rivals in certain funicular cog-wheels
affairs in various parts Of the world;
the nations supremacy is unQuestiOn-
ed.
The early Spanish settlers OF South
America, fearing attacks from the sea
more than from the land, almost invar-
iably built their principal cities and
seats of government in the interior.
Thus Santiago de Chile is half q days
railway journey from the Pacifici
Lima, half an hour; Quito, from two
to three days; Bogota, two weeks by
steamer and mule, and Caracas, by
train, about two hours. These Local
tions did not make SO much difference
in the old days, when all land travel
was by mule in any event, but when
the exigencies of modern progress de-
manded steam transportation some
very knotty engineering problems be-
came existent, those of Quito and Boz
gotta being only now in process Of
solution.
The La Guayra Caracas Railroad
was built In the eighties by the Eng
lish company which operates It today.
In an air line. the latter city, situated
in a strikingly beautiful mountain
valley. at an elevation Of 5000 feet.
is only about six miles from La
Guayra; the railroad takes thirty miles
to get there, and Is climbing away
above a per cent grade all the way.
Except for the roads first mile or
two along the coast through the en-
virons of La Guayra, there IL not a
hundred yards Of straight track all
the way to Caracas, nearly every one
of ten or a dozen station stops being
IN rrrvaa rrhorat ara mot n wFAat